Individual Sized Beef Pot Pies

Well, I don't know about the weather wherever you may be reading this, but it is FUH-REEZING here!  What this means to me, though, is nice pipping hot and hearty meals that leave everyone feeling warm and fuzzy (and more importantly...full)!  Tonight was beef pot pie.  I have been itching to make this for a while now and finally put my foot down...tonight was the night!  My mom had bought mini casserole dishes a few years ago, and tonight was only the second time I managed to find an excuse to use them.  I really should pull them out of the cabinets more often!  Anywho, the pot pie was a hit all around, and pretty easy to make!  Enjoy!

Individual Sized Beef Pot Pie
Yields 4 hearty servings

To Prepare the Pot Pie
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Pour a 1/2 cup of flour,  1 teaspoon of salt, and 1 teaspoon of black pepper onto a plate, and mix it together. 

3. Begin to heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over low heat in a frying pan. 
4. Dredge approximately 1 pound of stir fry cut beef through the flour, and place it in the pan once the oil it is hot. Don't stir it until it starts to brown and juice!

5. Cut 2 large potatoes, or a hand full of small potatoes into approximately 1 inch by 1 inch pieces, and also 1/3 pound of carrots cut into 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick rounds.  Tonight I used purple, red, and white potatoes that I found at the grocery store. 
6. Boil the potatoes and carrots while you continue to prepare the pot pie. 

7. Prepare your casserole dish with pie crust.  I admittedly do not make my own pie dough...I am horrible at making it!  I cheat and use the pre-made and rolled dough from the grocery store.  I bought 2 packs of the dough, which gave me 4 individual pie crusts.  Press the dough into the casserole dishes, making sure that it is flush with the bottom of the dish first, and then the sides.  Pinch and press to patch any holes that may have happened while maneuvering the dough! KEEP THE EXCESS DOUGH...you will need it later in the recipe!  If you don't have or don't want to use individual casserole dishes, you can use a pie plate, large casserole, or even a loaf pan! 

8. Place your dough filled casseroles in the oven.  If you are using individual size, put them on a baking sheet so they are easy to fish out of the oven later (I learned this the hard way tonight).  They will need to cook a little bit to prevent the dough from being soggy! 
9. By now your meat should be browned and ready, so you can go ahead and take it off of the heat! 
10. Drain the water out of your boiling veggies, and pour the veggies into the meat. 
11. Drain 1 can of corn and 1 can of green beans and add them to the mix!  Normally I would encourage you to use fresh corn kernels and green beans, but I was in a rush tonight!

12. Pour 1 jar (approximately 12 ounces) of beef gravy over the entire mixture and stir it all together!

13. Pull your casserole dishes out of the oven, and fill with the mixture. 
14. Roll out your extra dough and cut into 4 squares that will fit over your casseroles.  I pressed a round cookie cutter through each for the pot pie to vent while it cooked. 
15. Place a square over each pie and press down around the edges, and cut off any major excess pieces!  If you didn't press a cookie cutter through, make a few slits across the top for the steam to escape. 
16. Place them back in the oven and cook for approximately 15 - 20 minutes, or until the top crust is golden brown! 

Easy Shepherd's Pie

Episode after episode of Kitchen Nightmares, I watch Gordon Ramsay convince restaurant owners and chefs to add his family's Shepherd's Pie recipe to the menu.  I have finally caved and tried Shepherd's pie (not the Ramsay recipe), and LOVED it!  My dad and sister really enjoyed it, and in fact my dad is on his THIRD helping as I type this!  I kept this recipe nice, simple, and quick to make, as the whole point of a casserole is ease and simplicity.  You can click to check out the difference between this make-shift pie and an authentic one.  Overall the major difference is the sauce.  I have used beef gravy, while an authentic pie uses red wine, chicken stock, Worcester sauce, tomato sauce, and seasonings. 


Shepherd's Pie
Yields 6 servings

To Prepare the Pie
1. Brown approximately 1 pound of ground lamb meat.  I went for the authentic lamb option, but you can definitely go the route of beef, chicken, turkey, or loose tofu!
2. Dice one small onion, and 2 cloves of garlic.  If you are using pre-chopped garlic, use 1 tablespoon!
3. Add the onions and garlic to the lamb.

4. After the lamb is browned, mix it in a large bowl with 2 bottles of gravy (approximately 24 ounces).  Again, I opted for a beef gravy, but you could use mushroom gravy too!

5. Mix approximately 2 pounds of mixed vegetables with the lamb and gravy.  I used the mix that has corn, lima beans, green beans, carrots, and peas!

6. Make two pouches of instant mashed potatoes (or 1 entire box of the Betty Crocker mixes).  I opted for the creamy butter flavor, but you could definitely use another flavor...something like butter garlic, or four cheese, would taste yummy!
7. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.
8. Pour the veggie and meat mixture into a casserole dish.
9. Top with the mashed potatoes.  I chose to pipe mine one with a cake decorating bag and tip, but you can also spread them evenly and give it some texture by running a fork through it!  You definitely want to give it a little texture though, because that is the part that is going to brown and give it a little crunch!

10. Bake for approximately 30 minutes, or until the topping is browning on the peaks, and the sauce is bubbling throughout the casserole!

Cheater Chicken Pot Pie

I love chicken pot pie, but sometimes I have a tight schedule to work around, or I just don't feel like going through the labor intensive work of pie dough, cooking fresh veggies, making sauce...you get the idea!  It is exhausting just typing and reading it!  When the craving hits, I cheat!  I like this recipe because it has lots of veggies, but to make it easy on myself I use the canned vegetables!  The can vegetable flavor is masked pretty well by the sauce and biscuits.  It is a quick, easy meal that is filling and leaves everyone running back for seconds! 

Cheater Chicken Pot Pie
Yields 6 servings


To Prepare the Chicken
1. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan.
2. Cut 1 pound of chicken down to 1 inch cubes.

3. Right before the chicken finishes cooking, put a sprinkle of salt and pepper in the pan.

To Prepare the Vegetables 
1. Drain 5 cans of veggies and mix them together in a bowl. I usually use potatoes, corn, peas, green beans and carrots!

2. Add 2 cans of Campbell's Condensed Cream of Chicken soup to the veggies, but do not add water to it!  I don't like using chicken or turkey gravy...I feel like the flavor falls flat! 

3. When the chicken is done cooking, add it to the mixture.

To Finish the Pot Pie
1. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Put the veggie/chicken/sauce mixture into a glass casserole dish.

3. Bake this for 15 minutes.
4. After cooking, bring the casserole out of the oven and top it with biscuits.  I get the pillsbury type biscuits that are labeled as "flaky" or advertise as able to be pulled apart in layers.  Pull the layers of the biscuits apart.  Each biscuit should easy break up into 3 or 4 more biscuits.  If you don't want to top the casserole with biscuits, you can bake the biscuits, slice them in half, and serve the casserole in between.  You can also mix dry Stove Top with its seasoning packet and top the casserole with that!
5. Layer the biscuit pieces like fish scales across the top of the casserole, and put it back into the oven until the biscuits are golden brown.