French Meat Pie

Dorel's Note:

This is different than the others as this uses crumbled crackers. It comes from RecipeCenter. My DH and DD both enjoyed this variation very much. You can add some garlic powder if you like garlic.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 10 mins
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 40 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 1 ¼ lbs ground beef
• ½ lb ground pork
• 1 large onion , chopped
• 3 medium potatoes , cubed
• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder (to taste)
• 20 crackers (40 crackers in a sleeve)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon (I leave out the cinnamon now as my family didn't like it)
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper (to taste)
• ¼ teaspoon thyme , more to taste
• ¼ teaspoon sage , more to taste
• 2 pie crusts (store bought or home made)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*.
2. Sauté ground beef and pork with onions until no longer pink.
3. In another pan boil and mash potatoes with garlic powder, salt and pepper.
4. Do not drain fat from ground meat mixture.
5. Add crumbled soda crackers, cinnamon, thyme, sage and mix well, the crackers help absorb a lot of the moisture and gives it great taste and texture.
6. Next add mashed potatoes and mix well. I cool this before putting in crust but it isn't necessary if your baking it right away.
7. Use a deep dish 9 or 10 inch pie plate and line bottom with 1 crust.
8. Fill crust and then place second crust over filling, press edges together to seal: cut slits in top crust.
9. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown.
10. This recipe may be made ahead of time and baked later, up to 24 hours ahead as long as kept refrigerated.
11. Also can be frozen after prepared for a later date.
12. I have started making this in 2 smaller foil pie pans and freeze one for another time. Each pie feeds 4 or 2 with leftovers.

Reviews

[Happy Harry #2]

I always try to make recipes the first time as it is printed uless clearly noted problems from other reviews. This was very tasty but quite dry. Will try again but plan to play around with it. Will inform you of results. Thanks

[Lois M]

I took your advice and added two cloves of garlic, I also minced 1 large shallot, the flavor was very good. However, the meat that I used was very lean, and there were not a lot of juices for the crackers and mashed potatoes to absorb, so it was a little dry. Next time I make this, (and there will be a next time) I will adjust the "filler" accordingly with the juiciness of the meat. My DD thought it was good too, and she is not a meat pie eater. Thanks Dorel!

[Susie in Texas]

I took your advice and added a teaspoon of minced garlic to this recipe just because we love garlic. I used a 1/2 teaspoon of thyme and left out the cinnamon. I had some leftover cooked baby carrots and decided to slice them and add them also. The result was a very tasty meat pie and the carrots really added some color as well as flavor. This made a very full 9-inch pie but no need to worry about overflowing juices because there are none. I baked it for 15 minutes and had to put a piece of foil on top to keep the top crust from getting too brown; then continued baking for another 20 minutes and it came out perfect. I have a feeling I will be making this often because all 3 of us really enjoyed this savory pie. Served with a green salad it was an easy, delicious meal.