Pheasant Leg Chilli Puff Pastry Pie

 

Pheasant chilli puff pastry pie and chips

A puff pastry topped pie like this one in Scotland will usually mean a steak pie. This is where chunks of tender steak and beef link sausages in gravy are topped with puff pastry and served generally with boiled or mashed potatoes and veg. This dish is very different in that it firstly sees slow cooked pheasant legs made into a hot and delicious chilli before some of the creation is added to a pie dish, topped with puff pastry and baked in the oven. In this instance, I have served the pie with oven chips and sweetcorn but these accompaniments are of course infinitely variable depending upon taste and choice.

Cook Time

The cook and prep times for this particular dish are a little bit complex and spread out. Essentially, the pheasant legs were cooked overnight in the slow cooker for 10 hours and allowed to cool. The chilli was made the following day (takes about an hour) and the pie the day after the chilli (takes about 45 minutes). If you wish to prepare the chilli and freeze it in batches, you could then defrost enough of it at a later time to make the pie and accompaniments.

A pie this size should serve 4 people and you will have some chilli leftover which is ideally suited to freezing in batches for later consumption.

Ingredients

• 6 whole, skinless pheasant legs
• Salt
• 2 medium white onions, peeled and finely sliced
• 1/2 bulb garlic, split into cloves, peeled and finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons vegetable or sunflower oil
• 3 bell peppers, cored and sliced
• 4 14-ounce/400g cans chopped tomatoes in tomato juice
• 6 birds' eye chillies, stalk removed and finely sliced
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• Black pepper
• 2 14-ounce/400g cans red kidney beans in water, drained and rinsed
• 2 tablespoons freshly chopped coriander (cilantro)
• 1/2-pound/225g premade puff pastry
• 1 beaten egg for glazing
• Oven chips as required
• Canned and drained sweetcorn, as required

Cooked pheasant legs removed from slow cooker

Method

Put the pheasant legs into your slow cooker and season with salt. Pour in enough cold water to ensure they are comfortable covered and cook at low setting for 10 hours. This was done overnight in this instance.

Remove the pheasant legs from the slow cooker to a deep plate, cover and leave to cool completely. Pick all the meat from the pheasant legs in reasonably small pieces. This is a little bit fiddly and it is important to take your time so as not to inadvertently incorporate any small pieces of bone in the chilli.

Onion and garlic are added to hot cooking oil

Pour the vegetable or sunflower oil into a large soup or stock pot and bring it up to a medium to high heat. Add the onion and garlic and saute over a medium heat for 5 minutes or so, stirring all the time with a wooden spoon, until the onion strands are softened.

Bell peppers are added to softened onions

Add the sliced bell peppers to the softened onion and garlic and saute for a further couple of minutes, just until the strips of pepper start to soften.

Tomatoes and seasonings are added to onions and peppers

Pour the canned tomatoes into the pot. Season with the cumin, around a teaspoon of salt, black pepper to taste and the finely sliced chilli peppers. Stir very well and bring to a simmer for 10 minutes.

Pheasant leg meat is added to chilli sauce

It's more than worth having a final, careful check of the pheasant leg meat pieces to ensure there are no bits of bone present before adding them to the spicy chilli sauce and stirring them through. Stir well and simmer for 5 more minutes to heat them all through.

Red kidney beans are added to the chilli

If you wish, you can simply drain the red kidney beans before adding them to the chilli but I like to rinse them in a colander under cold, running water. This removes many of the chemical canning impurities. They can then be added to the chilli and stirred through before 5 final minutes of simmering.

Chopped coriander is added to the chilli

Add the chopped coriander (cilantro) to the pot and stir it carefully through. Carefully taste the dish and adjust the seasoning with salt and/or black pepper if required. Turn off the heat, cover and leave to cool completely. Refrigerate overnight if not making the pie the same day.

Ashet pie dish is used as pastry cutting template

I fondly remember homemade steak pies as a child, when my Mum or my Gran would make them in what is called an ashet pie dish. I am lucky to have a set of these enamel dishes - exactly like the ones I remember from childhood - in various sizes and the one I selected for making this pie was 10 inches by 8 inches (circa 25cm by 20cm).

Take the block of puff pastry from the fridge 20 to 30 minutes before use to let it soften slightly. Roll it out on a dry, floured surface to a rectangle slightly bigger than your pie dish. Use the upturned pie dish as a template around which to cut the pastry to size.

Chilli is ladled into the pie dish

Spoon or ladle enough cooled pheasant chilli into the pie dish to fill it to around half an inch/1cm from the top. Carefully lay the pastry on top and press it down gently round the edges with your thumbs. Let the pie sit for the pastry to rest while you preheat your oven to 220C/Gas Mark 8/450F.

Glazed pheasant chilli pie is oven ready

When the oven is preheated, brush the pie all over with beaten egg and cut a small "+" shaped steam vent in the centre. It is best to sit the pie on a baking tray or sheet for baking to contain any potential spillages. Put it into the oven for 10 minutes at the high temperature before reducing the temperature to 200C/Gas Mark 6/400F for the final 30 to 35 minutes of cooking.

Pheasant chilli pie removed from the oven

When the pie is beautifully golden, take it from the oven and allow it to rest while you prepare your accompaniments of choice. The pie can then be cut into quarters and plated for service.