Tender, melt in your mouth beef steak encased in a delicious shortcrust pastry.

Sometimes simple is best for pies, and this chunky steak and mushroom pie is just that.

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I guess it was about time to share my chunky steak and mushroom pie recipe with you all.

There is usually a homemade pastry with most homemade pie recipes to go with it.

However, I know not everyone has the time or likes to make the pastry, so I will be using store-bought frozen pastry to make it easier on you guys.

But if you want to use homemade pastry, feel free.

And to top it all off, there is a yummy gravy that can be made out of the excess liquid.

How to make Chunky Steak and Mushroom Pie

Ingredients

Chuck Steak – trimmed of fat
Garlic Cloves
Red or Brown Onion
Mushrooms – White or Brown
Liquid Beef Stock
Bay Leaves
Gravy Granules
Cornflour
Unsalted Butter
Shortcrust Pastry

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Preparation

There is a little preparation for this recipe, and the longest part is the meat.

So let’s start there.

Trim all the chunky fat off the meat and dice into 1cm cubes. Some fat is ok; you don’t want the big chunky stuff.

You will need 700g or as close as possible after the fat is trimmed off. I buy between 800g to 1kg of chuck steak, depending on how much fat is on it.

Next, finely dice your onion and garlic cloves. Cut the mushrooms in half and slice thinly. Alternatively, you can buy the pre-cut mushrooms.

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Method – the filling

Add olive oil to a pot and place over high heat. Add the onion, garlic and mushrooms, then saute until the mushrooms become soft and you get the aroma of the mushrooms and garlic—approximately 5 minutes.

Next, add the liquid beef stock or broth, followed by the cubed chuck steak and bay leaves.

Stir it, turn down the heat to low, put on the lid and allow it to simmer for an hour and a half.

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After the hour and a half has passed, remove the pot from the heat. Spoon out about half of the liquid into a bowl or jug and set aside to cool. This will be used later for the gravy (optional).

Then add the gravy granules to the liquid left in the pot. Place the pot back over low heat and mix until the liquid thickens.

It isn’t overly thick, so you can add a bit more gravy granules if you want it to be thicker. But the sauce does thicken while it cools.

Pro Tip: Gravy granules have a thickening agent in them, allowing you to use them in the sauces for meat pie etc., giving the sauce an excellent gravy flavour.

Place aside to cool either in the pot or in a separate bowl.

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Method – doing the pastry.

As I mentioned earlier, I am using store-bought frozen shortcrust pastry.

However, most leading supermarkets sell them in square sheets that are slightly too small to go into a pie dish in Australia.

So for those of you that purchase these sheets, here is a handy trick I have started doing to save on the headache of doctoring a sheet to make it big enough. And achieve a nice thick pastry crust.

Firstly thaw out five sheets of shortcrust pastry. You will need three sheets for the base and two for the top.

Once thawed, place three on top of each other and use your hands to knead it gently into a ball.

Pro Tip: the warmth of your hand will help make it pliable for the next step.

Place the ball of pastry onto a lightly floured surface. And using a rolling pin, roll out the pastry into a circle (well, as much of a circle shape as you can get).

Pro Tip: turn your pastry around after each roll to try and get it as even as possible in a circle shape and stop it from sticking. Never flip it over to the other side.

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You want your pastry to be around 4mm in thickness. You can either measure the thickness with a ruler or just by sight if you are good at doing that. I use a fondant rolling pin with rubber rings to get it to the correct thickness. Or you can get two pieces of wood strips that you can rest your rolling pin on and use as a guide.

Just remember that so long as your base is big enough to cover the entire inside of your pie dish and have enough excess over the sides to create the seal and trim, you will be fine.

Repeat with the last two sheets of pastry. These are for the top, so less pastry is needed, and should be 4mm thick and around 10 1/2 to 11 inches in diameter for a 9inch pie dish

Assembling the pie

Once the pastry is rolled out enough, wrap the furthest part of the pastry over your rolling pin and gently roll the rolling pin towards you, slowly wrapping the pastry around it.

Place the rolling with the pastry over one edge of your pie dish and gently unwrap it.

Press the pastry down gently into your pie dish. Make sure it is in the crease of the bottom of the pie dish, and there are no air pockets underneath or around the sides. Once in, you can use your fingers or the backs of your fingers if you have nails to press the pastry into place.

Then gently fold the press the excess over the rim of the dish.

Add your cooled down filling to the pie dish, spreading evenly, making sure there are no gaps.

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The filling will not reach right up to the top.

Then gently roll your rolling pin up in the pastry used for the top. Then unwrap over the top of the filling, making sure the pastry on the pie dish’s rim is also covered.

Once in place, use a fork to go around the pie dish’s rim, pressing the bottom and top layer of pastry together to create the seal.

Then trim around the pie dish, removing any overhanging pastry with a sharp knife.

Unfortunately, I can never get mine perfectly round due to the handles on mine.

Once the pastry is trimmed, do a once over, making sure there is a seal all the way around. If you find there isn’t, reseal with the fork again.

Next, it is time to put some cuts into the top layer of the pie. Using a sharp knife, create slits into the pastry. You can do this in a decorative pattern if you like.

Pro Tip: Cutting slits into the pastry on the top of your pie allows excess steam to be released during baking. Doing this avoids the pie exploding.

Brush the top of the pie with an egg wash; this will help create a nice golden brown colour for your pie.

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Then place on the centre rack of a preheated fan-forced oven of 170°C or 190°C for conventional.

Bake for 40 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown.

Once cooked, remove it from the oven and place it on a cooling rack.

Allow the pie to rest for ten minutes before removing it from the pie dish or cutting into it.

Pro Tip: resting the pie allows the sauce inside to cool and thicken. So when you slice into it, the filling will stay in place.

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Once the pie is rested, you can choose to leave the pie in the dish and slice or remove it.

Tip for removal: to remove your pie from the pie dish, place a flat tray or plate over the top. Then holding both, flip the pie dish upside down.

Gently remove the pie dish, then place another flat tray or plate over the bottom of the pie and flip again so that your pie is right-side up.

Try not to put too much pressure on the two trays or plates when you flip so that you do not squash the pie.

Making the Garvy – optional

This part is entirely optional but makes good use of the excess liquid that you removed from the filling.

Place the cooled liquid into a small pot.

Add the cornflour and whisk until dissolved.

Place the pot over high heat, add the butter and continue to whisk until it thickens.

Once thicken, place into a gravy boat to serve with your pie. If you need to keep it warm, you can either leave it in the pot and put the lid over the top or place some aluminium foil over the gravy boat if you do not have one of those insulated ones with a cover.

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What to serve with you Chunky Steak and Mushroom Pie

Here are some ideas of what you can serve with your chunky steak and mushroom pie.