Nigerian meat pie is one of our very popular and delicious snack. If you haven’t tasted the Nigerian meat pie then it’s obvious you aren’t a Nigerian so I will forgive you because Its that famous and its that good.
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Nigerian Meat pie is a delicious pastry filled with meaty-vegetabley yummyness. It is to us what beef patties are to the Jamaicans and Empanadas to the Mexicans, Spaniards and Portuguese.
Some years back when I was visiting the US, my aunt ordered some meat pies from a caterer.
She was full of praises for these meat pies. In her words, ‘Chichi !! These meat pies are the best thing that happened to Nigerians in Virginia.
When I tried the meat pies, it was indeed delicious but it didn’t hit the spot for me for two reasons;
- I was just coming from Naija so I hadn’t missed naija snacks just yet besides I would be going back in a few weeks.
- The dough was sweetened ? and that for me is a no no for my meat pies. BUT that’s a personal preference you can add some ‘sweetness’ ( in my ada’s voice) to yours..
[bctt tweet=”The secret to the perfect meat pie dough lies in the ratio of the butter to the flour.” username=”mydiaspokitch”]
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Meat pies can either be spicy-hot or mild. I bet You can guess my preference without me telling you. I always love the spicy.
I have a special vegetable I like adding to my meat pies and it’s my good old green bell pepper. It’s makes a difference to me.
I think I have a soft spot for green bell peppers I always find a way to get them into practically any thing I cook don’t I? lol.
[bctt tweet=”Chichi’s delightfully tasty Nigerian meat pie recipe is the last bus stop YUM!!!” username=”mydiaspokitch”]
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Today’s Recipe has a very buttery flaky dough. It is tasty but a bit tricky to handle because of the high fat (butter) content. But don’t worry I got your back. Just follow the recipe below and all your meat pie woes will be history. If you have further questions, Feel free to join the conversation below at the comment section and I would be more than happy to help.
Pro tip:
The ingredients for the dough have to be cold and after mixing, the dough has to be chilled in the fridge for about 25 – 30 mins nothing more otherwise it would be even more difficult to handle because the butter in the dough would be too congealed to roll out smoothly.
If you would prefer a less flaky but equally tasty pastry click here for my Nigerian chicken pie recipe. Now let’s get to the kitchen.
I hear you want to make these Nigerian meat pies ??
Click on links below to buy handy stuff you need to make Nigerian Meat pies
Helpful Tools:
- Meat pie dough press
- Rolling pin
- Parchment Paper or Silicon mat
- Kitchen Timer
- Cooling Rack
- Cookie Sheet
- Oven Mitt
Would you give this recipe a try? If you do please give us your feed back. We would love to know how it went and how your family enjoyed it. Remember to share with family, friends and in your favorite Facebook group.
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Delightfully Tasty Nigerian Meat Pie
Ingredients
The Dough
- 500 g all purpose flour
- 200 g cold (not hard) butter (cubed)
- 1 Tbsp sugar (optional ) I didn't use it
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ cup cold water
- 2 Large eggs ( 1 will be mixed with the dough, the other would be used for egg wash)
The Roux
- 2 Tbsp butter
- 2 Tbsp flour
The Filling
- 350 g beef mince
- 1 small onion (finely chopped)
- 1 large potato (diced in small cubes)
- 2 medium carrots (diced in small cubes)
- 1 habanero pepper (finely chopped)
- ½ of a medium green bell pepper (finely chopped)
- ½ tsp curry powder
- ½ tsp thyme
- 1 Tbsp cooking oil
- ½ tsp ginger powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- Salt /bouillon powder to taste
- 1 cup water
Instructions
The Roux
- Heat up butter in a small saucepan, as soon as it melts and starts bubbling, add the flour and mix in.Stir continuously until its lightly brown.. not burnt.Turn off heat and set Roux aside to cool. You can get more Acquinted with the use of Roux here
The Filling
- In a clean sauce pan heat up 1 Tbsp of oil and sautee onions on medium low till it is soft and translucent then stir in the habanero pepper.
- Add in the beef mince breaking up into smaller bits as you cook and season to taste, cook for about 5 mins or till it's cooked through and all the pink is gone.
- Add in the cubed potatoes, carrots and chopped green bell pepper. Stir in to incorporate.
- Pour in the 1 cup of water, Cover pot and allow to simmer on high for about 2 mins then to reduce the liquid.
- Stir in the Roux, this thickens the sauce, adds a unique flavor and gives the filling that signature moist yumminess meat pie is known for... YUM!!! Turn off heat and Set aside to cool.
The Dough
- In a mixing bowl, measure out the flour and baking powder. If you are using sugar, this is the time to add it.
- Add the cool butter cubes and blend in using your fingers or a pastry blender till it forms a mixture that looks like bread crumbs. Make a well in the middle of your mixture.
- Beat one egg, pour it into the well and mix in. Do not over mix.
- Add 1/4 cup of cold water and mix in then sprinkle in a handful of flour to seal in the water. ( it is always better to end mixing processes with flour)
- Form a ball with the Dough, wrap in cling film and allow to rest in the fridge for 20 - 30 mins
Assembling The Pie
- Preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C
- Line your baking sheet with parchment paper
- Bring out dough from refrigerator. With a bench scraper or sharp knife, divide the dough into 2 or 4 equal parts to make it easier to handle.
- With a rolling pin or a clean bottle roll out one part to 1/8 inch thick then cut out a round shape with your meat pie former or a round bowl. Dab the edges lightly with water.
- Add about 2 Tbsp of filling at the center then fold over the fillingto form a semi circle then seal. ( if you are using the meatpie former it will help with the fold and seal and add a beautiful design at the edges. If you don't have the former, not to worry, use your fingers to seal it after folding over the filling. Then use s fork to design the edges ) Place on the baking sheet.
- Repeat above process until all the dough is used up.
- Poke the pies with a fork to create a steam outlet while baking.Beat the second egg, add a teaspoon of water to it,, then with a pastry brush, apply the egg wash on all the meat pies.
- Bake in the middle rack of your oven for about 25 - 30 minsYas!! The meat pie is ready. After cooling down of course . Enjoy!!!
Video
Notes
- Kitchen scale (optional)
- Mixing bowl
- Pastry brush
- Parchment paper (optional but helpful with clean up)
- Baking sheet
- Rolling pin
- meatpie shaper (optional but recommended)
Nutrition
miss natchitoches meat pies since i started living in China now this gives me a reason to eat some meat pues.
Thanks chichi for sharing your meatpie recipe
Quite insightful.
Tried the meatpie. It came out very nice. I have since tried two different times after.
Thank you Teebaby for your feedback. Glad you enjoyed the recipe.
Chi Chi ! I absolutely love your blog 🙂 I have been trying to get the perfect flaky crust for meat pie, but it either ends up overly buttery or too bland and crunchy! what am I doing wrong ?
Hi Rume.
I would be happy to help. If you find that your dough is too buttery and crumbly then the butter to flour ratio is too high. Here are a few steps that can help:
1. Measure your ingredients correctly. As you can see above, the ratio of butter to flour is 2:5 ( 200 g butter to 500g flour)
2. Your butter should be cold but not hard. Try not to over mix with your hands as the warmth in your hands can Warm up your dough.
3. Mix with cold water. After mixing the dough you can roll out a bit to test it’s flexibility. After that chill dough in fridge for about 30 mins before using.
About your dough being bland you can add little Maggie/ knorr to your dough if you like. Some ppl do that.
I know this response is long lol but hope it helps. Feel free to comment again when you give this a try or if you have more questions. Thanks for visiting my site. Did you subscribe yet ?
Thanks for getting back Chichi! I was also curios to know if eggs were necessary in the meat pie dough ?
You are welcome Rume ?. In my opinion and from experience, I would say eggs are necessary in the meat pie dough. the eggs act as a binder which makes the dough easier to handle. Unlike shortbread dough which doesn’t require eggs and doesn’t need a lot of maneuver the meat pie dough requires quite some maneuver so if there is no egg, it would always breakdown before you can fold it. Hope that illustration helps.
The absence of eggs can also make the dough crumbly.
Update: That being said, you can make it without eggs but all ingredients will need to be chilled and you need to work the dough really quickly. Rolling out the dough in between parchment paper can help keep it stable. You can check out my mother’s Day pot pie. I used the egg free version for that recipe.
https://www.mydiasporakitchen.com/2018/05/10/spicy-mini-beef-pot-pies/
500 grams of flour is how any cups???
Ideally 1 cup of flour is 130g so 500g should be 3-3/4 cup + 1Tbsp that’s a little less than 4 cups because 4 cups would be 520g. For baking I usually advice using a scale because people may measure flours differently for instance, cook A may measure his flour packed and a little over the top resulting in 170g while cook B will measure his by spooning in the flour and getting 140g. But the generally accepted measurement for a cup of flour is 130g even though for some reason i always get 150g when I do my own measurements. Hope that helps ?. Thanks for stopping by.
Okay! Got it! Thanks!