Tourtière is a traditional French Canadian Meat pie. Tourtière, which is also known as meat pie is traditionally made with ground meat, onions, spices, and herbs baked in a pie crust.
My French-Canadian grandmother was born in Quebec, Canada. Then later moved to Berlin, New Hampshire. She always made this delicious meat pie for the holidays. She said you could serve it with the turkey for Thanksgiving in place of stuffing. But, many times she put the meat stuffing into a homemade pie crust for French Meat Pie. Get your ketchup ready for this delicious easy meat pie recipe!
For more homemade pie recipes be sure and check out Easy Cherry Pie, Best Apple Pie, Fried Apple Hand Pies, Pecan Pie, and Easy Pumpkin Pie.
How to make Tourtière French Meat Pie:
Step 1: In a large pot or Dutch oven, over medium heat. Cook the onion and celery for about 5 minutes to slightly soften. Stir with a wooden spoon to not burn.
Step 2: Add the chicken stock mixture, ground pork, ground beef, and poultry seasoning. Cook over medium heat until the meat is cooked, about 20 minutes.
Step 3: Add salt to taste. Should only need a pinch of salt. (remember bouillon and breadcrumbs already have salt in them)
Step 4: Let cool completely. Add to unbaked pie shells. Either homemade pie crust or store-bought. Top with pie crust. Roll edges under and pinch around the entire pie. Use a sharp knife to slice a slit in the top of each pie.
Step 5: Brush with egg wash. Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven until the crust is nicely browned. About 30 to 45 minutes.
This past Thanksgiving we headed back to the homestead. I’m in my glory at home in Connecticut on the farm. I made homemade pie crust and my grandmother’s French Meat Pie. You can either use this meat stuffing as a side to your holiday dinner, or make pies. This recipe makes two 9-inch pies or about 15 or so 5-inch pies. I made these 5-inch pies in disposable aluminum pie plates and baked them. After they cooled I packaged them up in freezer Ziploc bags for quick lunches for my dad.
For some creative homemade DIY Christmas gifts, be sure and check out Salt Dough Ornaments, Caramel Apples, Homemade Barbecue Sauce, Mixed Berry Jam, and Raspberry Rhubarb Jam. Or make a Christmas cookie tray filled with Chewy Fudge Brownies, Grandma’s Molasses Cookies, Raspberry Oatmeal Bars, and rolled sugar cookies. Or make these beautiful homemade Christmas cookies made from a rolled sugar cookie and decorated with royal icing. One of my absolute favorite holiday desserts is my grandma’s Cream Puffs with Pastry Cream.
My grandmother had her local butcher double or triple grind the meat. With some of the higher-end grocery stores, they will have no issue doing this for you. I’m fortunate to have heirloom recipes from both sides of my family and some from other family farms. Aren’t heirloom recipes handed down from generation from generation the best?! Be sure and try my grandmother’s Punch Recipe.
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French Meat Pie
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground pork
- 2 pounds ground beef (round)
- 3/4 cup finely diced celery
- 1 yellow onion, finely diced
- 5 cups hot water
- 2 teaspoon Better Than Bouillon chicken base
- 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
- 2 cups seasoned breadcrumbs
- 1/2 teaspoon allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- salt and black pepper to taste
- 2 pie shells for 9-inch pies
Instructions
- Dissolve the Better Than Bouillon chicken into the hot water. Set aside.
- In a large pot or Dutch oven, over medium heat. Cook the onion and celery for about 5 minutes to slightly soften. Stir with a wooden spoon to not burn.
- Add the chicken stock mixture, ground pork, ground beef, and poultry seasoning. Cook over medium heat until the meat is cooked, about 20 minutes.
- Add the breadcrumbs, allspice, ground cloves, and black pepper. Stir to combine. Let cook another 10 minutes.
- Add salt to taste. Should only need a pinch of salt. (remember bouillon and breadcrumbs already have salt in them)
- Let cool completely. Add to unbaked pie shells. Either homemade pie crust or store-bought. Top with pie crust. Roll edges under and pinch around the entire pie. Use a sharp knife to slice a slit in the top of each pie.
- Brush with egg wash. Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven until the crust is nicely browned. About 30 to 45 minutes.
- Makes two 9-inch pies.
The spices you use sounds so intriguing. Never tried to use them before for ground beef. Definitely saving this recipe.
Thank you so much! This is such a great recipe!
I have never had anything like this. It is so flavorful and just a perfect meal.
Thanks for stopping by Andrea!
Tourtière is one of those recipes that is quite rare but when you see, you just want to make it. Delicious pie that I am really looking forward to trying!
Thank you so much!!
How delicious this looks! I’ve never made something like this before but have heard good things about Better Than Bouillon and am interested in trying it out.
You’ll love Better Than Bouillon! It’s such a great product!
I love how easy it is to make these pies — passed this along to my friend who’s been looking for a simple recipe to make this weekend.
My Aunt Harriet would make this “pork pie”-(that’s what it was called back in the day). We would eat this after returning home from mid-night mass. Loved it! Found your recipe and will make it for the holidays. I like the smaller pies seen in the picture.
It’s probably a similar recipe to what your Aunt Harriet made! Thanks for stopping by Jolene!
I want to make it for New Year’s eve canadian theme. I would like to make then like a hand pie. How long would you think I should cook them?
Denise,
The meat is already cooked… so I would follow the directions in my apple hand pies recipe. You can either fry them (375 degrees) for about 2 minutes. Or brush with egg wash and bake in a preheated 400 or 425 degree oven until the crust is nicely browned. (I would estimate about 30 minutes)