Can I freeze a Beef/Chicken pie?

ellejay

Hi all

Has anyone ever successfully frozen a beef / chicken pie?

I'm wondering should I cook the pie first or should I leave the puff pastry uncooked?
The filling etc would be cooked.

Also can I heat from frozen or would I defrost first.

All thoughts / experience on this hugely appreciated.

irish_goat

Leave the pastry uncooked, defrost fully and then cook in the oven as normal. Works for me anyway.

Dizzyblonde

I've done it both ways and the pastry is much nicer if you defrost the filling and then make up the pie with fresh pastry. I tend to use shortcrust pastry and will often freeze leftover portions of pies. It reheats okay, but I wouldn't imagine puff pastry would reheat well at all after freezing.

phormium

I freeze lots of cooked pies, well kind of pies, I leave the pastry separate. So a cooked filling ready to reheat but I cut the piece of puff pastry and leave it raw and not on the pie as I find it just doesn't rise as well and stays soggy underneath.

Thawed and heated a turkey and ham pie yesterday in a foil container, used the halogen oven and put in the foil container and the pastry separately, I just pop the square of pastry on the serving of pie then. Best result that way in my opinion for puff pastry, ordinary shortcrust cooks ok-ish on the pie.

phd

I make lots of pie fillings and freeze them. You can make a big batch of chicken & ham, beef & mushroom, cottage pie filling etc. Then defrost overnight and top with pastry before cooking. Personally, I like the puff pastry cooked on the pie as I like the bottom layers to soak up the tasty pie filling.

chuckles30

As others have said, freeze the cooked pie filling separately and the pastry raw. Also works for shepherd/cottage pies. Freeze the filling and top with freshly mashed potatoes and pop in the oven.

ellejay

Thanks all.
I guess I was looking for a handy solution to just take out of the freezer and pop in the oven.