The best Nigerian Meat Pie is moist, yummy and has minced meat, potato and carrot filling. The filling is usually adequately seasoned and gives the meat pie its unique taste.
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The Nigerian Meat Pie is a popular snack because it is tasty, moist and does not produce crumbs when it is being eaten, if it is well-prepared, that is. The recipe detailed here will help you make the best meat pie recipe.
For another version of this recipe visit the Nigerian Meat Pie as a Dessert page.
Click >> Different Shapes of Nigerian Meat Pie for how to get the heart, circular, star and other shapes of our delicious Nigerian Meat Pie.
Nigerian Meat Pie Ingredients
The number of meat pies you will get depends on the diameter of the meat pie cutter you use. A cutter that is 8 inches (20cm) in diameter will give you about 10 meat pies with the following ingredients.
For the Nigerian Meat Pie dough
1kg (8 cups) plain flour (All Purpose Flour)
2 teaspoons baking powder
500g (1.1 lbs) Margarine
2 pinches salt
½ cup / 125 ml / 4.2 oz cold water
For the Nigerian Meat Pie filling
2 medium Irish potatoes
2 medium carrots
500g (1.1 lbs) minced meat
1 medium onion
2 cooking spoons vegetable oil
2 Knorr cubes
1 teaspoon thyme
2 tablespoons plain flour
1 cup / 250 ml / 8.4 oz cold water
Salt to taste
Nigerian Meat Pie: Ornamental Ingredient
1 medium egg
Directions for preparing the Nigerian Meat Pie
The Nigerian Meat Pie Filling
Peel the Irish potatoes and scrape the carrots, wash and cut these two into tiny cubes.
Wash and slice the onions into tiny pieces.
With your cooker or stove set to medium heat, heat the vegetable oil in a pot, add the diced onions and stir for a bit, add the minced meat and stir vigorously till the minced meat turns pale.
Add 1 cup of water, Knorr cubes and thyme. Cover the pot and once the contents of the pot starts boiling, add the diced carrots and potatoes and cook till everything is well done.
Dissolve 2 tablespoons of plain flour in half cup of cold water and add to the meat pie filling. This tip is so that the meat pie filling does not dry up during baking. It is also what keeps the meat pie filling moist.
Add salt to taste, stir the contents and turn off the heat. Set the meat pie filling aside. Now is the time to prepare the dough for the meat pie.
The Nigerian Meat Pie dough
Put the 1 kg of flour in a sizeable bowl; add 2 teaspoons of baking powder and 2 pinches of salt. You really do not need a lot of salt for the meat pie dough. The meat pie will get most of its taste from the filling. Mix these dry ingredients very well.
Use a tablespoon to scoop the margarine in small bits into the bowl of flour. The smaller you make the bits of margarine, the easier it will be for you to rub them into the flour.
Use finger tips to rub the margarine into the flour till the mix becomes like crumbs.
Note: In Nigeria, we also refer to margarine as butter but for my audience in the Western countries, please do NOT use butter for the meatpie dough because butter is too hard and this makes it difficult for you to mix it with the flour to achieve the crumbly look. So please use margarine.
Also butter is quite heavy so it makes the dough very greasy which hinders the elasticity of the dough.
Can I use melted butter? No, because it simply ruins the meat pie.
Now, start adding cold water in bits while at the same time folding the mix till a stiff ball of dough is formed. You will be surprised at how small quantity of water you need to get the dough stiff. At most, all you need for the 1 kg of flour is half a cup of water.
Knead the dough very well, put back in the bowl and leave to rest for 5 to 7 minutes. This makes the dough more elastic.