Easy Pie Recipes for Pot Pies, Cottage Pies, Shepherds Pies, Meat Pies and More

Our easy pie recipes will make you everything from the absolutely easiest pies, which are pot pies – adorable little pies made in ramekins with pastry tops – to traditional cottage pies, shepherd’s pies, meat pies, chicken pies, fish pies, and seafood pies. We also have a handful of recipes for classic pies with a twist, which we’ve given Southeast Asian flavours, such as a Cambodian chicken curry pie.

It’s National Pie Day on 14 March, which is why we’re sharing our easy pie recipes for pie lovers like us, who really don’t want to make their own pastry unless they have to. Think: pot pies made in ramekins with pastry tops, cottage pies cooked in baking trays, and traditional pies made with store-bought pastry.

Except, it’s not. It’s not officially Pie Day, unfortunately – except for opportunistic cooks like us who use Pi Day, as in Pi, the Greek letter π, as an excuse to make our favourite pies and share the pie recipes we love, so that fellow pie lovers, can join us in our baking quest this weekend.

So… Pi Day, as in π, the mathematical symbol used to represent a constant and the ratio of the circumference of any circle to the diameter of that circle. Which means it’s actually a day to celebrate mathematics. Yep. But baking requires maths, so there’s that. Unlike tossing a salad, stir-frying noodles or making soup, you need basic maths to bake – so we’re sticking with Pie Day, which we’ll spend baking pies, while the mathematicians… um… count…?

Now before you scroll down to our easy pie recipes, we have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-supported. If you’ve cooked and enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting our work here on the site. You could buy a handcrafted KROK, the best mortar and pestle ever; book a cooking class or meal with locals on EatWith; or buy something on Amazon such as one of the best new cookbooks or a cookbook for culinary travellers.

Looking for more cooking inspo? Browse our recipe archives, brimming with hundreds of recipes we’ve cooked, created and collected from around the world, from places we’ve lived, travelled and loved. Don’t forget: you can save your faves by clicking on the heart on the right of posts. Now let’s tell you more about our easy pie recipes.

Easy Pie Recipes for Pot Pies, Cottage Pies, Shepherds Pies, Meat Pies and More

Our easy pie recipes for International Pie Day (don’t care, it’s much more fun!) include everything from classic meat pies and fish pies to traditional cottage pies and shepherds pies. Note that you’ll find a few of these easy pie recipes (and more!) amongst our best Irish recipes if you’re looking for Saint Patricks Day inspiration for 17 March.

Fish Pot Pie Recipe for Mini Potato and Salmon Pot Pies

Topping our list of easy pie recipes for International Pie Day is our classic fish pot pie recipe for mini mashed potato and creamy salmon pot pies baked in individual ramekins. Delicious as they are, these adorable salmon pot pies are also very versatile.

You could replace the salmon with a white fish, combine types of fish, add prawns or mussels or both, and add spices such as nutmeg to the creamy salmon.

Even better than a pie with pastry, particularly if you prefer to spend more time around the table with loved ones than in the kitchen, is a pot pie – a pie without pastry that’s baked in a small pot or ramekin.

These little salmon pot pies may look simple but beneath the crispy cheesy lid are layers of buttery mashed potatoes infused with fresh fragrant herbs that sandwich a layer of chunky salmon pieces simmered in a rich creamy sauce. Click here for more of our best salmon recipes.

Fish Pot Pie Recipe for Mini Mashed Potato and Salmon Pot Pies with Crispy Melted Cheese

Irish Beef and Guinness Pie Recipe with Potato Mash for Mini Meat Pies Made in Ramekins

Next on our list of easy pie recipes is this Irish beef and Guinness pie recipe with mashed potatoes. It will make you more delicious little meat pies baked in ramekins.

This recipe is intended to use up any leftover Irish stew and mashed potato or colcannon leftovers if you’re cooking Irish food for St Patrick’s Day and they are so delish.

We use a store-bought puff pastry block that’s divided into 10 portions of layered sheets, which work out perfectly for four mini ramekin pies.

One sheet is used to create the pie base and sides, another sheet used for the pie lid and the off-cuts of the round pie lids are used to fill gaps if the first pieces didn’t quite reach the rims of the ramekins.

Irish Beef and Guinness Pie Recipe with Potato Mash for Mini Meat Pies Made in Ramekins

Classic Cottage Pie Recipe for an Old Fashioned Irish Farmhouse Favourite

This classic cottage pie recipe makes another of our easy pie recipes for the traditional Irish comfort food dish that’s synonymous with hearty, rustic, Irish farmhouse cooking.

Endearingly old fashioned, this Irish comfort food favourite consists of layers of savoury beef mince and vegetables, and cheesy mashed potatoes, which are baked, and served with buttery green peas. Wash it all down with red wine or Guinness.

So what’s the difference between cottage pie and shepherd’s pie? Because there’s a fair bit of confusion about this out there, even though the distinction should be clear: cottage pie is made with beef mince and shepherd’s pie made with lamb mince, which should be evident because, um… shepherds herd sheep not cows.

Classic Cottage Pie Recipe for an Old Fashioned Irish Farmhouse Favourite

Homemade Chicken Curry Pie Recipe Made with Cambodian Chicken Curry

This chicken curry pie recipe uses the classic Cambodian chicken curry to make a flavourful spicy chicken pie and it’s another of our easy pie recipes.

Unlike the classic curried chicken pie which uses curry powder to flavour the chicken filling, this recipe uses a classic Cambodian red curry paste.

The classic Cambodian chicken curry has potatoes, long beans and Asian eggplants, which we’ve included to create a really hearty chicken pie.

For our homemade chicken curry pie recipe, we do exactly what we’d do if we were making a Cambodian chicken curry and use coconut milk and chicken stock, which is cooked until the sauce is reduced until it’s very thick.

Homemade Chicken Curry Pie Recipe Made with Cambodian Chicken Curry

Spicy Pork Mince Pie Recipe Made with Cambodian Prahok Ktis

Our spicy pork mince pie recipe made with Cambodian prahok k’tis and it’s one of my favourite easy pie recipes. It’s a marriage of Australian food and Cambodian food made in heaven.

Essentially it’s an iconic Australian meat pie filled with Cambodia’s deliciously spicy dip of minced pork, coconut cream, pea eggplants, prahok (fermented fish paste), and yellow kroeung (a kroeung is a Cambodian herb and spice paste).

If you’re not a fan of fish sauce or shrimp paste, you might want to leave the prahok out. If you do want to try the prahok, head to your nearest Asian market, supermarket or grocery store or the nearest Cambodian neighbourhood in your city.

If you’re using this ingredient for the first time, perhaps reduce the amount of prahok. If you love curried meat pies, you are going to love our spicy minced pork pie.

Spicy Pork Mince Pie Recipe Made with Cambodian Prahok Ktis

Curry Beef Pie Recipe Made With Cambodian Saraman Curry

This curry beef pie recipe made with Cambodian Saraman curry is another of our pies inspired by Southeast Asian dishes.

The Cambodian Saraman curry is the richest and most complex of Cambodian curries and one of the few that uses beef as the base protein in a country that loves its pork, chicken, fish, and seafood.

The reason for that is that the Saraman curry is a Cambodian Muslim dish, which was traditionally made with goat.

While many Cambodian curries have quite ‘loose’ and thin sauces, the best Saraman curries are akin to a great Thai Massaman curry or even a Beef Rendang, where the meat has been cooked for so long that it has absorbed most of the sauce and is packed with flavour.

Curry Beef Pie Recipe Made With Cambodian Saraman Curry

Pepper Steak Pie Recipe for a Cambodian Beef Lok Lak Meat Pie

Our pepper steak pie recipe makes a Cambodian beef lok lak meat pie that is inspired by one of Cambodia’s most popular street food-style dishes, served at local eateries around the country, and it’s another of our easy pie recipes.

Typically eaten for lunch, but also acceptable for breakfast or dinner (we also make a modern finger food version), when a fried egg on top of the stir-fried beef is compulsory, lok lak is one of those dishes that is as popular with foreigners as locals. A dish of Cambodian-Chinese origin, it’s a cousin to Vietnam’s loc lac or ‘shaking beef’.

This pepper steak pie recipe is authentic in essence, making a very traditional Cambodian beef lok lak that’s been tweaked to serve as a hearty meat pie filling.

While you can use any pepper you can get your hands on during these challenging times, we highly recommend you use Cambodia’s excellent Kampot Pepper, available online on Amazon if you can’t source it locally.

Pepper Steak Pie Recipe for a Cambodian Beef Lok Lak Meat Pie

Please do let us know if you make any of our easy pie recipes for International Pie Day as we’d love to hear how they turned out for you.