Pigeon Pie

Click here to see the scene in Game of Thrones known as the Purple Wedding. This clip is long, but it’s really dramatic and one of the most famous scenes in the series.

Pigeon pie is known as very fancy in the show; one that is served at royal weddings. I can understand why after attempting to make it. It takes some serious skill to pull this recipe off. My first attempt ended in utter failure and even my second time making it, there was still room for improvement, but I did have fun going outside of my culinary comfort zone and feel like I learned a lot. This is going to be one of the more complicated recipes so for this one I think I’ll list off this steps and ingredients in oder to clear up any confusion.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 Onion
• 3 Cloves of Garlic
• 10 oz of Monterey Mushrooms
• Bacon
• Ground Pork
• Chicken Thigh (This is going to serve as our “pigeon”)

STEPS

• Roll out pie dough to about a quarter-inch thick and line the inside a springform pan. The pie dough is much easier to work with when it’s cold so if the dough starts to get too warm, pop it in the fridge for a few minutes.
• Save about a third of the dough to drape over the top of the pie once you’ve added all the ingredients.
• Dice the onion, mushroom, and garlic cloves.
• Sauté the vegetables until the mushroom becomes soft and the onion is translucent.
• In a large bowl, add the ground pork along with your choice of seasonings. For the one I made, I chose to use chorizo in place of ground pork; however, I found that this overpowered all the other flavors and wouldn’t recommend it.
• Carful not to over-work the meat, this is ruin the texture of the pork. Just mix to combine the ingredients and divide into three equal parts.
• Now we can start to layer the ingredients into the springform pan. Once the pie dough is lining the inside of the pan and there are no cracks are on the sides or bottom, start with a base layer of bacon.
• It’s kind of up to you how you want to layer the ingredients. In mine, I started with bacon, then the sautéd vegetables, then the ground pork, then the chicken thigh, followed by another layer of bacon. Repeated this pattern until you run out of ingredients or room in the pan.
• Now all that’s left is to drape the remaining pie crust over the top and to crimp the edge to create a seal.
• Before you place your pie in the oven, cut a few slits in the center of the pie crust to let out steam during baking. Also brush the top of the pie with either melted butter or an egg wash to give the crust a golden-brown finish.
• Place in a 400º F oven for 30 minutes.

Pigeon Pie is somewhat of a challenge to make, but that shouldn’t deter anyone from trying out this recipe. In the show, the recipe is revered among the common people of Westeros and it’s easy to see why. It may not be easy or quick to pull off, but you will impress all your friends with your skills in the kitchen if you do. In the Purple Wedding scene of Game of Thrones, Joffrey appears to choke on a pie of pigeon pie, causing him to die. We learn later on that he was actually poisoned by Lady Olenna. It’s extremely gratifying to the audience because Joffrey is one of the most hated characters in television history, but this scene is graphic and came as a shock to fans of the show; once again proving that no one in Game of Thrones is safe.