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Canning beef pot pie filling puts a whole dinner in a jar, beef and vegetables in a light broth. Open a jar, thicken it, drop biscuits over the top, and dinner bakes while you set the table.
Table of Contents
- Notes from My Kitchen
- Quick Look at the Recipe
- What’s the Difference Between Pot Pie Filling and Stew?
- Choosing Beef for Pot Pie Filling
- Ingredients for Beef Pot Pie Filling
- Canning Pot Pie Filling Variations
- Step-by-Step Instructions
- Canning Beef Pot Pie Filling
- Altitude Adjustments
- Serving Beef Pot Pie Filling
- Storage and Shelf Life
- Yield Notes
- Canning Beef Pot Pie Filling FAQs
- Meal in a Jar Canning Recipes
- Canning Beef Pot Pie Filling Recipe
- Beef Canning Recipes
This recipe has been reviewed for safety and accuracy by a Master Food Preserver certified through the University of Cornell Cooperative Extension.
The recipe comes from Angi Schneider’s Pressure Canning for Beginners and Beyond, and it’s one of the few I’ve never wanted to change. Beef, potatoes, carrots, peas, and onions go into the jar in a light broth, cooked just long enough to pack hot. The vegetables finish in the canner.
This one packs as a hearty meal in a jar. Fill the jars with solids, then add broth to fill the gaps, and process for 75 minutes for pints or 90 minutes for quarts. It’s low acid, which means a pressure canner and not a water bath. If you haven’t run one before, my pressure canning for beginners guide walks through a whole batch.
A batch makes 4 quarts or 8 pints, and a quart is about right for one pie in a standard pie dish. My canning chicken pot pie filling is the same idea with chicken and a slightly different vegetable mix. Canning beef stew is the one to make when you want more potatoes and no crust at all, and I have more than a dozen beef stew canning recipe variations, so you can stock your whole pantry with different meals.
Notes from My Kitchen
I love a good biscuit-topped pot pie, and my husband’s biscuit recipe is hard to beat. He’ll make the biscuit dough, and I’ll prep the jars at the same time. I thicken a quart, pour it hot into a pie dish, cut biscuits over the top, and it’s in the oven in ten minutes.
Pie crust is lovely too, and I make it when there’s time to. The filling is already cooked, so the crust is the only thing that actually needs the oven.
There’s less potato in this than in beef stew, which took me a batch to get used to. The crust is the starch, so the jar can be mostly beef and vegetables.
Quick Look at the Recipe
- Recipe Name: Canning Beef Pot Pie Filling
- Recipe Type: Meal in a Jar Canning Recipe (hearty pack)
- Canning Method: Pressure Canning
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Canning Time: 75 minutes for pints, 90 minutes for quarts
- Yield: 4 quarts, or 8 pints
- Jar Sizes: Pints or quarts
- Headspace: 1 inch
- Ingredients Overview: Stewing beef, potatoes, carrots, peas, onions, beef broth, thyme, garlic powder, and canning salt
- Safe Canning Recipe Source: Pressure Canning for Beginners and Beyond by Angi Schneider
- Difficulty: Easy. Everything goes in one pot and gets ladled into jars.
- Similar Recipes: Other hearty meals in a jar work the same way, including chicken pot pie filling, beef stew with mushrooms, and Hungarian goulash. For more beef on the shelf, there’s beef stroganoff, vegetable beef stew, and beef short ribs.
What’s the Difference Between Pot Pie Filling and Stew?
This is close to a beef stew canning recipe, with two differences that matter. Pot pie filling gets fewer potatoes, because the crust is where the starch comes from. That leaves more room in the jar for beef and the rest of the vegetables.
The second difference is peas. They bring a sweet green note that reads as pot pie rather than stew, and they’re in every pot pie I’ve ever made. Green beans work in their place if you’d rather have them.
Either one can be eaten straight out of the jar. The crust is what makes it pot pie, and the crust is entirely optional.
Choosing Beef for Pot Pie Filling
Chuck and round are what this recipe is written around. Both are working muscles full of connective tissue, and 90 minutes under pressure turns that into something you can cut with a spoon. A tender steak cut would only get stringy.
Cut the beef into 1-inch cubes and put it in raw. Browning it first in a little oil is a nice touch and adds real flavor, but it isn’t required here.
Ground beef swaps in pound for pound, so 2 pounds of ground beef replaces 2 pounds of chuck. Just brown it and drain it first. Raw ground meat packs into a solid clump in the jar, and heat can’t move through it evenly.
Venison, elk, bear, and pork all substitute straight across for the beef. If you want plain jars of meat instead of a whole meal, canning beef covers that on its own, and it’s the tested basis for beef being in this recipe.
Ingredients for Beef Pot Pie Filling
This recipe follows the University of Alaska’s “Hearty Soup” protocol, which is what I use when designing most of my meal-in-a-jar canning recipes. That framework gives you some flexibility with ingredients, provided you only add or substitute vegetables that have their own specific canning recommendations.
Beyond that, they specifically prohibit adding corn, sweet potatoes, winter squash, and leafy greens. Most other vegetables are allowed, but read through the instructions for designing your own meal in a jar recipe if you want to be sure.
Don’t raise the total amount of vegetables, and make sure there’s enough broth to cover everything in the jars.
- Stewing beef: Chuck or round, trimmed and cut into 1-inch cubes. Raw or browned first, both work.
- Potatoes: Waxy gold potatoes hold their shape best and come out firm. Floury potatoes like russets break down more, and red potatoes are fine. Not sweet potatoes, which aren’t allowed in a hearty pack. More on the plain version in canning potatoes.
- Carrots: Peeled and sliced. Firm storage carrots do best in the canner, and the tender bunched carrots sold with their tops on fall apart. See canning carrots for how they behave on their own.
- Peas: Fresh shelled or frozen and drained, both fine. Don’t use canned peas here, since they’re already soft and a second trip through the canner turns them to mush. Canning peas covers them by themselves.
- Onions: Strong white or yellow onions, chopped. The ones that make you cry carry the most flavor, and sweet onions and red onions both fall flat here. There’s more in canning onions.
- Beef broth and water: Homemade beef broth is best, and boxed broth or stock is fine. Stock and broth are interchangeable, and any kind works. Keep extra hot on the stove for topping up jars.
- Thyme, garlic powder, and canning salt: Dry seasonings are the part you can move freely. Parsley, rosemary, and sage are all good additions, and a few cloves of fresh garlic can go in too.
The measurements in the card are for prepared vegetables, after peeling and cutting. To hit them, start with about 1 2/3 pounds of potatoes and 1 1/4 pounds of carrots. Add 1 1/4 pounds of unshelled peas, or a 1-pound bag of frozen, and 3/4 pound of onions, which is roughly two medium ones.
The flour goes in later, at serving. This is canned as a thin filling and thickened into gravy when you open it, since flour is not approved for canning. The crust and the thickening both wait until you’re cooking.
Angi’s amounts fill the jars closely, but keep a kettle of water or extra broth hot anyway. If you leave a vegetable out, you’ll need the liquid to make up the space.
I made this, and it is delicious! I thickened the filling and poured it piping hot into a pie pan. I used a pouch of Bisquick drop biscuits for the topping. It all came out perfect! I’m single and very busy, so I appreciate having this quick meal on the shelf.
Most of the questions I get on this one are about what’s allowed to change. Here’s where the lines sit.
Canning Pot Pie Filling Variations
The meat can be pork instead of beef, or venison, elk, bear, or any other wild red meat. Ground meat works too, browned and drained first, swapped pound for pound. You can swap one allowed vegetable for another as long as the total volume stays the same, so 1 1/2 cups of green beans in place of 1 1/2 cups of peas. Carrots and potatoes can be replaced with other root vegetables like parsnips, and onions with shallots or green onions. Dry seasonings are yours to adjust, and smoked paprika is lovely with pork. Where the line sits in general is covered in safe canning recipe changes.
Anything can be left out entirely. Just don’t reduce the broth when you do, or you’ll end up with jars that are mostly liquid. What doesn’t move is the process. This is low acid, it has to be pressure canned, and 75 minutes for pints or 90 for quarts is what keeps it safe on the shelf. A few things can’t come in at all, even as a swap. Corn, sweet potatoes, winter squash, and leafy greens are all excluded from a hearty pack. So are flour and cornstarch, dairy, rice, pasta, and cured meats like bacon or ham. Those go in the pot when you’re reheating.
Want to design your own version instead of adjusting this one? How to create your own meal in a jar canning recipe lays out the full allowed list for hearty packs.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Everything happens in one pot, and it goes faster than it looks. Amounts are in the recipe card below.
The filling is not finished cooking when it goes into the jars, and it isn’t supposed to be. It simmers just long enough to pack hot, and the vegetables come the rest of the way in the canner.
- Prepare your pressure canner, jars, lids, and bands. Put the trivet in, add 2 to 3 inches of water, and bring the canner to a gentle simmer with the jars warming inside it.
- Peel the potatoes, carrots, and onions, then cut everything to a uniform size and trim the beef into 1-inch cubes. Even pieces heat at the same rate, and the recipe is measured by volume, so keep each vegetable in its own pile as you go.
- Combine the beef, vegetables, water, broth, and seasonings in a large stockpot. Bring it to a boil, then drop it to a simmer for 10 minutes. That drives the air out of the vegetables so they hold together and stop floating, and it brings everything up to temperature for a hot pack.
- Take the pot off the heat and divide the mixture among hot jars with a canning funnel, loading the solids first and then ladling broth over them. Leave 1 inch of headspace, and keep the jars loosely packed rather than pressed down.
- Run a bubble tool around the inside of each jar, then check the headspace again. Debubbling drops the level a lot here, so top up with hot broth or boiling water to hold 1 inch. Wipe the rims clean, then apply lids and bands fingertip tight.
- Load the jars into the canner with a jar lifter and lock the lid. Let steam vent in a steady stream for a full 10 minutes before you add the weight or close the petcock.
- Process pints for 75 minutes or quarts for 90 minutes at 10 pounds pressure in a weighted gauge canner or 11 pounds in a dial gauge canner, adjusting for altitude. Let the canner come down to zero on its own, then wait 5 minutes before opening the lid away from you.
Canning Beef Pot Pie Filling
This is a hot pack. The jars need to be hot when the filling goes in, and the filling needs to be at a simmer when it leaves the stove. Get the canner heating with 2 to 3 inches of water in the bottom while you cook, and keep the jars warm inside it.
Most people run this in quarts, since a quart is about right for a pot pie in a regular pie dish. Pints are the better call for one or two people, and a pint bakes nicely in a standard loaf pan. Decide before you start and get that many jars warming.
Pot pie filling is low acid, so it has to go in a pressure canner, dial gauge or weighted gauge. A water bath canner can’t reach a safe temperature for meat and vegetables. There’s no tested water bath process for this at any jar size. The smallest batch worth running is 2 quarts or 4 pints.
Headspace matters here. Too much and the jar may not seal, because there’s more air than the process can drive out. Too little and the filling boils up into the sealing surface, which also keeps a jar from sealing and makes a mess of the canner.
Process pints for 75 minutes or quarts for 90 minutes, at 10 pounds pressure in a weighted gauge canner or 11 pounds in a dial gauge canner. Adjust for altitude with the chart below. The time stays the same at every elevation, and the pressure is what changes.
When the timer goes off, turn off the heat and let the canner come down on its own. Don’t run it under water and don’t lift the weight early. Once it reads zero, let it sit 5 more minutes, then unfasten the lid and open it away from you.
Leave the jars in the canner another 10 minutes before you lift them out. Then set them on a towel with an inch of space around each one, out of a draft, and leave them 12 hours. More recipes that run the same way are in my pressure canning recipes.
Altitude Adjustments
With pressure canning, the canning time is always 75 minutes for pints and 90 minutes for quarts, at any altitude. Only the pressure changes as you go up. Here are the altitude adjustments for pressure canning beef pot pie filling.
For dial gauge canners:
- 0 to 2,000 feet: 11 lbs pressure
- 2,001 to 4,000 feet: 12 lbs pressure
- 4,001 to 6,000 feet: 13 lbs pressure
- 6,001 to 8,000 feet: 14 lbs pressure
For weighted gauge canners:
- 0 to 1,000 feet: 10 lbs pressure
- Above 1,000 feet: 15 lbs pressure
Serving Beef Pot Pie Filling
Every version starts the same way. Strain a jar through a mesh sieve and keep the broth. Whisk 1 tablespoon of flour into the broth for a quart, or 2 teaspoons for a pint, and simmer it in a saucepan for a minute or two until it thickens. Fold the beef and vegetables back in and take it off the heat.
Flour is the only thing that has to wait. It can’t go in the jar before canning, and it takes about a minute at the stove when you’re ready to eat.
With a Biscuit Topping
This is the fastest way to get it on the table, and it’s what I make most often. Heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Pour the thickened filling into a pie dish while it’s still piping hot, then lay raw biscuit dough over the top, either cut rounds or spoonfuls of drop dough.
Bake 20 to 25 minutes, until the biscuits are golden on top and dry underneath. Lift one with a fork and look at the bottom before you pull the dish. Biscuits set over hot filling get steam from below, and the tops brown well before the middles are done.
If your biscuits come out of a tube, use the oven temperature on the package and start checking at 15 minutes. Refrigerated dough is thinner than most cut biscuits and bakes faster.
With a Pie Crust
For a full double crust, line a pie dish with a raw bottom crust, add the thickened filling, and lay a second crust over the top. Crimp the edges, cut a few slits for steam, and bake 45 minutes at 375 degrees F, until it’s golden brown all over.
The lower oven and the longer time are for the bottom crust, which starts raw and has wet filling sitting on it. Rushing that is how you get a soggy bottom.
A top crust only is quicker. Pour the hot filling into a pie dish or an oven-safe skillet, lay one crust over it, cut your slits, and bake 20 to 25 minutes at 400 degrees F. The filling is already cooked, so the crust is the only thing baking, which is how I do my chicken pot pie filling too.
As a Stew
Skip the crust entirely and empty a jar into a pot. Heat it through, about 10 minutes, and eat it with bread on the side. A pint is one good bowl and a quart feeds two.
Thickening is optional at that point. One reader left a comment saying she ate a jar as it came, without thickening it or adding anything, and went straight back to make more.
Another reader turned hers into shepherd’s pie, with a can of diced tomatoes stirred in and mashed potatoes spread over the top. Run it under the broiler for a few minutes to brown the potatoes.
The thickened filling is also good spooned over egg noodles, mashed potatoes, or split biscuits, with no baking at all. More meals that reheat this easily are in my meal in a jar canning recipes and my beef canning recipes.
Storage and Shelf Life
Once the jars are cool, press the center of each lid. A sealed lid curves down and doesn’t move or click. Take the rings off before you store them, since a ring left on can hold a failed lid in place and hide a jar that never sealed.
Label them and store them somewhere cool, dark, and dry. Sealed jars hold their quality for 12 to 18 months, and they stay safe past that as long as the seal holds. The beef and potatoes just keep getting softer.
A jar that didn’t seal goes in the fridge and gets eaten within a week, or you can reprocess it with a new lid for the full time if you catch it within 24 hours. Once you open a sealed jar, refrigerate it and use it within three or four days.
Yield Notes
One batch fills 4 quarts or 8 pints. The card measures prepared vegetables, so start with about 1 2/3 pounds of potatoes and 1 1/4 pounds of carrots. You also need 1 1/4 pounds of unshelled peas, or a 1-pound bag of frozen, plus 3/4 pound of onions.
Those starting weights don’t scale with the serving buttons on the card, so measure each vegetable by volume once it’s cut. Angi’s amounts fill the jars closely, but keep hot broth or a kettle of boiling water on hand. Debubbling drops the level in these jars more than most.
You can scale this up as far as your canner will hold, so six quarts in one batch is fine if they fit. Don’t halve it, though. You won’t have enough for a minimum canning batch, which is 2 quarts or 4 pints.
Canning Beef Pot Pie Filling FAQs
These are the ones readers ask most in the comments.
A full batch fills 4 quarts or 8 pints. Most people run it in quarts, since a quart is about right for a pot pie in a standard pie dish. Pints suit one or two people and bake well in a loaf pan. You can scale the recipe up as far as your canner will hold.
No. Flour, cornstarch, and other thickeners are too dense to let heat move through the jar reliably, so the filling is canned thin every time. Clear Jel is sometimes suggested for this, but it has only been tested in water bath recipes for fruit pie fillings and a few jams, not in pressure canned meals. Thicken the jar on the stove when you open it.
Yes, pound for pound, so 2 pounds of ground in place of 2 pounds of chuck. Brown and drain it first. Raw ground meat packs into a solid clump in the jar and heat can’t move through it evenly, which is why chunks can go in raw and ground meat can’t.
It’s a quality question rather than a safety one, and Ball has dozens of raw pack meal in a jar recipes. Raw packed vegetables float more and look less tidy in the jar. If you go that route, warm the jars first, keep the broth boiling, and hold the canner around 140 degrees F so the jars don’t crack from thermal shock.
Yes, and stock and broth are interchangeable here. Any kind works, so chicken, pork, or vegetable broth all go in the same way. Homemade beef broth gives the best flavor, and boxed broth is perfectly fine.
Sealed jars in a cool, dark cupboard hold their quality for 12 to 18 months, and they stay safe longer than that as long as the seal holds. The beef and potatoes soften over time. Once you open a jar, refrigerate it and use it within three or four days.
Meal in a Jar Canning Recipes
More whole dinners you can open and heat:
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Canning Beef Pot Pie Filling
Equipment
- Pressure Canner I use an All-American Model 930
- Canning Jars, Lids and Bands
Ingredients
- 4 cups potatoes, peeled and diced, see notes
- 3 cups carrots, peeled and sliced, see notes
- 1 1/2 cups peas, shelled fresh or frozen, see notes
- 2 cups onions, peeled and chopped, see notes
- 2 lbs stewing beef, chuck or round, cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1 tsp thyme, dried
- 1 Tbsp garlic powder
- 2 cups water
- 2 cups beef broth, or stock
- 2 tsp canning salt
Instructions
- Prepare the pressure canner, jars, lids, and bands. Put the trivet in, add 2 to 3 inches of water following your manufacturer's directions, and bring the canner to a gentle simmer with the jars warming inside it.
- Peel the potatoes, carrots, and onions, then cut them to a uniform size. Trim the beef and cut it into 1-inch cubes.
- Combine the beef, potatoes, carrots, peas, onions, water, broth, thyme, garlic powder, and salt in a large stockpot.
- Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer 10 minutes. The vegetables will not be cooked through, which is correct, since they finish cooking in the jars.
- Take the stockpot off the heat and divide the mixture among the hot jars, loading the solids first and then ladling broth over them, leaving 1 inch headspace.
- Release trapped air bubbles, then check the headspace again and top up with hot broth or boiling water to hold 1 inch.
- Wipe the rims and threads clean, set the lids on, and apply the bands fingertip tight.
- Load the jars into the pressure canner, fasten the lid, and vent a steady stream of steam for 10 minutes before adding the weight or closing the petcock.
- Process pints for 75 minutes or quarts for 90 minutes at 10 pounds pressure in a weighted gauge canner or 11 pounds in a dial gauge canner, adjusting for altitude (see notes).
- Turn off the heat and let the canner depressurize on its own, then wait 5 minutes before removing the lid, opening it away from your face.
- Leave the jars in the canner another 10 minutes, then remove them to a towel lined counter and let them cool undisturbed for 12 hours.
- Check the seals, remove the rings, label the jars, and store them in a cool, dark place.
Notes
- 0 to 2,000 feet: 11 lbs
- 2,001 to 4,000 feet: 12 lbs
- 4,001 to 6,000 feet: 13 lbs
- 6,001 to 8,000 feet: 14 lbs
- 0 to 1,000 feet: 10 lbs
- Above 1,000 feet: 15 lbs
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Beef Canning Recipes
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Rookie canner question here: If I increase the ingredients proportionally, can I do six quarts of beef pot pie filling at a time?
Yes, that’s perfectly fine. You can increase pressure canning recipes without issue, all you need to do is make sure that your batch size will fit in your canner. Enjoy!
In comparing the recipes for beef pot pie and beef strogenoff the pot pie recipe has way more vegetables added. Couldn’t the strogenoff be filled with more approved ingredients as well?
Thanks
Yes. In this particular case, both recipes follow the University of Alaska’s “Hearty Soups” protocol, and you can add any veggies that are allowed in that protocol. You’ll find a full list and all the instructions here: https://creativecanning.com/choice-soup-canning-recipe/
I’ve been working on finding different foods to can and this one sounds awesome. Beside the stew idea, adding a can of diced tomatoes and putting mashed potatoes on top would create a shepards pie ,)
Thats such a great idea!
I made this and it is delicious! I thickened the filling and poured it piping hot into a pie pan. I used a pouch of Bisquick drop biscuits for the topping. It all came out perfect! I’m single and very busy so I appreciate having this quick meal on the shelf.
Lovely!
Planning to work on this soon. But can I leave out the peas and sub frozen corn in the recipe?
Yes, in this particular recipe, you can substitute an equal amount of corn in place of the peas. That’s not true in most recipes in general, but because of how this recipe is tested using the “hearty soups canning protocol” you can make that substitution. Here’s more on the guidance if you’re curious: https://creativecanning.com/choice-meal-in-a-jar-canning-recipe/
So how many pints or quarts does this make?
This recipe should yield 4 quarts or 8 pints.
I made this last year and opened the first jar this week. I ate it as is because I didn’t want the extra calories of a crust. It was so good. I didn’t thicken it because I never thought of it. I will definitely be making this again.
If you don’t have a fresh ingredient on hand, say peas, can you use the store bought canned equivalent safely in most recipes? Thanks.
Yes, you can use fresh or frozen equally in these recipes. For veggies like beans, corn or carrots, canned equivalents will be just as good. In the case of peas, you can use them safely, but already canned peas will come out really mushy when you can them again.
I HAVE LOTS OF HAMBURGER CAN I REPLACE THE BEEF CHUNKS WITH HAMBURGER AND HOW MUCH
You can replace the beef chunks with hamburger safely. You must brown the hamberger meat first, as it can’t be loaded into the jars raw. Replace it pound for pound with the beef chuck in this recipe, so in this case, it’d be 2 pounds ground in place of 2 pounds chuck. Don’t forget to brown it though. While you can raw pack beef that’s not ground, when it’s ground it has to be browned before canning so it doesn’t clump in the jars.
Can I use beef stock instead of broth? I feel it has a much better flavor.
New to pressure canning and can’t wait to try this with venison.
Yup, you can use stock or broth interchangeably. Any type really, chicken, beef, pork, veg and either stock or broth. All are fine substitutions.
Would it be dangerous to raw pack the ingredients except for hot beef broth or would it just affect the looks of it? ( floating veggies, etc)
To the best of my knowledge, it’s not a safety thing, but a quality thing. Ball canning has many raw pack meal in a jar recipes in their new canning book, literally dozens, and every single one is a raw pack recipe (for convenience, they say). The thing to watch if you’re raw packing is thermal shock on the jars. You do want the jars to be pre-heated if possible, and the broth to be boiling, but also make sure that the pressure canner is not boiling (just warm, around 140 F). If you put cool ingredients into a very hot canner the jars can break.
I’m wondering with this recipe if you can use clear jell to thicken prior to canning??? I’m going to try this! Sounds delicious! Happy Canning!!
So at this point, that’s a grey area that hasn’t been tested. The answer is probably, and some canning writers do suggest it, but that specific subject hasn’t been tested and clear jel is currently only tested in water bath canning recipes for fruit pie fillings and a few jams.
Ball canning notes in some of their books that you can probably use clear jel to “lightly thicken” broths for pressure canning, but they never specify what “lightly” means or give any specific recipes…because they haven’t actually tested it and they’re just guessing there.
The whole idea behind clear jel is that it transfers heat really well in the jar, so it stands to reason that it would work just fine, but no one can say for sure at this point. That’s one of those “do at your own risk” type things, at least for now.