by EMILY TEEL photos CARSON DOWNING food styling KELSEY MOYLAN
RECIPES BY: ERIN JEANNE Mc DOWELL
Even the pastry-averse can make a pie by using burrito-size flour tortillas stacked with gooey layers of chicken, beans, and Jack cheese. You can add toppings to the pie before slicing it, but Erin likes to put out a selection of sour cream, salsa, cilantro, chopped tomatoes, and sliced jalapeños so everyone can customize their slice.
A whole meatball sub is a two-handed commitment, so Erin wanted to pie-ify and miniaturize the classic sandwich. She uses pizza dough divided in a muffin pan for the crust. Each little tart contains a meatball bathed in sweet marinara sauce with melty mozzarella on top. It has all the flavor of the original in a three-bite package.
Erin’s quiche takes inspiration from the classic salad. Diced chicken, bacon, and blue cheese flavor the tender egg custard base. She tosses the rest of the essential elements—chopped lettuce, tomatoes, and avocado—in a red wine vinaigrette and piles them generously on top.
“I ADORE ANYTHING IN A CRUST—IT GIVES THE MOST AMAZING TEXTURAL CONTRAST AS YOU WORK YOUR WAY THROUGH A SLICE.”
—ERIN JEANNE McDOWELL
Erin is from Lawrence, KS, and now resides in Kansas City, MO, where barbecue is a way of life. To fill a BBQ pie fit to feed a crowd, she souses pulled pork with a ketchup-base sauce. Instead of placing pastry on top, she crowns the whole thing with garlic-cheddar drop biscuits, almost like a savory cobbler. Pastry made using hot water—which Americans might know from watching pie-week episodes of The Great British Baking Show— is sturdy enough to support the juicy filling. It’s a cultural mash-up of a British meat pie with American flavor.
PORTRAIT: MARK WEINBERG