Smoked Whitetail Roast Pot Pie with Carrots and Thyme

Pot pie is a serious answer for roast, not a leftover afterthought. Smoke or roast the venison until it has real depth, fold it into a thyme gravy with carrots, and cap it with pastry that bakes into a bronzed dome.

2 pounds whitetail roast
3 carrots
1 onion
3 thyme sprigs
2 garlic cloves
1 package puff pastry or pie dough
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups stock
Butter
Salt
Black pepper

Cook or smoke the roast until just tender, then cube or shred it.
Build a gravy with onion, carrot, garlic, thyme, butter, flour, and stock.
Fold the venison into the gravy and transfer it to a baking dish.
Top with pastry, vent it, and bake until deeply golden.
Rest briefly before serving so the filling thickens.

Bake in a cast-iron skillet if you want the bottom crust to stay crisper when reheated.