King Charles III's All-Time Favorite Meal Sounds As Posh As You'd Expect

Americans have long had a fascination with all things related to the British royal family. Some of that may come down to the trappings of life being slightly familiar, yet quite different on the other side of the pond. While these differences dapple everything from fashion to food, there are certainly British dishes that, even just in name, sound exceedingly rarified. Case in point: pheasant crumble pie, the dish that comes up tops for King Charles III.

Meat pies are a category to themselves in Great Britain, where they have a long history of being eaten by people of every class, from peasants to kings and queens. Some of these savory meal centerpieces are encased in pastry, such as a decadent, top drawer beef Wellington, and some are more humble with toppings, such as potatoes in the case of shepherd's pie. King Charles III's favorite is a layered concoction studded with buttered breadcrumbs, herbs, Parmesan, and crumbled bacon, which is then baked to perfection. Pheasant, a lean gamebird that's fairly abundant and readily hunted in the English countryside, may be unfamiliar to Americans, and is part of what makes the dish sound so regal.

While pheasant crumble pie is not terrifically complex to pull off, it does lean into a luxury feel thanks to the thick, creamy, roux-based sauce that coats the delicately poached pheasant. While it sounds quite upper crust due to its unique protein and name, it may ring familiar in taste and preparation to many as a more elevated take on an old-school chicken casserole. If you swap out pheasant with more mild-tasting and higher-fat chicken, replace the homemade roux with a condensed soup-based sauce, and assemble in a larger dish as opposed to an individual serving, you're basically looking at a well-known Southern picnic staple.

If you want to try another surprisingly accessible royal shredded poultry dish, give coronation chicken a whirl. This dish was made popular when King Charles III's mother, Queen Elizabeth II, ascended to the throne. It's essentially a zhuzhed up chicken salad with surprising notes of curry and flecked with golden raisins and sliced almonds. If you'd like to eat like King Charles III does early in the day instead, you could demand your morning eggs be boiled for exactly four minutes to ensure a perfectly runny yolk, just like His Majesty.