The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 9 plus 4 letter word SHEPHERDS PIES
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
S
H
E
P
H
E
R
D
S
P
I
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S
More clues leading to the result SHEPHERDS PIES
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "meat dishes" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case meat dishes = shepherds pies.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.