The Best Classic Shepherd’s Pie – AKA Shepards Pie or Cottage Pie. Ground Beef (or lamb) with vegetables in a rich gravy, topped with cheesy mashed potatoes, and baked.
Shepherd’s Pie
So, this is how you spell it: Shepherd’s Pie. But, from doing a quick google search, it came to my attention that TONS of people think it’s Shepards Pie.
Irish Shepherd’s Pie
Traditional Irish Shepherd’s Pie would actually call for ground lamb. The difference between Shepherd’s Pie and Cottage Pie is the meat. Cottage Pie uses ground beef, while Shepherd’s Pie uses ground lamb.
I called this recipe Shepherd’s Pie. But, I wrote the recipe so that you could use ground beef or ground lamb.
I typically use ground beef because it is widely available. But, for a special occasion, like St. Patricks day, I would use ground lamb.
How To Make Shepherd’s Pie
(Note – The full printable recipe is at the bottom of this post)
- Sauté some chopped onions in olive oil.
- Add ground beef or ground lamb.
- Add dried parsley, dried thyme, dried rosemary, salt, and pepper.
- Stir and cook the meat mixture until the meat is browned.
- Add minced garlic and Worcestershire sauce.
- Cook the garlic for a minute.
- Add flour and tomato paste.
- Add beef broth, frozen mixed peas and carrots, and frozen corn kernels.
- Simmer the meat gravy until it is thick.
- Boil some peeled and chopped potatoes until they are soft.
- Drain the potatoes
- Add butter, half & half, parmesan cheese, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
- Mash the potatoes until smooth.
- Pour the meat mixture into a casserole dish.
- Top it with the cheesy mashed potatoes.
- Bake until the meat is bubbling and the potatoes are golden.
Easy Shepherd’s Pie
Making the best Shepherd’s Pie is not difficult. But, there are a few steps to it. You have to make the meat mixture, the mashed potatoes, assemble the casserole, and bake it.
I find that the easiest way to make this dish is to work ahead. You could make the beef or lamb mixture ahead of time. Or, you could make the mashed potatoes ahead of time.
You could also make the whole recipe ahead of time. Just assemble the casserole, cover the dish, and keep it in the refrigerator until you are ready to bake it. I find it is best to bake it within 3 days of preparing it.
When you are ready to bake it, take it out of the refrigerator for about 20 minutes before you need to bake it to let it start coming to room temperature. Uncover it, and bake.
What to serve with The Best Shepherd’s Pie
- Deviled Eggs
- Roasted Broccoli from Skinnytaste
- The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
Watch the Video for the Best Classic Shepherd’s Pie Below.
Find more of my recipes on TikTok
Best Classic Shepherd’s Pie Recipe
Video
Ingredients
Meat Filling:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup chopped yellow onion
- 1 lb. 90% lean ground beef -or ground lamb
- 2 teaspoons dried parsley leaves
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2 garlic cloves -minced
- 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 cup beef broth
- 1 cup frozen mixed peas & carrots*
- 1/2 cup frozen corn kernels
Potato Topping:
- 1 ½ - 2 lb. russet potatoes -about 2 large potatoes peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter -1 stick
- 1/3 cup half & half
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
Instructions
Make the Meat Filling.
- Add the oil to a large skillet and place it over medium-high heat for 2 minutes. Add the onions. Cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the ground beef (or ground lamb) to the skillet and break it apart with a wooden spoon. Add the parsley, rosemary, thyme, salt, and and pepper. Stir well. Cook for 6-8 minutes, until the meat is browned, stirring occasionally.
- Add the Worcestershire sauce and garlic. Stir to combine. Cook for 1 minute.
- Add the flour and tomato paste. Stir until well incorporated and no clumps of tomato paste remain.
- Add the broth, frozen peas and carrots, and frozen corn. Bring the liquid to a boil then reduce to simmer. Simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Set the meat mixture aside. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Make the potato topping.
- Place the potatoes in a large pot. Cover the potatoes with water. Bring the water to a boil. Reduce to a simmer. Cook until potatoes are fork tender, 10-15 minutes.
- Drain the potatoes in a colander. Return the potatoes to the hot pot. Let the potatoes rest in the hot pot for 1 minute to evaporate any remaining liquid.
- Add butter, half & half, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Mash the potatoes and stir until all the ingredients are mixed together.
- Add the parmesan cheese to the potatoes. Stir until well combined.
Assemble the casserole.
- Pour the meat mixture into a 9x9 (or 7x11) inch baking dish. Spread it out into an even layer. Spoon the mashed potatoes on top of the meat. Carefully spread into an even layer.
- If the baking dish looks very full, place it on a rimmed baking sheet so that the filling doesn’t bubble over into your oven. Bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes.** Cool for 15 minutes before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Check out all of my great ground beef recipes.
Heavenly!!! I usually don’t have much luck with Shepard’s pie but this one was amazing. I shredded the onion in a food processor to make it as small as I could because my toddlers hate onion. My 3 and 4 year olds both asked for seconds! Saving to favorites 🙂 thank you!
Perfect recipe. Thank you!
What temperature should I bake on? I don’t see a temp listed.
Third time I have made this and they keep asking for me to cook it more often. Five stars in my book!!
Cottage pie is made with beef.
Love this dish
I made this recipe last night..glad I tasted before assembling , added a tsp of dijon for a little extra flavor….loved it
I made it exactly as written. Its so annoying and rude when people change the original recipe. It was excellent! Definitely a keeper.
The recipe is amazing. My husband and I loved it. It would be nice it it told you what temp to put the oven at. I did 350° and it seems to take quite a bit longer than indicated.
Family loved it!
Beef is cottage pie, lamb is shepherds pie. Lamb – Sheep… clever.
Can this be put together and frozen to bake later? Making some food for the freezer for my daughter that’s having a baby.
This was so fun to cook. I was easy as well. Thank you my family really loved it!
Was wondering if it could be frozen. I’m trying to make dinners for my mother-in-law so she can heat & eat dinners ready since she can’t cook anymore
Yes i have frozen it before. Prep it up to the Point of adding the potato topping but dont put in oven. Just cover and freeze. You can cook it from frozen too, just extend the cook time (you may also want to drop the oven temp a bit if it starts darkening the top before its heated through.)
I was wondering too!
Yes you can
I am a senior, and troubles making just a small batch so I make the recipe and put into one size meal containers and freeze for a late time.. still delicious
I’m sure it can be easily frozen and reheated at a lower temperature (300?) for 1/2 hour? That’s what I would do.
There’s no reason you can’t freeze this once assembled and cook later. Personally I’d defrost completely before cooking, just to make sure its piping hot throughout before eating, but you could cook at a slightly lower temperature (350°F) for 45 mins from frozen and it should work fine. (Maybe don’t freeze in glass or ceramic if cooking from frozen.)
Tips: if you’ve never used Worcestershire sauce use just a very little amount until you know if you like it or not
If you don’t want to go through the hassle of making mashed potatoes, cook instant potatoes such as Idahoian instead.
I used garlic baby reds and some potatoes.
Corn and green beans can be used for your vegetables as those are more universally liked vegetables compared to peas.
I also used dried potatoes, so easy. I added some shredded cheese and Durkee type crispy onions on top meat mixture before adding the potatoes. Later I added more cheese and onions on top the last 10 minutes. This is a very forgiving recipe where you can uses whatever is in your pantry!
Outstanding No leftovers my first time cooking it!
Excellent Shepherd’s Pie recipe. My family and I loved it. It’s the best recipe for Sheperd’s Pie and it’s really delicious.
I roasted califlower in the oven since we are cutting carbs. I tossed a large head (broken up) with a quarter cup olive oil, the garlic powder and salt and pepper in amount from the recipe. I
pureed that in my Nutribullet with the butter and used whipping cream. I sprinkled the parmesean on top. Other than that I followed the recipe exactly except for the Thyme. I used ground Thyme and having read an earlier post, I used half a tsp.
This was so good! I made it as it’s written and it will be my go-to Shepherd’s Pie recipe from now on. My husband loves Shepherd’s Pie (he’s 1/4 Irish) and he practically licked the plate! Thank you!
So delicious! Made with ground chicken and it was amazing.