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.
I made this with Ground Lamb, and it was delicious. The only thing I did different was, I put buttered Panko on top of the mashed potatoes and covered it for the first part of baking so the Panko wouldn’t burn. It was so Good!
Delicious ! I made it 2 weeks in a row!
I love this recipe! So easy to follow and adaptable to what you have on hand :). I have made this recipe many times and don’t even look for another one because this is so good!! Thank you!
Praise the LORD 😊🙌🏽🤍.
Best best shepherd pie ever…from South Africa…my husband and children loved loved it…we ALL did the 3 x Schnauzers as well….
This recipe was excellent. Loved the flavors. Will make this again.
This truly was the best Shepards pie recipe! I followed it as best I could, but instead of bone broth, I used 1/2 cup powdered gravy in 1 cup hot water. Then I decided to add a tender-flake pastry on the bottom (I used half a pack rolled out super thin) and topped the pie with marble cheese! These two things really levelled up the pie!
Franks hot sauce on top garnished with cilantro and chives
100 percent a keeper 🙂
Is very nice yes 👍
So delicious. I made it for my family and they are picky eaters but they ate it all!! Thank you so much for a quick easy meal idea.
My wife does not like Sheppard pie, chicken pot pie etc; however, we had a lot of leftover mashed potatoes from a family dinner. I used the leftover mashed potatoes and ground turkey with your recipe and we have a convert. My wife loved it!
Thank you.
This was one of the best shepherds pie recipes I have ever made and tasted. Very subtle in flavors. I used fresh herbs. And didn’t have parley. Lamb was mild and gentle. Potatoes were soft and fluffy and I didn’t measure but added with my heart. This was wonderful and I will make again. I did add about 1/4 c more beef broth as I found it was a bit dry and added more peas and carrots instead so corn as well and over all really lovely lovely dish my family gravely enjoyed. Served with soft, fresh buttered rolls and it was perfection.
My 8 year-old and I made this last night. Prior to this, I could never get him to eat mashed potatoes (not kidding!). We both loved it. One note. I used fresh rosemary instead of dried. Made for an exceptional flavor.
As someone who always feels a need to alter a recipe for personal taste, this is one of the few times it was absolutely not needed! I made this recipe for the first time today and it was a breeze while still ending up utterly perfect!! Can’t wait to make it again and double it to give one away – truly a great recipe for a wonderful comfort meal!
Just made this for the first time and have a few suggestions. I found it a bit tomatoey so would cut down on tomato paste and halve the rosemary and thyme as they’re quite strong, also, would recommend draining the grease from the ground beef after frying. Even using lean beef there was pools of fat in the finished product. Hope this helps!
Made with lamb. I used 1tsp extra of each herb as I prefer more flavour and it was lovely! Great recipe
Made this for my family. Replaced Worcestershire with balsamic and it still turned out great!
Can we assemble it and put it in the freezer, then thaw and throw in the oven at 400?
Quick,simple to the point kind of recipe. Flavors blended just right.
I made this as a “Welcome Home” meal for my boyfriend and we loved it so much! It was my first time trying this recipe and it gave me so many ideas of how to kick it up a few notches in the future! But as far as this try, I stuck very close to the original. The only things I replaced was the type of meat and an herb, where I used ground turkey instead of ground beef or lamb (this is one of the things I’ll definitely make sure to stick to, I can imagine the flavor with lamb). I also used oregano instead of thyme as it was the one herb that wasn’t available fresh OR dried at my local HEB and Siri suggested it as the next best thing. I cut the corn altogether as I felt there would be just the amount of sweetness that we prefer with the peas and carrots. Everything else I did to the tee, and it turned out beautiful!
Amazing! Made it without tweaking a thing! Perfect!!!
We really enjoyed this recipe. Like others that commented, I drained the ground beef & onion mixture in a colander to get rid of excess fat fat. I had some leftover mashed potatoes and made some more and mixed them together. I didn’t use half and half in the potatoes but a combo of low fat milk and low fat sour cream and less butter. I loved the addition of Parmesan cheese, it really complemented the dish. I also used a frozen vegetable mix of carrots, corn, peas and green beans, using 3/4 cup… Yummy 😋
Thanks for sharing.
I follow your recipe but little adjust it little bit according to Malaysian tastebud. I love it so much.