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.
Soooo good! Made this tonight with half lamb and half beef plus the leftover mashed potatoes from Christmas dinner. I doubled the recipe and added a small can of mushrooms as well as some added pearl onions. Unbelievable good! Thank you!
This recipe is fantastic as it is written above but I’ve made a few adjustments for anyone interested.
1) instead of doing a full cup of beef stock, I use 1/2 cup beef stock, and 1/2 cup red wine.
2) I like the gravy to be thicker in the meat mixture, so at the end of cooking on the stove I add a tablespoon of cornstarch.
3) In the potatoes I don’t use half and half. I use 1/4 cup sour cream and 1/4 cup cream cheese. I also added chives last time and that was very good.
Very good! I didn’t use all of the butter in the potatoes. Maybe 2 T is plenty. I added FF sour cream instead.. I used ground turkey and canned peas and carrots and didn’t cook them first. This is a keeper and will serve on St. Patrick’s Day! Also used Chicken broth since that is what I had. Lovely seasonings! Thank you!
This recipe has become a go-to for me! I’ve made it 4 times now, and we are going to enjoy it again tonight for Christmas Eve dinner. Thank you for posting this wonderful recipe! Merry Christmas, and here’s hoping 2021 is better = )
Looks good, if I want it dairy free and more calorie friendly, can I omit the butter, cream and cheese?
The BEST shepherd’s pie I’ve ever had!!
Could I use ground turkey instead of red meat?
Great
Very delicious! It helps that there is a stick of butter in the potatoes, how can it not be good, haha. Added this to my recipe book and will be making again.
This was easy and delicious!! Made it a few weeks ago and the entire family loved it! Making it for the second time today. I am lucky to have lamb broth so I use that instead of the beef broth and I left a little bit of the fat in for flavour, rather than drain it all off. This one is a keeper!
Can you use a mixture of beef and pork?
82 year old guy.. Never cooked a meal with a recipe. Followed the recipe. With ground beef. SCORED. Thanks a lot.
How would you go about with fresh carrots and canned corn niblets?
Hi Brad – the first time I made this, I had fresh baby carrots, that I ended up cutting up, covering with water in a microwave safe bowl, and microwaving for 4 minutes to soften them. Then I drained off the water, and added them into my meat mixture with frozen peas and a can of drained corn. It turned out well, so I hope that is helpful to you. I made it again tonight, but this time I had frozen veggies.
I used canned corn and fresh carrots and the recipe still worked great as-is!
I used fresh carrots. Sautéed them with the onions. It adds so much flavor with the fresh carrots. I still do use frozen peas and corn.
I’m sure you already made it, but just cook the carrots first with the onions – slice very thinly and sauté. For ease of preparation, I bought a frozen bag of mixed veggies at Aldi’s for 85 cents. You can pick out the beans if you want but it’s all about what you have. No recipe is in stone. Good luck!
Made this for dinner today. Followed direction exactly and it was delicious. Prep was a little long but so worth it. Thanks for this husband pleasing recipe.
I added fresh carrots along with the onions to give them plenty of time to soften. It turned out great!
Hello there, could anyone tell me what half&half is, I m a dutchy and here it means minced meat half pork and half beef, is it cream of some sorts?
Thanks
Half and half in the potato topping is a dairy product. I use to use it in my coffee but had to cut down on my cholesterol! Much like heavy cream, half-and-half is a dairy product. It’s made by combining equal parts cream and whole milk, resulting in a product that’s thinner and lower in fat than heavy cream. It also has a much lighter taste and can be useful in many types of recipes.
The rosemary, thyme, tomato paste and Worcestershire sauce were a bit overwhelming. I’ll cut back on that next time. Also my pie wouldn’t set very well. I’m thinking I need to set the oven rack higher. The prep time was a bit long but it was first time so next time I’ll get better!
Super easy and delicious. The only changes I made was using fresh herbs and carrots (sauteed with the onion), yukon gold potatoes, and half the garlic/garlic powder. The golds worked fine but next time I think I could cut down on a little (nothing crazy) of the butter and half and half – very rich and buttery tasting. Served with sauteed green beans & shallots.
Instead of flour I used a pack of McCormick gravy to thicken it works great
Just made this for the second time, following the recipe exactly. It’s becoming a staple for my family. It’s wonderful comfort food that my 4 year old even loves (which is such a relief)
Yummers. Will try ground turkey next time!
This is such a great recipe, which I will now become one of my go to’s!
Easy to make and very tasty.