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.
Great recipe but my potato topping was only a half inch thick and the picture made it look at least 2 inches thick.. Followed the directions per badem.
Hands down the best! Perfect recipe! I did add a tablespoon of wine and did not use cheese. So very good!! Thank you!!!!
The best shepherds pie I ever cooked everyone loved it and was going for second plate .
I made this tonight…but doubled the Recipe. It was Amazing! My kids like a little bit of kick or spice to each meal. So I sprinkled Cayenne pepper over the first potato mixture and I had to add 3 more potatoes and butter , cheese etc on top because I needed more to cover the meat and veggies. The gravy was amazing! Thanks so much!
This was the best shepherds pie i have ever eaten! Thanks for the great recipe!
Cook it before freezing it?
Would it be okay to use yellow potatoes instead of russet potatoes?
Trying to avoid driving in the wintery weather to the grocery store haha.
Thank you!!
Absolutely delicious
Hearty and comforting
The ground beef was tasty and the mash potato had it’s own taste harmonizing each other
No leftovers….
Yummy
So good! My Husband super loved it!
This is now my goto SP recipe. It’s utterly delicious!
This turned out amazing, everything was spot on only added a tiny bit of chilli powder to the mince for a kick but everything else was great. Went down a treat thank you!
It is good.
I’ve made this vegetarian by substituting diced baby Bella mushrooms for the meat. Fabulous results!
This was delicious. Didn’t have any tomato paste so used drained garlic and olive oil tomato bits and put them in the food processor and used the liquid with beef bouillon for the broth. A variation my mom would make when I was little was to use a taco seasoning packet with the meat portion and top with a jiffy cornbread mix or two and add cheddar cheese in top of that the last ten minutes of baking. Yum.
Can i use fresh carrots and peas, and canned corn? all i have in the house right now.. should i blanch the carrots, before
Delicious, I used ground turkey and chicken broth; still came out great and I have leftovers for lunch tomorrow!! Thank you!!!
Recipe was great. If you want to use fresher veggies like asparagus, orange pepper, carrots, brussel sprouts, etc.. dice them into quarter inch pieces and add them after onions sauteed a minute, but before the meat.
Then continue following recipe.
I didn’t put parmesan in mashed potatoes, but cooked and extra potato for a thicker mashed potatoes topper
I am making this for families at church that have been going through some hardships. Can it be frozen? Also, I am planning to freeze in 2 serving increments – any suggestions on how long it would need to bake from frozen?
Made it exactly as posted. Absolutely loved it!
I’ve been making sp for years this is even better than my dads. Next time and there will be a next time I’m adding mushrooms. Thanks for posting this recipe
This was delicious!!! Just the kind of comfort food I was craving. Question: I have so much left over, can I freeze this? Not sure how the masked potatoes will do frozen?