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.
This is the BEST Shepherd’s Pie recipe! Fast easy and full of flavor. My husband requests this all the time. Have made it more times than I can count, always perfect!
Best shepherd’s pie yet! I will admit I threw in a splash of red wine at the end…….had to……..lol!
did that splash make it into the dish… or did you bypass the pie entirely and chug it down? 🙂
Actually, sounds like it might have kicked it up a notch…. did it work?
Doug
This was super delicious. My fiancé even asked for seconds and hes super picky. I normally do my own seasonings but i did put some of the seasonings in the recipe as well as my own. I also used ground beef and one can of hash ong it was delicious. I only used corn cause like i said hes picky he only likes corn. I didnt have tomato paste so i used ketchup. I will definitely make this again.
Same added just the right touch
So, the grease is not drained off from the ground beef? None of it? Do you use 95% lean ground beef? Or did you forget to mention you drained it off? This is confusing to me! I can’t imagine it.
The Flour absorbs or absorbed into the grease, turning it into roux, which makes gravy when combined with the broth. While a traditional/uppity recipe would probably have you remove the meat and add it back once the flour cooked off, this one simplifies the process since the difference it would make can’t be very much. If there is a lot of grease, you’d probably want to drain some or add more flour for more gravy, depending on preference.
The grease stays in because you’re essentially trying to make a gravy in the meat mixture. I also add about a tablespoon of cornstarch at the end of mixing it to thicken it up a bit more. So yeah, no draining. I’ve used 80% lean lamb and 95% lean beef for the recipe. Both were very good. Hopefully you’ll get this comment, but maybe it could help someone else if you don’t.
Fat is needed to make a roux when you add the flour. The roux thickens the sauce/gravy and the fat adds FLAVOR.
Everything you asked is in the recipe. Follow the recipe and it’s perfect.
There isn’t much grease. You need some fat in the pan to make a roux when you add the flour. Roux is equal parts fat and flour. The roux makes the sauce/gravy thicken, otherwise the meat sauce is too watery.
I use lean ground beef but not ultra lean. You shouldn’t drain the meat as it has most of the flavour in the juice. Also the juices get thickened a bit by the end. It’s supposed to be juicy. I bake it at 375 though so it won’t dry out.
It’s not a low calorie meal. But a fab family meal. I just eat a smaller portion.
You can experiment with the veggies too. I used only canned corn the second time. And it’s still great)
I think the extra fat it is meant to be mixed with the flour and tomato paste to make a gravy. I used 85% and it was super yummy.
I use 93% lean ground beef, omit the olive oil, and do not drain. It’s not greasy at all.
If you don’t leave the grease in it’ll be way too thick to form a good gravy. You could probably drain it and add some butter (or water for a lower-fat version) but it will change the taste some as you’ll be losing the onion juices. Maybe instead of butter or water you could try adding 1/2 cup extra beef broth before you add the tomato paste and flour.
Personally we used ground chuck and didn’t drain it and it was delicious.
I used ground chicken, and drained it! Adding the broth later I found gave it the perfect moisture mixture I needed. No extra grease? But…I new at this cooking thing! BTW…It was AMAZING! 5 STARS,
I threw this together for my 84 yr old parents, they absolutely loved it!! It smelled delicious when I was preparing it!
Just made this recipe tonight and it was so delicious and not too hard either! Will definitely be saving this to make again! Thanks.
At what temperature should I bake it? Not listed in the recipe.
In the middle of the instructions before you get to start making the potatoes it says to preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. I nearly missed it too.
YES!!
This was amazing, I made a vegan option and it was just so full of flavor! Thank you!
When u made it vegan…what did u do different or add instead of using meat
Deicious. Thanks for creating and sharing this.
We never get all 5 people in the house to agree about a single dish. Everyone gave this 5 stars.
Finally found a recipe that lived up to my super high expectations! I’ve been cooking and baking like crazy all of 2020 and this is by far my favorite recipe of the year. I think the herbs in the meat mixture really made this dish (especially the rosemary). To think I ALMOST made a different recipe with far fewer ingredients – what a tragedy that would have been! Cannot recommend enough.
You have. amazing recipes! This is easy and tastes GREAT. I also like all of the suggestions in the comments above :). I put in snap peas , celery, grated carrots, corn and a bag of asian salad mix that needed to be used up. I also added one sweet potato to the potato topping and it was yummy. Thank you!
Asian salad mix
Great idea
This was delicious! I used ground moose since that is what I have and ended up forgetting the garlic powder in the potato topping, but even my skeptical daughter said it was delicious and we’re all happy there are leftovers! Thank you for a fantastic recipe!
I’m thinking about using ground venison instead of the beef or lamb, do you think this would be good?
Yes! Venison also goes very well with this recipe. I add a pat of butter when the venison is browned right before adding the flour. This helps make a slight “gravy” for your shepherd’s pie. Otherwise, everything else is the same.
I’m also thinking about ground venison. I do think it definitely could be good.
I made this for dinner tonight with elk and it was amazing!!!
I have made it with deer meat was in my opinion better with it
I did this tonight it is delicious. Best use of ground venison I’ve found yet.
You could use it with any good meat. If you want the venison meat flavor to shine through, use vegetable stock instead of beef stock. I did a leg of lamb for New Year’s and used the leftover meat chopped up in it, just added it later so as not to overcook. I would love to do this with venison! Comfort food for sure!
Yes! I used this recipe and substituted the ground beef with ground venison. In my opinion, it was better! So delicious!
This recipe is delicious and comforting! The whole family loved it! I will definitely be making this again.
Made this for dinner tonight…..I used ground lamb and it was delicious..!!!
I thought I’d be clever and mix the flour and tomato paste together thinking it
would mix in easier…wrong….it took ages to mix it in and it left a lot of small red
clumps that I just couldn’t get to dissolve…it was okay, you didn’t notice them when
eating. This recipe is definitely a keeper…
To mix the tomato paste and flour together, use a handheld blender and blitz into broth. No lumps.
Excellent Shepherd’s Pie. Easy to prepare. For my personal taste I cut back on the rosemary and thyme as they burn my throat.
Awesome recipe. I tweaked it a little, and it’s amazing. However, it is not a 20 min. prep time unless you’re Martha Stewart.
I knew I had a twin 😉
Triplets! I was thinking, “who can do this in 20 minutes?”, so I’m glad I came across these comments! 😊
Very easy to follow recipe and flavorful. My husband said it tastes too tomatoey but the second night it tasted better
It also took me over an hour in total to prep and cook. It is so delicious but I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who is slow in the kitchen, LOL
Absolutely delicious, and easy to make! This is a great classic Shepherd’s Pie recipe that’ll surely send you to “flavortown”! Ingredient proportions are perfect! I used ground lamb and doubled the recipe for four of us, and we had plenty of left-overs. This will definitely be a comfort food staple in my house!
I made this for dinner last weekend and it tasted amazing! I had never had shepherd’s pie before but my husband, who had spent some of his childhood years in the UK, had a craving for it all of the sudden (after so many years) and I’m happy to say that he loved it too and said that this tasted just like the ones he used to have back in the day! Thank you for sharing this delicious recipe!
This was easy to make and absolutely delicious.
It was ***** five ⭐️ I added guy-ere (so?) chives and Panko towards the end. Great recipe!
absolutely delicious! be careful not to eat too much. I didn’t have tomato paste so I used mild salsa 3T and a couple T of spaghetti sauce.
Absolutely delicious! Thank you!