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.
Quickly became one of our go to favorites. Awesome flavor and texture but easy and fast to prepare.
This was my first time ever eating shepherd’s pie. I’ve heard of it before but had never actually tried it (I was actually watching “Caught” on Netflix and one of the characters in it is making shepherd’s pie and I thought that all the ingredients she was using looked good so I decided to give it a whirl lol). This recipe is so very flavorful and so very delicious! I followed the recipe almost entirely to a T and I used lamb in mine. I’ve actually never had lamb before either until now but I’m glad I finally tried it because it sure is yummy! I think I used a little bit more than a cup of diced onions in mine as the little cup of pre-diced onions that I bought said 8 ounces on it and most websites I ran across say a cup of diced onions is usually anywhere from 4.5-5 ounces. I also used store-bought pre-minced garlic in a jar and used parsley flakes, crushed rosemary, and ground thyme in mine; otherwise, followed the recipe almost entirely as it is written. I was not disappointed at all! I did have to add some salt to mine and I think next time I’ll add more mashed potatoes on top of mine, but this recipe is a keeper and I’ll definitely be using it again in the future. Thank you so much for sharing!
I’ve made this dish for over five decades … this recipe BY FAR was the best and has replaced my favorite go to now!
Lovely recipe! Thanks for sharing it, my boyfriend loved it, he filled his plate 3 times 🙂
I loathe shepherd’s pie. I have actively gone out of my way to avoid eating it for years. Meat and veggies all mingling together in their weird little juice swamp? No thank you.
But THIS. This right here? This shepherd’s pie made me eat my words (and then seconds). I don’t know what kind of witchcraft was involved, but somehow it’s not only edible, it is downright delicious.
If you can convert me, the lifelong shepherd’s pie hater, you deserve all the stars. And possibly a Nobel Prize.
I used ground bison and yukon gold potatoes because that’s what we had on hand, and topped it with fresh chives. Definitely a great shepherd’s pie recipe.
A friend brought this to me after surgery. Perfect combination of flavor & comfort. This will be on a regular rotation at our house.
We JUST finished dinner, and I want you to know how much we enjoyed it! It was the perfect balance of flavors. I had leftover colcannon, so I got to skip making mashed potatoes today, and although I love Parmesan cheese, I thought the potatoes were rich enough without the cheese, and they still browned nicely. I am not a huge lamb fan, so I used ground beef. The grocery store I went to had bags of peas, carrots, corn, and green beans, which worked for me, and I will use the rest of it in a soup this fall. An added bonus – while the pie was baking, I took the dog for a 20 minute walk, came home, loaded the dishwasher and cleaned up the kitchen while it cooled. Score! I will definitely make this again!
Made this exactly as written. My family devoured it in less than 30 minutes! Thank you, it’s a keeper!
This was delicious! I had to make one change though. I accidently defrosted ground pork instead of beef. I followed the recipe as written from there on. It was a two thumbs up from my family.
5stars
Perfect. Used deer meat and it came out great.
This is the best ever! Guests rave about it.
Love it. Best life decision I have ever made. It’s to DIE for.
This recipe is eazy to make and pretty delicious if you ask my family of 6. However, I did tweak it a little. I add garlic powder and onion powder and package idaho garlic potatoes to make it a little easier as well as cut time. Other than that I did it exactly the way it calls for. You won’t be disappointed. Enjoy 😋
I made this with half ground venison and half beef, steamed some fresh diced carrots and peas for a few minutes and used fresh herbs. Why? Because I have a garden! I also used fresh roasted garlic in my mashed potatoes. Delicious!
Very good! And very easy to make!
I will make again
Delicious! I used Bob Evans mashed potatoes to save time and was really good! Just mixed the parm cheese in!
This is so good and easy! I added some beef base with the beef broth and it added so much flavor. Other than that, I made it exactly as the recipe calls for and will be making it again soon to freeze and have for future meals.
This is delicious ! The beef broth and worchester sauce and tomato paste help to brighten the flavor of the meat.