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 boiled some fresh carrots in with the potatoes. Then pulled them out to cool with a slotted spoon and diced.
I did not add oil to the meat. It had enough.
I used wine and unsalted corn juice for beef broth.
Instead of one cup of butter, I subbed in a half of avocado oil with half the butter.
Skipped the additions to the mashed potatoes and only used 2% milk.
Topped with cheddar.
I had 25 college students coming over for a meeting, so I tripled this recipe and also made a large chicken pot pie. This Shepherd’s Pie was a huge hit; there was nothing left over! Everyone raved over how delicious it was.
My daughter requested a Shepherd’s Pie and I made this recipe because of all the fantastic reviews it received. She told me that this dinner was exactly what she wanted, I shouldn’t change a thing, and she could have eaten the whole meal all by herself. Her boyfriend, who puts hot sauce on everything, didn’t add anything to his dinner. This was high praise indeed.
This is #1 in my book!
OMG! I just made this and it is outstanding! The only thing different that I did was add a teaspoon of smoked paprika and I used Bob Evans mashed potatoes from the refrigerator section to save time. I am so happy I found this recipe. Just delicious and easy to make. Talk about comfort food!
Very good 👍
My family LOVED this recipe. The only thing I did different was use 3 lbs of potatoes, which was a lot, but really stretched out my servings. I’ll be adding this to the rotation!
Love this recipe❤️
I’m 20 and I’ve been wanting to learn to cook foods that… aren’t just cheeseburgers and sandwiches lol. This was really, really easy to make– and I say that as someone who once genuinely messed up cooking pasta. It ended up really good! It’s very filling, I like that it’s not too many calories, and now I have a recipe that leaves me feeling like a real human person and not a grease gremlin lol. The only thing I would do differently next time is add more seasoning, I definitely don’t think I used enough (and also just personally I really like a lot of flavor and spice), but even still it was really good. Thank you!
Sooo good!
Absolutely delicious! Definitely will become a regular dish in our home 🙂
My family LOVED this recipe. They said it was the best Shepherd’s Pie I have ever made. Thank you for the yummy recipe. A new go to recipe.
I had some leftover mashed red potatoes that I used to make this. I had ground turkey ready, and used that for the meat. I didn’t have frozen peas and carrots, but did have frozen peas, so I diced up a small carrot and cooked that with the onions in the beginning. I followed the recipe otherwise and it is going in my “keep!” file. It was delicious!!!
I recommend having everything pre-measured and ready to throw in as you cook, since this recipe goes quickly when cooking the meat and veggies.
AMAZING !! this is the best shepherd’s pie recipe I have ever tried ! Definitely a keeper..
Flavorful not bland !! Used hamburger ! I used frozen mixed veggies. I will definitely be sharing this recipe !
I’ve made this recipe exactly as written twice now. It’s perfect as is. Wouldn’t change a thing!
I substituted beyond burger. It is delicious. Didn’t alter the recipe in any way.
Reminds me of all the casseroles we ate growing up.
This recipe is the best for cottage pie. I served it tonight for dinner with friends. It disappeared so fast. Everyone said they loved it.
I was recently diagnosed with Kidney Disease so red meat is kinda out, plus not a fan of lamb 😂. With that being said, I made this recipe using ground turkey. I used the turkey bones to make the broth for the gravy and I omitted the Worcestershire sauce and the tomato paste. I used mashed cauliflower instead of mashed potatoes for the top but followed the recipe with those exceptions. It turned out really good. Using mashed cauliflower doesn’t hold up as well as mashed potatoes but never the less turned out great!!!
I could tell this was going to be good by looking at it so I doubled it. Best Ever Shepherd’s Pie. I had fresh carrots on hand and frozen peas so I added the carrots to the onion to pre cook them. I also changed out the olive oil for Wagyu Beef tallow, This gave the ground beef a rich prime rib flavor. My wife said this is the best Cottage Pie she (and I ) ever had. Not the boring bland stuff we got when we were growing up in the 70’s
I made this variation and it was pretty good