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.
We love this recipe! I make it often and use ground lamb and ground beef. It is perfect every time! Great recipe.
If you cook the meat in a 10 inch cast iron skillet, you can just put the mashed potatoes on top and put it in the oven instead of using a casserole pan.
Great recipe! I make this all the time. Lamb is hard to find where I live, but sometimes I use venison instead of beef and it’s great. I also put a clove or garlic or two in with the potatoes when they’re boiling and mash them together instead of using garlic powder. I also like to use fresh carrots instead of frozen.
I need to double or triple the recipe for a group of hungry Irishman… is a 9×13 casserole big enough for a tripled recipe or should I use a lasagna dish?
We are not fond of thyme. I cut back to 1/2 tsp.
I’m trying new and different recipes for my family, but mainly my F-I-L. Years ago, he had 90% of his stomach removed d/t cancer and the chemo ruined his taste buds. Getting him to eat anything is very difficult. Well, thankfully, I found this recipe for Shepherds Pie, and decided to give it to go. I’m not super-coordinated in the kitchen so it took me a while to prepare all the ingredients. The recipe was easy to follow until you looked at the quantity of butter to use. For 1 recipe, it noted 8T – 1 STICK of butter. Doubled recipe noted 16T – 1 STICK of – butter. And the Tripled amount stated 24T – 1STICK of butter. Irregardless, this was the largest portion of anything that he’d eaten at one time in about 4 days.
Made this tonight following recipe exactly & it is amazing! I did add 1/4 cup of Merlot wine after blending in tomato paste. Going in the rotation. Thank you for sharing!
So flavorful! By far my favorite shepherd’s pie recipe!!
I’ve made this several times and LOVE it! I wanted to make it for St. Patty’s Day and wondered about adding a little bit of Guinness beer to change it up for the occasion. Wondering if anyone has tried adding that to the existing recipe, and if so, what the amount might be?
Best recipe ever! So many flavours! A keeper!
I just took the Shepard Pie out of oven & tried a fork-full. OMG… so delicious. The meat & veggie has a perfect taste. This recipe will go into my cooking file under Dinner👍
Absolutely delicious!!! I substitute two packages of instant mashed potatoes for the topping, one package parmesan cheese and one package garlic.
My son shared this recipe with me. Truly the best Shepherd’s Pie recipe anywhere. I use ground beef or ground venison. Delicious!
Made tonight for dinner and we really enjoyed it. The flavors were balanced.Great recipe!
Excellent! A family favorite. I use instant mashed potatoes at times to shorten time to create it
This is the best. Easy, read through the directions measure everything ahead then goes together so nicely. Made this many times.
I scaled the recipe for a big community dinner feeding 70 people. It turned out GREAT and was a really inexpensive way to feed such a big crowd. I added in fresh rosemary and thyme to the herb mixture and cut back on the tomato paste (personal preference). The ground meat I used was 85% – 88%. My group added the link to the recipe in the community newsletter
This is an excellent recipe. It reminds me of what my Irish-American grandmother made when I was a kid. I chose to add an extra half cup of peas in lieu of the corn and used homemade chicken bone stock instead of beef broth. I was very happy with the way the recipe turned out. Thank you for publishing it.
I have made Shepard’s Pie many times with different recipes. This one is very flavorful. The rosemary and thyme really give the meat mixture that extra something that is missing on most recipes. The addition of the garlic and cheese to the mashed potatoes also gives them an extra pop of flavor! Since my husband also liked this version, I printed the recipe for future use! It’s a definite keeper! I also liked the notes about make either the meat mixture, potatoes or both ahead of time. That would certainly make the dish come together more quickly for a weeknight dinner! I will give that a try next time!
I loved this recipe. I’ve been looking high and low for a shepherds pie recipe we all enjoyed. I made a batch yesterday for my family it was all finished up. Made another batch today for placing in tin foil containers and freezing them for those days when I don’t feel like cooking. Thanks.