A true winter classic main dish filled with well-seasoned minced ground beef, and veggies, then topped with the creamiest fluffiest cheesiest mashed potatoes known to man. This might truly be a top 5 Shepherd’s Pie recipe if not the World’s Best!
This hearty comfort classic will surely impress your Grandma! It might not be her Shepherd’s pie but it will surely put a smile on her face and anyone else who tries it so if you’re looking for a good easy Shepherd’s Pie Recipe, this is the one yo!
What makes this a good recipe?
- It’s easy to make: Shepherd’s pie is just potatoes and ground meat. All you do is boil ya potatoes, brown ya meat, season both, and combine them then give them a little oven time and BAM you’re done! Not hard right?
- It has everything you need: You get everything in one bite with Shepherd’s pie! Ya veggies, protein, and carbs… can’t beat that right? Unless you’re trying to lose weight and stay away from carbs!!!
- It stretches: It can feed a lot of people because it stretches and it can last for a while because with how it’s made you can feed quite a few people.
- Kid and elder-friendly: This is the perfect dish to make if you’re making dinner for yourself and very young and old individuals because it literally melts in your mouth. And what kid doesn’t like mashed potatoes meat and veggies?
They mix their food together like a KFC bowl anyway. Hahaha! And as far as older folks go, this is like meatloaf, a top 3 old folks dish.
If you don’t know what to make for Grandma or Grandpa, make them some Shepherd’s Pie, they’ll love you for it. - It’s a great comfort food: Shepherd’s pie is perfect for cold winter nights. If you’re looking for a dish that comforts, warms, and fills you up, this is it!
Shepherd’s Pie Video
I have some good news yall! Guess what? I have a video on how to make this dish for my visual learners out there! This video became one of my most viewed YouTube videos on my cooking @phillyboyjaycookingshow2.0 channel back in 2016!
I do some things differently now but I cook it the same way for the most part and watching the video may give you a better understanding of how it’s done if for any reason you don’t understand the instructions.
My first Shepherd’s pie
Speaking of that classic YouTube video of mine, did yall know that was my very first time making it? I didn’t even experiment with it or test the dish which is what I do now obviously before posting my recipes.
But that was in 2016 the year I started this website, right before I started creating recipes and would just show folks how to make dishes without giving detailed instructions like measurements and cooking time. Lol!
But yea, someone asked me if I could show them how I make it and if I even knew what it was. I didn’t but my fans still requested that I do a video tutorial making it because they wanted to see my rendition or version of it.
Why? Because I’m known for cooking things in a unique way and putting my own spin on it. So I searched the dish on Google, and knew right from the jump how I was gonna spice it up and make it.
I gathered all the ingredients, most of which I already had in the frig, and turned on the camera and went to work, and BAM, 7 million views and 4k comments later, it’s still one of my biggest videos and fan favorites.
I think it’s not just because of how good it is but because it’s a dish that as I said earlier, kids, old folks, and people of all ages can enjoy and get with. So yea, this was definitely one of them dishes I got lucky with and didn’t have to test a thousand times before getting it right. Haha!
2024 updated version of this recipe
Now as I said, when I did that 2016 video on this dish, it was the first time I made it so I never experimented with it before so there were obviously some changes that I made to it over the years.
One chang I made was draining the fat from the beef. I was a young pup and honestly still honing my cooking skills as I am now so, being a little health conscious wasn’t a concern for me when cooking food then.
While I still love to cook rich food and cook dishes that aren’t necessarily HEALTHY, I try to not cook heart attack dishes where I’m using excessive amounts of ingredients that are bad for the heart and unhealthy overall.
So I make sure to drain the fat from the beef now before seasoning it and don’t use as much butter. I also added corn to the dish whereas before I just used peas and carrots.
So don’t worry it’s still good and pretty much the same recipe. Just wanted to address the changes I made because my supporters and long-time supporters think I change my recipes too much but it only be for the better. Lol!
What is Shepherd’s pie?
Shepherd’s pie is minced meat filled with veggies, covered with mashed potatoes, and then baked like a pie. Vegetables usually consist of a combination of onions, celery, peas, carrots, corn, and sometimes lima beans and green beans.
What’s the difference between Shepherd’s and Cottage pie?
The term Shepherd’s pie is often used interchangeably with “Cottage pie” when they are historically different. Shepherd’s pie is made with LAMB while Cottage pie is made with BEEF.
“So isn’t this a Cottage pie”?, you might be asking…YES! Shepherd’s pie is often MISUSED and has become the more POPULAR term to describe what is actually COTTAGE PIE!
Well, why call it Shepherd’s Pie?
Why call it Shepherd’s pie if it’s actually Cottage pie? Because Shepherd’s pie is the more popular name and if I were to call it cottage pie some folks may be confused because they don’t know the difference and probably never even heard of cottage pie.
But cottage pie is in fact what this is and 80% of the time if not more often than that, when people make what they believe is Shepherd’s pie, they use ground beef. Hahaha!
So yea, I know this is cottage pie, but I titled it Shepherd’s pie so people know what I’m cooking and so that that the recipe shows up high in google search engine.
Cookware & Utensils you’ll need:
- Large Pot: For boiling the potatoes
- Potato Peeler: For what it’s called, potato peeling or to peel the potato! Lol!
- Sharp Knife: You need a knife to dice the potatoes.
- Colander: This is to strain the potatoes once they’re done.
- Skillet: The skillet is for browning the ground beef.
- Baking Dish: You need a baking dish for the final step of this recipe which is baking the shepherd’s pie.
Ingredients you’ll need:
- Potatoes: Yellow or Russett Potatoes
- Meat: 80/20 Ground Beef
- Vegetable Add-Ins: Onions, Peas, Carrots, Corn, and Garlic
- Cheeses: Grated Parmesan and Philadelphia Cream Cheese
- Seasonings: Beef Bouillon cubes, Salt, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Black Pepper, Sugar, Italian seasoning, Thyme, Paprika, and Parsley
- Condiments: Ketchup and Worcestershire
- Slurry: Beef Broth and All-Purpose Flour
- Other: Butter, Milk, and an Egg
About the potatoes
- Best potatoes to use: The best potatoes for mashed potatoes are potatoes high in starch such as russet, Idaho, or Yukon gold potatoes
Starchy potatoes are best for mashed potatoes because you can mash them for long periods of time to acquire a smooth texture without them becoming a gummy gluey mess.
Potatoes become gummy and lose their nice airy fluffy texture when starch is released which happens when we mash them.
So obviously potatoes high in stach will be ideal for mashed potatoes because they wont lose all of their starch so quickly and become a gluey gummy mess like waxy potatoes which are low in starch
Starchy potatoes are also low in moisture as well allowing them to better absorb wet and liquid additions like butter, cream, milk, or even sour cream without becoming soupy. The absolute best potatoes for mashed potatoes are Russetts though. - Peeling and dicing: When it comes to peeling the potato skin, use a potato peeler as it makes the peeling process simpler and quicker.
When it comes to dicing the potatoes, try to dice them into even-sized shapes. This helps them cook at the same speed. - Start cooking them with cold water: Adding potatoes to cold water and allowing them to come to a boil with the potatoes in it will ensure that the potatoes cook evenly.
Otherwise, if you start with hot or boiling water, the outsides of the potatoes cook and soften while the center is still raw and hard. - Cooking time & mashing: Now unlike with mashed potatoes that won’t be baked, you don’t need to over-mash these potatoes or cook them as long to get them super tender because they will continue to cook an additional hour when they bake in the oven.
So if the potatoes are a little chunky after 35 minutes, don’t worry. They will be very tender and cooked all way through after an hour in the oven. - Egg in potatoes: Ok so you’re probably wondering why I’m adding egg yolk to the potatoes. If you know anything about baking this shouldn’t surprise you.
This is called Shepherd’s pie so you want the potatoes to be stiff and able to cut into. Eggs do for the potatoes what it does for traditional baked macaroni and cheese, cakes, pies, etc, providing structure and stabilization.
Otherwise, the potatoes may be a bit loose and runny and a traditional Shepherd’s Pie has stiff potatoes, the texture and consistency of a sweet potato “PIE”
About the meat
- Best ground beef to use: 80/20 beef is ideal for flavor and moisture.
- Go fresh and new: Try to use newly bought fresh meat if you can because fresh ground beef tastes better and is more tender.
Ground beef you’ve had sitting in ice in the freezer for a month will be chewy after cooked and not as moist. - The Gravy: This is where the slurry comes in. Combine the broth and flour to create a nice gravy for the shepherd’s pie allowing it to simmer for 7-8 minutes to thicken.
I don’t like dry meat and love adding gravy to this dish which obviously goes better than anything with potatoes but if you want a more traditional shepherd’s pie, just brown the meat and add the vegetables to it without adding the slurry.
About the vegetables
- Frozen vegetables: The pro of frozen vegetables is you don’t have to spend more time softening them. They’re already done and just need to be added to the meat.
- Fresh vegetables: If you decide to use them you’ll need to soften them, like carrots for example.
- When to add them: Add the frozen potatoes right before baking the dish. You don’t need to cook them prior! You don’t want them mushy.
- The Garlic: Garlic is a very important ingredient in this dish. Without it, this recipe won’t hit the same! I use a combination of garlic powder and minced garlic. I usually add both to my dishes… why?
I guess because I think they taste a bit different and things taste better when I use both. Lol! Now if you don’t have both, just use MORE of whichever one you have until you feel you have enough garlic flavor.
I use garlic powder for ground beef because it season meat better. Since the mashed potatoes don’t need much garlic, I decided to add the minced garlic to it. The bottom line is you can use both as alternatives for the other.
If you don’t have minced garlic for your mashed potatoes, sprinkle in some garlic, a little at a time for the novices out there until you feel you’ve added enough.
The same goes for the ground meat, if you have minced garlic and no garlic, add as much as needed until you feel you’ve added enough.
About the seasonings
Most of the seasonings I use are best for Shepherd’s pie like pepper, garlic and onion powder, and Italian seasoning and Thyme.
But if you want to replace the beef bouillon cubes of salt, you can replace them with the following seasonings, which are mainly complete seasonings
- Seasoning salt: This is the best complete seasoning in the world and goes with literally anything and takes any dish you use it for up a notch, truly a soul food classic, the Laury’s brand that is.
- Adobo seasoning: You can’t go wrong with Adobo seasoning, just like seasoning salt, it does a good job of adding a great flavor and seasoning pretty much anything you use it for.
- Badia’s Sazon Complete Seasoning: Another one of my favorite complete seasonings that goes great with many foods. It tastes sort of like the pack of seasoning in Ramen noodles.
How to make Shepherd’s Pie
- Peel, dice, and boil potatoes.
- Brown the ground beef.
- Cut the onions, create a slurry, and add everything to make a gravy.
- Add in the vegetables and pour into the baking dish.
- Preheat the oven
- Strain the potatoes once done then add in ingredients
- Add potatoes to baking dish
- Smooth out and garnish.
- Bake until done.
How to store Shepherd’s Pie
You can just cover your shepherd’s pie with aluminum foil and sit it in the refrigerator on the top shelf to stay fresh. Make sure it’s tightly sealed!
If you want to save it for some time, you can wrap it in a ziploc bag and store it in the freezer and it will stay fresh for weeks.
Making Shepherd’s pie ahead of time
You can make shepherd’s pie in advance for whatever purpose. Simply boil the potatoes and store them in a big Tupperware bowl or bag if you just want to prepare the potatoes ahead of time and cook the meat when you are ready to prepare the dish.
You can even add all the ingredients if you want then store them. However, making the whole dish and storing for a later time, let’s say 3-4 days in advance is fine.
Just keep the dish tightly sealed in the freezer and reheat it when it’s time – just as you would a frozen pre-cooked meal or tv dinner.
Ok yall, that’s it for now. As always subscribe so you never miss a recipe and like share and comment if you down with me. It helps me rank high in these Google algorithm-loving streets. Haha!
Enjoy, later!
PBJ~
World’s Best Classic Shepherd’s Pie Recipe (Made Easy With Ground Beef)
- Prep Time: 1 Hr
- Cook Time: 1 Hr
- Total Time: 2 Hr
- Yield: 8
- Category: Casserole
- Method: Soul Food
- Cuisine: American
Description
A true winter classic main dish filled with well-seasoned minced ground beef, and veggies, then topped with the creamiest fluffiest cheesiest mashed potatoes known to man. This might truly be a top 5 Shepherd’s Pie recipe if not the World’s Best!
Ingredients
Mashed Potatoes
- 2–1/2 Lbs Russet Potatoes
- 2–1/2 Qts Water
- 1 Large Egg
- 1/2 Cup Milk
- 1/4 Cup Butter
- 1/2 Cup Philadelphia Cream Cheese
- 1/2 Cup Parmesan Cheese
- 2 Tsps Minced Garlic
- 2 Tsps Salt
- 1 Tsp Sugar
- 1/4 Tsp Black Pepper
Meat & Veggies
- 2 Lbs 80/20 Ground Beef
- 1 Cup Frozen Peas & Carrots
- 1 Cup Frozen Corn
- 1/2 Cup Onions, finely chopped
- 2 Cups Beef Broth
- 3 Tbs All-Purpose Flour
- 1/4 Cup Ketchup
- 2 Tsps Worcestershire Sauce
- 2 Beef Bouillon Cubes
- 2 Tsps Paprika
- 1 Tsp Garlic Powder
- 1 Tsp Onion Powder
- 1 Tsp Italian Seasoning
- 1/2 Tsp Black Pepper
- 1/4 Tsp Thyme
Instructions
- Peal potatoes then dice them into evenly shaped pieces.
- Place them in a pot then rinse them with cool water and drain.
- Cover them with 2 qts cool water, place them over high heat, and cover with a lid leaving a little crack on the side.
- Boil until tender, about 35 minutes.
- Meanwhile, place the ground beef in a skillet and place it over medium heat break it up into fine pieces using 2 spatulas.
- Meanwhile, chop up the onions.
- In a bowl, combine the broth and flour then stir well to create a slurry.
- After 10-12 minutes or once the ground beef is no longer pink, drain the fat then place the skillet back over the heat.
- Add the onions, all the seasonings, and bouillon cubes, stir well, and cook for 3 minutes.
- Then stir in the Worcestershire, ketchup, and slurry, then stir well and simmer for 8 minutes.
- Once done, stir in the vegetables then add the meat to a baking dish and smooth it out.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees once the potatoes are done.
- Drain the potatoes then place them back into the pot over medium heat.
- Add in the milk, butter, cheese, garlic, seasonings, and sugar, then mash for 5 minutes.
- Let the potatoes cool off for a while, about 5 minutes, then stir in the egg yolk.
- Add the potatoes to the baking dish over the meat and vegetables and smooth it out.
- Garnish with a little parsley and paprika, then place in the oven and bake for 1 hour.
by 
5 thoughts on “World’s Best Classic Shepherd’s Pie Recipe (Made Easy With Ground Beef)”
I made this tonight — my first Shepherds Pie and it was fantastic! I made it exactly as described and it wasn’t watery at all. The taste was perfect and it just may be my new favourite comfort food for a chilly fall night!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Debra! ☺️ Share a 📸 of it on Instagram and tag us @phillyjaycooking 🙂👍🏾
I followed your recipe exactly to the letter the taste was great but the end result was a let down it was very watery I think it was the slurry that caused the problem do you have any ideas thank you.
I followed your video and tried your shepherds pie exactly will all the ingredients as you stated BUT the end result was not what I expected it was too WATERY and mushy, I think the slurry was too much that’s why it turned out that way do you have any suggestions, the taste was excellent, please I need to know
Watery? 🤔🤔 Did you add the slurry to the ground beef and let it simmer and thicken in the skillet first before adding it to the casserole dish? I don’t know why it would be loose but if it is you can let it cook a little longer. It will be much stiffer after it chills, especially the next day after you store it in the refrigerator. Sometimes casserole dishes can be a little loose or runny, straight out of the oven when its very hot but they tend to stiffen significantly as they cool off