This tasty Ultimate Shepherd’s Pie with Beef and Pork is a hearty all-in-one meal! This recipe uses both ground beef and pork and a savory brown gravy. This is a comfort food meal perfect to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day or any Sunday dinner.
You won’t be able to get enough of this yummy recipe! It’s all things good in one casserole! The brown gravy makes it so yummy. It is a great use of leftover mashed potatoes and a good make ahead casserole for parties or to freeze.
Our family loves Shepherd’s Pie! It is a great comfort food with cheddar cheese topped homemade (are there any other kind?) mashed potatoes, peas, and ground meat. This recipe is made with a combination of ground beef and ground pork. What’s not to love?
Sometimes, it’s hard to choose which to make on St. Patrick’s Day- this Shepherd’s Pie or Corned Beef & Cabbage because they’re both so tasty.
What is Cottage Pie?
Although Shepherd’s Pie a.k.a. cottage pie, has traditionally been made with minced lamb, it is widely acceptable to make with beef. Some recipes call for beef chunks similar to beef stew while other recipes used ground beef, lamb, veal or pork. I like using the mixture of ground beef and pork for this recipe. Shepherd’s Pie has long been long associated with Irish food in America (although it did not originate in Ireland) and is a common dish in Irish pubs and restaurants.
The meat mixture is seasoned with Worcestershire sauce, extra virgin olive oil (it is the only kind of olive oil I use) mixed with a rue . It is relatively easy to prepare.
This recipe is similar to our Cheesy Meatballs, Mashed Potatoes and Mushroom Gravy with a few obvious exceptions. I’m sure you’d like it too. It’s another meat and potatoes meal with gravy! So yummy!
How do you make Shepherds Pie?
*The full printable recipe is at the bottom of this post.
- First, boil water for mashed potatoes.
- Meanwhile, cut up the onion, garlic and carrots. Put them in a large skillet with EVOO. Cook a bit and then add ground meat. Once the meat has browned add Worcestershire sauce, fresh parsley and peas. Cook for 15 min on medium heat.
- Peel and cut into small cubes three med/large Russet potatoes. Cook for about 12 min in boiling water until soft and drain. Add butter and half-and-half and whip/mix until smooth.
- Then, in a separate bowl make quick roux- equal parts butter and flour and then add beef stock (I used homemade and it makes a difference.) Now you have a yummy brown gravy.
- Next, add the gravy to the ground meat mixture and stir it. Set it aside until the mashed potatoes are done.
- Then, spray the bottom of a baking dish with Pam cooking spray.
- Last, put the meat mixture in a baking dish, topped with mashed potatoes and shredded cheddar cheese, bake for 10 minutes and viola!
Shepherd’s pie before baking.
Delicious Beef and Pork Shepherd’s Pie!
Worcestershire Sauce and homemade beef broth make this Shepherd’s Pie especially tasty.
Serve this Shepherd’s Pie with fresh crusty Skillet Irish Soda Bread. I love this soda bread recipe because there’s no yeast and it’s made with basic ingredients. Best of all, it’s ready in one hour! It’ll be a great St. Patrick’s meal!
This is one of my husband’s favorite meals. It’s great to make with leftover mashed potatoes. I’m betting your family will enjoy this homemade meat and potato casserole and you may have no leftovers!
Shepherd’s Pie
This tasty Shepherd’s Pie isn’t only perfect for St. Patty’s day dinner, it’s great for any time of year! A yummy brown gravy and homemade mashed potatoes will make everyone happy every time. Like the Loaded Slow Cooker Chili, this recipe also freezes well. You’ll love to pull it out of the freezer for nights you don’t feel like cooking. Full bellies=happy family!
You may also like:
Loaded Slow Cooker Chili is perfect for game day and cold, rainy days.
Spicy BBQ Meatloaf with Smoky Sweet BBQ Sauce Topping
Spicy BBQ Meatloaf with Smoky Sweet BBQ Sauce is a tasty and moist meatloaf recipe!
See more St. Patrick’s Day recipes.
I took the recipe to Weekend Potluck.
Ultimate Shepard’s Pie Recipe
Ingredients
Meat Mixture
- 3/4 lb ground beef
- 3/4 lb ground pork
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley chopped, reserve some for garnish
- 1 medium onion diced
- 1/2 cup carrots diced
- 1/2 cup frozen peas
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- salt and pepper to taste
Brown gravy
- 2 tbs flour
- 2 tbs butter
- 1 cup of beef broth homemade or canned
Mashed Potatoes
- 3 potatoes peeled and cubed to 1 inch pieces
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- 3 tbsp butter
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- First, preheat oven to 375F.
Mashed Potatoes
- Then, in a medium pot on high heat, boil water for potatoes. Meanwhile, peel and cut potatoes into one inch cubes (and prep onions, carrots and parsley for meat mixture.) Boil potatoes for 12 minutes or until soft. In a large mixing bowl, mix potatoes 2 tbs of butter, half and half creamer and salt to taste until smooth.
Meat Mixture
- Meanwhile, in a large skillet on medium heat, add olive oil, onions and carrots for 5 min. Add ground meat and break up big pieces while stirring. When meat is browned, add garlic powder, Worcestershire sauce, parsley and peas. Cook for 15 minutes on medium/high heat.
Brown Gravy
- Meanwhile, in a separate small saucepan on medium heat, add butter and flour to make a roux. As butter is melting add flour and stir until a thick roux forms. Add beef stock and stir until a creamy brownish sauce forms.
- Then, add gravy to meat mixture and stir until well combined.
- Next, in a 8"x 8"x 3" baking dish, spread out meat mixture followed by mashed potatoes. Bake for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley flakes.
We love Shepherd’s Pie too. Thanks for the 5-star rating.
I love Shepherd’s Pie and this one has less ingredients than many and it is so good. Very simple and all are the right proportions.
Thanks for the 5-star rating! Glad everyone liked it.
This was a quick and delicious way to use up leftover mashed potatoes!
Hi Jess. I’m glad everyone liked it. Thanks for the 5-star rating!
incredible! so delicious and flavourful, raving reviews at the dinner table!
Great! Thanks for the 5-star rating!
Thanks for sharing this amazing recipe.my family loved it.will be sharing this recipe with my friends.they will like it.
Wow, this looks so delicious and a yummy meal of pie with beef and pork. I must try this and this is really good for a healthy meal. Thanks for sharing this amazing article and delicious recipe of pie with beef or pork.
Thank you for the 5-star rating Erikka. Pork adds a wonderful flavor to almost any dish.
Absolutely loved the pork and beef combination!
Thanks for the 5-star rating. My husband loves it too. Your edits sound good. Thanks for sharing with my readers.
My critical husband says this is the best Shepard’s pie he’s ever had. He called it a “cracker” which is the highest praise. 7 yrs married, only ever achieved about 5 crackers despite being a reasonably good cook.
Some changes due available ingredients:
I used pork/veal mine because that’s what I had
Beef stock instead of broth
Got to the Worcestershire sauce and realised I had none. Quick Google and I subbed 1tsp soy 1tsp kerchup 2tsp white wine vinegar.
I added a cup of brown onion gravy as mine was dry (probably due to leaving it too long as the baby woke up)
Topped with grated cheese and tomato slices.
Used thickened cream in the mash to use up an opened carton.
I made in arvo and put in oven for longer as it was going in cold by that stage. I think about 25 mins.
Thanks for the 5-star rating Courtney. Glad you enjoyed it.
Phenomenal! The flavors all work very well together. No adjustments needed.
Glad you liked it. Thanks for your comment. Hope you’ll try some of our other recipes.
Just made this tonight with ground pork and ground Elk. Used some Guinness instead of the beef broth for the gravy. Alos subbed red and Yukon gold for the russet’s.
Turned out Amazing!!!
Thanks for the recipe. Will definitely be making this again
Thanks Mary!
Joanne, Thanks for sharing your Shepherd’s Pie with all of us at Weekend Potluck! This recipe looks and sounds amazing! Hope you have a great week!
Great alterations and glad you liked it. I really like the flavor that the parsley and Worcestershire sauce gives the meat in this dish. Thanks for the comments and hope you’ll come back soon!
My husband and I made this today! It was so good! We had a few alterations: we did not find ground pork to mix with beef or ground lamb to stand alone. We went with ground bison. We used fresh peas not frozen which met with the same texture of the fresh carrots. And we left the skin on the potatoes for the mash. Delish!
I love and adore Shepherd’s Pie! :D! This looks so darn amazing! I haven’t made it in the longest time, but I’ve made it with kabocha instead of potatoes before and it was pretty tasty 😛 I need to try out this version!
Do you only vacation in cottages? Cow pie is a fitting name being that there is enough dairy and beef in it. Lol! Reminds me of the first time I had sweet potato pie and referred to it as yam pie.
I love shepherd’s pie, and I love it made with beef. But I always feel like I ought to call it cowboy’s pie when it’s made with beef. But that sounds too much like cow pie. I totally forgot that it can be called cottage pie. But then I feel like I can only have it when I’m on vacation. Whatever it’s called, your version looks delicious.
Hi Joanne, it is very far a the bottom in the black area after all the ads and social media stuff. I have found that it isn’t loading very well on internet explorer, but is working great on Google Chrome!
Hi Joanne, it is very far at the bottom once the page turns back to black again. I wish I could bump it up further, but I guess that is part of having a free blog 🙁 I have found that in internet explorer wordpress has been buggy, but when I use Google Chrome it works a lot better 🙂
Hi! I just wanted to let you know I have nominated you for a Liebster Award! Please check the link https://ohthatwaffleblog.wordpress.com/2017/03/10/liebster-award-what-what/
Good. Hope you like it.
I forget sometimes too. It is good to keep in rotation.
Try it. It is a good comfort food. It is a snow day in Pa but we are lucky to be in FL now.
Thanks. I can’t find the comment section on your blog?
I just posted my Shepherd’s Pie too! I got in trouble for calling it “shepherd” not “cottage” when I use beef. I like to use a little Guinness to cook my beef 😉
We are gluten-free, but I’m pinning this, because I can easily sub out the gluten. I haven’t made it with parsley and worchestershire, sounds yummy!
I’ve never made this for some reason – looks delish! Since we have winter weather coming back to Chicago, I think I’ll give this a go this weekend!
Gosh, I haven’t made a shepherds pie in years ! Thanks for reminding me, and for the recipe 🙂 Looks awesome 🙂