Easy Shepherd’s Pie Recipe

December is a harried month filled with parties, holiday preparations and end-of-year work deadlines. With a bone chilling day behind you and darkness falling at 4pm, all you really want to do for dinner is hunker down with something warm, filling and unfussy.

Easy Shepherd’s Pie provides perfect December comfort food. This mashed potato-topped casserole was always a nursery favorite of my children. It remains a beloved dish for them to this day—though my greens-averse youngest son, now fifteen, still picks out the peas!



Perhaps traditional Shepherd’s Pie requires arduous preparation. The following recipe, however, is for busy shepherds—or copywriters, working parents, students and other preoccupied people. You can throw it together, start to finish, in 30 minutes.

Easy Shepherd’s Pie Recipe

1 small onion, very finely chopped or grated
1 pound pastured, grassfed ground meat—beef, turkey, etc.
1 tablespoon mild vegetable oil—no olive oil
1 heaping tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 1/4 cup beef broth
2 large or 4 medium potatoes, peeled and rough chopped—about 4 cups
3 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup milk
salt and pepper
2 cups frozen peas

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Fill a pot with two quarts of water and one teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil.
3. In the meantime, peel and chop your potatoes. If you’re in a huge hurry, slice the potatoes thinly to speed cooking time.
4. Throw potatoes into boiling water, adjust flame and boil until soft when poked with a fork—15 minutes or less.
5. In an oven-proof skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat, pour oil. When hot, add onion. Stir and fry the onion for 2-3 minutes until it softens slightly.
6. Push onion to side of pan and add ground meat. Break up meat with a wooden spoon, stirring to fry and blend with onions. Fry until meat is cooked and all pinkness disappears.
7. Sprinkle one tablespoon flour over meat. Stir to incorporate, scraping bottom of pan to keep flour from burning. Cook meat and flour mixture for a minute or two.
8. Add beef broth in three portions, stirring after each addition and letting mixture cook to thicken before adding next addition.
9. Pour in Worcestershire sauce, stirring to incorporate. Add pepper and salt to taste.
10. While meat and gravy thicken, prepare mashed potatoes. For pointers on perfect mashed potatoes, see my Mashed Potato Dos and Don’ts.
11. In a Pyrex measure or other microwaveable glass container, heat milk until butter is melted. You may also heat butter and milk on stove top, being careful not to boil milk.
12. When potatoes are fork tender, drain them, shaking colander to remove all excess water.
13. Return potatoes to pot. With a potato masher, mash potatoes for a minute or two to break up all lumps.
14. With an electric mixer on low or medium speed, beat potatoes to aerate and fluff.
15. Pour a splash of warm milk and butter over the potatoes, continuing to beat them to incorporate the liquid. Add remaining milk and butter in 2-3 additions, beating well after each addition. Season potatoes with salt and pepper to taste.
16. Spread frozen peas evenly over meat and gravy mixture in skillet. Or if you spoil your pea-hating children as I do, leave a portion pea-less!
17. Spoon mashed potatoes over peas, carefully spreading to cover the peas. Smooth potatoes to create attractive waves on top of casserole.
18. Slide dish into the oven and bake until peas are warmed through and gravy is bubbly—about 10 minutes. Since my children prefer soft, unbrowned potatoes, I cover the skillet with foil before baking. If you prefer a golden, crusty top, bake Shepherd’s Pie uncovered. If using a skillet, you may run the skillet under your broiler to brown the top. Serve piping hot.

Serves 4-6.