Last night I was sitting around at about 4pm with a pound of hamburger meat thawing in water on the counter and no idea WHAT to do with it. (I add “in water” for the foodborne illness nazis who come out of the woodwork when I make stray comments about thawing meat on the counter.) (I jest; it really is important to know that you should thaw your meat in water or in the fridge.)
I had some leftover mashed potatoes in the fridge, so I thought, Shepherd’s Pie!
I love Shepherd’s Pie, but for some reason I haven’t made it in years and I don’t have a tried and true recipe, so I used my good friend, The Google. (I love it when people say The Google and The Walmart. I have a friend who says The Facebook. Cracks me up every time.)
Okay, enough with the parentheticals.
Any-WHO. The Google came up with this Easy Shepherd’s Pie Recipe on Simply Recipes. I have good luck with Simply Recipes so I printed it out and went to work. I even decided to go ahead and boil fresh potatoes to make sure it came out perfectly, and it did. It was probably the best Shepherd’s Pie I’ve ever eaten. Seriously. I only wish I’d used more meat. I only had a pound, and it called for 1-1/2 pound. Next time I might just defrost 2 pounds because, have you met me? I’m rather fond of The Red Meat.
I omitted the peas and corn, and again, I only had a pound of meat, but otherwise I followed the recipe to a T. I served it with a side of steamed broccoli, lightly salted and drenched in butter. YUMMO.
First you peel your potatoes and put them to a boil in salted water. While they’re getting all happy (channeling my inner Emeril, there) you saute the onions and carrots in butter. If you want to add peas and/or corn, you wait and add them about 5 minutes later. After about 10 minutes, you add the meat and let it get all nice in brown.
After it’s nicely browned, you add the salt and pepper, Worcestershire, and broth. I used turkey broth that I had on hand instead of beef broth. So I guess I DIDN’T follow the recipe to a T.
While the meat is simmering, you can mash the potatoes and add the remainder of the butter. This recipe uses A STICK of butter. LOVE THAT. Don’t forget to salt and pepper to taste.
Then you spread the meat in the bottom of a casserole dish.
And top it with the mashed taters.
Bake it for 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Try not to let your kids be responsible for watching the timer because they might forget to tell you it went off and you might overcook your shepherd’s pie just a dite. Or that could also be because you didn’t have as much meat as the recipe called for. At any rate, it should come out looking something like this.
How good does that look!? If I had any leftovers, I’d heat ‘em up for breakfast.
That looks divine, and I have all of the ingredients on-hand! I’ll be making this tomorrow for sure – looks like a perfect dinner to enjoy while cozying up to the fire and watching the snow fall!
YUM!! and I love “The Red Meat” comment
I don’t believe I’ve ever had Shepard’s Pie but this looks good! Might have to slip that into Hubby’s “what to cook” menu plan (yes, I know I am lucky to have a husband who does ALL the cooking after working from 7am-4:30pm everyday-love him!)
Thanks for the yummy food pictures first thing in the morning lol
mmmm … leftovers the next morning, with a fried egg on top maybe. yummmmm.
I make a similar recipe but I add corn too…
Having spent the morning thinking over all my favourite proper home-cooked meals (like mum makes), for my latest blog post, Shepherd’s Pie is without doubt, top of the list! I just love this dish and shop bought NEVER tastes as good as homemade. Your’s looks absolutely divine. And now I’m hungry. And have no hamburger meat to cook. Ugh.
You just gave me a great idea for the left over mashed potatoes that I have in the fridge. Thanks!
I made shepherd’s pie this week too. The family loves it! I added garlic, chopped mushrooms and bell pepper when cooking the meat/onion/carrots and put canned and drained french style green beans on top of the meat layer. Also, I sprinkled a little cheese over the taters before baking. Comfort food at it’s best that’s a sure winner with the fam…and anyone else who happens to be here!
If you’re planning to make a good Shepherd’s Pie, you must add The Bisto!! Beef broth AND Bisto gravy powder (or granules). It’s a British product, but available in a lot of grocery stores. There are people I cooked meals for 12 years ago who still rave about The Gravy! I fiddle with the preparation directions because we like very rich and very thick gravy!! Go get a box…asap!
I made Shepard’s Pie when we were snowed in last week. It’s one of DH’s fave comfort foods.
I do throw a layer of corn between my meat & taters.
Awesome! I needed a new shepherd’s pie recipe because mine is time consuming. I usually make 2 batches at once and freeze one because it takes so long to prepare.
I hadn’t thought about making a Shepherds Pie in ages. Now I know what’s for dinner. Like Melissa stated above I always add cheese on top. I usually use Monterrey and Colby jack cheese sliced real thin like and layered on top, cook until the cheese is all melted. Yep that is so what’s for dinner.
Omigosh. CHEESE? I’m so there.
So, I’ve never made Shepherd’s pie before, not sure if I’ve ever eaten it either….but I may be having it for dinner tonight!! thanks for the idea….hubby has been on me to cook more at home….we eat out too much. So he should like this!
Shepherd’s Pie … thy name is comfort! Haven’t made one in forever & we’re expecting another snow this weekend …. thanks for the idea!
OOoh, never made this, but I will surely try it! Sounds like something G. would love. And I am all for another recipe for ground beef; seems like I have a million recipes all for chicken, lol!
YUM! Thanks for sharing (because now I’m making sure I keep track of this post for future menus….)
That looks really yummy. I might have to try this. I just have one that isn’t crazy about potatoes… but I could totally fix her another side.
Mmmm. I have not made Shepards Pie in ages. What a great idea! Going to have to add this to my Menu Planning Monday next week! Thanks for the rec!
I just tried a new beef stew recipe this week. Ohmigosh! It was out-of-this-world DELISH!!! (link on blog if you’re interested)
But it really WAS The Facebook–back when only people with a college email could join.
Looks yummy!
True. But she doesn’t know that.
I have almost that exact same recipe (only I use carrots AND peas–so there.). Plus, I have that SAME casserole dish, in ivory. We were destined to be Blissdom roommates!
We had shepherd’s pie last night! We actually have 2 recipes we like. This one we have been eating for a while (http://www.agriculturesociety.com/?p=4167) and this one we just tried last night and LOVED (http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/shepherds-pie). And this Mexican Shepherd’s pie is on the menu for next week (http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/mexican-shepherds-pie/59db6e97-287a-477e-b594-4c7c3df831e2?WT.dcsvid=NDEyNjEyMjIyNQS2&rvrin=8A5F47AE-99C7-4385-BB1F-49E38250F1D5&WT.mc_id=Newsletter_DME_01_02_2011) (Wow, that’s a long URL).
I LOVE shepherd’s pie!
I think I have a lonely pound of ground beef in the freezer. Or maybe not, I have this feeling that I did indeed use it awhile ago and now I’m disappointed. Well, if I do have it still this will be dinner around these parts tonight. Hopefully it’ll be better than the should have been yummy but the crust was under done pizza of last night.
I made “The” shepherd’s pie last night too! No recipe…but it came out pretty good. We are just starting our healthy eating journey, so this is the first time I actually made the mashed potatoes for this myself. :0)
This recipe looks awesome, thank you so much….cannot wait to try it out!
Not so much a beef eater, but hmmm. Subbing in ground turkey. Now there’s an idea. And definitely adding the cheese on top.
So, quick question on the thawing thing. I always thaw my chicken breasts in water in the fridge. They thaw so much faster that way. Can you think of any reason why that wouldn’t be okay? Just curious because it seems there’s usually something wrong with the fastest way to do things.
I’m sure that’s fine. I think the concern is with leaving it on the counter at room temp.
I made this tonight for dinner. Yum-o!!
Looks absolutely delicious! How do you get the potatoes to brown? Mine get like a toasted texture, but never really brown like yours. Is it your butter content or the peaks maybe?
Not sure, I think it was the peaks b/c the second time I made it, they were smoother, less peaks, and didn’t brown up as well. You can always broil for a few min to get them to brown too.
Last night I tried Rachel Ray’s turkey sweet potato shepards pie. So yummy with sweet potatoes!! Hit “the google” up for it!!