This easy Cottage Pie recipe has a flavorful gravy with ground beef, ground sausage, and mixed vegetables topped with fluffy mashed potatoes and cheddar cheese.
Want some more of my favorite meals? Try Taco Soup, Chicken Tetrazzini, Chicken Casserole, or Harissa Pasta!
Why I love Cottage Pie:
- Comfort Food – There is just something about old-fashioned comfort foods that warm my heart…and belly and Cottage pie is on my favorite's list (right there with Chicken Pot Pie and Lasagna).
- Delicious – Even my pickiest eaters enjoy this meal because the meat and gravy filling is flavorful and perfectly complimented by the mashed potatoes.
- Practical – I love that I can whip this up with pantry ingredients anytime, and it's one of my favorite things to use up my leftover Mashed Potatoes. It also makes an excellent freezer meal, so go ahead and double it.
Cottage Pie vs. Shepherd's Pie
The main difference between Cottage Pie and Shepherd's pie is cottage pie uses ground beef, and Shepherd's pie uses ground lamb. Both pies are cooked with vegetables and gravy and baked under a layer of mashed potatoes. To make Shepherd's pie using this recipe, simply substitute ground lamb.
How to make Cottage Pie:
Make Mashed Potatoes (or use leftover mashed potatoes): Boil potatoes in a saucepan with 2 inches of water until fork tender, about 12-15 minutes. Drain water and allow potatoes to steam in the pot with a lid for a few minutes. Mash lightly with potato masher, then add butter, sour cream, milk, parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper and combine.
Prepare meat Gravy: Brown ground beef and sausage in a 12 inch oven safe skillet, breaking it into small pieces as it cooks. Drain some of the grease and remove meat to a plate. Sauté onion, celery, and carrots in the pan for 5-8 minutes, until tender. Add garlic and flour then toss together. Cook for 1 minute. Add beef broth, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, herbs, and bay leaves then stir. Simmer for 5 minutes then taste and adjust seasonings as needed. Remove bay leaves then stir in frozen peas, corn, and cooked meat.
Assemble: Spoon the mashed potatoes over the meat mixture to completely cover the top. Sprinkle with shredded cheddar cheese.
Bake for about 30 minutes, until golden and bubbling. Allow to cool for 15 minutes before serving to allow the gravy sauce in the meat mixture to cool and thicken.
Variations:
Shepherd's Pie: Use ground lamb in place of ground beef.
Vegetarian: Omit meat and either double the vegetables or add a cup of cooked barley, farro, or wild rice. Use vegetable stock instead of beef stock, and substitute wine vinegar for Worcestershire if desired.
Gluten-Free: Replace flour by mixing 1 tablespoon of cornstarch to the beef broth before adding to the pan.
Making Ahead, Storing, and Freezing Instructions:
To Make Ahead: Cook the meat gravy and mashed potatoes and store separately in the fridge for up to 3 days. Rewarm the mashed potatoes in the microwave with a little splash of milk, to re-soften them, and then assemble before baking.
To Freeze: Cover with plastic wrap and aluminum foil and freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw completely before baking until warmed through.
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Recipe
Cottage Pie (or Shepherd's Pie)
Ingredients
For the Filling:
- 1 lb lean ground beef
- 1 lb ground sausage (I use Jimmy Dean pork sausage)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 small yellow onion , chopped
- 2 ribs celery , chopped
- 1-2 carrots , chopped (about 1 cup)
- 3 cloves garlic , minced
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 1/2 cups low-sodium beef broth
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 cube beef bouillon
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme , chopped (or ¼ teaspoon dried thyme)
- 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary , chopped (or ¼ teaspoon dried rosemary)
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ cup frozen corn
- ½ cup frozen peas
For the mashed potatoes
- 2 1/2 pounds Russet potatoes , Yukon gold or russet potatoes
- ¼ cup sour cream
- ½ cup milk
- 4 tablespoons butter
- salt and pepper , to taste
- ½ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
- ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese , for topping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
- Make mashed potatoes: Add potatoes to a saucepan with 3 inches of water. Cover and bring to a boil. Cook until fork tender, about 12-15 minutes.
- Drain the water and leave the potatoes in the pot. Cover with the lid and allow to steam for a few minutes.
- Mash the potatoes lightly with a potato masher (avoid over-mixing the potatoes). Add butter, sour cream, milk, parmesan cheese and salt and pepper and stir just until smooth. Set aside.
- Make the meat gravy: In a large, oven-safe* 12 inch skillet with sides, add the ground beef and ground sausage (or ground lamb, to make shepherd's pie). Season with salt and pepper.
- Cook over medium heat until browned, breaking the meat into small pieces with a wooden spoon as it cooks. Drain some of the grease (reserving some in the pan) and remove meat to a plate.
- Add the onion, celery and carrots to the pan and sauté for about 5-8 minutes, until tender. Add garlic and flour and toss to combine. Cook for 1 minute.
- Add the beef broth, bouillon cube, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, herbs, and bay leaves and stir to combine.
- Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes. Taste and add extra seasonings, if needed. Remove bay leaves and stir in frozen peas, corn, and cooked meat.
- Assemble: Spoon the mashed potatoes over the meat mixture to completely cover the top. Sprinkle with shredded cheddar cheese.
- Bake for about 30 minutes, until golden and bubbling. Allow to cool for 15 minutes before serving, to allow the gravy sauce in the meat mixture to cool and thicken.
- Store leftovers in the refrigerator for 3-5 days.
Notes
Nutrition
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I originally shared this recipe October 2019. Updated November 2023.
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This was fabulous! Returning from Ireland, I wanted to make my own “Shepherds” (or Cottage) Pie. This was better than Ireland! My only variation was I included more of the given veggies – and doubled the recipe for another time! One I baked off immediately, and for the second, I froze the meat mixture and will add fresh potatoes later! Thank you for helping to recreate my Ireland experience.
love your recipes, but please can we sort the confusion Shepherds Pie V Cottage Pie,
Shepherds Pie is made with Ground Cooked left over Roast Lamb and Pickled Lamb , this cold meat is minced and mixed with lots Tomato Sauce and Wircestershire Sauce with a pinch if seasoning and black Pepper,, then topped with mash Potato,, this pie is heated through in oven and put under grill to nicely brown the potatoes,, The Cottage Pie is made with ground meats yet to be cooked
and lots of vegies added, from the Cottage Garden,, so the term ground lamb for Shephetds Pie should read “ ground cooked Lamb” a huge difference in texture and taste, it is delicious,, you just need a meat mincer at home,!! this recipe handed down over our generations to my German background Grandma.. she made it so often, we loved it,
Talk about confusing. You may want to reread your comment/reply. Spelling, facts and clear communication is needed. I hope you find constructive criticism helpful.
My experience is only Americans insist on differentiating cottage and Shepard’s pie according to the meat used.
Delicious. Forgot the shredded cheddar so sprinkled more Parmesan on top. I will make it again.
I made it for the first time. For meat, I used 1 3/4 lb of high quality steak that I first chopped into small pieces and marinated in olive and red wine. It turned out fantastic. The next time I entertain I will make this dish.
I’m not a huge fan of sherpard’s pies because I find them bland but both my husband and I loved this recipe! I made the potatoes the day before so it was less time spent in one day. I used hot sausages and it was so tasty!
This turned out great. I had to modify it since I didn’t have beef broth or bouillon- I used better than bouillon vegetable stock. That turned out great! I also added more peas, carrots and corn and added mushrooms. I didn’t have sour cream so used Yogurt. And I used 1 pound of ground beef and 1 pound Jimmy Dean Hot sausage! Leaving the mashed potatoes not fully mashed was great. Will make this again! My husband said it was the best he’s ever had. Well he was hungry!
I’ve made this recipe twice now and am making it again tomorrow. It’s hearty, flavor-filled, relatively easy to make, and DELICIOUS. I have three young daughters and, between them, my wife, and myself, this provides enough food for one meal and leftovers later in the week.
By the way, this recipe has also entirely changed how I make mashed potatoes. So…thanks for that, too 🙂
The family and I loved this! Followed your recipe but I used 1 lb of Ground bison and 1 lb of Ground pork sausage from Butcher box and halved the Worcestershire sauce and added 1 Tbs of red wine vinegar. Very yummy and they want this again — soon!
Had a great flavor, very filling. I used a pound and a half of ground beef instead of the two pounds of the ground beef and sausage. A pound and a half of meat was plenty. This recipe just took me FOREVER. If you have time this is good recipe.
Shepard’s pie is made with LAMB that’s why it’s called SHEPARDS. they take care of SHEEP. Cottage pie is made with beef.
Yes, that’s right–and addressed within the post :-).
I’ve never understood! How do cottages relate to cows though?
Potatoes were introduced to the UK to peasants who lived in cottages, hence the name.
Shepherds. They HERD sheep. 😛
I’ve tried multiple recipes for cottage pie, recently because of the Covid-19 lockdowns I use the meal plans here to make my life a bit less hectic and I had to just rate this one. By far the best recipe for this you will find bar none.