No bake shepherd's pie is classic comfort food. A delicious and hearty dish that your entire family will love, this version removes the baking step to make this popular recipe easier and quicker!
Shepherds pie, or cottage pie, is the ultimate comfort food. Hearty and filling, this classic one-pot meal has yummy layers of seasoned ground meat, veggies and creamy mashed potatoes. It's full of delicious rich flavor, and is the perfect thing to warm you and your family up on a chilly fall night.
Traditional shepherd’s pie takes about an hour and a half to make. Which explains why even though it's a family favorite, I used to make it very rarely. Most nights (every night) I just do not have an hour and a half to devote to making dinner. Maybe that's true for you too? Well, if so, I have the best news! With a couple of simple changes to the original recipe, we can keep 100% of that great flavor and reduce cook time to under 45 minutes, transforming this classic into a dish easy enough even for a busy weeknight.
This easy shepherd’s pie recipe calls for a heavy cast-iron skillet with a tight-fitting lid. This allows us to make the whole thing on the stove top, removing the baking step completely, and saving over half an hour. We use frozen vegetables, to reduce chopping time and mess. I also highly recommend some meal prep and planning here! This recipe is the perfect way to use up leftover mashed potatoes. Make a big batch of mashed potatoes early in the week (serve them with buffalo chicken tenders or air fryer turkey tenderloin). Then, later in the week use the leftover potatoes to make this skillet shepherd's pie, and it will come together in only about 30 minutes.
Serve your shepherd's pie with easy garlic butter broccoletti, or any of the amazing side dishes featured in our what to serve with shepherd's pie post!
You Will Love This
- This easy shepherd's pie recipe is a perfect hearty comfort food for a chilly fall night.
- If you make the potatoes ahead, you can make this entire dish in one pot on the stove top, transforming this classic recipe from somewhat tedious to an easy weeknight meal.
- This yummy layered casserole is a perfect way to introduce your little mashed potato lovers to a new food!
Ingredients
Gather up your ingredients. For this recipe, you will need the following (exact measurements are in the recipe card below):
For the meat layer
- Olive oil: You can substitute butter or another neutral cooking oil.
- Ground meat: I used ground turkey to keep this recipe a little lighter, but you could also use lean ground beef.
- Frozen carrots, peas, and corn: Green beans work well in this recipe too!
- Onion
- Garlic: Pre-minced jarred garlic will work fine in this recipe and is another time saver.
- Worcestershire sauce
- Tomato paste: Feel free to substitute ketchup if you don't have tomato paste on hand.
- Spices, including rosemary, thyme, kosher salt and black pepper
- Chicken stock: You can substitute beef broth or vegetable broth.
- Cornstarch: We will make a corn starch slurry with the chicken broth for a nice thick gravy.
For the mashed potato layer
- Russet potatoes: Mashed sweet potato would also be yummy to top shepherd’s pie!
- Half and half: You can substitute milk for lighter potatoes.
- Kosher salt
- Parmesan cheese: You can substitute cheddar cheese or any other shredded melting cheese that your family loves. This is for topping the potatoes.
Instructions
Step One: Make the mashed potatoes. Dice potatoes into even pieces, rinse them, and place them in a large pot. Cover with cold water and bring to a boil. Boil potatoes for about 15-20 minutes until fork tender (you can move on to the next steps while the potatoes boil). Once the potatoes are fully cooked, drain the excess water off and return the dry potatoes to the pot. Use a potato masher (or your kitchenaid mixer!) to mash the potatoes until they reach a fluffy texture. Add the half and half and salt, and stir to combine. Set the potatoes aside, and cover them to keep them hot.
Step Two: Dice one small onion. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Saute the onion until fragrant and translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Add minced garlic, ground turkey, and a small pinch of salt to the skillet and cook until the turkey is browned.
Step Three: To the skillet, add the Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, rosemary, thyme and half of the kosher salt. Stir the seasonings into the meat until well incorporated. In a small bowl, mix the chicken stock and cornstarch. Whisk until the cornstarch is fully incorporated and there are no lumps. Add the cornstarch slurry to the skillet and stir. Reduce to medium heat and let the mixture simmer for about 5 minutes, until the slurry starts to thicken up and form a yummy brown gravy. The gravy is thick enough when it can coat the back of a spoon. Taste the gravy and add the remaining kosher salt and black pepper, to taste.
Step Four: Add the frozen vegetables to the skillet and mix everything well. The vegetables will cook very quickly, so you can move onto the next step without letting them simmer. The water from the frozen vegetables might thin the gravy out a bit, but it will thicken again as it simmers in the next steps.
Step Five: Spoon hot mashed potatoes on top of the meat mixture. Smooth out the mashed potatoes with a spoon to make an even layer of potatoes over top of the bottom layer of meat. Don't mix the layers together - you want to form two separate layers. Make sure the mashed potatoes are hot enough to eat when they go onto the shepherd's pie. If they have cooled too much, microwave them for a couple minutes to heat them back up. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese and grate fresh black pepper over the top of the mashed potatoes.
Step Six: Put the lid on the skillet and let the mixture simmer on the stove top for about 5-7 minutes over medium to medium-low heat. The shepherd's pie is done when the cheese starts to melt and you can see the gravy from the bottom layer start to bubble up at the sides.
Storage
Store leftover shepherd's pie in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days. Shepherd's pie is just as delicious reheated, and is one of the leftovers that everyone in my family fights over!
Recipe
No Bake Shepherd's Pie
Ingredients
For the meat layer:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 pound lean ground turkey 93/7
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- ½ teaspoon dried rosemary
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 cup frozen mixed peas and carrots
- 1 cup frozen corn kernels
For the mashed potato layer:
- 2.5 pounds russet potatoes
- ½ cup half and half
- 1 tablespoon salted butter
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt to taste
Instructions
- Make the mashed potatoes. Dice potatoes into even pieces, rinse them, and place them in a large pot. Cover with cold water and bring to a boil. Boil potatoes for about 15-20 minutes until fork tender (you can move on to the next steps while the potatoes boil). Once the potatoes are fully cooked, drain the excess water off and return the dry potatoes to the pot. Mash the potatoes until they reach a fluffy texture. Add the half and half and salt, and stir to combine. Set the potatoes aside, and cover them to keep them hot.
- Dice one small onion. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté the onion until fragrant and translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Add minced garlic, ground turkey, and a small pinch of salt to the skillet and cook until the turkey is browned.
- To the skillet, add the Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, rosemary, thyme and half of the kosher salt. Stir the seasonings into the meat until well incorporated. In a small bowl, mix the chicken stock and cornstarch. Whisk until the cornstarch is fully incorporated and there are no lumps. Add the cornstarch slurry to the skillet and stir. Reduce to medium heat and let the mixture simmer for about 5 minutes, until the slurry starts to thicken up and form a yummy brown gravy. The gravy is thick enough when it can coat the back of a spoon. Taste the gravy and add the remaining kosher salt and black pepper, to taste.
- Add the frozen vegetables to the skillet and mix everything well. The vegetables will cook very quickly, so you can move onto the next step without letting them simmer. The water from the frozen vegetables might thin the gravy out a bit, but it will thicken again as it simmers in the next steps.
- Spoon hot mashed potatoes on top of the meat mixture. Smooth out the mashed potatoes with a spoon to make an even layer of potatoes over top of the bottom layer of meat. Don't mix the layers together - you want to form two separate layers. Make sure the mashed potatoes are hot enough to eat when they go onto the shepherd's pie. If they have cooled too much, microwave them for a couple minutes to heat them back up. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese and grate fresh black pepper over the top of the mashed potatoes.
- Put the lid on the skillet and let the mixture simmer on the stove top for about 5-7 minutes over medium to medium-low heat. The shepherd's pie is done when the cheese starts to melt and you can see the gravy bubble up the sides.
Tony
We loved this. The leftovers were so good for lunch too.
Kari
This is my husbands new favorite, he asked if I would make it weekly!