Easy to make comfort food that my kids can’t get enough of, at all ages. Cottage Pie or Beef Shepherd’s Pie is a household favorite and a crowd pleaser.
Of all the things I can cook for my family for dinner, this is one of the top dishes I can squeeze in a second helping down my pie hole at the verge of exploding at the waist. Basically, the law of diminishing marginal utility takes effect long after you are full, not before, which makes for one amazing experience with a food.
That’s a long way of saying this crap is super-friggin-delicious.
Scroll below for Keto version.
Cottage Pie – Beef Shepherd’s Pie
Equipment
- All Natural* 80% Lean/20% Fat Ground Beef Chuck Tray, 2.25 lb – Walmart.com
- McCormick Brown Gravy Mix, 0.87 oz – Walmart.com
- DEL MONTE Sweet Gold and White Whole Kernel Corn, 15.25 oz Can – Walmart.com
- Idahoan Buttery Homestyle Mashed Potatoes Family Size, 8 oz Pouch – Walmart.com
- Great Value Finely Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese, 16 oz – Walmart.com
Ingredients
- 2 ish Pounds Ground Beef
- 2 Brown Gravy Packets + 1 ½ cups water
- 1 Can of Corn
- 8 Servings of Instant Mashed Potatoes
- 4 Cups of Shredded Cheddar Cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°
- Brown and crumble ground beef in a skillet.
- Drain most of the grease
- Stir in 2 gravy packets and 1½ cups of water to the beef.
- Dump all the beef into the bottom of a roasting pan or 9×13 baking pan OR separate out half and half into two 7-9 inch pans or 2 bread loaf pans.
- Using a spatula (or rubber spatula / silicone spatula). flatten beef as a layer.
- Drain the can of corn, and dump over the beef. If using two pans, separate out half and half between the pans. Flatten over the beef as a layer.
- Make your instant potatoes as directed.
- Plop spoons of potatoes into the dish. Of course, if using two dishes, then separate the potatoes half and half. The method I do is I do a good spoonful on each corner, and then the center, then between the corners along the edge, and then fill in any gaps. Then I use a spatula to flatten it. Be careful, if you swipe it across too hard, it will stick to the spatula and lift up the corn underneath it. It’s still good all mixed up so don’t ‘fret’ if that happens, but for sake of the pretties, gently mash it down and out.
- Sprinkle the cheese on top. Again, half it out between 2 pans if using 2 pans.
- Bake at 400° for about 20 to 30 minutes, until you see little bubbles in the beef and the cheese brown a little on the edges.
Notes
Where did I get this Recipe for Cottage Pie?
This is a funny story. So I was dating my boss’s son, who is also my doctor’s grandson, which honestly made Christmas Dinner interesting. My boss, a Scorpio Woman, was adamant I learn how to cook her food for her son, just in case we get engaged someday.
Well, the engagement never happened. I was ‘too rough around the edges’ for the country club scene, and he needed someone more PR friendly since he operates on 100% referrals (he was a doctor like his father, and his grandfather…). So some men put their career over amazing se..conversations.
So of all the things Diane showed me how to make, her Shepherd’s Pie was one of them.
The funny thing is fast forward 20 years, she has no memory of ever making Shepherd’s Pie or Cottage Pie like this at all. She has no memory of showing me. She swears she has never made it like this ever in her life. Whereas I swear I made it, with her, at least 25 times.
So there’s actually a good chance I made this up entirely, and some strange Mandela effect occurred.
Ingredients + Method for Beef Shepherd’s Pie
The main ingredients are…
- Ground Beef (cooked, crumbled, with 1 packet of brown gravy mix & 3/4 cup water for every pound of beef)
- Corn (canned corn, but not creamed, but I do try to aim for a sweeter corn when I can, however any corn will do)
- Mashed Potatoes (about 8 servings, I like instant potatoes just add water)
- Shredded Cheddar (about 4 cups)
Really you layer those into a casserole dish, or any pan. I have made this before in bread loaf pans in my toaster oven.
In fact, in this picture, it was made in a toaster oven.
You just need any pan that will hold it together, and a heating place, like an oven or toaster oven.
I generally cook at 400 for about a half hour.
The main thing is to bake until the beef is bubbling and the cheese starts browning on the edges.
If you cook the beef thoroughly enough before putting it together into a pan, then for the most part, it’s already cooked. It’s just a matter of heating the corn and melting the cheese.
Make it Easy to Make
These mashed potatoes are pretty simple to make, and therefore, one of my favorite ingredients.
It is a just add water kind of dish. And with that, you can prepare this one of two ways.
- Heat 4 cups of water in electric kettle. Dump flakes into a Storage Tub. Add water.
- Heat 4 cups of water in storage tub in microwave. Dump flakes and stir.
It’s that fuckin easy.
You have no idea the game changer this was for me, especially for recipes like Cottage Pie – Beef Shepherd’s Pie because to me, it’s an ingredient more so than a side dish, so I feel like too much extra work for an ingredient makes the dish feel, attention seeking.
Why I don’t do Home Made Potatoes
First of all, I can never find my potato masher anywhere. It’s one of those objects that can be directly in front of my face, and I won’t see it. Repeatedly. Not like once. Not like when I’m tired. Nope.
Every time I need to find that thing, I will look and look, and I will swear it’s in this one cabinet in particular in a tub in particular, and it is there. IT IS THERE.
But I look there first, can’t find it, look all over the kitchen, look in that cabinet 5 times, still can’t see it, look in obscure places thinking I must of lost my mind like the dishwasher knowing full well I handwash my dishes, start accusing the children of taking it to play with it, and then find an alternative tool just to later, 3 days after this dinner in particular, see that it was exactly where I thought it was the entire time. I’ve done this at least 8 times in the last 3 years.
Second, I hate peeling potatoes. I hate waiting for them to soften.
Now my ex, he prefers the homemade method because he learned to make mashed potatoes the righteous way, so he’s more comfortable with that method. He also adds 4 TBSP of mayo to his mashed potatoes giving them a potato salad vibe but still mashed. It’s actually pretty good. And it’s good on Cottage Pie or Beef Shepherd’s Pie.
Other Mashed Potato Options
Instant-Boxed-W/ Mayo
To hybrid what my ex does, I was using the instant potatoes a lot that required butter and salt and water and milk, and you know. With that, I’d add a little less milk and replace some of that with mayo. Like I’d heat up my water, salt and butter in the microwave until the butter was melted, and then I’d dump in the flakes, add a couple TBSP of mayo, a dash of milk, and stir, and then add more if necessary. My kids no longer like this method unless their dad makes it. But they used to love it.
DFY Potatoes
The other option is DFY Potatoes. I do use this when I want more of a home-made flavor, like if someone not-family is eating part of the meal, but it’s still too pain-in-the-butt-ey for me on a normal dinner night as the potatoes stick to the bag, so you got to squeeze it out like icing, and that and me is a very messy combo. It’s not easier if I have to wipe it up and find strange places where I accidentally flung it across the kitchen to wipe up before it hardens.
I am picturing Yoder’s here because they are the best, but I’m pretty certain this is only available within an ear shot of Ohio, so I’m going to add that my Walmart carries Bob Evans potatoes. Usually, there’s an option somewhere for this.
Keto Potatoes
This can also be a great dish for Keto Diets if you spruce up the potatoes to a lower carb option. In my case, we did cauliflower using this recipe for Lazy Girl’s Shepherd’s Pie…
She recommends fresh cauliflower, but I microwaved a bag of frozen generic cauliflower, and added butter, sour cream, parmesan cheese, and cheddar cheese. Instead of mashing the cauliflower, I chopped it. In the future, I plan on just using Cauliflower Rice mixed with the cheese and sour cream and butter. I don’t think I used the egg on account I missed that ingredient, like I either didn’t notice it was there, or I forgot when I was trying to memorize it. That placenta brain never goes away.
Cottage Pie / Beef Shepherd’s Pie Conclusion
I am awful with conclusions, but here goes. The Cottage Pie or Beef Shepherd’s Pie is a delicious comfort food that is easy to make and a crowd winner of a dish. Blah blah blah, do you really need me to describe it with words like savory corn and gravy infused beef and velvety instant potatoes performing an orgy in your mouth like the Thanksgiving Meal you wish you had? Yeah. I guess we both needed that. I think I’ll make that the Pinterest description 🙂
I’m working a list for Comfort Foods if you want to see where I’m at with it.
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