Guinness Shepherd’s Pie Recipe

Name: Guinness Shepherd's Pie Recipe
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 55 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 3 – 3 1/2 pounds beef stew meat or beef tips (chuck); Olive oil for browning the beef; Kosher salt and pepper for seasoning the beef; 2 1/2 cups diced carrots; 1 1/2 cups diced onions; 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt; 2 teaspoons fresh chopped rosemary; 1 tablespoon tomato paste; 1/4 cup flour; 1 cup Guinness beer or another dark stout; 1 1/2 cups beef broth; 2 cups frozen peas; 4-6 cups Mashed Potatoes, depending on how thick you want the layer to be (we used 6) or you can substitute 3 (24 ounce) packages store bought mashed potatoes.

•Posted: Feb 24, 2020•Updated: Mar 5, 2025

•Dan

•8 comments

★★★★★5 from 3 reviews

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This Guinness Shepherd’s Pie recipe is our take on a classic comfort food casserole. A touch of dark stout blends perfectly with tender beef and vegetables in a thick brown gravy. Baked to perfection with a top layer of mashed potatoes, this hearty meal is sure to please.

Looking for more recipes for St. Patrick’s Day? Also check out our Crock Pot Corned Beef and these crazy good Roasted Cabbage Steaks!

shepherd's pie in casserole dish with serving spoon

Why You’ll Love Guinness Shepherd’s Pie

Shepherd’s Pie, or Cottage Pie, is a meat pie topped with a potato crust. Often, we see the top of the casserole with a mashed potato topping but it could be layers of thinly sliced potatoes or even tater tots or shredded potatoes. Our Guinness Shepherd’s Pie is a bit of a twist on the classic recipe, using a dark beer to infuse the thick beef gravy.

Festive St. Patrick’s Day Dinner: But PLEASE don’t save this recipe only for St. Patrick’s Day! It’s such a delicious, comforting casserole that should be enjoyed often. So while we do often enjoy this on St. Patrick’s Day, it’s definitely being made throughout the colder months.
The Ultimate Comfort Food: If this shepherd’s pie isn’t what we all dream of when we think about comfort food, I don’t know what is. The beef is so tender and flavorful, nestled in a dark stout infused gravy with a creamy mashed potato topping.
Serves a Crowd for Parties: You can easily get 8 servings from this casserole, especially if you’re serving it with a side of Irish Soda Bread and/or a vegetable side like Fried Cabbage with Bacon.

Ingredients You’ll Need

Of course you’re going to need some Guinness Beer! We’re swapping out beer for the wine that you would use to deglaze the pan when you make a beef stew, very much like our Marsala Beef Stew recipe.

Besides seasonings, the basic ingredients that you need to make this shepherd’s pie are as follows:

Beef tips or stew meat (chuck): Chuck is a cut of type of beef that has a lot of marbling, you can buy a whole chuck roast and cut it up or grab already cut up pieces at the butcher counter
Frozen peas: You can also use a bag of frozen peas and carrots instead of using fresh carrots.
Carrots: We like using up our fresh carrots in the refrigerator for this recipe, but as we said above you can use frozen, too.
Onions: Sweet, yellow onions give tons of flavor to this stew!
Beef broth: Beef broth will help make the sauce rich and flavorful, do use a good quality beef stock.
Beer: We used Guinness beer, but you can use any dark stout that you like
Rosemary: Fresh rosemary is very flavorful but also a strong herb. If you don’t like rosemary you can substitute fresh thyme as well or even parsley.
Tomato paste: Tomato paste will add depth and flavor to the gravy.
Mashed potatoes: Homemade or leftover mashed potatoes work, also store bought ready-made mashed potatoes work great in this recipe!

scooping a serving out of shepherd's pie in baking dish

How To Make Shepherd’s Pie

For the complete recipe, scroll down to the recipe card. But we’ll take you through the basics with some photos here.

cubed raw beef on board — cube and season the beef

seared beef cubes in a skillet with vegetables — cube and season the beef

Make the beef and vegetable filling: Add olive oil to a large dutch oven. Sear the beef, working in batches without crowding the pot. Remove the beef to a plate and continue browning the rest of the beef.
Wipe out the skillet and add another drizzle of olive oil, then add the carrots and onions. Cook for 5 minutes until softened, then add the 2 teaspoons of salt, black pepper and rosemary.
Return the beef back to the pan with any juices from the plate. Stir in the tomato paste and then sprinkle the flour over the beef and vegetables and toss to coat.

beer being poured into skillet with beef and vegetables — deglaze the pan with beer and let reduce

mashed potatoes on top of shepherd's pie filling — deglaze the pan with beer and let reduce

Deglaze with beer: Pour in the beer to deglaze the pan. Scrape up the bottom of the pan while stirring, bring to a simmer and let the beer reduce for 5 minutes.
Pour in the beef broth, stir and bring back to a simmer and cover. Cook over low heat (making sure the stew is still simmering) for 15 minutes. Add the peas, stir and simmer for another 15 minutes.
Assemble the shepherd’s pie: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. (you can do this while the beef filling is simmering) Transfer the stew to a 9″ x 13″, 2 quart baking dish.
Cover the stew with a thick layer of mashed potatoes and then bake uncovered for 25 minutes until the stew is bubbling and the potatoes are browned and warmed through.

shepherds pie in casserole dish with parsley on the side

Variations

A few variations or swap outs to make this recipe even easier to make. We always try to include substitutions if we can to make things easier!

Swap out a 10 ounce bag of frozen peas and carrots instead of using fresh carrots.
If you don’t want to cube up the beef, see if your butcher counter has stew meat already cut up for you.
Buy pre-made mashed potatoes so that you can skip an entire step! While we love our homemade mashed potatoes, to save some time, most store bought brands are very good.
More of a wine lover? Swap out a hearty red for the beer.

is this a make ahead casserole?

Yes, you can make this casserole ahead of time. All you need to do is make it up until the point of baking, then cover and keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Take the dish out of the refrigerator about 30 minutes before you need to bake it to take the chill off, then bake per the instructions.

Alternately, you can cook the casserole all the way through and then refrigerate until ready. Scoop out a portion and heat it up right in the microwave. It’s as good as when you first made it!

scoop of shepherd's pie on serving spoon

can i skip the beer in this shepherd’s pie recipe?

If you can’t or don’t drink alcohol you can still make this Guinness Shepherd’s Pie. There are also some really good non-alcoholic beers that would be a good substitute if you can’t drink alcohol but still want the flavor. Or just use another cup of beef broth to deglaze the pan.

And yes, most of the alcohol will cook off so no need to worry about serving this dinner to the kids. Because if they’re anything like our boys they won’t be able to get enough of this meal!

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