Shepherd’s Pie, New Mexico Style

Beef, Pork, Lamb, Meat Entrees, Red Chile
Shepherd's Pie with New Mexico Red chile sauce

Several months back one of my nieces posted on her Facebook page a picture of a Shepherd’s Pie she had made. It looked delicious and made me aware that I had never made one and I’m not sure if I had ever eaten one. Growing up my mother made a lot of casseroles with meat and veggies topped with potatoes, biscuits or cornmeal mush, but I don’t remember anything being called “Shepherd’s Pie”. Now that I’ve made one, I realize that I’ve been missing out on a delicious little classic.

I’d like to thank Andy of Today’s the Day and Today’s the Day I Cook for giving me that push I needed to make this dish. Andy is the hostess of the Daring Cooks’ December 2012 challenge. She shared with us a traditional French Canadian classic, the Paté Chinois, also known as Shepherd’s pie, cottage pie, fish pie, St Stephen’s Day pie and even Shepherdless Pie. When Andy stated, “If one dish says comfort food.. this one is it!”, I was hooked. It’s definitely the season for comfort food, so I accepted the challenge and got to cooking.

I tried to stay as close to the heart of Shepherd’s Pie as I could; however, like most recipes, I had to give it my own personal little twist. This recipe keeps the traditional layers of meat and potatoes, but between these two layers is a layer of sauteed mushrooms followed by a layer of feta cheese. The meat mixture is ground beef and Mexican chorizo, corn and a touch of New Mexico red chile sauce. (Bet you didn’t see that coming. 🙂 ). The result was amazing! I can’t believe it took me so long to make this dish!

Shepherd’s Pie – New Mexico Style

Spicy Shepherd's Pie- Spicy comfort food made with ground beef, chorizo, red chile and mashed potatoes #chorizo #redchile @mjskitchen
5 from 3 votes
Shepherd's pie with New Mexico Red chile sauce
Shepherd’s Pie – New Mexico Style Recipe
Prep
30 mins
Cook
30 mins
Total Time
1 hr
 

A New Mexican twist on Shepher’s Pie. A main dish entree’ with beef and chorizo, red chile, mushrooms, feta, and mashed potatoes. This should spice up your love and give you a full belly at the same time.

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“*” See Kitchen Notes for more information or links to special ingredients.

Revised February 2018

Course: Main Course, Meat Entree
Cuisine: New Mexico
Yields: 6 servings
Recipe Author: MJ’s Kitchen
Ingredients
Meat Mixture Layer
  • 1 Tbsp. olive or canola oil
  • 1 pound lean ground beef
  • 8 ounces (~200 g) bulk Mexican chorizo* (or 2 to 3 links, casing removed)
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 4-6 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 cup corn frozen, fresh or canned
  • ½ cup red chile sauce*
  • Salt and pepper to taste
Mushroom and Feta Layers
  • 8 ounces button mushrooms*, sliced
  • ½ Tbsp. butter
  • ½ cup feta, crumbled
Potato Topping
  • 2 pounds potatoes, scrubbed, cut into large chunks
  • water
  • 2 Tbsp. butter
  • ½ cup+ milk
  • Salt and pepper
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375°F.

This dish can be prepared in an hour if you have someone to help. Here is how you can divide up the tasks.
  1. One person makes the mashed potatoes.

  2. One person chops and cooks the meat mixture and the mushrooms.

Making Shepherd’s Pie – Step 1
  1. Heat the oil in a large ovenproof skillet over medium low heat. When hot, add the onion, garlic, ground beef and chorizo.
  2. When the meat is cooked through, add the red chile sauce and corn. Stir to incorporate, simmer for 1 minute, then remove from heat. Spread the meat mixture to cover the bottom of the skillet.

    Making Shepherd's Pie - Step 1
Potatoes*
  1. Fill a pot with enough water to boil the potatoes. Bring the water to a boil, add the potatoes and simmer under done – 6 to 8 minutes (depending on the size of the pieces). Test with a fork to ensure that the potatoes are done. Transfer to a colander and drain.
  2. Transfer to a large bowl and mash with a potato masher.
  3. Add the butter and ½ cup milk. Continue to mash. If the potatoes are too thick, add more milk 1 Tbsp. at a time until the consistency of mashed potatoes.
  4. Season with salt and pepper.
Mushrooms and assembly
  1. In another large skillet, melt 1/2 Tbsp. butter over medium low heat.
  2. Once the butter has melted and some of the foam has subsided, add the mushrooms. Toss to coat with butter.
  3. Spread the mushrooms across the bottom of the skillet and cook for 2 minutes.

  4. Stir and continue to cook until the mushrooms start to release their juices and turn brown. Be careful not to overcook. You don’t want the mushrooms dry.
  5. Spread mushrooms across the top of the meat mixture.
    Making Shepherd's Pie - Step 2
  6. Spread the feta cheese across the top of the mushrooms.
    Making Shepherd's Pie - Step 3
  7. Scoop the mashed potatoes in large scoops across the top of the feta. Gently spread the potatoes evenly across the surface of the dish.

  8. Using a fork, create little peaks throughout the potatoes. The tips of these peaks will brown during cooking.
    Making Shepherd's Pie - Step 4
  9. Bake @375°F for 20 minutes, then place under broiler for 3 to 4 minutes until tips are brown.

    Shepherd's Pie with a southwestern twist
Kitchen Notes

Dish – If you don’t have an ovenproof skillet or Dutch oven big enough, you can use a casserole dish for assembly and baking.

 

Chorizo – Mexican chorizo is perfect with this dish – spicy, and flavorful. If you don’t have any or don’t want to make your own chorizo, just use pork sausage or even turkey sausage.  If you do this, then you might want to increase the amount of red chile to make it spicy enough.

 

Red chile sauce – If you don’t have red chile sauce, you could substitute with 1/2 cup spicy salsa or use 2 tsp. red chile powder (chile with an “e”), ¼ tsp. ground cumin, ½ tsp. oregano, and 1/2 cup water.  Red chile can be made from pods or made quickly, using red chile powder.

 

Mushrooms – You could use a variety of mushrooms.  I used button mushrooms, but you could easily substitute cremini, baby bellas, or shiitake. Just be sure to not overcook the mushrooms. They should be lightly brown and juicy.

 

To shorten the stovetop cooking time – add the mushrooms to the meat mixture after cooking the meat for about 3 minutes. Continue to cook until the mushrooms start to release their liquids, then add the red chile sauce.

 

Feta – Once I didn’t have any feta, so I used 1 cup of a sharp cheddar.  It was delicious.  So don’t be afraid to try out a different cheese or to use a cheese you already have in your refrigerator.

 

Potatoes – For mashed potatoes, I find Yukon gold or yellow potatoes to be the best.  However you could use in type of potatoes, including mashed sweet potato

Because I use organic potatoes, I don’t peel them. There are a lot of nutrients in the peel that I’d rather have in my body than in the compost pile. So I just scrub the potatoes, cut and cook.

 

Cooking the potatoes – There are three ways to cook the potatoes:  boil them, microwave them, or bake them.  I chose to boil them this time, but most of the time I microwave them. Baking would add time to the overall process, so I wouldn’t recommend that. You’ll be baking them anyway once the dish is assembled.

 

Spicy Shepherd's pie

Variations – In Canada Paté Chinois (aka Shepherd’s Pie) is a quick and easy ground (minced) beef dish. Andy showed us one that she made with a layer of creamed corn. It looked delicious. The beef can be replaced with lamb or a variety of vegetables could be added to meat. There are also fish versions and vegetarian versions. Based on all of the variations that I found, it’s clear that this is a comfort food that can be adjusted to what you have on hand and what you like to eat.

Have you ever made a Shepherd’s Pie or Paté Chinois? If no, then it’s high time you did!

Shepherd's Pie with a southwestern twist

This New Mexico inspired Shepherd’s Pie is wonderful comfort food. If you enjoy this dish, then you should try these:

84 Comments

  1. Dear MJ ! We had your version of Shepherd’s Pie four days ago and I had some leftovers for office next day. Both my son and I loved Chorizo and Feta added and this is definitely “our” version to prepare from now on ! Thank you very much !

    • Davorka, thank you so much for your feedback! I am thrilled that you and your family enjoyed the recipe. It’s a staple in this house. Sometimes I make it with sweet potatoes and it’s just as good but a little different flavor. Cheers my friend, MJ

  2. Absolutely printing to make ! Will let you know how it worked over here !!!!! Love the twist !

  3. I love this idea, and it looks absolutely perfect! Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

  4. Just had to see this! You know I’d always choose this version!

  5. I used to love eating shepherd’s pie when I was a non vegetarian. Thank you so much for this post MJ. Your post reminded me how long it has been since i made this for my family. I guess i will try making a pie with lentils and veggies for myself sometime soon.

    • Thanks so much Taruna! It’s interesting that you mention a vegetarian version of a Shepherd’s Pie. I’ve been thinking of making one with black beans and some vegetables in place of the ground beef and sausage, then using sweet potato, kind of what you have in mind with the lentils. Let me know if you make yours. I’d like to know how it turned out.

  6. Oh, wow, this looks and sounds amazing, I love the idea of the mushroom/feta layer, very creative! Thanks for sharing! 🙂

    • Thanks Nicole! It’s definitely a keeper. I made one last week with sweet potatoes is was fabulous. The spiciness of the chorizo and red chile with the sweet of the potatoes make great complements.

  7. MJ, I have never made Shepard’s Pie either, but I sure like all of the ‘personal twists’ of yours that you made to this dish. I love the chorizo and the heat that you added. I’d be chowing down on this for sure!

    • Thanks Roz! It’s a little time consuming but well worth it. I made it just last week, but used sweet potatoes which were a great complement to the spicy chorizo and red sauce. Hope you enjoy!

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  11. MJ, this recipe sounds wonderful, as do all of your recipes! All that flavor in one dish…absolutely love it…thanks for sharing your recipe!

  12. How do you come up with such inspiration, MJ? I’m in awe. First, love the addition of the red chile sauce to this – genius. Then I love the use of sausage (I’m not a huge chorizo fan, but I could see using andouille). And mushrooms sound so good. As you suggested, I could see using lamb for special occasions or when seasonally available, but totally not needed 😉 Thanks so much for sharing!

    • Thank you Mark so such a sweet comment! My favorite sausages are chorizo and andouille, so if one works, the other one works just as well in my mind. I hope you get a chance to try this. I think you would love it.

  13. Shepherd’s Pie is classic comfort food over here in England, and my family love it. Everyone has their own version, and I love your wonderful spicy twist on this classic dish. It sounds absolutely delicious. Thank you for sharing it with the Hearth and Soul Hop. I’m featuring it in my H&S post this week 🙂

  14. Delicious Sheparda pie, MJ I love it. I am highlighting this recipe in this week Hearth and Soul blog hop, thanks for sharing with Hearth and soul blog hop

  15. This recipe is making my mouth water!!! Luckily I have potatoes and some ground beef. I absolutely LOVE sheperd’s pie.

  16. My husband and I were just talking about shepherds pie! I could easily make this veg for us! YUMO!

    Thanks for linking up at our Gluten Free Fridays party! I have tweeted and pinned your entry to our Gluten Free Fridays board on Pinterest! 🙂

    Be sure to check out the winning entry this week for our Better Batter Giveaway! The winner will be announced Thursday evening!

    See you there!

    Cindy from vegetarianmamma.com

  17. Pingback: Cottage Pie aka Shepherd’s Pie | Spicie Foodie Healthy Recipes & Food Photography

  18. What a great spin on an old classic, I think I like your dish sooooooo much better!!!! It really does sound wonderful, especially your addition of chorizo:-) Hugs, Terra

  19. I love your take on Shepherd’s Pie! It’s very different from my own… which is what I love so much about yours! I hadn’t thought of adding chiles or chile sauce to a casserole, but will definitely be giving it a try with the next one I make! Yum yum!!!

  20. Although I have never tried shepherd’s pie before I already like your spicy New Mexico version! I have the same braiser (color too!) and enjoy making this kind of dish that you can bring directly from the oven to table. So when I saw the recipe, I thought it’s such a perfect food to make in this. 🙂

  21. My husband hates Shepherd’s Pie (crazy man) but he’s a sucker for New Mexican/Southwestern type dishes soooo I think he’d fall in love with this! Thanks for the great recipe!

  22. These wonderful flavors here would really make this popular with my boys 🙂

  23. This looks great, I’d love to make this and sub in beans instead of meat. YUM Each week I am amazed by the wonderful loyal bloggers that return each week to link up their yummy food and information! I am so happy that each week we have a few new bloggers that join our group!

    Thanks for linking up at our Gluten Free Fridays party! I have tweeted and pinned your entry to our Gluten Free Fridays board on Pinterest! 🙂
    I hope to see you again next week!

    Cindy from vegetarianmamma.com

  24. This sounds unbelievable! I’m a shepherd’s pie fan from way back, and your version sounds incredible! However one of my big frustrations at the moment is that potato is one of the foods I have to avoid for now, so I haven’t been able to make shepherd’s pie for ages 🙁

  25. I love southwestern versions of classics like this. I could eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

  26. This does sound amazing. I have made Shepherd’s Pie since I first got married but it has only been, in recent years, that I started being creative with it.

    Yours is pure inspiration.

  27. Shepherdless Pie!! This is one fantastic twist on the original…Your New Mexico version sounds absolutely delicious, MJ! It has everything that screams ‘brilliant’. I gotta go down to the Mexican town in Minneapolis someday to stock up some chili sauce and Mexican chorizo. Thank you for sharing this recipe. I’m really excited to try it out. I know it is going to be a hit!

  28. Delicious, I haven’t made Shepherds pie yet at home. Sure this recipe sounds good.

  29. What a wonderful mix of ingredients. I love the chorizo and especially the mushroom and feta. OMG, this looks and sounds heavenly!

  30. The chorizo in this shepherd’s pie is making me salivate. This looks like a very hearty and comforting dish. Thank you and have a great week, MJ! 🙂

  31. Love this twist on shepherd’s pie. Bet it would be fab with sweet potatoes for the topper, too. 😉

  32. I haven’t had Shepherds pie in ages and this is just such a fun twist. Perfect comfort food.

  33. I love the adaptation you’d done and this looks extremely appetizing!

  34. What a wonderful looking Shepherd’s pie, lots of delicious layers! Thanks MJ for visiting and for your sweet words 🙂

  35. I make shepherd’s pie with lentils. 🙂 I LOVE the idea of adding some southwestern flavors to it!

  36. Hey MJ… Paul here. This sounds great. I may beat you out on using sweet potatoes because I’m thinking about making this Wednesday night for dinner. I’ll let you know how it turns out. I hope leftovers are just as good so John can enjoy it when he gets home. Love to you and Bob.

    • Thanks Paul! If you do make it with sweet potatoes, let me know how it is. I love sweet potatoes with chorizo and red chile sauce, so it just makes sense that it would work. Enjoy Darlin! Love you too!

    • Well, we finally made this wonderful dish with sweet potatoes. Yum. The only difference in how we made it was the omission of the mushrooms. Everything else we made as stated in the recipe, except the change of the sweet potatoes for the regular potatoes.

      The one thing I’ll do next time is drain the meat and chorizo layer before adding the feta layer, as we felt it had a bit too much liquid. Otherwise, it was excellent with the sweetness of the potatoes and the bit of heat from the red chile sauce. John thinks it would be good for breakfast with a fried egg on top. Mmmmm.

      • Yay!!!!! So glad you liked it. What great alterations you made. Good decision on omitting the mushrooms since you were using sweet potatoes. Love the idea of the fried egg on top and who needs to wait for breakfast. 🙂 Hope you’re having a great weekend!

  37. I’ve finally found it. A Shepherds Pie recipe that looks delicious. Thank you!

  38. Oh this looks gorgeous!! I love Spanish Chorizo, never tried Mexican and love the delicious layers of different flavors going on in this!! Lovely pics too 🙂

    • Thanks Soni! Mexican chorizo is an uncooked spicy sausage whereas I believe Spanish chorizo is smoked. I love them both, but you have to go to a specialty store to get Spanish whereas Mexican chorizo is pretty much everywhere.

  39. I love all the layers in this dish! Sounds so good and comforting!

  40. Love that you added the red chili sauce.. now that’s my kind of shepherds’s pie. 🙂

  41. This is the sheperds pie for me, I love them Hot and spicy

  42. Really good notes. And I love the red chile sauce (and of course I did see that coming a mile away!). I’ve made Shepherd’s Pie, but it’s been years and years. Never with chorizo though (not to mention the red chile sauce!). Truly good stuff – thanks.

    • LOL John! Yep – it wasn’t hard to see the red chile sauce coming. 🙂 I have no idea what a traditional Shepherd’s pie taste like, but this one was pretty darn good.

  43. My mom used to make a shepherd’s pie casserole with some sort of canned soup, hamburger, corn, and kidney beans. This reminds me of that BUT yours looks so much better. I think the chorizo is genius as is the feta layer! Great post.

    • Thanks Debra! Yep – my mom used a lot of canned soup in casserole type dishes as well. I’m so glad to have eliminated most of my cans. 🙂 It’s hard to know what really makes this dish – the chorizo or the mushrooms.

  44. Oh how I love shepherd’s pie! Too hot to have it here in Australia at the moment, so I’ll jut have to be content with imagining the great flavour!

  45. This is beyond gorgeous. I just want to pull up a chair and dig in with a super large spoon.

  46. I have made a traditional shepherd’s pie but yours sounds wonderful with all the flavors you have going on.

  47. Sounds so delicious! The addition of the chile sauce is brilliant! Also, I sure like that red skillet!

  48. Mmmmmm….I love your SW version of shepherd’s pie! I made my first about 5 years ago and it was definitely hubby approved. He’d be thrilled with yours, too~

  49. I havent tried cooking shepherd’s pie too, and your twist with mexican flavours make me wonder if I could replace potatoes with sweet potatoes.. I love your addition of mushroom, yum!
    Shepherdless Pie? I must check out what’s that

    • Thanks Shannon! I was thinking about using sweet potatoes next time I make this as well. I served them with red chile and feta before, so why not put on this pie!

  50. There’s nothing like discovering or rediscovering a classic. I just recently resuscitated meat loaf (of all things!) but oh the fun you can have putting your own twist on these beauties… I love your Mexican inspired version here MJ – not only the chorizo but also the chile sauce…. Mmm. Mushrooms and feta layer? oh my…, yes please! And talk about the perfect hearty, warming dish for winter (yes, we do get winter here in Canada – LOL!). This just sounds too good. I must assemble the ingredients!

    • Thank Kelly! I haven’t made meatloaf in ages because I’ve always found it quite boring. I’d love to see what you’ve done with it! Hopefully you’ll post your resuscitated meat loaf soon. 🙂

  51. Ooooh, feta and chorizo…! Great additions MJ. I tend to keep my shepherd’s pies very traditional and plain. Not for lack of inspiration I guess but I just never really considered trying to change them. Love what you’ve done with it though – that’s something to try next time!

    • Thanks Charles! To be honest, when I started browsing the web for different variations, I did find many of them quite boring – not a lot of seasoning or depth. That’s why i tried to spice it up a bit. Hope you like it if you make it.

  52. Oh how funny I made one for dinner. Shepherd’s pie does say comfort food. I love it so much and all the variation it can take on. Your recipe sounds so great! I’ve also made it with chorizo but never the feta. Can’t wait to give this a try.

    • That is funny Nancy! 🙂 I hope you give feta a try. It was not overpowering, but rather it infused into the potatoes and added some depth to the meal. It was perfect! Thanks for your comments!

  53. I’ve ordered shepherd’s pie when out but never tried making it myself. Seeing that your first attempt was so successful gives me hope. I especially like the addition of chorizo. Now that sounds delicious and would be a real surprise hiding under the mashed potato blanket.

  54. What a delicious twist on Shepard pie 🙂

    Cheers
    Choc Chip Uru

  55. I always avoided Shepherd’s pie like a plague, I found it boring and blah. There is a Hungarian version, which I quite like, except it’s made with lean ground pork and is shaped a little differently. But I think you are on the right track with adding flavour. Why not make it from beef and elevate it to a tasty dish. I think I will experiment a little as well and I am making a note to myself to credit you Peach Lady with the idea, which I think is brilliant.

    • Thanks Zsuzsa! I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with! It definitely seems like a dish that is open to a lot of creative. Hope you’re having a great weekend my friend!

  56. I love your spicy twist on shepherd’s pie, MJ. I love chorizo so I’m glad that’s there. Lamb is usually used in shepherd’d pie and beef in cottage pie around here but they are nowhere near as exciting as yours.

    • Thanks Adora! I was thinking about trying this with lamb. I love lamb but don’t eat it often. I think it would be delicious in this dish.

  57. I like this! Wish there ain’t so much carbohydrates in it..I will have to use more mushrooms and less potatoes.

    • Thanks Angie! Yep – pretty heavy on the carbs, but we all need to splurge once in a while. 🙂 I like your idea of more mushrooms and less potatoes.

  58. I like your New Mexico version a lot! My most frequent modifications in dishes is making them hotter, so I am sure I would love this one. I now realise I have never made Shepherd’s Pie because… I make Hachis Parmentier which is more or less the same (just like Crème Brûlée vs Burnt Cream and other dishes the origin of which is claimed by both nations). You have reminded me that I have never posted it!

    • Thanks Sissi! I’ve never heard of Hachis Parmentier! I just looked it up and Wiki said it was like Shepherd’s pie in a potato peel. Sounds like something else to try. I hope you post it so I can check it out.

  59. I absolutely LOVE your version with chorizo and corn. What a fantastic idea. I made a shepherdless pie (what a great name!) about a month ago, but now I want to make yours. It’s going to rain all weekend, so it’s perfect timing.

  60. OMG this looks and sounds amazing, your SW Shepherd’s Pie is a giant leap forward in taste. Chorizo, ‘shrooms, chili and feta – oh, yes please.

  61. I have fond memories of my friend’s mom making this often, my mother never did.. and nor did I. It is a true comfort food and I like your spin on it:)

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