Comfort with a twist! Our Shepherd’s Pie Twice Baked Potatoes recipe combines the heartiness of classic Shepherd’s Pie with the perfection of a twice baked potato. Savory ground meat, veggies, and creamy mashed potatoes, all baked to golden perfection.

This recipe is perfect for a cozy family dinner or entertaining guests. We love it because it’s perfect for meal prep, batch cooking, and freezer cooking too! It’s our kids’ favorite homemade meal to take for school lunch! All the comfort food deliciousness you’ve come to crave in a freezer-friendly single-serve option. 

Our Shepherd’s Pie Twice Baked Potatoes are a little extra work than the traditional casserole dish counterpart, but they are easy to freeze, easy to reheat, and perfect for busy families who enjoy traditional comfort food and meal prep.

Not only are they delicious, but they sneak in a lot of healthy vegetables too! Even if you have picky eaters at home, you’ll be surprised how quickly these Shepherd’s Pie Twice Baked Potatoes will disappear!

Our Spin on Traditional Shepherd’s Pie as a Twice Baked Potato

Having a hard time getting the entire busy family around the table at mealtimes? This recipe is perfect! Each potato acts like a stand-alone meal so your family members can grab and go a home-cooked meal on their own timeline.

My kids love to take these delicious twice baked potatoes to school for lunch and I enjoy having them in the freezer for times when I need a quick, homemade meal. They also make a great gift to a new mom or a sick friend.

Ingredients for Shepherd’s Pie Twice Baked Potatoes

We’re using large baking potatoes, ground beef, and lots of vegetables as the base for our Shepherd’s Pie Twice Baked Potatoes. 

For a zesty spice, we combine beef broth with Worcestershire and tomato sauce and add in steak seasoning, paprika, and cayenne. Feel free to omit cayenne for a less spicy dish.

The potatoes serve double duty – not only as the dish for our mini meals, but also as the base for the delicious mashed potato topping. To make the mashed potatoes extra decadent, we’re adding butter, half and half, lots of cheese, and sour cream. Here are all the ingredients you’ll need to make this recipe:

• Large russet potatoes
• 1 pound ground beef – you can also use ground lamb or turkey if you prefer
• 1 medium onion
• 2 medium peppers
• Garlic cloves
• Frozen mixed vegetables – we use corn, peas, carrots, and green beans
• All purpose flour
• Beef broth
• Worcestershire sauce
• Tomato paste (ketchup works well too)
• Steak seasoning
• Redmond’s REAL salt
• Pepper
• Cayenne pepper
• Paprika
• Butter
• Half and half, switch to milk for a less rich mashed potatoes
• Sour cream
• Shredded cheese – a mix of cheddar and Monterey Jack works well
• Fresh chives

The Cooking Method

Let’s get cooking! Making this recipe will take about 1 1/2 hours from start to finish. You can make the time seem shorter by meal prepping. Here are the steps you will need to take to make delicious Shepherd’s Pie twice baked potatoes.

1. Bake the potatoes at 400°F for about an hour until tender. To make the potatoes extra delicious, roll them in 2 tablespoons of olive oil and then 2 tablespoons coarse sea salt as well. Make sure the potatoes are fork-tender before removing them from the oven.
2. While potatoes bake, cook ground beef, onions, garlic, and peppers in a skillet over medium heat until browned.
3. Stir in tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, flour, and broth. Combine well then add frozen vegetables. Simmer until the mixture thickens.
4. The traditional way to make twice baked potatoes is to cut the top off each potato and scoop out the insides into a bowl. This means you get one serving out of each potato. We use big enough potatoes that it makes sense to cut the potatoes in half to get two servings per potato. You can make your twice baked potatoes whichever way you want.
5. Mash the potato flesh with butter, half and half, sour cream, cheese, salt, and pepper.
6. Fill the potato skins with the meat mixture, then top with mashed potatoes.
7. Sprinkle grated cheese on top if desired.
8. Bake at 375°F for 20-25 minutes, until golden and bubbly.
9. Garnish with chopped chives before serving.

Make the Filling

The hardest part of making this filling is chopping all of the vegetables. If this is a task you can complete ahead of time, it will be really quick and easy to make the filling.

To make the filling, brown the ground meat, onions, garlic, and peppers in a skillet over medium heat, about 7-8 minutes.

Stir in tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, spices, flour, and broth. Add frozen vegetables, Stir well and simmer until the mixture thickens, about 5-6 minutes.

Turn the heat off so the filling can cool slightly before filling the potatoes.

Prepare the Mashed Potatoes

Changing the mashed potato recipe is an area where you can save big on calories and fat content of this recipe, if you want. We love super rich and decadent mashed potatoes, so we went big in this recipe. If you prefer to be more health conscious, feel free to change up mashed potato ingredients to your liking.

To make preparing mashed potatoes super easy, we dump all ingredients in my big Bosch Mixer bowl and mix for a 2-3 minutes. Don’t worry about your butter not being fulling incorporated. It will melt in the potatoes as they bake.

Assemble the Potatoes

Once all of your recipe components are ready, it’s easy to assemble the potatoes.

• We found that 3/4 to 1 cup of meat filling is the perfect amount for the potato halves, but this will vary based on the size of your potatoes.
• After filling the potatoes with meat, top with about 1/2 cup of mashed potatoes.
• Sprinkle with cheese and then bake.
• After baking, top with fresh chives.

Variations on this Versatile Recipe

This dish is really easy to customize. Don’t like peppers? Leave them out. We like peppers, peas, carrots, green beans, and corn in our potatoes. Feel free to switch up the vegetables any way your family likes! Here are a few more ways you can customize this recipe to your taste preferences:

• Vegetarian Twist: Swap ground meat for lentils or mushrooms.
• Spicy Kick: Add diced jalapeños and use pepper jack cheese.
• Don’t like cheese? Leave the cheese out of the mashed potatoes.
• Want a more traditional shepherd’s pie? Use ground lamb instead of ground beef. I’ve made it both ways and we prefer the taste of ground beef to the lamb. We find lamb to be gamey. But again, you can sub and switch the meat however you prefer.

How to Freeze Shepherd’s Pie Twice Baked Potatoes

There are two ways to freeze these twice baked potatoes. Which method you choose will depend on how you want to use them down the road. When I make these for my kids to take to school, I make the recipe as written and finish the baking. I’ll flash freeze the potatoes so it’s easy for my kids to grab one to take to school.

If I want to have a frozen meal on hand for another day, I’ll make the recipe but not bake them. Instead, I’ll freeze them in a baking dish unbaked.

• To freeze, let them cool completely. It’s crucial to cool them down before freezing to maintain the texture and prevent excess moisture. Put them in the fridge to cool.
• Once cooled, it’s best to wrap each individual potato in plastic wrap or aluminum foil. This will help protect the potatoes from freezer burn and prevent them from sticking together.
• Place the wrapped potatoes into a large freezer-safe bagn (we love these reusable half gallon bags from Stasher) or airtight container.
• Don’t gorget to label the bag with the date and contents for easy identification later on.

For the best quality, eat the frozen Shepherd’s Pie Twice Baked Potatoes within 2-3 months. They will still be safe to eat after this time, but the texture and flavor might start to deteriorate.

How to Reheat the Twice Baked Potatoes

The day before you want to serve the unbaked twice baked potatoes, put them in the fridge and then bake the next day. If they’re not quite thawed, add additional baking time 10-15 minutes is usually enough.

To reheat an individual potato that’s already been baked, simply reheat in the microwave on high for several minutes until warm and bubbly.

What to Serve with Shepherd’s Pie Twice Baked Potatoes

These baked potatoes are almost a complete meal in one, but we recommend serving them with a fresh green salad, like our favorite wilted lettuce salad or a Greek-style cucumber salad.

For dessert, choose from our favorite Strawberry Shortcake or a rainbow fruit tray with strawberry chocolate fruit dip!

More favorite recipes that use Ground Beef

Beef Stroganoff for the freezer

Spaghetti & Meat Balls

Lasagna Soup

Hearty Hamburger Soup