What do you get when you cross Yorkshire Pudding with Shepherd’s Pie? Shepherd’s Pie Yorkies! The meat mixture similar to a Shepherd’s Pie is stuffed into an oversized Yorkshire Pudding, then topped with fluffy mashed potatoes and baked in the oven. This is a great way to use up leftover roast beef but you can use deli meat or ground beef and they’re just as good.
I had Shepherd’s Pie Yorkies at a British Pub, The Gibbled Goose, a few years ago and have been wanting to make them for ages. They were served as an appetizer with 3 little stuffed yorkshire puddings. I thought these would be awesome in an oversized Yorkshire Pudding so you could get more filling inside. And what do you know, I found double sized muffin tins at a thrift shop and I knew I had to grab them! If you don’t have muffin tins this size you could use similar sized ramekins.
Jump to RecipeHow to make Stuffed Yorkshire Pudding
The first step is making the Yorkshire Pudding. This recipe will make about 12 muffin tin sized or 6 double sized yorkies. You might be thinking that your yorkshires haven’t always puffed up but this foolproof recipe will change your mind. The secret is 4 eggs. When they’re finished baking they may be puffed up inside. Just give them a few pokes with a fork so they deflate, creating a perfect cavity for stuffing. Make the filling while they’re baking.
Chop cooked roast beef or good quality deli meat into small chunks. Or, cook some ground beef which is actually what’s in Shepherd’s Pie. Add a big spoonful of flour and butter to a pot over medium heat. Once it’s melted and starting to bubble, pour in beef broth and stir until thickened. Add your chopped beef along with some Worcestershire sauce and, yes, ketchup! Then, put frozen peas and carrots in a strainer and run very hot water over them for a minute or so to remove any ice. This also helps defrost them. Add the veggies to the meat mixture and let it simmer away until you’re ready to stuff the Yorkies.
You want the potatoes on top to be light and fluffy, so adding milk and whipping them with a hand mixer softens them up perfectly. And what else goes better with roast beef than horseradish? Adding some to the potato mixture gives that hint of flavour without any heat. I personally wouldn’t mind the heat but I can’t seem to find hot horseradish anymore anyway.
Yorkshire Pudding cooks at a very high temperature so turn the oven down after they’re cooked. Take the yorkies out of the pan and place them in a baking dish. Spoon a generous amount of meat mixture into each one and don’t worry about overflow. That’s why you don’t make them in the muffin pan. By the time you’re finished stuffing and topping them it should be the right temperature for baking.
How to top Shepherd’s Pie Yorkies
There’s no fancy piping bag required to top these Shepherd’s Pie Yorkies. I mean, you can if you want to, but the technique I learned for topping Shepherds Pie works so well, why change it? Just use a fork to poke some holes and mess up the top so you get lots of peaks. Then watch the magic happen as they bake. You’ll get gorgeous crispy brown bits all over the top!
Bake the Shepherd’s Pie Yorkies until they’re hot and bubbling. Since everything is already warm you only need about 20-25 minutes until they’re perfect.
You could use leftovers from a roast beef dinner to make a few Shepherd’s Pie Yorkies but trust me, it won’t be enough. You’ll want to make a full batch.
Here’s the recipe:
Shepherd's Pie Yorkies
Ingredients
Shepherd's Pie Filling
- 1 Tbsp flour heaping tablespoon
- 1 Tbsp butter heaping tablespoon
- 1 ½ cups beef broth
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 Tbsp ketchup
- 1 ½ cups chopped cooked roast beef or deli meat or cooked ground beef
- 1 cup frozen peas and carrots rinsed well with hot water
- pinch of salt amount of salt depends on sodium in beef broth
- fresh cracked black pepper
Yorkshire Pudding
- 4 large eggs
- ¾ cup whole milk
- 1 Tbsp whole milk
- 2 tsp water if using 2% milk, dilute with only 1 tsp water and use milk for remaining liquid measurement. If using 1%, no need to dilute.
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 2 tsp all purpose flour
- pinch of salt
- 6 tsp meat drippings, lard or shortening
Whipped Potato Topping
- 3 cups mashed potatoes about 5-6 medium boiled potatoes
- ½ cup milk, or enough to make potatoes very soft
- 1 Tbsp horseradish
- pinch of salt
Instructions
Yorkshire Pudding
- Whisk together eggs, milk, water, flour and salt. Refrigerate until 30 minutes before cooking.
- While batter is returning to room temperature, preheat oven to 450°. Place 1 tsp fat in each of 6 oversized muffin tins or ramekins. If using regular muffin sized tins, place ½ tsp in each.
- Heat pan in oven until oil is hot and smoking, about 10 minutes. Give batter a quick whisk and pour evenly into tins. Bake for 22-24 minutes if making larger sized or 17-18 minutes for smaller, until puffed up and browned.
- While cooling, poke a few holes in the bottom with a fork to help deflate and create a cavity for stuffing.
- Reduce heat to 350°.
Shepherd's Pie Filling
- While yorkshires are baking, melt butter and combine with flour in pot over medium heat until frothy and golden. Add beef broth and stir until thickened and bubbling.
- Reduce heat to medium-low and add chopped beef, Worcestershire and ketchup. Taste and season with salt and pepper, keeping sodium content of broth in mind for amount of salt required.
- Rinse frozen peas and carrots under very hot water until no ice remains and veggies are starting to defrost. Add to beef mixture and allow to simmer.
Whipped Potato Topping
- Boil potatoes until fork tender. Drain well. Add most of milk and beat with a hand mixer until creamy and fluffy. Add more milk if required for best consistency. Beat in horseradish and salt.
Assemble Shepherd's Pie Yorkies
- Remove baked yorkies and place in baking dish without overcrowding. Spoon generous amount of beef mixture into each one.
- Spoon potato mixture into a large freezer bag and snip a small corner from the bottom. Squeeze mixture on top of stuffed yorkies in a circular pattern starting from the outside edge. Or spoon mixture over top evenly.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350° until top is starting to brown and filling is hot.
other leftover meat ideas
Chicken and White Bean Enchiladas
Chicken and Rice with Tomato Skillet Dinner
I would love this!
They’re so good. And they really are easy, although the recipe looks long. It’s just wordy.
OMG! This is a combination of a couple of our favourites. Will attempt these very soon!
Thanks for the recipe!
M
Well let me know when you make them and I’ll be right over!
This is definitely a must try recipe. It reminds me of my grandparents!
Those are the best kind of memories!
I’ve never made this so I’m just confused. Do you bake them twice? Make the Yorkshire’s as normal then add the filling and bake again? Won’t them be over done? Thank you for your help.
Sorry for the confusion. Yes, they are pre baked. My Yorkies are quite eggy (are they popovers or Yorkshires???) so they get a little soft as they cool anyway. Filling and baking again actually helps crisp them up nicely. Since they’ve got filling and are topped with mashed potatoes they don’t really have a lot of exposed area to get overly crispy. I would highly recommend making extra large Yorkies so you can get lots of filling inside if you have the right pans.
Otherwise you can use regular sized leftover baked Yorkshires and just eat more! haha.
You apparently know nothing about food. Shepherd’s Pie is NOT made with beef!
You are correct. Traditional Shepherd’s Pie is made with lamb. I do state this in the written portion of my post for Shepherd’s Pie but did not in this post. We all know most people skip right to the recipe anyway. But thank you for your kind comment.