Chicken & Vegetable Shepherd's Pie

To begin, no chickens were ‘herded’ in the making of this pie! It sounded a bit silly at first to call this easy peasy meal a Shepherd’s Pie. A traditional Shepherd’s Pie is made with lamb (or beef) mince but this particular night I had chicken mince and not a lot else to go with it other than a whole heap of vegetables. Chicken & Vegetable Shepherd’s Pie was the best option.

To start, get some potatoes on to boil and brown an onion and the chicken mince in a pan.

Add whatever vegetables you have. I added grated zucchini and carrot and chopped capsicum.

Once the vegetables have slightly softened, add a sprinkling of flour, salt and pepper and a cup of chicken stock. Allow that to thicken and pour into a shallow baking dish.

Top with mashed potato. You can pipe it on, if you have time or if you’re like me and always in a hurry, I just run a fork along the top before popping in the oven.

Bake in the oven until crunchy and golden on top.

This is such a tasty dish and a great one for the whole family. Even my fussy lot devoured it. Something to do with my daughter loving chicken I think. If it involves chicken and potato, I’m on a winner with her.

Don’t forget the sauce! I love tomato sauce (ketchup) on any kind of pie. 

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Chicken & Vegetable Shepherd's Pie

A quick and easy mid week meal that the whole family will love using plain chicken mince, leftover vegetables and topped with creamy mashed potato.

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Servings 6

Author Anne

Ingredients

• chicken mince
• carrot grated
• zucchini grated
• capsicum chopped
• brown onion chopped
• extra virgin olive oil for frying
• 2 cloves garlic crushed
• potatoes boiled and mashed with seasoning, milk and butter
• 1 tbs plain flour
• salt & pepper
• 1 cup chicken stock

Instructions

1. Brown onion in a little olive oil.
2. Next, brown chicken mince.
3. Add vegetables, garlic, salt and pepper.
4. Sprinkle 1 tbs plain flour on top and stir until well combined.
5. Add 1 cup chicken stock and stir until sauce is thickened.
6. Pour chicken and vegetable mixture in a baking dish.
7. Top with mashed potato and using a fork, make a pattern in the top of the potato.
8. Bake in a 170 deg C oven until brown on top.

Recipe Notes

You can use any kind of ground meat in this recipe.
Change the potato to sweet potato, mashed pumpkin, or other root vegetable.
You could also adapt this for the slow cooker except the mashed potato won't be brown on top. Put all the chicken and vegetable ingredients in to cook for 3 hours on high. Add mashed or thinly sliced potato and cook on high for a further 1 hour.

 

What to make with 1kg (2lbs) ground beef

This month’s “The Ironing Chef” isn’t so much about what to do with 1 kilo (or 2 lbs) of ground beef because we all know what to do with it. It’s about how you can take advantage of cooking it all up at once and preparing a few meals in advance.

I can purchase a kilo or two of beef mince on special most days and I have to admit it’s probably the cheapest thing on the market. The cheaper varieties do contain a bit more fat so if you can purchase the leaner mince on special that will be much better economically and health-wise. For a family of 2 adults and 2 children, I can get 5 meals out of a kilo of mince. You can apply this same principle to beef, chicken, pork, veal, lamb or turkey mince. It saves you a huge amount of time and dinner is ready in a flash.

 

I start by browning 1 or 2 brown onions in a little olive oil then add the mince with a lot of salt and pepper and 1 or 2 crushed cloves or garlic to taste. I add 1 or 2 jars of passata or 2 cans of tomatoes

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with an extra can of water and allow it to cook through. That’s it. I’ve always stretched my meat a lot further but bulking it out with grated vegetables, pulses and/or extra sauce. You can freeze this in 4 or 5 equal serves, depending on how big your family is, in a container or ziplock bag and take out as required. You can also double the mixture for even more basic freezer meals. It’s from this basic mixture that you can make anything you like. I’ve listed a few options below but basically, any dish that requires ground meat in a tomato sauce can be created.

 

If you’re cooking a Mexican inspired dish, add ground cumin, coriander, paprika and/or chilli. If it’s an Italian dish, add dried herbs like basil and oregano. If it’s Greek, add oregano and a dash of cinnamon. Spice it up to your heart’s desire, depending on the cuisine. This basic mix makes a great topping for a quick, hearty nachos too.

 

 

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