Hachis Parmentier (French Shepherd's Pie)
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Hachis Parmentier is a classic French dish that features a savory ground beef mixture covered by fluffy, cheesy mashed potatoes. Comforting, hearty, and so delicious.
Hachis Parmentier is the French version of the classic British Shepherd’s Pie, and is a staple on winter menus for good reason. Parmentier just means “with potatoes,” and that potato topping is so delicious that in France you’ll see all sorts of other versions of this dish, from Duck Parmentier to Fish Parmentier (that one really sounds better in French). But this one with ground beef is the classic, and I think you’ll enjoy it.
Table of contents
Why Make This Recipe
- Family-Friendly Meal: This beef parmentier has great flavor, but the ingredients are basic enough to please even picky eaters. You can also easily double the recipe if you have a large family, or have visitors in town.
- Freezes Well: This is one of those dishes that is perfect to make in advance, then freeze until you need it. Also excellent for potlucks or for bringing over to a family with a new baby or anyone else who just needs a little home-cooked love.
- Budget-Friendly: The basics of this dish, ground beef and potatoes, are some of the least expensive options at the grocery store. This hearty meal will really stretch your shopping dollar.
🥗 Ingredients
- Ground Beef: I prefer a very lean ground beef, so my beef mixture is not soupy at all after cooking. If yours is soupy after the meat has browned, just drain off some of the extra fat.
- Herbes de Provence: Feel free to replace Herbes de Provence with a different kind of herb. Dried thyme would be my first choice, though dried oregano or any Italian seasoning would work too.
- Parmesan Cheese: I always recommend grating your own Parmesan cheese, rather than buying pre-grated cheese. It has more flavor and will melt into your dish better than the pre-grated varieties.
- Potatoes: You can use whatever kind of potato you like to use for mashed potatoes. Generally, I look for something like a Yukon Gold. I recommend you avoid baking potatoes, as their high starch content makes them better for baking rather than mashing.
- Gruyère Cheese: Gruyère cheese is a classic in this dish, but you could replace it with Parmesan cheese instead. Or try a different French cheese like a Comté or an Emmental.
🥣 Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit/200 degrees Celsius. Peel and chop 1 small onion and 2 large carrots into very small pieces (about 1 cm chunks). Peel and finely chop 2 garlic cloves.
Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, and add chopped onion, garlic, and carrots. Sauté for 4 minutes, stirring frequently, until softened.
Add 2 ½ tablespoons tomato paste, ½ teaspoon herbes de provence, ½ teaspoon of kosher salt, and 1 ½ pounds lean ground beef. Cook for 8-10 minutes, until beef loses its pink color and is fully cooked.
While beef is cooking, peel 2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, and cut into large chunks. Then bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil, and add potato chunks. Boil potato chunks for 15-20 minutes, or until fully tender.
After the beef mixture has cooled for several minutes, season with salt and pepper. Now stir in 1 egg yolk, 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese, and 1 tablespoon chopped parsley. Pour meat mixture into an 8x8 baking dish or gratin dish.
When potatoes are done, drain them, then return to pan. Add 3 ½ tablespoons butter, 4 ounces milk, and ½ teaspoon of salt.
Mash with fork or with an electric mixer, until they have the consistency of mashed potatoes that you enjoy (they can be more rustic or more smooth, as you prefer!).
Taste and add more salt or pepper if necessary.
Spread potatoes on top of meat mixture in baking dish, then grate a little bit of nutmeg over the top (if you like). Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese and 3 tablespoons Gruyère cheese over the top.
Bake for 25-35 min, until Hachis Parmentier is hot and the cheese is beginning to brown on top.
🧐 Recipe FAQs
Yes, this is a very freezer-friendly dish. Bake, then wait for dish to cool completely before covering in plastic wrap, then foil. Store in the freezer for up to 3 months. Defrost in the refrigerator for 24 hours before reheating in a 375-degree oven.
Yes, this beef and mashed potato casserole is a great dish for make-ahead. You can make and assemble it completely, then cover with plastic wrap and keep in the refrigerator until you’re ready to bake. If you are baking your dish straight from the refrigerator, you’ll need to add 5 minutes or so to the bake time. Or, take out the dish 15-20 minutes before you are ready to bake to allow it to come back to room temperature before putting in the oven.
The two dishes are quite similar, and are also similar to Cottage Pie. All have a beef or lamb layer topped with mashed potatoes. Many experts say that technically a Shepherd's Pie uses lamb, while a Cottage Pie uses beef, so in that regard, the French Hachis Parmentier is closer to Cottage Pie.
Also, both Shepherd's Pie and Cottage Pie often contain more vegetables mixed in with the meat than in Hachis Parmentier. Finally, an egg yolk and lots of grated cheese is generally mixed with the mashed potatoes in Hachis Parmentier, which is not typical of Shepherd's Pie or Cottage Pie.
👩🍳 Expert Tips
If you want a saucier bottom layer of this dish, you can add beef broth or red wine to the beef mixture to build more of a gravy. Alternatively, if you prefer the bottom layer to be drier, or are worried that your beef is too saucy, you can add a layer of the potatoes on the bottom of your dish before adding the meat.
That will help absorb the liquid from the beef mixture so that you can easily scoop out portions when it’s time to serve.
Now that you know how to make the potato top, feel free to experiment with different versions of this dish. One option for the meat layer is to use the leftovers of a beef stew (pot au feu) on the bottom (or in the middle, if you want to sandwich it between potatoes).
You could also make a bottom layer with the meat from duck confit or from a lamb roast. Or, for a vegetarian version, you might try using sautéed wild mushrooms for the base of the dish.
You can also make the potato layer even more decadent by stirring in some caramelized garlic cloves. Find out how in my How to Roast Garlic post.
Wondering what to serve with Hachis Parmentier? There is lots of flavor going on in this comfort food dish, so I like to serve it with a green salad on the side. You might try this Kale Salad with Cranberries, this Pear Gorgonzola Salad with Glazed Walnuts, or this Classic Side Salad. Or make it a full France-inspired meal with this Endive Salad.
You could also just toss some salad greens with this Apple Cider Vinegar Salad Dressing or this Meyer Lemon Dijon Vinaigrette. Or, try this mashed potato casserole with these Green Beans Almondine.
Other Delicious French Recipes
If you enjoyed this dish, try my Tomates Farcies recipe or my Tarte aux Fraises. Or try one of these French-inspired recipes:
If you try this Hachis Parmentier recipe, I would love to hear from you! Leave a comment below—I read them all, and your feedback is invaluable to me.
And please follow along on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook or subscribe to my newsletter. I'd love to inspire you with more delicious, healthy, and seasonal recipes!
More Recipes to Try
📖 Recipe
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Hachis Parmentier
Ingredients
- 1 small onion
- 2 large carrots
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 pounds potatoes Yukon Gold preferred
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 ½ tablespoons tomato paste
- ½ teaspoon herbes de provence
- 1 ½ pounds lean ground beef
- 1 egg yolk
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese divided
- 1 tablespoon chopped parsley plus more to garnish
- 3 ½ tablespoons salted butter
- 4 ounces 2% milk
- 3 tablespoons grated Gruyère cheese
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Nutmeg clove optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit/200 degrees Celsius.
- Peel and chop onion and carrots into very small pieces (about 1 cm chunks). Peel and finely chop garlic cloves. Peel potatoes, and cut into large chunks.
- Heat olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, and add chopped onion, garlic, and carrots. Sauté for 4 minutes, stirring frequently, until softened.
- Add tomato paste, herbes de provence, ½ teaspoon of kosher salt, and ground beef. Cook for 8-10 minutes, until beef loses its pink color and is fully cooked.
- Meanwhile, bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil, then add potato chunks. Boil potato chunks for 15-20 minutes, or until fully tender.
- After the beef mixture has cooled for several minutes, season with salt and pepper. Now stir in egg yolk, 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, and chopped parsley.
- Pour meat mixture into an 8x8 baking dish or gratin dish.
- When potatoes are done, drain them, then return to pan.
- Add butter, milk, and ½ teaspoon of salt.
- Mash with fork or with an electric mixer, until they have the consistency of mashed potatoes that you enjoy (they can be more rustic or more smooth, as you prefer!). Taste and add more salt or pepper if necessary.
- Spread potatoes on top of meat mixture in baking dish, then grate a little bit of the nutmeg clove over the top (if you like).
- Sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese and the Gruyère cheese over the top.
- Bake for 25-35 min, until Hachis Parmentier is hot and the cheese is beginning to brown on top.
Notes
Nutrition
Instagram Users: Now that you've made this Beef Parmentier recipe, tag me @vanillabeancuisine or #vanillabeancuisine because I'd love to see your results!
More About Molly
Cooking healthy(ish) meals with seasonal ingredients is my passion. Trained as a French pastry chef, I spent over 10 years as a personal chef. Here you'll find well-tested recipes that you and your family will love!
This is the bomb! My first time to make a French dish from scratch and this one did not disappoint. This recipe is definitely a keeper!
thanks so much for letting me know! I really appreciate it, and so glad you loved this!
Excellent recipe! The instructions are spot on and the result was delicious. Very easy to follow.
When the potatoes were cooked I put them through a food mill (moulin legume). Quick and easy way to eliminate all lumps. This French version is wonderful.
Ooh yes, a food mill gives you such a lovely smooth texture!
Excellent. Baking potatoes are just fine IF you bake them instead of boiling them.
Good tip, JJ, thanks!
good recipe, but my very French grandma always made it with braised beef and more of stewed vegetables, then those vegetables were discarded the broth reserved and beef shredded(mashed by hand) sauteed onion, celery, carrots, and garlic was then mixed in with the beef and broth. Your recipe seems like a decent cheat when somebody doesn't have time or leftovers to make it traditionally.
Yes, for sure! I bet your grandma's recipe was absolutely delicious.
That'd be French Cottage pie, there's no lamb in it so no shephard in sight.
Yes, totally correct! I would change the title, but most people in the U.S. understand the term shepherd's pie but not cottage pie (and most of my readers are from the U.S.). Point taken though!
That would be no “shepherd” as in sheep herder. 😉
I've made this twice and my husband and I love it. I cooked the beef and vegetables in a large cast iron skillet and popped that into the oven once the potato layer was ready. Very flavorful!
How can a dish with beef be described as a “Shepherd’s Pie”.
This is always lamb.
Hey Bob, you'll find I discuss this in the FAQ section in the post.
Quite a dry recipe and hasn’t the richness of a true French sheapards pie. The taste was awesome but just not as rich and dense as recipients I’ve had before