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This cozy skillet ground beef pot pie recipe is full of meat, hearty vegetables, and savory gravy with a flaky crust. You can use homemade all-butter pie dough or simplify with your favorite store-bought pie crust, puff pastry, crescent rolls, biscuits, or leftover mashed potatoes on top.
This is an easy one-pan meal that’s sure to become a new favorite at your house! We start by browning ground beef in a cast iron skillet, and then add a variety of vegetables, pantry seasonings, and stock to make a rich brown pan gravy. After that, we top the filling with pie dough to get a crisp, flaky buttery crust, and pop it into the oven. The result is cozy, nourishing comfort food that’s perfect for warming up with on chilly evenings. If you like a good pot pie or meat pie, you’ll love this.
One of the things I love most about meals like this is that you don’t have to serve them with anything else. It’s a full meal in one, so dinner is simplified! But adding sides can be a good way to stretch the recipe, save money, and get more servings. If you’re wondering what side dishes go with beef pot pie, opt for a leafy green salad, steamed vegetable, or roasted vegetable. You could try a hearty salad like Italian kale white bean salad or make a lighter vegetable side dish like Polish green beans with a buttery breadcrumb topping.
Ingredients
Breaking It Down
Ingredients Explained
In this section I explain the ingredients and give substitution ideas where applicable. For the full recipe (including the ingredient amounts), see the recipe card below.
Crust Ingredients
- Flour – All-purpose flour is the base of the pie dough.
- Salt – So our crust isn’t bland.
- Unsalted butter – Chilled and diced. This lends rich flavor and crisp, flaky texture.
- Water – Make sure your water is ice-cold so it doesn’t melt the butter.
Ground Beef Pot Pie Filling Ingredients
- 85% lean ground beef – If you use hamburger meat that’s leaner than that, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil or avocado oil.
- Yellow onion – Helps create a rich, savory base flavor.
- Carrot – Adds earthy sweetness.
- Potatoes – Along with onion and carrots, potatoes are a classic pot pie ingredient. They make this dish satisfying and hearty, and bump up the vitamins, minerals, fiber content, and even protein. (TIP: Use organic potatoes and leave the peel on for the most fiber and nutrients.)
- Garlic – Garlic adds savory, aromatic complexity.
- Rosemary – Fresh rosemary adds a piney, bright flavor that enhances the gravy. Fresh is best here, but in a pinch you can use 1 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves (crush them gently with your fingertips before adding) instead of 1 tablespoon fresh minced rosemary.
- Flour – We use all-purpose flour to thicken the gravy.
- Beef stock – Or chicken stock or vegetable stock; whatever you have on hand will work!
- Tomato paste – Here we add just a touch of tomato paste for complex sweet, tangy flavor. It also deepens the color and helps thicken the gravy, creating a velvety smooth sauce.
- Worcestershire sauce – Adds savory umami depth.
- Dijon mustard – Adds a sharp bite for balance.
- Salt and black pepper – These pantry-staple seasonings make sure this recipe isn’t bland.
- Green peas – Use frozen peas and thaw them first. Avoid the canned ones, which will be mushy in this recipe.
Other Ingredients
- Egg – Beaten with 1 tablespoon water for the egg wash (to make the top beautifully golden and shiny).
Why Don’t We Add Butter Here to Make the Roux?
Normally, a roux is made of butter and flour cooked together. Then when you add stock, the roux acts as the thickening agent and turns it into gravy.
Here we don’t add butter or oil because we use 85% lean ground beef. As the meat browns, it renders its fat, which combines with the flour to thicken the gravy. If you use ground beef that’s leaner than 85%, add 2 tablespoons of oil.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Pie Dough
NOTE 1: To see step-by-step photos and a video for how to make pie dough, check out my pie dough post where I not only show you how to make it, but also share my best tips from the past 10+ years of experimenting!
NOTE 2: If you’re using a store-bought topping option (such as pie crust, puff pastry, crescent rolls, etc.) you can skip this step and start by making the filling.
- Make the pie dough. Whisk together the flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut in the butter with a fork, a pastry cutter, 2 butter knives, or your fingertips. It should look crumbly, with some pieces of butter the size of small peas. Drizzle the water in a little at a time, mixing as you go (you can use a fork to mix, but mixing with your fingertips works best here). Add just enough water so it comes together to form a ball of dough (you may need more or less water).
- Chill the pie dough. Shape the dough into a ball, flatten it slightly into a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until chilled, at least 30 minutes (or up to 3 days).
Step 2: Ground Beef Vegetable Pot Pie Filling
- Brown the beef and soften the vegetables. Heat a 12-inch cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add the ground beef, spreading it out in an even layer, and cook (uncovered) until browned, about 5 minutes, breaking up the meat into small crumbles as it cooks. Stir in the onion, carrot, and potato, cover the skillet, and cook until the veggies are starting to soften, about 5 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the aromatics and thickener. Turn the heat down to medium. Add the garlic and rosemary and cook 1 minute, stirring frequently. Sprinkle the flour onto the beef mixture, and stir it to incorporate; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.
- Add the liquid and seasonings. Stir in the beef stock and use a wooden spoon to scrape up the brown bits from the bottom. Stir in the tomato paste, Worcestershire, Dijon, salt, and pepper. Bring up to a boil, and cook 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat and stir in the peas.
Step 3: Bake
- Prep. Preheat the oven to 400F.
- Roll out the crust. Place the dough onto a floured work surface. Working from the center out, roll the dough out to a circle about 12 to 13 inches in diameter. Working quickly but carefully to avoid the butter melting as much as possible, fold the dough over onto itself, pick it up, and unfold it on top of the beef filling, tucking the outer portion under the filling or crimping if desired.
- Egg wash and vent the top. Lightly brush the dough with egg wash. Cut a few slits in the center of the top so steam can escape.
- Bake. Bake until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbling out of it, about 34 to 38 minutes. Let the pot pie cool for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.
Make-Ahead Option
If you want to meal prep, you can make this ahead of time! Store the filling in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
When you want to bake it, if it was frozen thaw the filling to room temperature, and if it was chilled in the fridge let it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. Add the crust on top as directed and bake. (TIP: You will likely need to increase the bake time because the filling will be room temperature, not hot. It’s done baking when the crust is golden and the filling is bubbling; if the crust is golden before the filling is bubbling, cover the top with foil to prevent over-browning.)
Pot Pie Topping Variations
The best way to vary ground beef pot pie is to switch up the topping! I’m partial to a flaky, crisp, buttery crust, but making the dough from scratch takes about 10 minutes, and then you’ll need another 30 minutes (minimum) for the dough to chill before you roll it out, which takes about another 10 minutes or so. To save yourself almost an hour, you can use a different topping.
If you want to make the quicker and easier version of this skillet pot pie, instead of homemade crust, here are a few other topping ideas:
- Puff pastry – If you don’t feel like making homemade pie dough, I recommend puff pastry or even crescent roll dough. Both of these options are as easy as store-bought pie dough (which will also work here!), but IMHO, much more delicious. In particular, puff pastry is good because of the crisp, flaky golden layers.
- Biscuits – Use your favorite homemade or store-bought biscuits on top. Garlic bread drop biscuits work well here!
- Mashed potatoes – With mashed potatoes on top, this casserole is similar to a cottage pie (a version of shepherd’s pie made with beef instead of lamb). And it’s a great way to use leftover mashed potatoes!
Storage
After cooling, store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
My Best Tips For This Easy Pot Pie Recipe
- You can bump up the veggies even more. A couple easy ways to do this are: 1) add 2 cups of sliced celery along with the onion, carrot, and potato, and 2) add 1 cup of thawed frozen corn (or drained canned corn) along with the peas.
- Use a large, heavy-bottomed, oven-safe skillet. It doesn’t have to be cast iron, but cast iron works perfectly here because it can go from the stovetop right to the oven.
- Don’t be scared of the brown caramelized bits on the bottom of the skillet, it’s not burned (I mean, unless it’s charred to a crisp, and trust me you’ll know the difference). Called “fond” (which is French for “bottom”, and in this context refers to the base flavor), those bits are created by the Maillard reaction and add a ton of depth. Scrape them up as you stir in the stock. If you’re wondering what the secret is to a rich, flavorful brown pan gravy, this is it!
Frequently Asked Questions
For this recipe, we use 85% lean ground beef. Instead of adding butter or oil to make the roux, we use the rendered fat from browning the beef. It simplifies the process and eliminates waste!
Note that other pot pie recipes may call for leaner ground beef and add butter or oil. Alternatively, some recipes may call for fattier ground beef and direct you to drain off the excess grease.
Traditional pot pie gravy contains roux (butter and flour) to thicken, stock (beef or chicken), and seasonings. Sometimes milk or cream is added, but that’s typically for chicken pot pie, not beef.
Here we thicken our beef pot pie filling with all-purpose flour. Also, a little bit of tomato paste adds depth, body, and velvety texture, helping to thicken the filling.
Instead of a regular double-crust pot pie, this is a skillet pot pie. We make the vegetable beef filling in a cast-iron skillet, add the dough on top, and bake.
This simplifies the process of making a pot pie because 1) we only need a top crust, and 2) we make everything in a single skillet (so there are less dirty dishes to clean!).
Additionally, a single crust instead of double crust reduces the carbs a bit, helping make this into a more nutritionally-balanced meal.
More Easy Ground Beef Dinner Recipes
- Crockpot Enchiladas (aka Ground Beef Slow Cooker Enchilada Casserole)
- Cabbage Vegetable Soup Recipe with Ground Beef
- Weeknight Sloppy Joe Casserole with Homemade Cornbread Topping
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Easy Skillet Ground Beef Pot Pie Recipe
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Ingredients
Top Crust (we don’t use a bottom crust here; also, see Notes for time-saving options):
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter chilled and diced
- 6 tablespoons ice water plus more as needed
Beef Filling:
- 1 pound 85% lean ground beef (see Notes)
- 1 cup chopped yellow onion
- 2 cups diced carrot
- 2 1/2 cups cubed potatoes about 375 grams (see Notes)
- 5 cloves garlic crushed
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary or 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 3 cups beef stock or chicken stock or vegetable stock
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 cup frozen green peas thawed
Other:
- 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water (for the egg wash)
Instructions
For the Crust:
- Make the pie dough. Whisk together the flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut in the butter with a fork, a pastry cutter, 2 butter knives, or your fingertips. It should look crumbly, with some pieces of butter the size of small peas. Drizzle the water in a little at a time, mixing as you go (you can use a fork to mix, but mixing with your fingertips works best here). Add just enough water so it comes together to form a ball of dough (you may need more or less water).
- Chill the pie dough. Shape the dough into a ball, flatten it slightly into a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until chilled, at least 30 minutes (or up to 3 days).
For the Beef Filling:
- Brown the beef and soften the vegetables. Heat a 12-inch cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add the ground beef, spreading it out in an even layer, and cook (uncovered) until browned, about 5 minutes, breaking up the meat into small crumbles as it cooks. Stir in the onion, carrot, and potato, cover the skillet, and cook until the veggies are starting to soften, about 5 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the aromatics and thickener. Turn the heat down to medium. Add the garlic and rosemary and cook 1 minute, stirring frequently. Sprinkle the flour onto the beef mixture, and stir it to incorporate; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.
- Add the liquid and seasonings. Stir in the beef stock and use a wooden spoon to scrape up the brown bits from the bottom. Stir in the tomato paste, Worcestershire, Dijon, salt, and pepper. Bring up to a boil, and cook 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat and stir in the peas.
To Bake:
- Prep. Preheat the oven to 400F.
- Roll out the crust. Place the dough onto a floured work surface. Working from the center out, roll the dough out to a circle about 12 to 13 inches in diameter. Working quickly but carefully to avoid the butter melting as much as possible, fold the dough over onto itself, pick it up, and unfold it on top of the beef filling, tucking the outer portion under the filling or crimping if desired.
- Egg wash and vent the top. Lightly brush the dough with egg wash. Cut a few slits in the center of the top so steam can escape.
- Bake. Bake until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbling out of it, about 34 to 38 minutes. Let the pot pie cool for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.
Video
Notes
- Time-Saving Crust Options: To simplify, you can use a store-bought pie crust, crescent roll dough, biscuit dough, or puff pastry. Another option (similar to shepherd’s pie) is to top this casserole with mashed potatoes.
- Ground Beef: If you use ground beef that’s leaner than that, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil or avocado oil. On the other hand, if you only have ground beef that’s fattier than that, use it and drain off all but 2 tablespoons of the rendered fat.
- Potatoes: I like to use yellow potatoes (such as Yukon Gold) here for two reasons: 1) they don’t break down/disintegrate in the filling the way that starchy potatoes (such as Russet) can, and 2) they have a thin skin so there’s no need to peel them, which is important because the peel holds the most nutrition.
- Storage: After cooling, store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is automatically calculated and should be used as an approximate.
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I’m the writer, recipe developer, photographer, and food stylist behind this blog. I love finding the human connection through something we all do every day: eat! Food is a common ground that we can all relate to, and our tables tell a story. It’s my goal to inspire you to get in the kitchen, try something new, and find a favorite you didn’t know you had.
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