Pulled Pork Shepherd's Pie

Pulled pork shepherd's pie is what to make with the pulled pork left over from a cookout. Warm about 4 cups of it in a skillet with onion, corn and a little barbecue sauce, spread it in a baking dish, cover it with buttery mashed potatoes, and bake at 400 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes, until the top is golden and the edges bubble. It makes a full dinner for six.

Strictly speaking, shepherds kept sheep, so a classic shepherd's pie is made with lamb, and the ground beef version is called cottage pie. With smoky pulled pork underneath, most cooks just call it shepherd's pie, and the idea is the same: a savory, saucy filling under a lid of mashed potatoes that browns in a hot oven. The cottage pie guide below makes the beef version.

At a glance: serves 6. Prep 25 minutes with pulled pork on hand, cook about 55 minutes, rest 10 minutes.

Gray Shipley, who runs the farm, was asked what the farm's motto, no shortcuts, means. Part of his answer:

“If it's the right way, uh, that's what no shortcuts is, is, um, we'll put in the extra effort to do things right.”

Gray Shipley

He was talking about how the farm works, not about supper, and a pie made from leftovers can look like exactly the kind of shortcut he meant. Here the long work is simply done ahead: the pork underneath was cooked low and slow for hours, and the topping is real potatoes, boiled and mashed by hand rather than poured from a box.

Ingredients

• 4 cups cooked pulled pork, about 1 1/4 pounds
• 1/2 cup barbecue sauce, plus more to serve
• 1/2 cup low-sodium chicken stock or saved pork juices
• 1 tablespoon butter or neutral oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 cups corn kernels, frozen or cut from 2 ears
• 2 1/2 pounds russet or Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt for the potato water, plus more to taste
• 4 tablespoons butter, for the mash
• 3/4 cup whole milk, warmed
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar (optional)
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced, to serve

Instructions

1. Put the potatoes in a large pot, cover them with cold water by an inch, and add the tablespoon of salt. Bring to a boil, then simmer until a knife slides in with no resistance, 15 to 20 minutes.
2. While the potatoes cook, heat the oven to 400 degrees. Melt the tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium heat, add the onion, and cook, stirring now and then, until soft and golden at the edges, 6 to 8 minutes. Stir in the garlic for 30 seconds.
3. Add the pulled pork, corn, barbecue sauce and stock. Stir and cook until everything is hot and the pork is coated in a loose sauce, about 5 minutes. It should be saucy, not soupy. Taste, add salt if it needs it, and spread the filling evenly in a 9-by-13-inch baking dish.
4. Drain the potatoes well and return them to the hot pot over low heat for a minute to steam off the last of the water. Mash them with the 4 tablespoons of butter, then beat in the warm milk and the pepper. Season with salt to taste.
5. Spoon the mashed potatoes over the filling, starting around the edges so they seal it in, then spread them to cover. Drag a fork across the top to make ridges that will brown. Scatter the cheddar over, if using.
6. Set the dish on a rimmed sheet pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the filling bubbles at the edges and the top is golden. An instant-read thermometer in the center should read 165 degrees F, the USDA FSIS figure for casseroles. For a darker top, broil for 2 to 3 minutes, watching closely.
7. Let the pie rest for 10 minutes so the filling settles, then scatter with the scallions and serve with extra barbecue sauce at the table.

Add 1 boneless pork butt roast to cart

Starting from a pork butt

This pie is built on leftover pulled pork, and the cart button above does not buy pulled pork. It adds one raw boneless pork butt roast, the cut pulled pork is made from, which you need to cook first, a day or more ahead. If you already have pulled pork in the fridge or freezer, skip this part.

To cook the roast, rub it all over with salt, pepper, a little brown sugar and paprika. Set it in a roasting pan with 1/2 cup of water, cover tightly with foil, and roast at 275 degrees for 3 hours, then uncover and keep roasting until it pulls apart with a fork, roughly 1 1/2 hours per pound in all. It is safe to eat once it reaches 145 degrees F and rests 3 minutes, but it will not shred until about 195 to 205 degrees F. Rest it for 20 minutes, pull it into shreds, discard the large pieces of fat, and stir in some of the pan juices.

A boneless pork butt loses roughly half its weight as it cooks. Measure out 4 cups for this pie and save some juices for the filling. Refrigerate the rest within two hours of cooking, or pack it flat in freezer bags for sandwiches later.

Mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes?

Russets make the fluffiest mash and Yukon Golds the creamiest; either works. Sweet potatoes are the other good choice with barbecue, since their sweetness sits well next to smoke and a tangy sauce. Use the same weight, peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks. They cook faster, in 12 to 15 minutes, and they are wetter, so mash them with the butter and only a few tablespoons of milk, and add a pinch of cayenne or smoked paprika.

How much barbecue sauce?

Less than you might think. The pork should be coated, not swimming, or the filling turns sweet and loose and the potatoes sink into it. Half a cup for 4 cups of pork is plenty, with more at the table for anyone who wants it. A thin vinegar sauce and a thick tomato sauce both work. If your leftover pork was already sauced, cut the sauce here to 1/4 cup and let the stock loosen it instead.

Make ahead and leftovers

You can assemble the pie, let it cool, cover it and refrigerate it for up to a day before baking. Bake it straight from the fridge, adding 10 to 15 minutes, and check that the center reaches 165 degrees F. Refrigerate leftovers within two hours. Reheat a portion covered with foil in a 350-degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or in the microwave, until it is hot all the way through and reads 165 degrees F in the middle.

Food safety

USDA FSIS lists 145 degrees F, followed by a rest of at least 3 minutes, as the safe minimum internal temperature for pork roasts, which a pork butt passes long before it is tender enough to pull. Casseroles and leftovers should reach 165 degrees F, so check the center of the pie with an instant-read thermometer before serving, and again whenever you reheat it. Keep raw pork, and anything it has touched, away from food that will not be cooked. See the FSIS Safe Minimum Internal Temperature Chart.