Ground Beef Recipes for Dinner: 25-Minute Cheesy Taco Skillet

Oct 14

3 min read

Updated: 15 hours ago

One pan cheesy ground beef taco skillet with black beans, corn and melted cheddar, topped with cilantro

One pan, 25 minutes, under $10 for four

Taco night without the assembly line. Everything goes into one skillet — seasoned ground beef, black beans, corn, a little tomato — and the cheese melts over the top in the last two minutes under a lid. It feeds four for under ten dollars, and the only thing that touches the table besides the pan is a bag of chips.

▸ Get the full family dinner cookbook

Why this one works

Mixing your own taco seasoning costs pennies and skips the anti-caking starch that makes packet versions gluey.
Draining the fat but leaving about a tablespoon behind is what keeps the beans from tasting dry.
The lid on at the end steams the cheese into a proper melted blanket instead of browning it.

At a glance

Prep time: 8 min
Cook time: 17 min
Total time: 25 min
Yield: 4 servings
Protein: 38g per serving
Calories: 548 per serving

Ingredients

Skillet

1 lb (450g) lean ground beef, 85/15
1 tbsp olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup frozen corn
1 can (10 oz) diced tomatoes with green chilies, undrained
1/2 cup beef broth or water

Taco seasoning

Save This Recipe Collection

1 tbsp chili powder
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

To finish

1 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar or a Mexican blend
Chopped cilantro
Sliced green onions
Sour cream and lime wedges, to serve

Instructions

Brown the beef properly. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high. Add the ground beef and break it into large chunks, then leave it alone for 3 minutes so it browns on one side before you stir. Keep going about 7 minutes total until no pink remains.
Drain most of the fat. Tip off the rendered fat but leave roughly a tablespoon in the pan. That fat carries the spices and keeps the beans from drying out.
Soften the onion. Add the diced onion to the beef and cook 4 minutes until translucent, then add the garlic for one more minute.
Bloom the spices. Add all the seasoning directly onto the hot beef and stir constantly for 60 seconds. It should smell toasted — this is the step that makes homemade seasoning beat a packet.
Simmer everything together. Add the beans, corn, tomatoes with their juice and the broth. Bring to a simmer and cook uncovered 5 to 6 minutes, stirring now and then, until the liquid reduces and the mixture thickens enough to hold a spoon upright.
Melt the cheese. Scatter the cheese evenly over the top, cover the skillet with a lid and kill the heat. Leave it 2 minutes — the residual steam melts the cheese into a smooth layer.
Serve from the pan. Top with cilantro and green onions and bring the skillet to the table with sour cream, lime and tortilla chips.

Notes and swaps

Scoop it into warm tortillas, over rice, or straight onto tortilla chips for nachos.
Ground turkey works identically; add an extra tablespoon of oil since it is leaner.
Leftovers keep 4 days and reheat well with a splash of water to loosen.