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Just in case no one ever taught you how to make the best weeknight meal, I’m here with a printable recipe! This ground beef for tacos is something I make nearly once a week in my house. It’s a great skillet summer dinner recipe, and stores great in the freezer, too!
I’m going to preface this recipe by saying that I’m from Texas; I know a thing or two about tacos. We’ve been doing Taco Tuesday since we were tots—way before it was cool.
I’ve eaten quite literally thousands of tacos in my life. And while I grew up on a healthy mix of crispy ground beef tacos, soft chicken tacos, tiny taquitos, and puffy tacos, I have to admit that crispy beef tacos are my favorite.
Puffy tacos are something I don’t dare to make at home, even though I love frying. Have you ever read my manifesto on frying food on my Pork Schnitzel recipe? I don’t mind the splatter or smell of frying in my house—I don’t bring fear with me into the kitchen. But there’s just something about holding a taco shell in the perfect place to make it fold over that keeps me from making puffy tacos at home. I do eat them out around town in Dallas and Austin quite a bite—ask me for a puffy taco restaurant recommendation, I dare you.
The best Taco Meat Recipe
Crispy beef tacos taste like home to me. The shells must be super thin and crispy, and the toppings must be ice cold. Thinly shredded lettuce, thick-grated cheddar cheese, and big scoop of pico de gallo or finely diced tomatoes are my choices. Sour cream is optional on top, but I’ve never loved the way it cools down my whole taco.
This brings us to the spicy beef at the bottom. It’s the first thing we put into a taco, and the first thing we taste.
Ground beef for tacos should be moist, subtly spicy and have a strong enough flavor to carry itself. Great ground beef for tacos is welcome to be rolled into a corn tortilla, drenched in sauce and baked into enchiladas.
In short, don’t trust people not from Texas to make you ground beef for tacos. However, if your life is lacking a texan, please, let me be the Texan to share my recipe with you.
Taco Meat Ingredients
- Olive Oil. You need a small amount of oil to sear the ground beef. I use regular (not extra-virgin) olive oil, but anything you like to sear meat in is fine here (even butter!).
- Ground Beef. Ground beef that is 80% lean with 20% fat makes the best ground beef tacos. You can use 90% or even 97%, the choice is yours, but the lower the fat percentage, the less delicious, in my opinion.
- Tomato Paste. One tablespoon of tomato paste brings some acidity to the dish and a bit of moisture in the pan. Be sure to cook the tomato paste on its own with the beef in the pan for a few minutes before adding the spices so that the flavor caramelizes.
- Chili Powder. Chili powder is NOT the same as chilE powder. Chili powder is a spice blend; chilE powder is a single type of chile pepper dried and ground up. Grab a jar of chili powder–Gebhardt’s is my favorite, but anything will work. You need 2 teaspoons for this recipe, because we’re adding additional spices.
- Ground Cumin. Instead of adding ground cumin, garlic powder and oregano, you could just add an extra tablespoon of chili powder. But, my preference is one teaspoon of ground cumin seed for extra smokiness.
- Garlic Powder. One teaspoon of garlic powder, or 1 clove of garlic, finely minced.
- Onion Powder. One teaspoon of onion powder or 1/4 of a small onion, finely diced.
- Dried Oregano. My first choice is Mexican dried oregano, but whatever you have is fine.
- Salt.
- Pepper. This recipe needs freshly ground black pepper, and you can also add red pepper flakes if you want spicy taco meat.
Instructions
Preheat a 10″ cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the olive oil and heat until shimmering. Add the ground beef, tomato paste, and all spices to the skillet.
Cook over medium-high heat while breaking it up with a spoon occasionally. After about 7-9 minutes, the beef will no longer be pink in the middle. Serve immediately in crispy taco shells with taco toppings.
How to upgrade your taco (free tips from a Texan):
- smear refried beans in the taco shell before adding the fillings
- smear refried beans on the outside of the taco shell, and then wrap it in a soft flour tortilla
- preheat your taco shells in the oven (never the microwave) before adding the fillings
- find the smallest, thinnest taco shells you can find (this is the brand I like)
- keep the taco shell and ground beef hot and the rest of the fillings cold
One final taco tip: if you have leftovers, the best way to reheat is to scrape out the cold fillings, re-heat the shell and meat, and then pile the cold fillings back inside.
Beef Taco Recipe FAQs
One pound of taco meat makes 8 generously filled tacos with all of the toppings. So, for my family, that’s 2 tacos per person. I serve with this recipe for black beans and rice.
This ground beef for tacos recipe has its own taco seasoning built into the recipe, but if you want to skip all of it, you can just use 2 tablespoons of a store-bought pre-mixed taco seasoning packet.
Ground Beef for Tacos
Perfect ground beef for tacos; recipe from a real Texan!
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound ground beef (80% or 90% lean is perfect)
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat a 10" cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the olive oil and heat until shimmering.
- Add the ground beef, tomato paste, and all spices to the skillet.
- Cook over medium-high heat while breaking it up with a spoon occasionally. After about 7-9 minutes, the beef will no longer be pink in the middle.
- Serve immediately in crispy taco shells with taco toppings, or store in freezer-safe plastic bags for up to 3 months until ready to eat.*
Notes
*To reheat frozen taco meat, place it in a hot skillet with a few tablespoons of water and heat through.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
6Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 236Total Fat: 16gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 8gCholesterol: 67mgSodium: 450mgCarbohydrates: 2gFiber: 1gSugar: 0gProtein: 21g
*laughs uncontrollably* LEFTOVER tacos. This would legit never happen in my house. I can eat so many more tacos than I really should. Do I feel bad about this? Maybe a little. Will I stop and try and eat less? Probably not.
I was always the only crispy shell fan in my family growing up. I always loved them as they were but I can still remember the first time I noticed the “instructions” on the box about heating them up in the oven a bit before using them and thought, weird, I’ll have to give that a try. And then my mind was blown. Ugh. So good.
Thanks for being my Texan!
Absolutely perfect timing on this recipe. We’re having my sons graduation party on Sunday and he wanted walking tacos. We’re expecting 100 or so people and figured 30-40 pounds of ground beef and will calculate the spices accordingly. To save time and energy I was thinking about cooking the taco meat in a Nesco roaster. How do you think that would turn out?
Kari – I hope you tried this. My mama cooked chili in hers every year for the school carnival hot dogs for 12 years, and then my cousin used it for her kids’ school carnivals for another 8 years.
Hmm I haven’t seen tomato paste in a tube. I wish I could remember where I saw it to give credit… but any time I open a can, I just use my smallest cookie scoop to scoop out ~1 tbsp scoops onto either a silpat on a cookie sheet or wax paper on a plate, stick it in the freezer until firm, then toss all the little blobs in a container or ziplock bag. Boom – 1 tbsp portions available any time I need them, and they can be tossed directly into the pan from the freezer.
Anne, I love your tomato paste hack! I never liked using the can because if I didn’t use the whole amount, the rest would go bad. BTW – I find tubed tomato paste and Trader Joes and Whole Foods.
Christina, thanks for the true-Texan taco meat recipe! It’s definitely going into my dinner rotations.
I added tomato paste to my taco meat and WHAT A DIFFERENCE IT MAKES. This is so good. Whoever came up with the idea of putting tomato paste in a tube deserves the highest kitchen award.
My recipe for the seasoning is about the same. Just use some chopped onion and a jalapeno instead of red pepper flakes. For those non-existent left-overs (you may want to make extra) we combine the meat that’s left with whatever beans are left and freeze in 1/2 cup portions. We use them for taco omelets especially when we’re camping, just add shredded cheese and salsa or go all out with toppings. I’m not a real Texan, but I lived there for 7 years.
This sounds DELICIOUS! Thanks for the tips! You’re an honorary Texan :)
I made this tonight, and as a fellow Texan I can confirm that this is the real deal! This will definitely be on repeat in our house. Thanks for sharing your recipe!
I love you, Michelle :)
I love puffy tacos too! Have you tried them at La Posada on Manchaca in Austin? They are my favorite!
I have a question – by chili powder –
Do you mean chipotle chili powder ? Is there a difference!? Thanks for any advice
Chili powder is a blend of spices. It’s usually cumin, ground chiles, and salt. Chile is a pepper; chili is a blend. Does this make sense? At the grocery store, the bottle will say ‘chili powder.’
The chipotle bottle will say ‘chipotle chilE powder.’ And don’t buy that–it’s SUPER SPICY!
Finally got the chance to make this last night! I live in Spain and crispy taco shells are kind of difficult to come by so I bought tortilla chips with the intention of making nachos instead. Then I realized I also had 2 leftover flour tortillas in the fridge. My husband and I ended up having nachos and a soft taco each – both were delicious and everything came together very quickly! Thank you for sharing, this recipe is going in the favorites folder :)
I made this taco meat recipe last night and it is so good! It’s a keeper! Thank you!