Spicy Ground Beef

Taco night on a budget! Ground beef, jalapeños, onion, tomato, garlic, spices. Add some tortillas and some toppings to the mix and you got yourself a taco night! This is also a great one-pan meal.

I swear I make this once a week. It’s easy, fast, cheap, and delicious. You can easily eat this as tacos, tostadas, tortas, by its self with a spoon. Ha!

I also think that having good quality ground beef is super important. I’ve encountered bad ground beef with bones ground into it. So unpleasant. Probably made from crappy parts of the cow too, not cool.

How do I prevent my beef from becoming too dry?

Tomatoes. I’ve played around with how I layer this. I add the tomatoes at the end so they release their juice, but not evaporate out during the longer cooking time. I do this because getting the meat to brown gives it more flavor, in my opinion.

Can I use a meat substitute?

Yeah, of course. Follow the proper cooking instructions according to the package and once your at the “browning” point continue with this recipe from there.

Step by Step Process

Dice your tomato, onion, jalapenos and mince your garlic. Set aside. We want to have these ready to go. If you find it easier, you can always chop and dice while your meat is cooking. If you’r like me and aren’t the best multi-tasker, do it before and have them ready to so your meat doesn’t burn while your chopping away.

To a pan on medium heat, add 1 tablespoon oil and add your ground beef .

Cook until the juices have evaporated and the meat has started to brown, about 15 minutes on medium heat. Make sure to really break up your meat or you’ll end up with big clumps of ground beef. Unless you’re into that, then that’s cool, leave the clumps 🙂

Now that your beef has browned, add the 1 teaspoon salt, the garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, cayenne, paprika, and black pepper. Mix that into your meat.

Add the onions and jalapenos to the pan and give it another good mix.

Cook until the onion has softened, about 3-5 minutes.

Add the remaining 1 teaspoon of salt, the tomatoes, and garlic, cook for another 1-2 minutes mixing it all in to incorporate.

The salt is to make sure the veggies get seasoned too and not just the meat.

Notes, Tips, & Ideas

• Feel free to tone down the spice by not adding as much jalapeño, cutting back on the cayenne and/or paprika.
• You can also go the opposite way and if you’d like it to be more spicy try adding in a bit more jalapeño and cayenne. Really turn up the heat!
• If you have another preference in meat, try with these spices and/or cooking method.
• If you don’t have all these spices on hand, you could always use a pack of the pre-mixed taco seasoning from the store.
• This would be awesome with some rice, beans, and salsa.

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