The Best Ground Beef Taco Meat {20-Minute Meal}
This is the best ground beef taco meat! Made from scratch with every day pantry spices, it is so flavorful and perfect for tacos or salads.
This recipe has been our go-to when we make ground beef tacos for over a decade! With hundreds of 5-star reviews, it’s become a household favorite for many others, too.
Pantry-Friendly Spices for Homemade Taco Meat
This easy taco meat recipe can be made with ground beef or ground turkey. The real flavor is in the spices!
Taco Seasoning Ingredients:
- Onion: the onion cooks with the ground beef; white or yellow onions work great.
- Chili powder: different brands of chili powder will vary in flavor and heat, so use a brand you love. I almost always use Penzey’s “regular” chili powder or McCormick red chili powder.
- Ground cumin: this is a classic ingredient in homemade taco seasoning and adds a nutty, earthy flavor to the meat.
- Ground coriander: this adds a citrus-y flavor that helps balance the other rich taco seasoning flavors. Coriander is worth keeping on hand; here are all the recipes I use it in.
- Garlic: you can use fresh garlic or garlic powder.
- Salt + Pepper
- Tomato sauce: canned tomato sauce (do not sub in ketchup).
- Jalapeno: this is optional, but it adds delicious flavor, and you can moderate the heat by omitting the seeds and ribs of the jalapeno for less or heat or keeping them in for a spicier taco meat.
20-Minute Recipe
This homemade ground beef taco meat comes together quickly! It can be made start-to-finish in 20-minutes or less.
- Brown the groudn beef with the onion.
- Add the chili powder, cumin, coriander, garlic, salt, and pepper. Cook for a minute or so.
- Add the tomato sauce, water, and jalapenos. Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.
Add additional water or tomato sauce as the taco meat simmers, if needed.
Pro Tip: the taco meat can be prepared and cook/keep warm in a slow cooker for several hours!
Best Ideas for Serving Taco Meat
This taco meat is so versatile! It is delicious for so many meals:
- Soft shell tacos (are you team soft shell or team hard shell??)
- Hard shell tacos
- Taco salad
- Quesadillas (we love to use this taco meat stuffed in tortillas with cheese and refried beans and cooked on a griddle quesadilla-style)
- It is delicious subbed in for the meat in either of these crispy wrap recipes: crispy enchilada wraps or crispy beef and bean wraps
I haven’t made another recipe for homemade ground beef taco meat in almost two decades. This recipe really is the best!
I’ve been making this recipe for our family since late 2019, and it is amazing. We make it at least once a month (the kids start harassing me if I’ve gone too long without making it). I omit the jalapenos for the kids, but a good hot sauce helps to add heat for the adults. I’ve also found that we often use more than 8 ounces of tomato sauce, since we like to let it simmer longer to help the flavors deepen even more. We top with diced tomatoes, avocado, cheese, and cream cheese (and hot suace), and it’s a winner every time.
—Greg
What to Serve With This
- Fresh fruit, or this Honey Lime Fruit Salad
- Mexican Rice
- Taco shells and taco toppings
The Best Ground Beef Taco Meat
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef (or ground turkey)
- ½ to ¾ cup chopped white or yellow onion
- 1 to 3 garlic cloves, finely minced, or 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons ground coriander
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ to ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
- 1 jalapeño, finely minced, or 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- Taco shells
- Taco toppings of choice
Instructions
- In a large skillet over medium heat, add the ground beef, onion, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook, stirring often and breaking the meat into small pieces, until the meat is cooked through, 5-7 minutes.
- Off the heat, drain any excess grease, if needed.
- Return the skillet to the heat and stir in the garlic, chili powder, cumin, coriander, salt and pepper. Cook for about 30 seconds until the mixture smells fragrant.
- Add the tomato sauce and minced jalapeños, if using. Simmer the mixture for about 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season to taste with additional salt and pepper, if needed.
- Serve in taco shells with your choice of toppings (makes great taco salad, too!).
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Recipe Source: adapted from the Joy of Cooking
Recipe originally published April 2008; updated in 2017 and again in 2025 with new photos, commentary and recipe notes.
I quadrupled this recipe – thanks for the personal reply about multiplying up equally – for a family reunion. It was a massive hit! Everyone loved it, and I especially loved that 1) I could cook and freeze it beforehand, 2) it was a gluten-free meal thanks to the homemade seasoning blend, and 3) that it was hands down simple and delicious! It reheated from frozen beautifully with a bit of water to get it to the right consistency of sauce. Highly recommend for big groups or for every day family life.
Do you have any tips on reheating in an 18 quart electric roaster? I’m not sure how much it will hold or how long it will take to reheat. My only experience with the roaster was cooking the meat and it wanted to burn. Any guidance is appreciated!
Hi Andrea, I’ve used roasters to reheat meat – it helps to give yourself plenty of time and reheat on low (around 250 degrees) so the corners and edges don’t burn. Stir often, and it works great!
This is by far the best taco recipe out there! Simple ingredients we always have on hand. We’ve made this for a years and love how quickly it comes together.
Tastes so much better than a packet and only takes 30 more seconds to put together!
Great flavorful recipe! I used 2 TBLS. of your homemade taco seasoning as I didn’t have all the spice on hand. I cooked and froze the meat for quick weeknight dinners.
Thank you for this simple but awesome recipe. I finally found out what’s lacking in my dull, dry boring beef taco. I’m a follower now.
I’ve been making this recipe for our family since late 2019, and it is amazing. We make it at least once a month (the kids start harassing me if I’ve gone too long without making it). I omit the jalapenos for the kids, but a good hot sauce helps to add heat for the adults. I’ve also found that we often use more than 8 ounces of tomato sauce, since we like to let it simmer longer to help the flavors deepen even more. We top with diced tomatoes, avocado, cheese, and cream cheese (and hot suace), and it’s a winner every time.
We’ve been loving this for years! It’s ALWAYS a dinnertime success. I bought a giant 7-lb pack of hamburger from Costco and made it all into taco meat, divided them into dinnertime servings, and tossed them in the freezer for easy taco nights. I also just finished writing out the recipe (giving you credit!) for a bridal shower with recipe requests! Thanks so much for this deliciousness.
The best hamburger taco recipe. Im. Always looking for the best recipe of anything. I found this 3 months ago and yummy 5 plus stars
Made tacos I gave it a 10 rating. A lot better than using prepackaged seasoning. Was impressed with the recipe. Going to try her Lasagna. Would highly recommend her recipes.
These are so good! I have wanted to make our tacos healthier by using spices instead of a package and this was perfect! The flavor is so fresh and I love how moist they are. I add rotel, corn and black beans to my tacos to stretch the meat and add healthy ingredients and that worked for this recipe too – I didn’t have to make any adjustments. Thank you Mel! This is a new favorite.
I am curious…It doesn’t look like you used your homemade taco seasoning in this. If you didn’t, why not? Also, if using your homemade taco seasoning, how much do you use?
You could use about 2 tablespoons if using taco seasoning (homemade or not).
Out of the 8 of us only 3 liked the meat. 🙁 We love tacos and eat them a lot. Just didn’t work for my kids. My husband loved the flavor and wants them again. I may try it without the tomato sauce and see if the kids will eat it that way. I love this site and we use it all the time. This one just didn’t quite work for all of us.
this is the most awful stuff i have ever tried to eat. Folks do not add tomato sauce to taco meat. It turns it into ill flavored spaghetti sauce.
Maybe something was off with your tomato sauce?? This is far and away the best taco meat we’ve ever had! I’ve had people rave about it when I’ve made it. Doesn’t taste anything like spaghetti sauce to us….
After making this again last night, I am wondering if you need to double check the freshness/quality of your spices?
Or, did you add pasta sauce instead of just plain, non flavored tomato sauce?
To make this meal stretch further, I double the spices (except the chili powder…we are spice wimps) and tomato sauce, and add in a 15-oz can of drained pinto beans to the meat after it’s done cooking. Once the beans are heated through, I mash the whole thing with a potato masher. You seriously can’t tell that there are beans in there and no one but my husband and I are the wiser. Our family of 6 used to go through this recipe in one sitting, but now with adding the beans and extra sauce, it is enough for us to split it in half and have it for two meals. Which is awesome.
Thanks for this tip! I had a crowd tonight so I doubled the original recipe, added an extra 8oz can of tomato sauce and 2 cans of pinto beans (added after meat was cooked) and mashed liked you suggested. Super tasty and a great way to stretch the meat.
MY MISTAKE!! I just posted saying the dish came out too sauce-y, too tomato-y… but it’s my fault. I just checked the 2 cans I used and they each contained 15 ounces (!). Duh! In doubling the recipe, I used 2 lbs beef, etc. One can of sauce would have been just fine. Apologies!!!
Just made this tonight. Overall, a definite success. Next time I make it, I will definitely use only half the amount of tomato sauce because it was just too saucy/wet/tomato-y tasting. But outside of that personal preference, ohh BOY were these great!
Thanks for sharing your recipe, Mel!
I will try this recipe next week when we go down to the shore.
Becky B.
Seriously so yummy and easy to make excellent weeknight meal
This is my go-to recipe and has been for YEARS. Thank you for this. It’s been in heavy rotation for Tuesdays!
Made this today to have with low carb tortillas and they were a big hit! Everyone loved it (I was deliberately heavy handed with the spices so it was warm) and I’ll definitely be making this again soon.
I made these tacos tonight with spaghetti sauce left over from last night (per the recipe). Instead of coriander, I used cilantro. I chose turkey meat for the taco shells. I also omitted the jalapeños – Intold my boys they could add Tapatila instead, if needed. Salsa was also available for a topping. These tacos came out amazing! Something new!
This is hands down the best beef taco recipe. I make it at least once a month. A winner with much kids too!
I made this just tonight. I used Chipotle chili powder and we found it to be a bit warm. We both had a couple of saltine crackers after the taco’s to take some of the heat away.
Will make it again and reduce the amount of chili powder as the fragrance and flavor were excellent.
These tacos are the best!!! We make them at least once a month. This recipe is how I discovered your site. I love it. Thank you!!!!
It was delicious, the spice combination were perfect including coriander, chilly, and cumin. Its always good to mix coriander when using chilly, blends nicely. Thank you!
This is one of my favorite recipes, but I wanted to share something funny that happened while I was making it last night! I was making it for a crowd, so I sextupled it (yes, that’s a word! 6x). I was running late, of course, and wasn’t paying much attention and put 6 tablespoons of cayenne pepper instead of chili powder!!!!! I tried to salvage it because I couldn’t just throw six pounds of ground beef away! So we had a semi hot batch, and a super spicy batch!! My brother in law from Honduras loved it, and both the missionaries ate the spicy meat. One of them was about 3 shades of red the whole time and was sweating profusely, but they loved it. We had a good laugh, but make sure you read the labels! HA!!
Oh my goodness, Natasha! 6 tablespoons of cayenne! My mouth is burning just thinking about it!
Tried this recipe. It was not all that great. Coriander ruined it for me, even though I like coriander. Fresh squeezed like kind of countered some of it, but don’t be making it again.
It wasn’t bad by any means, just not the flavor profile I was looking for. Odd that any negative reviews get thoroughly bashed on here.
Lime, not like
I made the taco meat for my family. It was very good. I doubled it. I think next time I will reduce the tomato sauce by half tho. I used hard shells and put them in the oven with the cheese and meat in them. Then we added avocado tomatoes and lettuce.
I made this recipe last night and it was absolutely DELICIOUS!! I usually prefer chicken tacos over ground beef but this was so good. My husband and I ate darn near the whole thing. My husband is usually the cook and I am jut starting to try cooking myself and I find all your recipes delicious and easy to follow.
Thank you for sharing these great recipes! =)