A one pot wonder. That’s what this meal is.
Deliciously simmered, lean beef or turkey combines with flavorful seasonings, tender rice, a tomato base and hearty beans. The rice plumps up perfectly and the mixture thickens to a wonderfully dippable taco meal. This could be served in a myriad of ways – we used classic taco garnishes and scoopable tortilla chips.
I prefer to crush up my tortilla chips, top them with the yummy taco mixture and load it all up with sour cream, lettuce, cheese and tomatoes – a taco salad of sorts. My kids and husband filled up a bowl and used their tortilla scoops to dip away. They were in heaven.
Filling, simple, healthy and tasty – this meal is sure to please! (Thanks, Alicia!)
One Year Ago: Beach Street Lemon Chicken Linguine
Ingredients
- 2 pounds lean ground beef or turkey
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 6 cups water
- 1 cup rice (white or brown)
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 2 (8 oz.) cans tomato sauce
- 2 (6 oz.) cans tomato paste
- 1 (15 oz.) can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
Directions
- In a large pot, brown the ground beef or turkey with the onion and garlic and cook until the meat is no longer pink and the onions are translucent. Drain any accumulated grease. Add the water, rice, seasonings, tomato sauce, tomato paste and beans. Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally, watching to make sure it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot (if you are using brown rice, it may need to simmer for up to 60-70 minutes). The mixture will seem very watery at first, but after simmering, it will thicken to perfection as the rice absorbs water and all the ingredients meld together.
- Serve warm with tortilla chips for dipping and other taco garnishes. I have successfully frozen the leftover meat/rice mixture to defrost and reheat later.
Recipe Source: adapted slightly from Alicia, a reader
We are huge taco eaters in this house. That sounds awesome. I would love using it with tortilla shells too!
This looks great! Ever since I tried your one skillet sausage and pasta recipe, I have been trying to adapt my favorite pasta and rice recipes to one skillet meals (I love to cook, but hate to clean up!). My family loves tacos, so they will love this! Thanks, Melanie!
That looks just perfect for dinner for the boys and I tonight. Thanks!
I love recipes that are healthy and tasty. This one fits the bill perfectly!
I’ve been thinking about ground turkey recently. Your recipe may be perfect for me.
Sounds yummy! Do you cook the rice first, or add it dry?
Ashley – add the rice uncooked – it will simmer to perfection with the other ingredients.
Growing up we always had a similar meal called Texas Beef Skillet, but my husband just calls it chili. I think the only real difference is kidney beans and canned tomatoes instead of tomato sauce. This looks delicious though!
My daughter and I could literally eat Mexican food every day and never get sick of it. This would be right up my alley!
OH MY, OH MY! Made it for dinner tonight – thanks for posting a recipe that I had all the ingredients for
My pregnant self read the recipe and “had to have it!” Mel, it is delicious! I can’t stop sampling!!
i like your method of consumption, mel, but i’m sure i wouldn’t mind getting caught eating it dip-style either. very clever!
Thanks for dinner tonight! Saw your post today and had all the ingredients and made this for dinner tonight – we loved it!
I make this exact recipe. We put ours on broken up frito chips with salad on top. with your favorite dressing.
YUM! It looks like a big bowl of chili!
I loved this recipe. The ingredients were simple and I had them all on hand!! It was a perfect meal for a busy day. My kids went nuts for it!
Also loved, loved, loved the Quinoa Salad you made. So Good, and So healthy! Please keep more like that coming!!!!!
Leisel, Melanie and Sue E – I’m flattered you all tried this recipe so quickly and am glad it was such a hit! (Leisel – glad you liked the quinoa salad, too…I have a few more healthy recipes up my sleeve!)
ChrissieK – thanks for trying this so quickly…I’m thrilled it was good enough to keep snitching from!
I made this tonight and used chicken instead of beef because I was out of beef. I also added 8 oz of cream cheese and just ate it as a dip with tortilla chips, it was so good. And all three of my picky boys ate it all up. Will make often! Thanks Mel, I love your site. I am on here daily.
Megan – what a fabulous idea to add cream cheese. Sounds so delicious! I’m glad that all of your boys loved it…now that is a success!
Hooray! I’m glad so many people have enjoyed this recipe. I haven’t been on here for a while (2month vacation with family) so I was pleased to come back and find that you had blogged about it, and it had so many positive reviews. It continues to be one of my family’s favorite meals.
Whoa, cool! My mom used to make something like this! I had never really had Mexican food, growing up in the Pacific Northwest in a Scandinavian/Scottish heritage household where *parsley is considered a spice*. Your recipe looks very similar to what mom made. We used to pile up the corn chips – you know, Fritos – (seriously I had never had a tortilla chip in my life), spoon on the meat mixture, then cheese, then the other goodies. The funny thing is, we called it Mexican Tacos. As if there is some other kind. Imagine the world that opened up to me when I moved to Southern California years ago! I’m going to try your version – looks like YUM!
I have made this several times for my family, we love it! We like things a bit spicer though, so I exchanged one can of regular tomato sauce for a can of mexican tomato sauce. We eat the leftovers the next day (if there is any) as a topping for nachos – just chips and melted cheese. Thanks for ANOTHER great recipe.
Allison – love your changes to spice things up a bit!
So we love this recipe, but the other night when I went to make it, I failed to remember that we’re “roughing it” without a microwave these days, and I’d forgotten to get the meat out to thaw. Well, I’d already started, so I threw a can of Tyson’s white chicken (my “trick” in lots of recipes, equals about 2-3 cooked and shredded chicken breasts), and it was delicious. Even our fourteen month old went nuts over this stuff! (As did we.)
Thanks!
P.S. I also halved the recipe, so anyone who tries this trick with the full recipe, you’ll want two cans of chicken (or 3-4 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded).
Shauntel – GREAT substitution tip. Thanks for checking in to let all of us know your variation. Sounds delicious with chicken, I must say!
This is on the stove right now!! It smells so good. I hope all the water soaks up.. Im a little nervous and only used 1 lb of hamburger. It was to late to half all the other ingredients by the time i noticed my mistake, blah! I hate when I do that.. Youre amazing. I adore your recipes. All of them are 100% delicious everytime.
Megan – I know it seems like the water never soaks up, but it will, I promise, especially if you cook it at low heat and allow for the time in the recipe. Hope you like it!
LOVED it. It was delicious. One of the husbands favs now I think, and one of mine because like you said it’s a “one pot” wonder.
Megan H. – glad it worked out! Thanks for checking back in to let me know.
I made this last week and we really enjoyed it! It was so easy AND it made a ton of leftovers so we had it the next night too. I love when that happens!
Kensi – I love the cook-once-eat-twice meals! Glad you all liked this one.
This recipe has become such a staple at our house! It’s beyond delicious!
Thank you, Kyra!
I am so sad, because this is the first recipe I have made from your site that didn’t turn out to be absolutely fabulous. I fully blame myself, and maybe my picky pregnancy tastebuds. The texture was a little hard to eat; it kind of just turned out mushy. And the flavor was kind of bland; I could only taste the tomato paste and sauce, really. This recipe has rave reviews, so I’m sure I just did something wrong. I’ll try again another time and hopefully redeem myself!
Made this tonight for dinner and it was great! Made a TON so I’m freezing the rest for another night. And it was so adaptable for my super picky son – just kept some plain beans out for him instead of the taco mixture. I now have something to add to my ‘meal everyone will eat’ arsenal! Thanks!!
Do you ever eat taco fillings on a bed of rice? We call it Rice Stack – so good!
Found this gem because it’s pictured in your Favorites sidebar right now – we all loved this. You’re my kids’ new hero because this recipe allowed them to have tortilla chips FOR DINNER. The flavor was great and I’m looking forward to the leftovers because this seems like one of those recipes that will get better after a day or two. Thanks!
Made this for my family if 10 on a chilly Minnesota night and the children LOVED it!!! Thanks for another great one!
The family and I loved this!
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I came across this recipe last winter, and trust me it is a tried and true recipe in my book. My kids love it, my husband loves it…heck I even made it for my sister’s five kids while I babysat this summer and it was devoured! Thanks for the amazing recipes Mel. I’ve got a major obsession with your website!
[...] Slightly adapted from Mels Kitchen Cafe [...]
We are trying this week- but we can’t eat white rice- so LOVE that you provided the directions for brown rice! You are making our Sunday night meal planning VERY easy!
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Sort of like a chili, but also reminiscent of Taco-in-a-bag. I love the addition of tomato products, beans, and rice…plus the obligatory lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese. Healthy and good!
Um, I couldn’t decide weather to get beef or turkey, so I just got a pound of each. Then decided maybe that would taste weird together…. anyone know? I put pork and beef together in cabbage rolls and that works fine. Just thought I’d ask. Thanks !
Hi Nicole – I like to combine different ground meats and I think beef and turkey would work just fine in this recipe.
Thanks Mel. This was nice and easy. Makes lots, freezable – big winner for us! Mine lacked a bit in flavor. I’m pretty sure that was because I left out some of the chili powder (I always do since we like things less spicy), but I guess the turkey could have lacked a bit in flavor. It was just a tad lacking though. Thanks again! Trying your healthy oat bars tonight, mmmm.
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Wow. Thank you! My delighted 18 month old is chowing this down while my hubby and I groan from eating too much. Oh and my 22 week old fetus is doing the Mexican hat dance in my belly. Probably going to need some Tums but so worth it. This recipe is so adaptable, which I love! I added chopped green pepper in place of the onion, made tomato sauce by pureeing spicy red pepper diced tomatoes, and did half regular chili powder, half chipotle chili powder. Btw, welcome to Minnesota. I’m down here just outside of Minneapolis and its cold enough. Can’t imagine you way up there on the tundra! Better stock up on CuddleDuds and cocoa