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This easy taco rice recipe combines ground beef and rice with a few simple ingredients for a quick one pan meal ready in 30 minutes. The perfect dinner for busy weeknights or lazy weekends!
Skillet Taco Rice
I’m all about easy dinners, especially one-pan meals. And this skillet taco rice recipe is one of the easiest meals you can make. It’s basically seasoned taco meat, rice, salsa and cheese cooked together in one skillet.
This easy ground beef recipe is budget friendly and takes about 30 minutes — tops! Best of all, even my picky eaters love this simple recipe. If you love Mexican food or taco flavors as much as we do, try my cheesy taco pasta, or baked ground beef tacos or ground beef taco ring next!
Table of Contents
Ingredients
Here’s a quick overview of what you need to make cheesy taco rice. Full amounts are in the printable recipe card below.
- Ground beef — I like lean ground beef for one dish meals since you usually don’t have to drain any grease.
- Quick cooking rice — I use Minute rice, but any parboiled rice works. If you only have long grain rice, you will need extra liquid and additional cooking time.
- Taco seasoning — I use homemade taco seasoning, but a packet works fine.
- Jar of salsa — I like the thick and chunky variety for this recipe but use your favorite brand or homemade salsa if you have that.
- Cheese — I use cheddar cheese, but Monterey Jack, Colby cheese or Mexican blend cheese works.
- Water — or beef broth as cooking liquid
- Optional — diced jalapeño pepper and white onion for extra flavor
How to Make Taco Rice with Ground Beef
First, cook the onion and pepper until soft. I use my large cast iron skillet for this, but any large pan will do. Then, brown the ground beef. If there is a lot of grease, you’ll want to drain it before adding seasoning.
Next, add the taco seasoning. Then, add the salsa, water and rice. Stir the meat mixture, and cover with aluminum foil while the rice cooks.
Minute rice cooks quickly, so it only takes about 5 minutes for the rice to get soft. When the rice is fully cooked, stir in the cheese.
Serving Suggestions
Rice and beef can look kind of bland, so I like to serve Mexican beef and rice topped with more cheese, a dollop of sour cream, diced avocados and tomatoes. Sometimes, I serve tortilla chips and chopped lettuce on the side for more of a taco salad skillet. Just use your favorite taco toppings!
Storage
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days. You can freeze taco rice for up to 3 months for best taste. This easy meal reheats well in the microwave. We like use leftovers for burrito bowls, burrito filling and nachos.
Recipe Tip
Quick cooking rice works best for this easy dinner.
You can make this meal even heartier by adding black beans, canned corn or frozen corn and diced tomatoes or tomatoes and green chile for more of a taco casserole.
Taco Rice
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 small white onion diced
- 1 medium jalapeno pepper seeded and diced
- 1½ pounds lean ground beef
- 1 packet taco seasoning
- 1 cup salsa
- 2 cups Minute Rice
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Instructions
- In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat, and cook onions and peppers until soft
- Add ground beef, and cook over medium-high heat until brown and no longer pink. Drain grease if necessary
- Stir in the taco seasoning, salsa, rice and water, and bring to a simmer
- Reduce heat to low, cover with aluminum foil and cook for about 5 minutes or until rice is soft, stirring occasionally
- Stir in cheese until melted, and top with additional cheese, if desired
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Made this yesterday and it was amazing!! Had this as leftovers and it was still great. Plan to eat this throughout the week!
I have been trying to cook more and one pan recipes like this are so good for staying simple and easy to follow. I’m cooking for one so this recipe was great for having leftovers.
How simple this is! Homemade hamburger dinner but so much better! The kids loved this one with all the added toppings!
So glad your family enjoyed the recipe!