This Taco Meat recipe combines taco seasonings with beef bouillon and water or tomato juice for a richer, beefier taste. While a splash of lemon juice brightens the flavors. The result is a well-seasoned taco meat with a pasty texture for filling soft or hard-shell tacos and for various other Taco Tuesday recipes. Adjust the seasonings to your liking and choose your preferred heat level. From mild to medium or spicy for some good heat. There are other things that can be added to shape the overall flavors to always keep Taco Tuesday fresh and exciting.
Taco Meat Ingredients
Ground Beef, Old El Paso Taco Seasoning, Water (or tomato juice), Lemon Juice (lime juice or apple cider vinegar can be used as well), and Beef Bouillon.
Ground Beef
With lean ground beef, you’ll get more yield out of it than with medium ground beef. Even more so than with regular ground beef. When using lean ground beef, add additional fat through beef suet/tallow or lard; doing so will add more beefy flavors.
Ground pork can also be used. Or a 50/50 mix of ground beef & pork and is cheaper than just straight ground beef. The beef bouillon that is added in this taco meat recipe will also assist in deriving a beefy flavor. Especially when using ground pork.
Taco Ground Beef Paste
In order to derive the same texture as taco outlets. Water or tomato juice is added and mixed in prior to cooking to create a taco ground beef paste. During browning, the taco meat is mixed to break it down even further.
Beefy Ground Beef
A more beefy taste is added to the taco meat through a beef bouillon cube or beef powder. Added fats like beef suet or tallow can add beefiness and are carriers of flavor. Especially if using lean ground beef.
Taco Seasoning
Store-bought taco seasoning, like Old El Paso Taco Seasoning, can be used. A homemade version can be made up in no time and used just as well. Old El Paso also sells regular, mild, and spicy. I often opt for the mild and add additional heat if I’m in the mood for something spicy.
Mild Taco Seasoning
Old El Paso sells the mild taco seasoning. You can slightly increase the heat to your preference with added black pepper or cayenne pepper to get somewhere between a mild and medium heat.
Medium Taco Seasoning
For a medium heat, add a bit of minced jalapeno or pickled jalapenos. Sriracha is also good to include. You can also just increase the cayenne pepper.
Spicy Taco Seasoning
Spicy Taco Seasoning is derived by adding in chilies de arbol. This is an immediate, intense heat that is beautiful in Taco Seasoning. Add as much as desired to achieve the heat sought for. Careful a little goes a long way. If you cannot find ground chilies de arbol. Then you can buy the dried ones and just grind them yourself in a coffee/spice grinder. Other chilies can be added as well, like minced serrano chilies. These are spicier than jalapenos, and chilies de arbol are spicier than serranos.
Taco Meat Liquids
Here’s where things can get interesting. While this recipe just adds in water or tomato juice or tomato paste with water for a tomato juice consistency. Other things can be added to create a variation of Taco Meat. Which can include canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce or the leftover adobo sauce from making Mexican ribs. Both of which can be added after browning the taco meat.
Tomato Juice
Tomato juice added creates a tomato forward flavoured taco meat. It can be added to the ground meat in place of water to create the paste. Or water added to the ground meat to create the paste and tomato juice added later with the taco seasoning. Taco seasoning usually has some starch or thickener in it. Adding the seasoning to the ground meat after it has been cooked with tomato juice can create a slightly thicker paste and may be preferred.
Tomato paste can be used instead of tomato juice. Just use 2-3 Tbl of tomato paste with 1/2 cup of water to create the tomato juice.
Chipotle Taco Meat
Place a can of Chipotle in adobo sauce in the blender or mince up the chillies and add the desired amount to the taco meat when finishing up. You can also opt to just use Chipotle Powder added in, based on preference.
Adobo Taco Meat
Add to taste the leftover or made from scratch adobo sauce from making Mexican Adobo Ribs to the taco meat when finishing up.
Refried Beans with Taco Meat
A bit of refried beans can be added to the taco meat. This will create an even more paste like texture. Just add a Tbl or so of refried beans to the taco meat. Freeze the rest of the refried beans in a Ziploc bag. Flattened out for faster freezing and thawing to use again later on.
Ground Beef Burrito Meat
An entire can of refried beans added to the taco meat creates a ground beef burrito meat mixture. This is used for burritos and even as a dip with sauce and cheese added.
How to Make Taco Meat
Place all ingredients into a cold pan and mix really well until the meat is paste like and absorbs all the water. If you want to fill the meat out a bit. Then add some oats to the mix or add refried beans later on. Then set over medium-high heat or max to mix often during cooking until browned through and the liquids have mostly evaporated.
Saucy Taco Meat
Besides adding in canned chipotle or adobo sauce. A saucy version of taco meat can be made up by not including the taco seasoning in the initial mix.
- Just combine ground beef with water, lemon juice, and beef bouillon to mix until it’s a paste.
- Then brown over medium-high to max heat, and most of the liquid evaporates.
- Then add in 2/3 cup of tomato juice or other liquids with taco seasoning to cook until thickened a bit. The starches in the taco seasoning will thicken the liquid.
Recipes using Taco Meat
This taco meat or variation of it is used in a few different places for a Taco Tuesday feast. Some are Beef & Rice Burrito, Burrito Casserole, Burrito Bowl, Taco Burritos, Taco Quesadilla, Taco Cheese Fries, Taco Crunch Wrap, Taco Bell Style Tacos, Taco Nacho Platter.
Ingredients
- 1 lb Ground Beef
- 1/2 C Water or Tomato Juice
- 1 Cube Beef Bouillon - or equivalent in beef powder
- 1 tsp Lemon Juice
- 1 pack Old El Paso Taco Seasoning
Instructions
- Combine in a skillet all the ingredients and mix well. Until pastie-like. Set over max heat and cook, mixing often until browned through and most of the liquid has evaporated.
Notes
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