The Best Ever Ground Beef Tacos

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Filled with a homemade taco spice blend, tomatoes and mashed pinto beans for the Best Ever Ground Beef Tacos done in 30 minutes or less. These easy tacos will be a new weeknight dinner favorite!

Bring on the Tacos! If you want more quick taco recipes Turkey Taco Lettuce Wraps, Shrimp Tacos with Mango Avocado Salsa or these Cilantro Lime Chicken Tacos.

a group of ground beef tacos topped with avocado, sour cream, pico de gallo

Easy Beef Tacos with Homemade Taco Seasoning

By now, you know my passion for all things tacos. I strongly feel like, and could make a case, for tacos being their own food group. Through all my taco endeavors I’ve realized that I don’t actually have a plain classic ground beef taco recipe. I have a Cheesy Ground Beef Enchilada recipe but no taco.

Well, it’s time to change that. Today is the day, and I know you’re going to love it. This is not your run of the mill “just add taco seasoning” recipe. No way josé. It has my own taco spice blend that has smoky hints to it, along with fire-roasted tomatoes with chili, pinto beans than get mashed in to soak up some of the liquid and then a few other ingredients you’ll need to scroll down to get.

Trust me. This will be your new go-to beef taco recipe.

Ingredients You’ll Need to Make Ground Beef Tacos

Put down the McCormick Taco Seasoning. No offense, but those are usually loaded with other things that honestly you don’t need when taco seasoning is so easy to make and you probably already have all the ingredients! Here’s what you need to make the easy beef taco recipe!

Ground Beef Tacos:

Avocado Oil
Yellow Onion – diced really finely so it blends in
Garlic Clove – minced
Ground Beef – You’ll need 1 pound, I like to buy grass-fed because I find the quality is better and you can definitely taste a difference.
Fire-roasted tomatoes with green chilis – this will add nice flavor will a hint of spice from the chilis (muir glen is the brand I use for this)
Pinto Beans – drained and rinsed
Fresh Lime Juice – adds some acid to cut through some of the “heavier” flavors from the meat
Cilantro – add this at the end, it brings everything back to life again and brightens the dish

Taco Seasoning:

Ground Cumin
Smoked Paprika – One of my favorite spices to use, make sure it’s smoked, not the normal paprika. There is a difference.
Ancho Chili Powder – This will deepen chili flavor as well as some spicyness, but not over the top.
Chili Powder
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Ground Cinnamon – My surprise ingredient that adds so much depth and richness to a dish.
Chipotle Chili Powder – Adds a chipotle smoky flavor
Salt & Pepper

How to Cook Ground Beef for Tacos

I think the best way to cook ground beef for tacos is to brown it up in a skillet. The key to great taco meat is making sure there are no large chunks. My trick for this is using a potato masher. I find this ensures all the meat is chopped up nice and small so you don’t get a big chunk here or there.

How to Make Ground Beef Tacos

The best thing about this recipe is it’s done in 30 minutes and ready to be devoured asap. As a mom of two, timing is key when the troops are starving and complaining. Most if not all of these ingredients can be found in your pantry so it’s a great recipe to make in a bind. Here’s how to make it:

Saute Aromatics: Heat a skillet to medium-high heat. Add avocado oil to pan along with onions. Saute for 2-3 minutes until onions are translucent. Next add in garlic and saute for 30 seconds.
Brown Ground Beef: Add in ground beef to the pan. Break up the meat with a potato masher or wooden spoon. Continue cooking and breaking up the meat until browned. Approximately 5-7 minutes.
Add in the Flavor: Next, add in fire-roasted tomatoes with green chilis, cumin, smoked paprika, ancho chili powder, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, ground cinnamon, chipotle chili powder, salt, pepper, pinto beans and lime juice. Stir everything together. Mash down the pinto beans a bit and cook for 3-4 minutes.
Finish with Herbs: Add in cilantro, stir and set aside.

Tips for Success

Don’t dry out the Meat. There’s nothing worse than dry meat. Keep an eye on your meat so you don’t overcook it.

Warm your tortillas. Tortillas, especially corn tortillas are notorious for cracking or breaking. To help prevent this, heat tortillas for 1-2 minutes per side on the stove, grill or in the microwave.

Add the Beans. The beans soak up some of the liquid from the diced tomatoes. It leaves you life a nice thick uber flavorful meat mixture. If you don’t like pinto beans, you could also use black beans or kidney beans.

How to can you Make Tacos Low Carb?

The actual meat mixture is low carb. The carbs come in when you add the toppings or tortillas. So the best way to make this low carb is to sub out the tortillas for lettuce cups or put it over mixed greens.

Topping Suggestions

While the beef taco mixture is ground on it’s own, it’s not a taco without a few fun toppings. Some of our go to taco toppings are:

What to Serve with Ground Beef Tacos

The question you should be asking is what not to serve with these ground beef tacos! I mean the possibilities are endless! That being said, here are a few of our favorites that I think pair perfectly.