Taco Meat

Luv2CookandEat's Note:

Mexican Taco Meat Filling--- This is absolutely the BEST recipe you will find for taco meat! This Taco Meat is from a long time restaurant in Arlington, Texas and I got it from our local paper 25 years ago. The restaurant is still there, but the recipe has changed -- Stick to this one -- Absolutely the BEST!

• Total Time: 1 hrs
• Prep Time: 25 mins
• Cook Time: 35 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 12

Yield: 1.0 big pot ...

• 1 -3 tablespoon oil (your choice, but vegetable oil is best, (not needed if meat is not the leanest)
• 3 lbs ground beef (this makes a big batch but it freezes well)
• 1 onion (medium diced)
• 1 bell pepper (diced, can use any color pepper, I use red)
• 1 medium potato, peeled and diced (trust me)
• 1 (14 ounce) can diced tomatoes (including juice)
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin (more or less given your taste)
• 1 (14 ounce) can ranch style beans (14 oz can-original flavor, DON'T STRAIN, this product is available in Texas)
• 2 teaspoons black pepper

Directions:

1. brown oil, meat, potato, onion, bell pepper, salt, black and red pepper (flakes), garlic powder, and cumin to a large dutch oven or big skillet -- drain if necessary.
2. Add to this the rest of the ingredients, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes -- til all the ingredients are soft. Then, remove from heat, and take a potato masher or something like that, and grind the entire pot to a mushy consistency -- VERY IMPORTANT STEP. Once it looks like thick oatmeal, cover, and simmer for another 30 minutes and stir to keep from sticking --.
3. * The beans in this recipe is a product found in Texas grocery stores, but all it is, is canned, cooked, whole pinto beans in a Mexican chili powder sauce. The addition of the beans is important to keep the mixture thick. To improvise, add a can of plain canned pinto beans, don't drain, and add a tablespoon or to taste of just plain old Mexican chili powder -- It really adds another dimension of flavor with the cumin.
4. Be sure to taste along the way -- you may like it spicier, saltier, whatever, but here are the basics to use -- just taste along the way.
5. You can use this Taco Meat in Burritos, Tacos, Taco Salads, Chalupas, you name it! It is awesome and everyone will be wanting this recipe from you.

Reviews

[Hey Jude]

It's hard for me to believe that I'm the first to review this recipe, it's absolutely fantastic. My husband and son can't deal with onions, so I left them out. Also, I browned the ground beef and removed the fat before adding the rest of the ingredients. Luv2, you didn't indicate how much red pepper flakes but I just gave it a good few shakes. I used fire-roasted diced tomatoes. I couldn't find 'ranch style beans' at my tiny grocery store so used a can of traditional style refried beans. I used all the listed spices, in the amounts. VERY good, excellent. I can see myself buying ground beef on sale and doing this recipe to freeze in dinner amounts. We loved this recipe, thanks so much for posting!

[BGE Man]

Very good recipe! Tried it as written the first time, but for me felt like it was missing something, so the next time I made it I did as written except during the last 30min I stirred in a package of McCormick taco seasoning and it was awesome!! Very good recipe thanks for posting!

[lisa724]

Just what I was looking for! Left out the tomatoes and beans. It was just like restaurant taco meat! Thank you.