Beef Tacos

Beef Tacos – the old school beef mince way!!! With juicy seasoned ground beef taco meat and crispy shells, this taco recipe is made with a simple yet flavour packed homemade taco seasoning that truly tastes like store bought. PS I won’t judge if you use tortillas instead… 🙂

Totally un-authentic Beef Taco Recipe!

You will never find ground beef / mince tacos in Mexico. Authentic beef tacos are either sliced seared steaks (like Carne Asada), or marinated beef chopped into thin strips that are pan fried to get golden crispy edges (taqueria style), or slow-cooked and shredded into sauce like this Shredded Beef Mexican Beef and Beef Barbacoa.

So beef mince tacos, the single most popular type of taco meat made in million and millions of households the world over, is totally un-authentic.

And that’s absolutely ok. We love them anyway – and we will always love them!

Bake them!

This is how I make my old school beef tacos – BAKING them to melt the cheese and crisp the tacos shells at the same time. I don’t know if that’s “normal”, but I’ll take any opportunity to melt cheese when appropriate.

Let me put it this way – if I had a choice of a cold slice of cheese slapped on bread, or a grilled cheese sandwich with gooey cheese oozing out the sides, I know which one I’d choose. And you?? 😇

Homemade taco seasoning

Skip the packet seasoning! It truly is quite incredible how simple it is to make homemade taco seasoning. Garlic, onion, cumin, paprika, oregano plus optional cayenne pepper for a touch of heat.

Just pure, normal spices and herbs – no scary sounding ingredients you can’t pronounce like maltodextrin, silicon dioxide and ethoxyquin that you’ll find in packets of store bought!! (Yes really, just Google “Old El Paso taco seasoning ingredients”)

This taco seasoning mix is a terrific staple to add to your arsenal for all things Tex Mex, from Quesadillas to Burritos, Enchiladas to Taco Soup (don’t knock it until you’ve tried it, it’s amazing!). While stores sell different seasonings for each of these, essentially they have the same flavour base which is the Taco Seasoning mix used in this recipe.

The taco meat

The taco meat recipe as written is my base recipe made with just beef and onion, and it will stuff 10 tacos generously or 12 normal size tacos.

TIP: Add vegetables for extra nutrition and make one batch go further. Capsicum/bell peppers, corn, black beans, zucchini, to name a few. If you add vegetables, scale up the homemade taco seasoning using the recipe scaler (click on servings and slide up).

Old school taco toppings

There’s a plethora of taco topping options, but today I’m sticking with the old school way: shredded cheese, taco sauce (optional), iceberg lettuce, tomato, onion and even sour cream.

That’s right folks. We’re going Tex-Mex all the way. No fancy salsas, no authentic chilli sauces, no Mexican pickles.

Pile on that shredded cheese and sour cream! 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

Just to be clear – baking the tacos with the filling and cheese is totally optional.

If you’re not a Melted-Cheese-Monster, by all means feel free to serve it the normal way – bake the empty taco shells then lay it all out for people to stuff themselves. – Nagi x

More taco topping options

• Guacamole, Avocado Sauce or avocado slices/diced

• Pico de Gallo (chunky tomato salsa) or a smooth Salsa Sauce

• Taco Sauce or hot sauce / chilli sauce of choice

And more tacos

• Quick Chicken Tacos – 2 in 1 recipe, shredded taco seasoned chicken AND taco sauce

• Beef Tacos – the old school way

• Marinated Grilled Chicken Tacos

• Slow Cooked Shredded Mexican Chicken for Tacos

• Fish Tacos – marinated and grilled, healthy and delicious!

• Pork Carnitas Tacos – the iconic Mexican pulled pork tacos

• Shredded Beef Tacos – tender slow cooked shredded beef in a deep flavoured Mexican sauce

• Beef Barbacoa – another braised, shredded beef, but tangier and punching through with chipotle chill flavours

Watch how to make it

Sometimes it helps to have a visual, so watch me make this Beef Taco recipe – the old school way!

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Old School Beef Taco recipe

Author: Nagi

4.96 from 72 votes

Servings4

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Recipe video above. Beef tacos – the old school way! A juicy beef filling stuffed in crispy taco shells. For the real old school experience, go with shredded iceberg lettuce, tomato and sour cream! I like to BAKE my shells with the taco meat and cheese for molten goodness, but this is optional. If you skip it, just bake the empty shells per packet directions. SCALE UP the seasonings and add vegetables to make the filling stretch further!

Ingredients

• ▢ 10 to 12 crispy taco shells (“stand and stuff) OR soft tortillas of choice (Note 1)

Beef Tacos:

• ▢ 1 tbsp oil
• ▢ 2 garlic cloves , minced
• ▢ 1 onion , finely chopped
• ▢ 500 g / 1 lb beef , ground / mince (Note 2)
• ▢ 2 tbsp tomato paste
• ▢ 1/4 cup / 65ml water

Homemade Taco Seasoning:

• ▢ 1 tsp EACH garlic powder, onion powder, dried oregano
• ▢ 2 tsp EACH cumin powder, paprika
• ▢ 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (adjust spiciness to taste, can skip)
• ▢ 1 tsp salt
• ▢ 1/4 tsp black pepper

Toppings:

• ▢ Shredded cheese (Note 3)
• ▢ Shredded iceberg lettuce
• ▢ 2 tomatoes , chopped
• ▢ 1/2 red or white onion , chopped
• ▢ Sour cream
• ▢ Taco sauce (optional)
• ▢ Other: coriander/cilantro , jalapeño, hot sauce / chilli sauce, pickled chillies, salsa sauce, pico de gallo

Cook ModePrevent screen from sleeping

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 180C/350F.

Beef Filling:

• Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add garlic and onion – cook 2 minutes until golden.
• Add beef and cook for 2 minutes, breaking it up as you go, until it changes from red to light brown.
• Add Taco Seasonings and cook for 2 minutes until beef is cooked through.
• Add tomato paste and water. Cook for 1 minute or until water is evaporated and you’re left with a juicy not not watery beef filling.

Bake (optional):

• Place taco shells in a baking pan (I can fit 10 in). Fill with taco meat, top with cheese.
• Bake 5 to 7 minutes until cheese is melted by which time the shells with be crispy.

Serve:

• Serve tacos hot, straight out of the oven. Lay out toppings and sauces of choice on the table and let everyone assemble their own!

Recipe Notes:

1. Taco Shells – whatever taco shells or tortillas you use, warm them! Taco shells should be baked until crispy (they are kind of chewy and bendy straight out of the packet) and tortillas only need 20 seconds or so in the microwave (or wrap in foil and bake 5 to 10 minutes)

2. Meat – I usually use lean. If you use fatty beef, you can drain excess fat before adding Seasoning. Can also use chicken, turkey, pork.

3. Cheese – Monterey Jack is my favourite, then cheddar, tasty, pepper jack. Australia – Monterey Jack is now sold at Aldi, sometimes at Costco! Use to be sold at Harris. Melts like mozzarella, tasty like cheddar, non greasy. It’s my fave.

4. Nutrition for 3 tacos, including crispy taco shell, meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato and onion.

Nutrition Facts

Old School Beef Taco recipe

Amount Per Serving

Calories 490 Calories from Fat 207

% Daily Value*

Fat 23g35%

Saturated Fat 9g56%

Cholesterol 99mg33%

Sodium 998mg43%

Potassium 755mg22%

Carbohydrates 31g10%

Fiber 4g17%

Sugar 4g4%

Protein 36g72%

Vitamin A 630IU13%

Vitamin C 6.8mg8%

Calcium 212mg21%

Iron 4.2mg23%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 490cal (25%)Carbohydrates: 31g (10%)Protein: 36g (72%)Fat: 23g (35%)Saturated Fat: 9g (56%)Cholesterol: 99mg (33%)Sodium: 998mg (43%)Potassium: 755mg (22%)Fiber: 4g (17%)Sugar: 4g (4%)Vitamin A: 630IU (13%)Vitamin C: 6.8mg (8%)Calcium: 212mg (21%)Iron: 4.2mg (23%)

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