The Best Taco Skillet Recipe! This Taco Skillet Dinner is loaded with ground beef, veggies and rice. An easy one pan, cheesy, healthy dinner! This post is sponsored by my friends at ButcherBox.
If you love easy, healthy meals, you will love this One Pot Cheesy Taco Skillet! This recipe is perfect for busy weeknights or when you just want to whip up something delicious without spending a ton of time in the kitchen!
Plus, it’s made in one pan with only 10 simple ingredients (that you probably already have on hand! One pan meals are the best, right?!
Whether you’re short on time or just want a yummy meal this easy, one pot dinner is about to become your new favorite!
Why You’ll love this Cheesy Taco Skillet
There is a lot to love about this one pan recipe. It’s one of our favorite healthy dinners because it’s:
- Super Easy to Make: You only need one pan, so there’s less mess to clean up afterward. Just toss everything in and cook… it only takes about 45 minutes start to finish!
- Delicious Flavors: The flavors of the taco seasoning, ground beef, and cheese all mix together to make a tasty and cheesy dinner that you’ll make over and over!
- Customizable: You can make it just the way you like it! You can choose your favorite toppings and add-ons, like extra cheese, guacamole, or salsa, to make it uniquely yours. Check out our favorite ways to serve below!
Ingredients for this recipe:
For this cheesy taco skillet you’ll need:
- olive oil – we like this brand
- ground beef – we like 85/15 or 90/10. This is our favorite!
- onion, garlic
- taco seasoning – you can use store bought, but we like to make our own (it’s so easy!)
- tomato sauce – canned tomato sauce is what we used in this recipe, not pasta sauce!
- dry white rice
- beef broth – make your own or look for low/no salt
- bell pepper
- shredded cheddar cheese – we always buy a block and grate it ourselves because it melts better!
SUBSTITUTIONS / VARIATIONS
Olive Oil: You can substitute avocado oil, butter, or ghee in place of olive oil.
Ground Beef: We like 85/15 ground beef. Feel free to use leaner ground beef depending on what you like. To make vegetarian you can use cooked lentils or ground beef substitute. You’ll need to adjust your cooking time. I haven’t tried making this with ground turkey or ground chicken but I think it would work fine!
Broth: Broth and stock are the same thing! You can use any broth or stock interchangeably. Beef Broth, Chicken Broth, or vegetable broth all work interchangeably. I always use low or no salt broth.
Tomato Sauce: You can use your own homemade tomato sauce, but we prefer canned tomato sauce. Note that canned tomato sauce and jarred pasta sauce are very different, jarred pasta sauce is much thicker and usually has seasonings added to it.
White rice: Brown rice should work as a white rice substitute in this recipe, but it will take much longer to cook and you may need more broth. I wouldn’t recommend subbing cauliflower rice because I think it would be very soggy and does not need all that broth.
Cheese: Cheese is optional on top. We like freshly grated cheddar cheese but you can totally make this dairy free by omitting the cheese!
Taco Seasoning: We love making our own taco seasoning. It’s lower in salt and doesn’t have any funky ingredients! We like this brand of taco seasoning if you don’t want to make your own.
We used ButcherBox Ground Beef in this recipe. We enjoy their ground beef multiple times a week in healthier dishes like this Taco Pasta, Taco Casserole, and Taco Salad!
ButcherBox is super convenient because they deliver high quality meat right to your door. It arrives completely frozen so you can just defrost & cook as needed!
Their ground beef is 100% grass fed and grass finished. It’s an 85/15 blend which is perfect for burgers, soups, stews, and everything in between!
We have it in our freezer at all times and love to make easy healthy meals with it! Check out: Is Butcher Box a Good Deal
How to make One Pan Taco Skillet
- Brown ground beef in olive oil for 10 minutes until no longer pink. Add onions and garlic and saute for an additional 5 minutes.
- Stir in the remaining ingredients, except cheese, cover, and bring to a boil.
- Reduce to a simmer and cook for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally until rice is cooked. Top with cheddar cheese, cover until cheese is melted.
How to serve a Taco Skillet Dinner
This Cheesy Taco Skillet is a wholesome dinner on its own, but would also be delicious in a taco shell or on a bed of lettuce as a delicious twist on a taco salad.
Top with a variety of toppings like lettuce, tomatoes, onions, jalapeños, cilantro, black olives, and extra shredded cheese. You can also serve it alongside:
- Chips and Corn Salsa
- Guacamole
- Pickled Veggies
- Healthy Mexican Potatoes
- Skinny Margarita or Healthy Strawberry Mojito
Beef Taco Skillet FAQs
It’s not always necessary if you are using a high fat ground beef, however, if using lean ground beef or a non-stick pan, a small amount of oil can help prevent sticking and promote even browning.
No, you do not need to add water to the pan when cooking taco meat. The moisture released from the meat should be sufficient to cook the meat and create flavorful and moist taco meat.
Storing/Freezing
Storing: This taco skillet will last in the refrigerator for up to 3 days in an airtight container.
Freezing: You can freeze this cheesy taco skillet recipe for up to 3 months. We like these containers for freezing!
If you need more freezer friendly recipes check out our Fill Your Freezer Ebook with 22 easy freezer meals!
Reheating: You can reheat this recipe in the microwave or on the stove. If frozen, you can thaw for 12-24 hours in the refrigerator or heat directly from frozen.
Other healthy one pot recipes:
Looking for other easy one pot meals? Check out these 40+ Healthy Dinner Recipes. Click here to grab our free healthy 30 minute dinners cookbook.
Don’t forget! Right now you can get free ground beef. That means you’ll get 2 lbs of ground beef in your first box and $10 off!
One Pot Taco Skillet
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 lb ground beef
- ½ cup onion diced
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1/2 tablespoon taco seasoning
- 15 oz can tomato sauce NOT pasta sauce. look for low/no salt!
- 1 cup dry white rice
- 2 cup beef broth low or no salt
- 3 cups bell pepper diced
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Instructions
- In a large saute pan, heat olive oil. Brown ground beef for 10 minutes until no longer pink. Add onions and garlic and saute for an additional 5 minutes.
- Add taco seasoning, tomato sauce, white rice, beef broth and bell peppers to the pot. Stir together, cover and bring to a boil.
- Once boiling, reduce to a simmer and cook for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally until rice is cooked.
- Once rice is cooked, top with cheddar cheese, cover the pan for one minute and let the cheese melt.
Notes
- Ground Beef: You can substitute leaner ground beef, ground turkey, or ground chicken.
- Tomato Sauce: Canned tomato sauce and jarred pasta sauce are very different, jarred pasta sauce is much thicker and usually has seasonings added to it.
- Skip the cheese if you’d like to make this dairy free!
- Add all your favorite toppings. This recipe is delicious as is but even better with all of your favorite taco toppings. We love adding salsa, guacamole and even olives on top!
VH in PA says
Excellent! I shared with my nephew, who said “I could eat 80 pounds of this stuff!”.
Colleen says
Can instant rice be used or does it have to be regular white rice?
Liz Marino says
Instant rice cooks differently than regular white rice and would likely use less broth, so I wouldn’t recommend that. It might change the cook time/consistency. Sorry I couldn’t be more help but without trying it I can’t say!
Cindy Retterer says
Dish was delicious and so easy to make! Will be in our rotation for sure!
Monique R says
Made this yesterday and it was awesome. I added some corn to the dish, just because it seemed to belong.
Colleen says
Do you have thawing instructions?
The Clean Eating Couple says
Freezing: You can freeze this cheesy taco skillet recipe for up to 3 months.
Reheating: You can reheat this recipe in the microwave or on the stove. Defrost for 12-24 hours in the refrigerator or heat directly from frozen.
Denise Hayes says
My husband hates rice. Could you use pasta instead of rice. What are the measurements for the taco seasoning?
The Clean Eating Couple says
I would make this Taco Pasta instead if you want pasta 🙂 The taco seasoning is linked in the blog post but here’s the link again! Healthy Taco Seasoning.
Danielle says
Loved it! Added some zucchini but made no other changes. My teen son gobbled it up!
Phylicia says
This recipe was a great fridge cleaner! I had all the ingredients on hand and was so yummy !! Always love your recipes!
Janice says
no rice in the ingredients list?
Janice says
there is no rice under the ingredient list??
Janice says
I saw dry white wine not dry white rice. LOL
Elissa says
I’ve made this 3 times & every time I swear I see wine instead of rice lol
The Clean Eating Couple says
LOL!! Feel free to pair with a glass of dry white wine!
Kim says
This is easy and delicious! And only 1 pan to wash too. I followed the recipe exactly, including the homemade taco seasoning, and it was so good. I will definitely put this in our dinner rotation. Thanks for the great recipe!