There’s nothing like a kitchen remodel…
… to give you a whole new appreciation for easy meals. (Update: check out my finished kitchen remodel!)
Ah heck… who am I kidding. I always appreciate a simple supper, remodel or not, because our homesteading life continually keeps us hopping in one way or another.
Taco meat isn’t something I consider complicated in the first place, but I’ve recently started making it in the slow cooker, which has elevated it to a whole ‘nother level of EASY. (By the way, if you love easy and delicious recipes, you will love my Prairie Homestead cookbook!)
The best part? You can toss a big ol’ frozen brick of ground beef in there and you don’t even have to thaw it first. If you’ve read my bean canning tutorial, then you know how much I struggle with the whole concept of defrosting…
Crock pot taco meat is simple, juicy, and packed full of flavor. You’re gonna love this.
More Homemade Taco Necessities:
Want to impress your family and/or guests? After you start making this slow cooker taco meat, enjoy cooking up some of these delicious add-ons for your tacos:
- Homemade Tortilla Wraps (3 ingredients and super quick and easy!)
- Pico de Gallo Salsa Recipe
- Homemade Sour Cream
- Homemade Refried Beans
Crock Pot Taco Meat Recipe
- 2 lbs ground beef (frozen is fine)
- 1.5 cups of diced tomatoes with juice (or one 14.5 oz can)
- 1 cup mild green chilies, diced (or one 7 oz can)
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1.5 teaspoons sea salt (I use Redmond Salt)
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1.5 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions:
Place all ingredients in a slow cooker.
Cook for 2-4 hours on HIGH until the meat is completely brown. Checking it once or twice to give it a stir and to break up the meat. If it finished cooking before you need it, turn the crock pot down to LOW or WARM until you’re ready to eat.
If you are planning ahead, you can cook the taco meat on LOW for 6-8 hours.
Serve with tortillas (here’s my homemade tortilla recipe if you want to give it a try), shredded lettuce, shredded cheese, homemade sour cream, and a side of refried beans.
Taco Meat Notes
- I always cook up 2 lbs of beef at a time so we have leftovers. However, if you only want to use 1 lb, this recipe can easily be halved.
- Our homegrown beef isn’t very fatty, and I usually tell the butcher to grind it pretty lean anyway, so I never need to strain off fat. However, if you’re using ground beef that’s very fatty, you can strain off some of the fat before serving.
- If you have thawed ground beef, you can totally use that too. Just reduce the cooking time.
- You can totally freeze this for later if you wish.
- Homemade taco seasoning is a great DIY staple to have on hand too, when you want to whip up tacos quickly. You’ll love Michelle’s DIY Taco Seasoning. Michelle is a member of The Prairie Homestead team and I featured her taco seasoning in my Heritage Cooking Crash Course. So trust me, it is super yummy.
Crock Pot Taco Meat
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Total Time: 5 mins
- Category: Main Dish- Beef
- Cuisine: Latin
Ingredients
- 2 lbs ground beef (frozen is fine)
- 1.5 cups of diced tomatoes with juice (or one 14.5 oz can)
- 1 cup mild green chilis, diced (or one 7 oz can)
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1.5 teaspoons sea salt (I use Redmond Salt)
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1.5 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a slow cooker.
- Cook for 2-4 hours on HIGH until the meat is completely brown. Checking it once or twice to give it a stir and to break up the meat. If it finished cooking before you need it, turn the crock pot down to LOW or WARM until you’re ready to eat.
- If you are planning ahead, you can cook the taco meat on LOW for 6-8 hours.
Yum! This looks delicious! And I love that you can just throw extras in the freezer!
Simple and easy. Will save this for when we take our cross country RV trip and are relying on the crockpot almost daily. Thank you!
Curious if I could use the same method to turn frozen ground beef into spaghetti sauce. Think it would work?
I think that would work too!
As long as its relatively lean beef or you will have a greasy mess. Ask me how I know lol……
Yes!! Did this with gr chuck. Not good. Too greasy. Yuck!
Tried it again with gr sirloin and it was perfect.
How lean does the meat need to be? I would love to try tonight but only have 85% lean. Thank you!
Exactly, that’s crock pot cooking 101 … brown ground beef first.
This looks like a good one!
I read in Win Your Weed War that you didn’t plant your potatoes that you just laid them in the soil and covered with hay. Do you have a post on that? I searched and couldn’t find one. Did the potatoes grow on top of the soil too? My potatoes usually grow deep underground and are really hard to get out, I end up damaging many of them in the process. Once they sprouted did you keep adding hay like you would have done with soil? In TX we’ll be planting potatoes in Feb.
No, I don’t have a post on it yet– still working on the method. I did it again this year– it works, although I think the yield is slightly less than the conventional method. However, I still think it may be worth it, as it’s so much less work. And yes, it’s ideal to keep adding hay as the potatoes grow.
I had an old-timer back east, tell me he planted his potatoes that way, and just added hay to it as needed. He showed us his harvest, it was amazing. This was when Daniel and I were newly married, and traveling around the Untied States. When we got back, I tried the method and My potatoes rotted? I would like to try again and see if it would work!
On another note, I love throwing meat in my crockpot frozen! I have a defrost problem too 🙂
Cut the eye of the potato just as if you were planting them in the ground. Then lay the eye of the potato on top of the ground. Cover with straw. Water the straw with a sprinkler, like you would your normal garden. Keep adding straw to keep the potato eyes covered ( a minimum of a 4″ layer of straw is what you need). The potatoes grow on top of the ground. When it’s time to harvest you rake the straw off and pick up your potatoes. We did this one year at the farm where someone lit the trash barrel that was in close proximity to the garden. The wind caught the straw on fire and we still had the best crop of potatoes ever!
Earnest, I have never heard of planting potatoes this way! I’ll tell my hubs, he’ll be delighted to not have to dig next year. Thanks for your advice!
I tried this the other day and it was SOOO good!! The whole family loved it!!! Can’t wait to make it again!
Hooray! Glad you liked it!
We do crock pot taco meat all the time it also works well with lean pork and skinless boneless chicken thighs. We also like to add a few dried chilies as well!
YUM!
Thank you, I was curious if it worked well with chicken.
This looks delicious! We love putting frozen meat in the crock pot. I’m notorious for forgetting to defrost. Whole frozen chickens cook to perfection as well!
Yes– have been doing a number of frozen chickens lately too!
How could this be adapted for the Instant Pot?
Hmmm… you’d probably want to brown the meat first, then put the browned meat in for a bit with the tomatoes/seasonings and cook for a bit that way.
Gee whiz, and I thgouht this would be hard to find out.
This looks delicious!The whole family loved it 🙂 Can’t wait to make it again 😀
It’s not recommended by any gov’t agencies to use frozen meat in a crock pot. It doesn’t reach the required heat quickly enough to kill bacteria. Chicken is the biggest offender. Same with reheating leftovers in a crock pot.
This seems like a recipe that could be easily adapted to canning. As I just started canning last month, I am full of ideas and my family ia trying to figure out where to store all the food. Is this a recipe you have canned? Any suggestions for how to adapt it to canning?
Btw.. been reading here for over a year. It never ceases to amaze me how when I’m looking for something about homesteading or simpler living, I end up here. Great work. I love your writing style.
I’m anxious to try it
So glad the blog has been helpful for you! I haven’t tried canning ground meat yet– so don’t have much advice there for you. Sorry!
Sounds delish. Can I use Ground Turkey in place of Ground Beef/Steak?
Sure!
Look yummy! gotta try this recipe at home for my kids and hope they will like it!. Thanks for sharing!
This is our go to taco meat recipe. The entire family likes it. Thank you!
Awesome! Glad it is a hit!
What would be the cooking time on high for defrosted beef?
Just a couple hours– watch it so it doesn’t burn
If I don’t want to add the tomatoes, would beef broth work for moisture?
Worth a try!
I do not like tomatoes but used Ro tel in stead. Loved it and so did the family
What would be the cooking time on low for defrosted meat?
I’d say 2-4 hours most likely
Would this work well with ground turkey?
I think so!
Can I make more than 2 lbs with this recipe at once? Like say 3-4 to feed a crowd?
Absolutely!
I always make 4-5 lbs & have done this several times with this recipe. I have 4 boys & they ALL love it. It’s a go to recipe for me.
love this recipe! thank you!
How many tacos does the 2 lbs of beef serve? I need to make enough to serve 30 people so I need to calculate quantities
In general I usually plan 1/4 lb per serving. If you are having multiple entrees plan to make less, if only one entree plan to make more and possibly have leftovers and send it home with someone. If they are all teens/college-aged make double. Good luck!
I’d say this is 4-6 servings?
I served it to a crowd of 6 and my family of 4 ate it 2 more times after that! It’s a lot of meat. Next time I’ll make the full recipe, but will plan to freeze half for a future meal! Thanks, Jill!
Do you add any water to the meat when cooking in the crockpot? And if so, how much? I’ve seen some recipes that call for 1/4 cup per pound of meat.
Nope! The liquid from the tomatoes and chilis does the trick.
This was super easy and fantastic! Love that there’s no browning the meat before hand. It’s what a real slow cooker recipe should be – just dump it all in and turn it on! 🙂
Agree entirely!
You definitely don’t need to add water, Sheena. The liquid from the tomatoes and green chiles, plus the drippings from the meat are more than enough.
I like it. A lot. I usually come home to make it on my lunch hour. It is ready to go when my wife gets home from work/kids from school. Smiles all around. Thank you:-)
I brown it before hand to get rid of grease. I use chuck. It works.
Do you just break it up at the end or need to check halfway through cooking to break it up?
This was SO good. Will be my go to mealeach week! I didn’t have green chilies, so added a sprinkle of red pepper flakes. We don’t do extremely spicy, this was just right!!
Can you add rice? Would it cook properly?
I wanted to make this while I’m at work tomorrow. Will it be okay with thawed ground beef on low for 6-8 hours if no one is home to stir it?
Hi, i have no diced tomatoes on hand. Could i do water or beef broth in place of the canned tomatoes ?
Can this work with frozen chicken too?
I made this on the stove top and it was fantastic! It is now my go to recipe for taco meat. Highly recommend!
Was thinking replacing diced tomatoes with salsa could be good.
Hi I have 80/20 ground beef but the weight is 1.77 its almost 2 pounds can i still use the same measurements in the recipe for 2 pounds…
Thnaks
1.77 lbs is 1/4 lb shy of 2 pounds. Logic will tell you that with less meat, you need to cut back on liquids. Plus, if you had bothered to read the other posts, 80/20 beef will produce more grease than with leaner beef. But will it work? It can with some slight adjustments.
Hi ,the ground beef i have is not frozen ..how many hours on low since the meat is not frozen?
Thanks
I am giving this 2 stars because no one replied to my questions..
Lady, you posted your question at 7:40 a.m. By 9:40 that SAME evening you gave the recipe 2 stars? My guess is that you didn’t even bother to try the recipe. You are quite self-centered to think that the author of this post sits around waiting to immediately respond to bloggers’ questions. She has a life outside this column with real-life challenges, emergencies and demands. Because she hadn’t answered you on the SAME DAY, you leave her 2 stars? You, my dear, are RUDE! The fact that she chose not to answe you at all is the kindest response she could have given.
no reply
i love your recipe i try last night and it was spot on so much yummy thankss for sharing….
So glad you loved it!
I made this today since my stove isn’t working. Delicious and easy! I made a lb. I will make this again. I didn’t change a thing.
Glad you liked the recipe!
I have made this recipe several times and it is AMAZING!!!! Im wondering how many servings this makes? I’m on weight watchers now and I need to be able to portion control. Thanks!!!!
This was FABULOUS! Could not have been easier. And if you actually READ the directions (this is for the woman above who could not be bothered, apparently, then rated the recipe 2 stars because no one “answered her questions” all of which were answered by reading the recipe) it is fast and delicious too!! And it can be made quickly as a great go to meal during the week or for a weekend party. HIGHLY recommend you try it!