This ground beef and rice skillet combines taco seasoned ground beef with black beans, golden corn, cilantro lime diced tomatoes, and two types of rice to create a massive dish with tons of flavor. Thanks to using half “real” rice and half cauliflower rice, you get a huge bang for your buck in terms of calories per serving. Each massive 300-gram serving has 27 grams of protein with just 36 grams of carbs and 335 calories!
If you’re a fan of my infamous creamy taco soup, I think you’ll dig this recipe!
Ground Beef and Rice Skillet Recipe Walkthrough
Unlike the taco soup, this recipe uses a homemade taco seasoning in place of taco seasoning packets. If you’d like to use the latter to save time, you’re more than welcome. There’s no chef shaming around here!
As for the ground beef seasoning, I used the blend of spices from my baked beef tacos.
- paprika
- ground chipotle peppers (or chili powder)
- garlic powder
- cumin
- salt and black pepper
Cooking the Ground Beef
Like I ranted about in my sweet chili ground beef and brussels sprouts recipe, I think adding spices to the exterior of ground beef before going in the skillet allows the spices to bloom and develop a crust on the beef. This creates a ton of flavor but if you wanted to throw the beef in and add the spices as it cooks, it’ll still turn out fine.
One difference between this ground beef and rice skillet and the brussels skillet I mentioned above is the exclusion of oil here. I wanted to keep the fat under control but if you’d like to add a tablespoon of oil to the skillet before cooking the beef, that will only add about 20 calories per serving.
Adding the Beans, Corn, and Tomatoes to the Cooked Ground Beef
If you skip the oil and have some sticking on the bottom of your skillet, that’s okay. The juices from this trio will allow you to deglaze the skillet (scrape all the crispy bits from the bottom).
You’ll want to cook this for a good 8-10 minutes or until there’s very little liquid remaining. If you’re having trouble reducing the mixture, increase the heat and give it a few extra minutes.
Worst case, you end up with soup, and I guess that’s not all that bad.
Adding the Rice, Cheese, and Finishing in the Oven
The recipe calls for cauliflower rice and a packet of ready rice. You’re more than welcome to use all cauliflower rice or all “real” rice. You will, however, want to use a rice that’s cooked since we’re adding it in at the end. If you throw instant rice in at the end, you’ll have some crunchy rice!
If you wanted to use something like instant rice, you could probably add it in the step with the corn, black beans, and diced tomatoes. I haven’t tested it, but I imagine the rice would cook enough in the juices.
You could also use other grains like the quinoa in my Mexican beef and quinoa skillet or chopped tortillas like in my Tex Mex ground chicken casserole.
After your stir everything together, top with shredded cheese and pop the skillet in the oven to melt everything together. It’s serving time!
The recipe card below suggests fat free Greek yogurt and hot sauce, but you could definitely spice things up with my creamy jalapeño dip, avocado salsa, or the lime vinaigrette and spicy crema from my Tex Mex ground beef and shaved brussels sprouts recipe.
And speaking of Tex Mex, you could always throw this ground beef and rice in a tortilla and make something like my cheesy black bean quesadillas.
That about covers it. If you have any other questions about this ground beef and rice skillet, drop a comment below.
Tex-Mex Ground Beef and Rice Skillet
Ingredients
For the Seasoned Ground Beef*
- 1 lb Ground Beef, 96/4
- 1 Tbsp Paprika
- 2 tsp Ground Chipotle Peppers, or chili powder
- 1 tsp Cumin
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1/2 tsp Black Pepper
- 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
Add to the Cooked Ground Beef
- 15 oz can Black Beans
- 15 oz can Whole Kernel Corn
- 10 oz can Mexican RO-TEL, diced tomatoes with green chiles
- 12 oz bag Frozen Cauliflower Rice**
- 9 oz packet Uncle Ben’s Ready Rice Original
- 3/4 C 84g Shredded Colby Jack Cheese
Instructions
- Preheat an oven to 400F and microwave both bags of rice. Set aside.
- Heat a large 12" skillet over medium-high heat.
- Mix the spices for the ground beef in a small bowl. Coat both sides of the ground beef with the spices, gently pressing the spices into the surface. Add the ground beef to the skillet and cook for 1-2 minutes on the first side before flipping, crumbling, and cooking another 4-5 minutes until no pink remains.
- Add the corn, beans, and RO-TEL to the skillet (all undrained) and stir. Cook for 8-10 minutes until very little liquid remains in the skillet.
- Add both packets of rice to the skillet, stirring to fully incorporate. Top with the shredded cheese and bake for about 5 minutes to fully melt the cheese. Serve with freshly chopped cilantro, fat free Greek yogurt, hot sauce, or your desired toppings.
I have made this numerous times! I live by myself, so I usually have leftovers. However, I still double this recipe and freeze it for later. It’s so delicious, and not something you can ever get tired of! I’ve had picky eater friends over, and they’ve drooled over it as well.
Tex mex ground beef meal is filling and fantastic. I used fat free cheddar for the cheese and still came out amazing. Super quick to make
I love this recipe! Quick and easy to make. I think the next time I make it though I will use less of the canned corn. My husband still has no idea there was cauliflower in it! He approves of the recipe!
This recipe was so delicious that I wanted to make it again and again!! I made this for my lunch for the week and my colleagues were very intrigued (and slightly jealous)! Haha!! It has so much flavor and made me feel like a chef b/c it came out looking beautiful!!!
This is SO delicious and easy!! Plus the macros fit well into my day. I just used the bag of instant rice and left out the cauliflower rice and I thought it turned out great. I ate it the whole week for dinner and didn’t get bored. Yummy!!
This is a family favorite. Everyone enjoys it and the macros are on point.
Yes my 2 year old ate this. She is a taco lover and I made this once thinking she wouldn’t want to veer from her standard hard taco shells. This is her weekly requested dinner and when she smells it she yells “TACOS” and beelines for the table. Today she forgot to stop and hit her head on her chair, but it didn’t stop her satisfaction with her favorite dinner. Thanks!
This was delicious! Used regular brown rice instead of cauliflower rice (personal preference). I enjoyed it on corn tortilla chips, but also individually. WARNING – check the corn. Accidentally made with sweet corn once time and did not enjoy it as much.
Made this tonight, and it came out beautifully.
I left out the beans, but otherwise did everything to the letter. Cooked the beef, Rotel, and corn in a nonstick skillet and then transferred that mixture into a casserole dish with a bag of cooked cauliflower rice since my cast iron skillet wouldn’t have been large enough.
Topped with low fat sour cream and Trader Joe’s Greek yogurt guacamole.
Tasted great, and could easily modify it in the future to fit other macronutrient goals or to include things I have on hand.
I already have plans to make a “fajita” style with lots of bell peppers and onions.
Thanks Mason!! This is going in the rotation for sure.
We love to make this on busy week nights. Easy to assemble and great taste!