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
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
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
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:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
SO overdue for lawn mowing……
Another winner Nagi! Never using El Paso again!!
I was craving for tacos and decided to make this for dinner tonight. They were sooo good! The homemade taco seasoning was a lot better than store-bought ones, and the Pico de Gallo was a great compliment to the tacos. Thank you, Nagi, for the recipe!
I said the exact same thing after making these. The El Paso stuff gives me stomach aches something fierce, but this one doesn’t, and tastes loads better. Plus far more satisfying making it yourself!
I made this tonight after browsing your recipes for a way to use up 500g beef mince I had on hand. It was super quick, simple and delicious. Instead of the taco shells we made then into nachos with tortilla chips. My 3 and 4 year old gobbled it down. My 4 year old even asked for more (he is the fussier of the two). Next time I am going to add kidney beans, carrot and boiled cubed potato to the mince to bulk it out more. Thanks for a wonderful family recipe.
Just made these tonight and loved doing them this way. Baking them makes it taste so much more put together. It really makes a difference. The only thing I changed was that I added a tiny bit of brown sugar to the spice mix which was nice
We do NOT like tacos! However, my daughter does, so I made these last night. The only thing I changed was to decrease the cumin to 1T to make it milder. The rest of the family almost decided they’d rather go hungry, but relented and took one taco each. Within minutes there wasn’t one single crumb left! Nagi, you’ve converted our family to taco lovers. Thank you!
Do you have cookbooks?
Only e-books available at the moment sorry Hoppy! N x
So much better than crisping taco shells first! With the meat already in them they don’t crack and collapse as you’re eating them. FIlling was easy and delicious. Guacamole, refried beans, coriander, tomatoes, lettuce and shredded carrot as toppings and everyone can add their own. Will be a family favourite for sure.
Has anyone tried these with a good ground beef substitute? I have vegetarians in my family. Btw, this is an awesome site!
I never tried it but I would go with a mix of lentils and black or pinto beans! Cheese and beans tortillas are tasty
Made this a few times, and it’s tops. ‘Old school’ style brings back memories. Lettuce red onion, sour cream and guacamole for toppings. Found that my oven didn’t crisp up the tacos as much as I hoped , so put infilled tacos in first for about 4 mins, then filled with mince and cheese and baked for a further 5 mins; came out brilliantly. Thanks Nagi for all your great recipes!
I had the same issue, I’m putting it down to the oven.
Typically I would cook the shells separately then put all together at the table. But I love this system, think I would use your tip of popping shells in the oven for couple minutes first, so the bottom where the meat is, is just as crispy as the rest
Great recipe,I use it every week. I tried it tonight with just refried beans and mixed beans because I had no meat and it was terrible
Absolutely delicious! Will never use a packet powder seasoning again. Even the chef of the house gave it 2 thumbs up. Definitely doing this again. Thank you.
Loved the beef taco recipe. Also made your avocado sauce. I have used several of your recipes and have not been disappointed.
Just wondering if you baked the shells first before filling with meat?
all your recipes are solid winners. this one was excellent – practical and delicious. love this site!
So so good! We’ll never eat tacos any other way again. Delicious!
Needed to give tacos a shake up. This did the trick and my picky 6 year old ate a full 2 tacos which he would never do from the standard packet mix, arrange your own style. Thanks!!
This is the fourth recipe of yours that I have made, they have all been excellent. I also made the taco sauce which was delicious too.
Quick, easy & delicious! I love crunchy ground beef tacos. I’ll just make my own from now on thanks to Nagi & let me tell you these tacos were sooo good!
These were loved by myself, hubby and my 2.5 year old son. The seasoning is so flavourful! Thank you for your wonderful recipes! Your website is my go to every time!
Utterly divine !! Quick, easy and oh so tasty !!
Incredible as always!
Thanks so much Anya! N x