No more boring beef mince recipes….. Kick off the week with THIS flavour packed Mexican Ground Beef Casserole!! With corn, capsicum/bell peppers and black beans, this rice casserole is juicy, cheesy, and packed with big Mexican flavours.
One pot, quick dinner idea that’s on the table in 30 minutes!
Mexican Ground Beef Casserole with rice
This is essentially the filling for the Mexican Stuffed Peppers I shared a few weeks ago. Why am I bothering?
Because when I share a pork chop recipe on Instagram, people always ask if it can be made with chicken.
When I share a chicken thigh recipe, people always ask if it can be made with breast.
And when I share Mexican Stuffed Peppers, people ask if it can be made without the peppers…… 😂😂😂
Which actually, as strange as it sounds, I thought was a very valid question because I can imagine how irritating it would be to watch that stuffed peppers video and drool when the juicy beef rice filling comes oozing out, knowing full well you have no peppers in your fridge.
So – here’s the filling recipe which is a Mexican flavoured ground beef casserole made with rice. It’s mouth-wateringly delish!!!
What you need for Mexican Ground Beef Casserole
Here’s what you need. Feel free to substitute the capsicum, born and beans with other vegetables of choice – you need about 5 to 6 cups of diced veggies in total.
How to make this Mexican Rice Casserole
This is a one pot quick dinner that will be on your table in 30 minutes!
Essentially, it starts by browning the beef with onion and garlic, then you add a ton of Mexican spices, rice and liquids then you give it a big stir and let it simmer away on the stove until the rice is tender.
To give it a good slug of extra flavour, I like to stir in cheese as well as green onion for freshness (I also like doing this because I get a kick out of watching the cheese melt into the rice 😇), top with a bit more cheese, clamp the lid on and leave it for a minute to let the residual heat to melt the cheese.
The texture of this rice casserole is like a creamy risotto – except it tastes like juicy Enchiladas.
I love the pops of flavour and texture from the corn and beans – adds extra interest!
Another quick beef mince recipe!
Regular readers know I’m a big fan of beef mince. It’s just so easy – no chopping required, highly versatile. A great flavour absorber, quick to cook.
And this Mexican Rice Casserole is the latest addition to my ground beef recipe collection. Other than Bolognese (which is, without a doubt, the recipe I make most often!), a few of my other favourites include:
Quick Asian Beef Bowls – there’s a lot of fans of this recipe!!
Salisbury Steaks – juicy seasoned beef patties smothered in mushroom gravy
Juicy Italian Meatballs – well, actually, all meatballs!
Chilli Con Carne, Beef Tacos, Baked Ziti, Baked Spaghetti, Moussaka, Meatloaf, Homemade Hamburger Helper….
I have to stop. I love them all! Of course I do. Otherwise I wouldn’t have shared the recipe!! ~ Nagi x
Watch how to make it
More easy, cosy casseroles
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Mexican Ground Beef Casserole with Rice (Beef mince!)
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion , finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves , minced
- 500g (1 lb) ground beef (mince), lean
- 1/3 cup tomato paste
- 1 1/4 cup long grain white rice , uncooked (Note 1)
- 2.5 cups (625 ml) chicken broth/stock , low sodium
- 400g (14oz) can corn kernels , drained (Note 2)
- 400g (14oz) can black beans , drained (or other beans)
- 1 capsicum/bell pepper , diced
- 1 cup green onions/shallots
- 2 cups (200g) cheese , shredded (anything that melts! Note 3)
MEXICAN SPICES:
- 0.5 tsp cayenne pepper (Note 4)
- 1.5 tbsp dried oregano
- 3 tsp cumin
- 3 tsp coriander
- 3 tsp onion powder
- 2 tsp paprika
- 1.5 tsp salt
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large pot over high heat. Add garlic and onion, cook 1 1/2 minutes until onion is translucent.
- Add beef and cook, breaking it up as you go, until you no longer see raw meat (about 2 minutes).
- Add Mexican Spices and cook for 30 seconds.
- Add capsicum and cook for 1 minute.
- Add tomato paste and broth, stir to mix in.
- Add rice, corn and black beans.
- Stir, bring to simmer then cover and lower heat to medium low (simmering gently). Cook 15 minutes.
- Remove lid, quickly stir through green onion and HALF the cheese.
- Smooth top then sprinkle on remaining cheese. Cover and leave for 1 minute just to melt cheese.
- Remove from stove and serve immediately, garnished with more green onion if desired.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
This is where he is as I’m writing this post (ie licking his lips at the sight of the photos…):
Oops, forgot to rate it! 5 stars!!
Hi Nagi,
I made this last night, awesome as always!
Just to let you know about a technical issue, when clicking on the “pin” button, it just pins the YouTube video aka not the actual recipe / website.
Hope that helps!
Cheers,
Dee
Gaaa, thanks for letting me know Dee! I’ll need to get this looked into! N x
This was very good and super easy. I used Mexican seasoned ground turkey and omitted the spices.
Question: mine scorched a bit. Could this be finished in the oven?
Hi Michael! It sure can – 35 minutes at 180C/350F 🙂 Any chance your stove is particularly strong? 🙂 I know the gas stove I use for videos is SUPER strong so I have to have it on low low which = medium low on a normal stove! N xx
Yet another wholesome recipe, I receive regular emails and when this dropped into my email couldn’t resist giving it a go. I made a couple of adjustments as I didn’t have any black beans so added chickpeas as a substitute also I realised I didn’t have any tomato paste so used passata and reduced the quantity of stock. Turned out fabulously, kids loved it too. Thank you Nagi for making meal times exciting again. 👍
Ooh! I’m particularly pleased to hear the kids enjoyed this too, thanks for taking the time to share your feedback! N x
I made this last night and followed the recipe exactly. I even used the same type of pan. But after 15 minutes, the rice was still hard and cruncy. The liquid was gone (I measured rice and both exactly), do I ended up adding more broth and cooking another 10 minutes-then more broth. The flavor is awesome, but I don’t know why my rice cook all the way. I used a name brand long grain white rice. My husband ate his over corn chips and I was jelous that I didn’t think of it before I ate mine! AND-when I stopped at the Italian Market by my house to get the red pepper, I found Vegeta!!! Now I am super excited to be able to use it in other recipes!
15 minutes and all that liquid, and the rice was still crunchy?? That’s so odd. Definitely measured the liquid right?? That’s a high liquid to rice ratio compared to the usual 1 to 1.5 cups to cook plain white rice! N xx
This looks fantastic! I was just wondering what size your pot is? I’ve seen it in quite a few recipes. Thanks! x
Hi Amanda! It’s 28 cm / 11.5″ wide 🙂 N x
I cooked this last night – delish!! I’ll definitely cook it again. Winner! Thanks Nagi xx
Ooh terrific! Thanks for taking the time to come back and let me know you enjoyed this Nicola! N x
Busy night last night so I rushed home from work to make this before picking up my son from soccer practice. It truly only took 30 minutes to make. As I walked out the door after the 15 minute cook time, I didn’t add the cheese with the expectation of adding it when we sat down to eat. Nobody missed it, but next time I won’t be as rushed and will be sure to include it. Thanks for all of your hard work developing and perfecting these recipes for us busy moms! 🙂
Woah! I love that 🙂 Might have to include a specific recipe collection – For Busy Moms – and this one will be in it! N x
I am no cook but even I can make your wonderful recipes. Only thing is, never very sure of measures particularly when quantity is in “cups” so if you ever get round to updating any of your recipes a conversion into oz, ml, grams, ounces etc. would be fantastic!
Hi Robert! I tend to include liquids in oz and ml, some I simply don’t weight but I will try to expand the ingredients I provide by weight! N xx
Hello Nagi perfect timing for such comforting warming food we are creeping into FALL days are about 20 Celsius and nights are 14 Celsius ugh ugh😈
Dozer you look cute wearing that yellow wrap and staring at the laptop👍
That was a quick change! It was so warm still last month!! N xx
This looks really good, but can I make it without mince, rice, cheese, capsicum, stock, spices or onion? That would be great, thanks in advance ;-p
But seriously, I’m drooling like Dozer here and can not wait to make this!! Yet another hit Nagi!! Thank you!
😂😂😂 Too funny Cat! N xx
Hi Nagi,
Just made this delicious dish .
It was wonderful .The smell is fantastic too .No one could figure out it was beef mince that I’ve used .All the flavours were well balanced and combined nicely .I should be so thankful to you for sharing this with us .This is going to be our new family favorite !
WHOOT! So glad you and your family enjoyed this Lalani! N xx
Hi Nagi,
This looks easy and delicious, as usual with your recipes. Unfortunately my hubby does not like rice (except rice pudding). Soooo, I am going to try this with risoni instead and see how it turns out!
Hi Joyce! It will be GREAT with risoni too! N xx
Methinks I ‘cook Mexican’ less than any other cuisine in the world because of geography but this seems very familiar and doable indeed ! All of the spices used are international after all – in Australia perchance black beans are not used as much as in N America. Reading a few of the comments I wonder whether all Americans realize that USA and a small African country are the only places in the world in which metric measurements are not used. Australia changed to the norm in the 1960s if memory serves . . . just saying . . .
REALLY!! I find that so interesting I would have thought the flavours are RIGHT up your alley! 🙂 N xx
Hi Nagi! This recipe has all the components I love! One bowl wonder my friend! As always Dozer is adorable!
*Gasp* Dorothy! I owe you an email!! N xx
Hi Nagi! This recipe has “work lunches” written all over it! I have everything I need in the cupboards/fridge, so guess what I’m doing while I type this? Yep, sauteing the beef.
On another note, I read the message with the photo of Dozer Dawg in the email and my heart froze when it came to the dog baiting. I hope they catch who’s doing this very quickly, that’s how my treasured black lab was killed 50 years ago, and I still remember that horrible night like it was yesterday.
No no no 😩 Oh Leah, I’m so sorry to hear that. Breaks my heart. HUGS – N xx
Hi, I just wanted to know if you think this recipe would work with cooked lentils instead of minced beef. Thanks
I’m sorry Denise, I haven’t tried! N x
I just love your recipes and each one has gotten lots of compliments. Dozer, please thank mom for making cooking easy and yummy.
Dozer doesn’t appreciate my cooking at all! He’d happily eat all the meat RAW!!
500 g hamburger?
1 lb / 500g ground beef! N x
500 grams = 1.1 pounds
400 grams = 14.11 ounces
Goggle will convert measurements for you. My husband brought a cookbook to the US from Singapore. I have to convert most all of the measurements and the names of the foods.
😘 N xx
500 grams is 1 pound of meat
Yep! Thanks Debby, I updated the recipe! N x
Looks so yum – and easy! Would it freeze ok?
I haven’t tried Doug but I don’t see why not! N x
Please convert your measurements from metric to American measurements, THX
Oh yup! Updated! N x
The measurements are listed in both metric and imperial. No need to convert. Nagi has done it for you
I was late with it! 🙂 I forgot to include it initially, I updated it later! N xx
Most measurements are given in the system used by the author’s country. American cookbooks do not convert to metric. Google does all conversions quickly enough.
Hi Marie! I always provide both – just slipped my mind for this one! Updated! N xx