Homemade Tacos are the perfect busy weeknight dinner. These Easy Ground Beef Tacos are better than take-out and ready in minutes.
Mexican Tacos
Traditional Mexican beef tacos are made with marinated sliced or shredded beef on soft corn tortillas. Those are great! But, that’s not what most Americans think of when we think of classic tacos.
Best Ground Beef Taco Recipe
Most of us grew up eating ground beef tacos in a crispy corn shell or a soft flour tortilla, with lots of toppings. That’s the traditional taco we’re making in this recipe. But, we’re not using a pre-packaged taco seasoning mix. This recipe uses a flavorful homemade taco seasoning.
What Kind of Ground Beef For Tacos?
Lean ground beef is the best beef to use for making tacos because you don’t need to drain off any fat after cooking it. There is just enough fat in the beef to make it super flavorful, but not so much to make it greasy. Skipping the step to drain the fat makes this a quick and easy taco recipe.
Of course, if you have ground beef with more fat, you can still use it in this recipe. Just cook the beef and drain off the fat before you add the taco seasonings.
How To Make Tacos
*Note: The full printable recipe card is at the bottom of this post.
- Break apart lean ground beef in a skillet over medium-high heat.
- Add chili powder, cumin, salt, oregano, garlic powder, and pepper.
- Cook until the beef is browned.
- Add tomato sauce and water to the meat.
- Cook until some liquid has evaporated, but the meat is still saucy.
- Spoon 2 tablespoons of the taco meat into hard taco shells or small soft tortillas.
- Top the tacos with your favorite traditional taco toppings.
Taco Toppings
- Shredded cheese
- Shredded lettuce
- Chopped tomatoes
- Diced onion
- Sliced avocado
- Sour cream
- Guacamole
How Much Taco Meat Do You Need Per Person?
If you use the traditional size hard taco shell, or small 6-inch flour tortillas, 2 tablespoons of taco meat per taco is the perfect amount. This recipe, using 1 pound of lean ground beef, will make 12 tacos. I tend to serve 3 tacos per person. So I use 1 pound of taco meat for 4 people.
Watch the step by step recipe video for The Best Homemade Tacos Recipe below.
The Best Homemade Tacos Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 lb. 90% to 93% lean ground beef
- 1 Tablespoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup tomato sauce
- 1/4 cup water
- 12 taco shells - either hard shells or small 6-inch soft flour tortillas will work
- Optional Taco Toppings: shredded cheese shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, diced red onion, taco sauce, sour cream, guacamole, etc.
Instructions
- Add the beef to a large skillet over medium-high heat. Break the meat apart with a wooden spoon. Add the chili powder, cumin, salt, oregano, garlic powder, and pepper to the meat. Stir well. Cook until the meat is cooked through, about 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Reduce the heat to medium. Add the tomato sauce and water. Stir to combine. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 7-8 minutes, until some of the liquid evaporates but the meat mixture is still a little saucy. Remove from the heat.
- Warm the taco shells according to their package directions.
- Fill the taco shells with 2 heaping tablespoons of taco meat. Top with desired taco toppings: shredded cheese, shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, diced red onion, taco sauce, sour cream, guacamole, etc.
Nutrition
Try These Great Ground Beef Recipes
Andi Queens says
My partner liked this recipe when I tried it today. Thank you!
Jason Jayanth says
Very Tasty tacos
Anaya says
Very good will make this for my family tomorrow 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
Kay says
Iz real good try it peeps
Linomta says
It so easy and i love it i wish it was in my mouth 🌮🌮😋
Ivette Sullivan says
My husband and I really enjoyed this taco recipe. So easy and ingredients already in my pantry. Thank you
Danielle says
Perfect everything! My eight year old son and hubby loved this tonight. Lots of flavor, really well balanced taste and consistency! If you prefer spicy you’ll want to up it a bit. This will be my go to for taco night! Thank you 👍🏽
Linda says
These a delicious. I’m in the midst of canning tomatoes from my garden so I used homemade tomato paste instead of sauce. It was so much better than taco seasoning from a mix and was a huge hit with my family. I also made a triple batch of filling, divided into meal-size portions, then tossed them in my freezer. This is a keeper.
Lane says
A little on the greasy side, but SO delicious.
Liza says
I made this last night for my family & some of the meat in an Ezekial 4:19 tacos & the other half in half of a baked potato, along side a yummy collard green dish for hubby & I & carrots for my son. My 5-year-old & picky eater husband loved it! I paired it with chunks of avocado, jalepeno shredded cheese, Forager sour cream, sauteed onions, garlic & yellow bell pepper for the potato & taco & a little bit of melted butter mixed with coconut oil. They cleaned their plates! Definitely a keeper.
Margo says
Very yummy! Made this on Wednesday night for the first time and my husband loved it so much that he requested again for tonight’s night. No more taco packets for us.
Tacolicious says
This looks absolutely delicious! Can’t wait to try it out! Cheers
Carlee says
No need to look for any other taco recipe. This is the one, the only one you’ll ever need. All natural ingredients that you easily have on hand, low sodium and no heartburn. We have taco Tuesday every week and this is our one and only recipe for taco filling.
Jill says
I tried this easy recipe, using meatless ground “beef”, with all the ingredients I have as staples. It is was delicious. So no more using commercial taco seasoning!
Therese says
This was an easy to follow, regular pantry ingredient recipe that tasted great! Thank you for sharing…
Dave says
Very good recipe. I doubled the recipe, added 1/2 chopped white onion, sautéed and processed into a smoother “taco” consistency. The spice to meat ratio is right on, easy to double and freeze for future meals. Much better than taco seasoning packs sold in the store. Well done!
Laura M. says
This recipe turned out perfectly. (Next time, though, I’ll add some hot sauce to give it a kick.). Six hours later, My stomach is still reeling with happiness!
In response to what one person wrote, it wasn’t at all greasy, but I used 5% fat beef.
Thank you for this simple yet perfect recipe!
Nikos says
Great recipe. but i was expecting homemade tacos. it could easily be a tomato beef with mexican spices recipe. But yeah it looks great !
Peg Schoell says
This recipe tastes a lot better than that taco packet from the supermarket. My only suggestion would be to drain off some of the fat rendered from the ground beef before you add the tomato sauce and water.
MARITES Novenario says
I did this yesterday and I’m surely gonna make it again
Monet says
Best taco recipe ever. Followed step by step delicious. You will not be disappointed
Felecia says
It was the best tacos I have ever had. Thank you so much!
Warwick says
I have made your “The Homemade Tacos Recipe” a couple of times now. It is delicious and easy to make. Your recipe format and Nutrition information is very helpful. I highly recommend this to others. Thanks very much. I look forward to trying more of your recipes.
Jeremy Kiefer says
Overall it is a great basis for making tacos, my only complaint is that a tablespoon of chili powder is a bit overpowering and takes over some other great flavors. In the future I will adjust the amount of chili powder to maybe half of that. Thank you for a solid recipe.
Allison Hamff says
Oh how we LOVE tacos at our house, along with chips and salsa. queso, and guacamole. This is a great recipe that we will use again and again and again. Thank you for sharing it!
Sarah Winler says
good good, but is there a verison for lets say, 10 people?
Holly says
Thank you! So easy and really tasty, will make again.
Anne Silverstein says
Delicious and simple. Much better than the typical packaged product available in the grocery store. I made my own Taco sauce, too, which was ridiculously easy and so much better.
Anne says
PS I used ground turkey.
Cindy says
Made these last night and they were wonderful. Will definitely use this recipe again!
Kris says
Easy and delicious! I struggle with recipes that have allot of ingredients because I live alone. This was perfect!
Guy Hager says
The spices in this recipe are spot on! I added chopped onions and green chiles to the ground beef and diced tomatillo to the toppings but this was out of the park good! We will make this again.