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…):
So yum! Full of flavour but nothing overwhelming. Would 100% make again.
Amazing! this is my fourth day at work w this lunch and it still slaps.
Added some pickles on the side!
I followed the recipe to exact but maybe i had more potent cumin, for those who are about to make this recipe,.. maybe tone it down a bit 😀 I saved it with some soya cooking cream 🙂
Did not have the rice problem as some say in the comments,..
Made this with a good quality vegan ground beef (even uncooked, looks a lot like uncooked regular ground beef), vegan legume stock and greek orzo (simple because I didn’t have any other rice in the house). Came out beautifully, every one loved it!
I don’t usually alter any of the recipe tin recipe’s , because they are ALWAYS good. In this case I only did it cause we are vegetarian. Thank you for yet another delicious dish!
I really like this and usually have everything I need to make it. Dinner in 20 minutes you can’t beat that. I also doctored up a can of refried beans and made tostadas with it.
The flavors are excellent, but adding uncooked rice didn’t work for me. And I cooked it longer than the recipe stated. Next time I will try adding cooked rice and see if that is better texture.
I thought this would be good, but my picky husband and I thought it was an easy 5 stars! We will put this on our monthly rotation. I had leftover cooked rice in the fridge, so I just mixed that in. Nagi, you are amazing if you can prep this in 10 minutes! It took me twice that time plus clean-up. It does make an awful lot for just 2 people, so I’m going to freeze some of it for another meal. We kept out enough to make burritos for lunch tomorrow. Your site is one of my favourite recipe sites. I’m so sorry to hear that you lost Dozer. We have an 8 year old retriever, Maude. We absolutely love dogs and we know how hard it is when they pass away. 💔 Congrats on the new pup. 🥰
This recipe was amazing! After reading the comments, I pre cooked the rice and boiled it in chicken stock for extra flavour and then added it to the pan with the rest of the ingredients. Just before serving, I crushed a bag of corn chips all over the top and dolloped sour cream and guacamole – it was insanely delicious.
Would it be possible to successfully turn this into a burrito/Quesadilla?
In note 1 (regarding rice), some suggested rice that would work has an * at the end but I can’t find what that means anywhere!!
Hi Nagi,
I wonder if you could post a recipe for Jollof Rice please?
You seem to create the most satisfying version of recipes you post. I’m sure your version of Jollof Rice would be great.
Thanks
Russ
My family looved this receipe and keep asking me to make it again. We froze the leftovers and it was delicious after defrosting and heating up.
Rice took much longer to cook and I also had to add more water. Added a teaspoon of chili powder to the seasonings. Tasted great.
I treat it somewhat like a risotto in terms of technique and it never disappoints. We use capsicum, carrot and zucchini and basmati rice. I encourage people who think they need tp cook the rice separately to give this a go. It is easy and the flavour absorbs into the rice. You will never go back.
So sorry about losing your puppers!
Oh goodnesssssss, yummmmm. Such good flavour! I swapped capsicum for grated zucchini and carrot and it was epic! Couldn’t even tell they were in there. We also only had 50g of cheese and it was still great!
OMG! The best recipe I have tried in a long time! 8/10 I keep going back for second serving.
Excellent recipe. We enjoyed this on wraps and with tortilla chips. Delicious! Once again, thank you for a great recipe!
I want to make this, but I am thinking about using “minute rice” would that work?
I made this exactly to the recipe – measured everthing but was disappointed in the result- rice cooked in 15 minutes but dish was left far too wet.
Very tasty. Cooked it for a pot-luck and it seemed to be popular. I read the comments before making it and decided to cook the rice separately and add it later. It worked out well. I wondered if I would need to reduce the amount of water, but it still seemed to need the full amount. Nice and easy to make. I was short for time, so I didn’t have to worry about cutting up vegies (except the garlic and onion – I omitted the capsicum as I don’t like it). But if I had more time, I would probably add some other vegies like carrots and green beans.