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……
Lots of flavor! One of our many Nagi favs!
Thank you!
I made these last night and they were absolutely delicious. Used store bought taco sauce that was labeled hot 🌶️ 🌶️ 🌶️. And used 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper instead of 1/4 in the beef mixture. We love a real kick to our Mexican. The sour cream cooled it down. Sooo delicious.
So, so happy with this! I just made these now for the first time and they were so wonderfully simple and delicious! Thank you for creating such a delicious, easy and quick recipe! I will absolutely be trying more of your recipes
Delicious and so simple. Used both soft and hard shells in the oven with the meat and cheese and it was perfect. Hard shells were crispy and slightly chewy on the bottom which just made them better and the soft shells had a little crisipy bit on the edge which was also delicious. Pretty sure I’ll never use a packet mix again.
The beef mix etc is nice and old skool but putting that mix into your tacos with cheese and baking it will ruin your night (unless you enjoy soggy bases). Definitely crisp those shells first
I disagree Dav, I didn’t get any soggy bases. Maybe you needed to crank your oven more? I thought the extra step of putting them into the tacos w/ cheese and into the oven was a game changer!
My daughter made this today it was lovely, she will be making it again.
Absolutely amazing….puts Old El Paso to shame. Thanks Nagi ❤️
Hi Navi, I congratulate you on your wonderful comprehensive recipes that are always reliable. My grandchildren particularly love the Old School Tacos and we make and enjoy them regularly. I love everything I have made from your website. Thank you for your attention to detail and all the helpful hints along the way. Keep up the fabulous work.
I can’t believe how simple and quick this recipe is, considering how delicious it turned out. Bravo
These are amazing! Nagi, thank you for sharing such wonderful food with us. This is my go to for tacos from now on.
A+ recipe. Did not change one thing in the recipe and don’t plan too. No more store bought taco seasoning for me. Thanks for sharing.
AWESOME!
Another winner. Turned out exactly as promised. Thanks Nagi!
Made these tonight with your taco sauce. They were awesome, restaurant quality.
The beef filling here was terrific and baking with the cheese worked nicely. We make our own salsa and guacamole as toppings, plus black beans and substitute the sour cream with plain yogurt. Now a favourite!
I’m a working wife who’s never cooked anything before I was married. Your recipes were always my go-to whenever I need to make new dinners. Thanks for saving me.
This was GREAT! We love tacos , the flavor for us is spot on. Thank you so much for sharing!
Everyone loved this recipe and genius idea for baking – no more cracked tacos where all the ingredients then fall back onto the plate!! I am buying your book for my birthday (from all of my family that get to enjoy your recipes!!)
Oops! Forgot the stars!
I did not realise my entire life I had been doing tacos wrong! This is brilliant, the shells are lovey and crunchy and warm the cheese seals the meat in place so no more loose escaping bits and lovely contrast with fresh toppings! Even easier with the stand and stuff shells!!