A bubbly casserole of sorts, this Mexican beef and bean is like a baked version of chilli con carne with lots of melty cheese – but faster to make. Think of it like your ultimate all-purpose Mexican beef – stuff in tacos, DIY burrito wraps, dunk with corn chips – like nachos!
Cheesy Mexican beef and bean bake
I can’t remember how this Mexican beef and bean dish first came to be. All I know is that when it came out of the oven in all its bubbly, melty cheesy glory, I wanted to get stuck into immediately but paralysed with indecision for how. So many options!
Like chili, with a warm tortillas on the side for dunking??
OR with corn chips, deconstructed nachos style?
Making stuffed tortilla pillows?? Which, I realised, is just a burrito actually. 😂 *Light-bulb-moment* DIY burritos! Add a pile of warm tortillas, sour cream + guacamole or quick avocado sauce for dunking. Everybody make your own!
All-inclusive-taco filling? So juicy and cheesy already, it’s like a good ole’ classic beef mince taco filling + taco sauce + cheese, all rolled into one. Efficiency, for the win!
Then another light-bulb moment. This is like the ultimate all-purpose Mexican beef filling!! It’s almost a little concerning how excited I was when I came to this conclusion. Good food has a habit of doing that to me. 🤭
What you need for Mexican beef and beans
Here’s what you need to make this Mexican beef and bean bake:
This is a casual, rustic dish – which means, lots of flexibility. I’m not so relaxed with substitutions for some recipes, so take it when you can! 😂
Ground beef / beef mince – Or chicken, turkey or pork. Any of these would work. (Even lamb actually).
Red onion – Or ordinary brown / yellow onions.
Green capsicum (bell pepper) – Or other colour capsicum, or other sauté-able vegetables like diced zucchini/courgette, carrot, green beans (chopped), corn. Even a cup of diced mixed frozen vegetables would work here!
Red kidney beans – Or black beans (on theme with Mexican food), or any other beans of choice. Or, more vegetables.
Tomato passata – This is pureed, strained tomato that is smooth, rather than lump like canned tomato. Substituted with crushed canned tomato, or what’s called tomato sauce or tomato puree in the US (eg Hunts).
Pickled jalapeno – Adds a sprinkle of spiciness plus tang because it’s pickled which is nice in this beefy dish. Canned chopped green chillies would be an excellent sub here (but this is a US thing, hoping it becomes a staple here in Australia one of these days!).
Garlic – Can’t be flexible here! 🙂
Cheese – Definitely not flexible here! Well, not flexible about the inclusion of some form of melting cheese. I’ve opted for Colby – adds flavour, melts well, gets a nice bit of golden colour on the surface, not too greasy. Feel free to use any of choice. If you use mozzarella, I’d suggest adding a sprinkling of parmesan on top (because mozzarella, while it melts beautifully, doesn’t have a much flavour).
The Mexican spice mix
And here’s what you need for the homemade Mexican spice mix. Some Mexican recipes I share have a longer list of spices. For me, this is about the minimum you can go without the flavour missing something. All staple spices! (You can substitute smoked paprika with plain).
How to make Cheesy Mexican beef and beans
It’s like chili cone carne – but faster to make because by finishing it off in the oven with a generous sprinkling of cheese, we can skip the stove simmer.
Sauté the onion, garlic and capsicum first. Use an ovenproof skillet. Pictured is my much-loved 26cm / 10.5″Lodge cast iron skillet (my essential kitchenware list is here!).
Cook the beef, breaking it up as you go.
Toast the spices with the beef. Good way to bring out flavour in spices plus get better flavour into beef mince / ground beef – FAST. 🙂
Add beans and tomato passata, give it a good mix then bring to a simmer.
Top with cheese then bake for 15 minutes just to melt the cheese.
Remove from oven and start the agonising process of deciding how to serve it! Tacos? Corn chip dunking? Burrito stuffing? ENCHILADAS? Nachos?? #FirstWorldProblems
Sides / toppings
Pictured in post for serving in all the above listed forms are:
Guacamole, and sometimes avocado sauce (essentially a smooth, faster version of guac)
Pico de gallo (fresh tomato salsa). Also this pureed tomato salsa would be great.
Sour cream (sub yogurt)
Fresh coriander/cilantro
Tortillas – small ones and larger enchilada size ones (for making small burritos).
Corn chips – for dunking
Other excellent options includes:
Mexican red rice, plain white rice (or brown, or cauliflower rice if you’re doing the low-carb thing). Rice in bowls then smother with the Mexican beef and beans.
And….. eeer… I’m stuck. Help?
– Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Cheesy baked Mexican beef and beans
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 red onion , finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves , finely minced
- 1 green capsicum / bell pepper , cut into 1cm / 1/2″ cubes (or other colour)
- 500g/ 1 lb beef mince (ground beef) (Note 1)
- 400g/ 14oz can red kidney beans or black beans , drained (or other beans)
- 1 cup tomato passata (Note 2)
- 1/3 cup pickled sliced jalapeño (Note 3)
- 1 1/2 cups Colby cheese , shredded (or other cheese, Note 4)
Mexican spice mix:
- 1 1/2 tsp cumin powder
- 1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika (sub normal paprika)
- 1 tsp garlic powder (sub onion powder)
- 1 tsp onion powder (sub garlic powder)
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (sub black pepper)
- 1 tsp cooking/kosher salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°C / 400°F (180°C fan).
- Sauté – Heat the olive oil in a cast-iron skillet over medium high heat (or other oven-proof pan). Cook onion, garlic and capsicum for 3 minutes.
- Cook beef & spices – Add beef and cook, breaking it up as you go, until you no longer see raw meat. Add spices, then cook for 1 minute.
- Beans & tomato – Add kidney beans and passata. Stir, then bring to a simmer.
- Cheese it! Scatter the jalapeño across the surface, top with cheese.
- Bake 15 minutes (no lid) then remove from the oven.
- Serve! Scoop into bowls and serve with corn chips or tortillas with your favourite Mexican fixings (guacamole or avocado sauce pico de gallo or restaurant style salsa, fresh coriander/coriander, sour cream). Dunk like nachos, make DIY burritos or tacos!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Dozer’s idea of obeying my command to stay outside the shop.
I had made this a few times now, a great dish to add to the weekly meal planner. Very easy to make and tastes delicious. Definitely give it a try if you haven’t!
Yum!! Had to make a few changes to suit what I had available but still tasted fantastic! Used pork mince because that’s what I had. Also only had 250g so I added a can of pinto bean (on top of the 1 can of red kidney) to make up for less mince. Didn’t have capsicum or pickled jalepenos so left them out, everything else was the same. Soooo delicious! My 4yo loved it too! We had it on some rice with corn chips crumbled on top. Would’ve been perfect with sour cream but also didn’t have that 😅
Doing sugar free January and this recipe def hit the spot that I needed. The beans have a healthy dose of fibre and the pickled chillis add depth! Yum!
I’ve made this recipe many times family loved it another Nagi favorite Recipe, my grandson had almost half the pot by himself every time it was that good so full of flavor and so easy to prepare , by the way the chicken with no oil from the cookbook DINNER is a lifesaver it is so easy to prepare, take no time at all , when I don’t have anything planned something quick I can make this chicken.
THANK YOU again for all your hard work and delightful recipes!!! USA
Made this in a pinch for dinner tonight. All I can say is it’s all gone! Even my picky kids liked it (I omitted the cayenne for them). It’s so easy and flavorful. Another delicious recipe from Nagi!
One of my favourite recipes of Nagi’s and that is saying something as she has so many amazing ones to choose from. What I love about this one is it’s so quick and easy to prepare but so full of flavour. Then to make it even better it’s so versatile- it can be used in so many ways- in tortillas and tacos, on nachos, rice or baked potato or just by itself with some toppings. Thanks for all the thought you put into your recipes Nagi, it certainly makes cooking for a family so much easier.
Is this in the cookbook? Just a suggestion, if the recipe is in the book let us know so don’t double print. I have a stack of recipes that I have to go thru to see if in the book, love them all.
This is so easy to make. It’s been a staple in our house.
This is so delicious! I will be making this again for sure. Thanks for sharing😊
I have made this a few times now the last time using corn chips to scoop up instead of tortillas. My husband hasn’t stopped raving about how good it is. He lived in Texas for a few years and got right into the chilies over there. He reckons this is the best one he has ever eaten. I add some greek yoghurt, mashed avo and chopped up fresh cherry tomatoes as sides. Brilliant easy one pan dinner.
Another win! Absolutely delicious. I can’t believe how easy it was. I wouldn’t change a thing, Thanks again Nagi!!
My husband said it’s the best food he’d ever eaten. He’s exaggerating no doubt. I was pretty sure he has eaten some pretty amazing food before but once I took a bite I knew he was right. The good thing is it is very easy to prepare given all the detailed recipe. I’m making it again tomorrow with ground chicken into burritos for my son’s school lunch.
Absolutely love this recipe for my teenage son. Very adaptable with rice/tortilla/enchilladas, easy to adjust the spice level and perfect for re=heating the next day.
This was loved by my partner! I used chopped tomatoes instead of Passata and served with cheesy garlic tortillas. Quick and easy – thank you 🙏
Easy, peasy, tasty, yum. Added to my Love It file.
Made this last night and served it with tortilla strips. Another keeper from Nagi!
This is so flavourful! I’ve made this twice in the past 2 weeks because it’s delicious. Teens enjoyed it too
The best recipe from RTE as always never fails, it’s absolutely delicious!!!
Made this without the the jalapeños and it was delicious served on naan bread. Definitely a keeper!
So delicious my family of four we had very little left over. Really easy for a mid week meal.