One Pot Taco Pasta (Cheesy Ground Beef, 30 Minutes)

This one pot taco pasta is what I make when the kids want tacos, I want pasta, and nobody wants to wash more than one pot: ground beef browns with onion and taco seasoning, then the dry pasta shells, tomatoes and broth go straight into the same pot and simmer until the pasta is tender and the sauce is thick enough to coat every shell. A couple of handfuls of cheddar at the end and it is cheesy, a little spicy and on the table in 30 minutes with 32g of protein a bowl. It lives in the same weeknight rotation as my ground turkey taco skillet, Turkish pasta and one pot sausage pasta — the dinners I can make without looking at a recipe.

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Why this taco pasta recipe works every single time.

• The pasta cooks in the sauce, so the sauce actually tastes like something. Instead of boiling pasta in plain water and draining away the starch, the shells simmer in beef broth and tomatoes right alongside the seasoned beef. The starch they release is what thickens the sauce into something glossy and clingy — the same trick that makes my one pot chicken alfredo pasta and one pot sausage pasta work without any cream.
• It is a ground beef recipe with a real protein number. A pound of 90% lean ground beef plus a can of black beans and a cup of cheddar comes to 32g of protein a bowl, which is more than most pasta dinners manage. If you are tracking, the protein calculator will tell you how many bowls you need; if you want more, the cheeseburger bowls approach of swapping in high-protein pasta pushes it past 38g.
• Everything is a pantry staple, and it takes 30 minutes. Ground beef, a packet of taco seasoning (or the homemade blend in the notes), a can of Rotel, a can of beans, pasta and cheese. There is nothing to thaw, nothing to marinate, and the whole thing is one of those 30 minute meals you can make from memory by the second time.

Here's what you'll need.

Here is everything that goes in the pot — medium shells are my favorite because they trap the sauce, but any short pasta that cooks in 9 to 11 minutes works.

Here's how it all comes together.

STEP 1 — Brown the beef and onion.

Heat a glug of oil in a wide pot or deep skillet over medium-high heat and cook a pound of ground beef with the diced onion for 6 to 7 minutes, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, until no pink remains. Spoon off any big pools of fat but leave a little for flavor.

STEP 2 — Season it.

Add the garlic and the taco seasoning and stir for a minute so the spices toast in the fat and coat every bit of beef. This one minute is where most of the taco flavor comes from, so do not skip it.

STEP 3 — Add the pasta, tomatoes and broth.

Pour in the undrained Rotel, the broth and the dry pasta shells. Stir so the pasta is mostly under the liquid, then bring it to a boil.

STEP 4 — Simmer until the pasta is tender.

Lower the heat to a steady simmer, cover, and cook for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring every few minutes so nothing sticks. Stir in the black beans and corn for the last 3 minutes. The pasta should be just tender and the sauce thick enough to coat a spoon — if it looks dry before the pasta is done, add a splash more broth.

STEP 5 — Stir in the cheese.

Take the pot off the heat and stir in a cup of shredded cheddar until it melts into the sauce, then scatter the rest over the top and put the lid back on for 2 minutes so it goes gooey. Taste for salt before you serve.

If one-pot dinners with real protein numbers are how you like to cook on a weeknight, the pasta and skillet chapters of the Ultimate Slow Cooker Mediterranean Diet Cookbook.

Things I learned while testing this recipe.

• Use 90% lean beef, or drain more than you think. The first time I tested this with 80/20 beef the sauce had an orange grease slick on top because nothing gets drained away like it does with boiled pasta. Leaner beef, or a good spoon-off after browning, fixes it.
• Stir every few minutes, and keep the lid on between stirs. One pot pasta sticks if you walk away and goes watery if you leave the lid off. A quick stir every 3 minutes with the lid back on each time gives you tender pasta in a thick sauce.
• Shred the cheese yourself. Pre-shredded cheddar is coated in starch and turns the sauce grainy. A block of sharp cheddar on a box grater melts into the sauce in seconds and gives you the cheese pull.
• Do not add the cheese over the heat. Cheddar stirred into a boiling sauce breaks and goes stringy. Off the heat, it melts smooth every time.

Why this is my go-to easy dinner recipe for the whole family.

• It is genuinely one pot. No colander, no second skillet for the beef, no baking dish. The pot you brown the beef in is the pot it simmers in and the pot it is served from, which on a weeknight is the whole point of one pot meals.
• Everyone can top their own bowl. I put sour cream, sliced jalapeño, diced tomato, cilantro and crushed tortilla chips on the table and the kids build their own. It is the easiest way I know to get picky eaters to finish a bowl of something with beans in it.
• 32g of protein, and leftovers for lunch. Beef, beans and cheddar make this a high-protein pasta without any protein powder tricks, and a container of it reheats in the microwave better than most pasta because the sauce is so thick.

Here's what I'd serve with this.

• Cowboy caviar — the lime, bean and corn salad is cold and crunchy against the cheesy pasta
• Cucumber salad — something sharp and cold to cut the richness
• Air fryer green beans — 15 minutes in the basket while the pasta simmers
• Roasted cauliflower — tossed with a little of the same taco seasoning
• Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies — today’s other new recipe — the dough takes 10 minutes and the cookies bake while everyone eats

Just in case you have leftovers.

Storing: Cool and refrigerate in a covered container for up to 4 days. It freezes well too — portion into containers and freeze up to 3 months; the pasta softens a little but the sauce holds.

Reheating: Microwave a bowl for 90 seconds to 2 minutes with a splash of water or broth stirred in so the sauce loosens back up, or warm it in a covered skillet over medium-low heat for 5 minutes. Frozen portions go straight into the microwave, 3 to 4 minutes with a stir halfway.

More easy weeknight dinner recipes...

Turkish pasta One pot sausage pasta Ground beef stroganoff Ground turkey taco skillet

Also new today: pumpkin chocolate chip cookies — soft and chewy instead of cakey, thanks to one blotting trick, and done in 30 minutes.

More one-pot dinners that feed the whole table

If feed-everyone dinners with real protein numbers and one pot to wash are how you like to cook, the Ultimate Slow Cooker Mediterranean Diet Cookbook is full of the same kind of hands-off weeknight meals.

Get the cookbook on Amazon

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