Easy Ground Beef Tacos, With Seasoning From Scratch
Taco night is the most reliable weeknight dinner there is, and the packet is the weakest part of it.
A pound of ground beef feeds four people tacos comfortably, which makes this the cheapest good dinner in the rotation.
Brown it hard first
Wide pan, real heat, thin layer, and leave it alone until one side has color. Tacos are a dish where that crust matters, because there is no long simmer afterwards to build flavor. What you get in the pan is what you serve.
Drain most of the fat once it is browned. Here you want the beef seasoned rather than slicked.
The seasoning, which takes two minutes
- Chili powder, a generous tablespoon per pound.
- Cumin, a teaspoon, and more than you think.
- Smoked paprika, a teaspoon.
- Garlic powder, half a teaspoon. Fresh garlic burns at this heat.
- Salt, to taste, at the end rather than the start.
- A splash of water, two or three tablespoons, to pull it together.
Bloom the dry spices in the hot fat for thirty seconds before the water goes in. That one step is the difference between tasting the spices and tasting dust.
“Um, and then just, you know, what's on the label and what, what's actually in it? Uh, is there anything that I can't pronounce? Is there anything that comes from a chemical factory? Uh, is there anything made of petroleum instead of something that comes out of the ground or walks on it?”
Gray Shipley
It is also why the packet is worth skipping. The label on a seasoning sachet is mostly salt, starch and anti-caking agents, and the four things above are already in most kitchens.
Lean or regular?
“You don't want a lean burger. You don't want some silly 90-10. You know, get a good 80-20, 75-25 blend.”
Gray Shipley
For tacos you are draining fat anyway, so this is one of the few places leaner ground beef makes sense. If you only have 80/20, drain it more thoroughly and the result is the same.
Keep the plate simple
“And then, you know, let the flavor do the work and don't try to do too much.”
Gray Shipley
Warm tortillas, the beef, something sharp, something fresh, something creamy. Five things. A taco with nine components is a salad that fell over.
One pound packs of dry-aged ground beef. Four quarter-pounders or three third-pounders to the pack.
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Proper Meats ground beef by the pound. The one to buy by the handful for a week of dinners.
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Dry-aged patties at 5.3 ounces, portioned already. Count heads, count patties, done.
View ProductThe browning step has its own guide in how to brown ground beef, and quantities for a bigger table are in how much beef per person.
- Cook to a Safe Minimum Internal Temperature, FoodSafety.gov
Food-safety temperatures and storage times on this page are cited to the agencies above rather than to us.
Written at Shipley Farms in Vilas, North Carolina: a family cattle farm raising and dry-aging beef in the Appalachian Mountains, now in its fifth generation. No shortcuts since 1872.
Every quote on this page is Gray Shipley talking, the man who runs this farm. We sat down with him, turned on a recorder, and left his words alone.
Nobody knows this beef better than we do. On food safety we leave it to FoodSafety.gov, and we have linked their page above. Reviewed 3 October 2026.
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