Crockpot Taco Meat – This taco meat makes dinner super simple! Â Only a handful of ingredients for delicious taco meat made right in the slow cooker and ready to go at supper time!
Be sure to try out our Classic Ground Beef Tacos too if you don’t have time for the slow cooker!
Whew, you guys! Â We just got back from our trip to Chicago really late on Sunday night. Â Ok, fine, it was 10:00.
BUT it felt soooo much later after a busy weekend and a long day of travel. Â Know what I mean?
We had a blast – it was the kiddos first time in Chicago and they absolutely loved everything about it.
Basically, we just did all the touristy stuff possible. Â We also ate A LOT of delicious food.
I was really hoping to take the kids to swim in Lake Michigan, but it was surprisingly cool while we were there!
Of course snap back to reality that it is actually July when we got back to Kansas and 100 degree, humid, sweaty weather.
Back to reality also means a heap and a half of laundry to do after our trip, and just getting caught up on everything work/life related in general.
So, here I was all sad on Monday because I had to cook dinner and I really just wanted one more slice of Chicago deep dish pizza.
No pizza for me.
That’s ok. Â This taco meat is delicious and saves my life when I really am just so busy that cooking is an afterthought.
And everyone in my house loves tacos, so no complaining, woohoo!
Let’s get down to taco meat business (taco meat business, what??) shall we?
I make two pounds of meat at a time. Â This gets the four of us two meals, so we usually do tacos one night, then another night during the week we can do burritos, nachos, taco salad – use your imagination!
I like my taco meat to have a little garlic flavor, hence the garlic powder. Â It’s not a requirement at all for this recipe if you want to leave it out and keep it even more simple.
I use the leanest ground beef I can get my hands on for this recipe. Â But, you’ll notice that the mixture is somewhat liquidy when it’s finished cooking because of the salsa.
That’s ok, just drain it in a colander, put it back in the crockpot on warm until you’re ready to eat. Â Just don’t rinse the meat or you’ll take all that tasty flavor away!
Enjoy!
~Nichole
Crockpot Taco Meat
Ingredients
- 2 Pounds Lean Ground Beef
- 1 Teaspoon Garlic Powder
- 2 Packages Taco Seasoning, About 4 Tablespoons
- 2 Cups Salsa
Instructions
- Place ground beef into slow cooker. Top with the taco seasoning, garlic powder, and salsa. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours or high for 3 hours.
- When the meat is finished cooking, drain any liquid from the crockpot and break up the beef as desired with a fork.
- Serve with your favorite taco shells, burrito shells, tortilla chips, and toppings!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
How do you drain the liquid from crockpot???
oh my gosh… this is ridiculously DELICIOUS and EASY!
I reduced the leftover cooking liquid into a sauce (I used ‘Pace Hot Picante’) and put 1/2 of the sauce back on the taco meat in the slow cooker… WOWZA!!! Using lean ground beef is key to using the leftover cooking liquid.
Will use the remaining sauce over some enchiladas I make with the taco meat.
I’m from El Paso, TX and have been making taco meat in a frying pan for 30+ years- never again!
Appreciate you sharing this recipe.
Easy to make. Followed the instructions and turned out great!
Could I substitute ground turkey for ground beef?
Yes 🙂
Very simple and easy. My family likes beans in their taco meat, so I jazzed it up with black beans, Red kidney beans, and Chili beans (draining black and red kidney beans). Plus I used a can of ROTEL Mexican Style Lime & Cilantro and half of the salsa; added green chilies diced (4oz. can), of course garlic powder and 2 taco seasoning packets.
Love being able to just dump and go, no browning the meat first. I have a picky teen and he begs me for tacos, so this recipe is his number one choice! Thank you!
Did you put the beans in at the beginning and let it cook for the 6 hours? Or didnyou add it at the end?
Yes, dumped all of the ingredients in for 6hours…although turned the crock pot up to high for the last hour.
Yes, I had added all ingredients together and cooked for 6 hours, the last hour I turned the crock pot to high.
Delicious…. really enjoyed this. I have a tradition every
Sunday I do a crock pot meal and this one made it into the rotation. Wont cook my ground beef any other way so easy and good ???
So easy and so delicious! I made a half batch halved all ingredients! Perfect!
do you put the ground beef in raw or cook it first??
The beef goes in raw
This is soooo good!
Making it for the second time tonight!!
I just made this recipe and it was great. Thank you!