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.
do you leave the hamburger whole while cooking?
Hi what kind of salsa did you use ?
I made this to bring camping. It’s seriously the tastiest taco meat I’ve ever made. I might not make it any other way from here on in! I’m not one of those people who craves tacos, but this to be very crave-able.
I made this for a group of 12 ( upped the quantity to 4 pounds hamburger) and it was SOOO good. Perfect. THANK YOU!
Did you up your cook time at all? I plan on making 5lbs for a party but want to make sure I plan enough time to cook it!
I am cooking it now and I did 4.5 pounds Hamburger meat. I set my time for 8 hours on low. I will let you know if it is too long or just right in about 8 hours.
Do you have a recipe for taco seasoning?
Thanks for this! I had a lb of ground Turkey I wanted to use but wanted to take the lazy way out today. I could not find my taco seasoning, but I found chili seasoning. I don’t have salsa, but I had a can of Rotel. It smells wonderful cooking away in the crockpot. I will probably add a can of black beans to. I did not intend to change up the recipe but it certainly helped me use what I have at hand!
The ground beef goes in uncooked?
Yes 🙂 If you want to cook it before you can and then just keep it on warm in the crockpot for serving
Do you break it up as you add to crockpot?
Can I use frozen ground beef?
Good question! Did you find out the answer? I want to do the same before work! Lol
I haven’t made this exact recipe but plan to tonight. I have used frozen ground beef for other crockpot recipes and it was fine but I did stir /chop it up throughout the cook time.
This recipe is not only great but also easy! I had to stir it half way through the cooking time because it was starting to stick to the bottom of the crockpot. It;s kind of a cross between seasoned taco meat and chili. Loved it!!
How much time should be added to double this? 4 lbs of meat
Thx