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One-Pan Mexican Skillet Dinner

A delicious Mexican dinner made in 30 minutes all in one pan.

This is a delicious Tex-Mex style dinner that is all cooked in one pan in 30 minutes. Quick and easy to make, quick and easy to clean up. You need to try this one!

One-pan dinners are all the rage and for a fantastic reason. The dishes! Or lack thereof. If you can cook your whole dinner in one pan, then you only have one pan to wash. Sweet, right? Also, usually, the recipes come together really quickly and easily.

That’s definitely the case with this one-pan Mexican dinner. It’s a Tex-Mex style meal with ground beef, black beans, rice, tomatoes, and cheese. Such tasty flavors. Everyone in my family deeply loves this one.

How To Make A Mexican Skillet Dinner

What you’re going to do is sauté an onion in some oil then add some ground beef and seasonings. If you don’t have the seasonings in the ingredient list on hand, you can actually even use taco seasoning. They’re nearly the same, you can check out what makes them so similar if you’re curious, too.

Then you stir and cook until it’s browned. Go in and add some uncooked white rice, canned tomatoes, beans, and broth. Bring it up to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cover it up. From that point it takes about 20 minutes until the rice is tender. You could eat it right then. But for me, something is missing. The cheese!

Stir up everything in the skillet then sprinkled it with some nice aged cheddar cheese. Put the lid back on so it can melt.

How To Serve Your Skillet Dinner

To serve this up, I like to add some chopped fresh tomatoes and green onions. Sour cream or Greek yogurt dolloped on top would be a good thing. Slices of avocado or guacamole would also not be turned away.

We usually like to scoop this mixture onto salad greens, making something like a taco salad. It can go over tortilla chips instead. Or just have it on its own.

If I have leftovers, I spoon it into thermoses and add broth for a Mexican Soup in the kids’ lunches the next day. Oh! I love these thermoses because the insert can go in the microwave. I can scoop in their lunch and microwave it to heat it through. Then the plastic goes into the insulated container.

Print

One-Pan Mexican Skillet Dinner Recipe

  • Author: Christine Pittman
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Cook Time: 25 minutes
  • Total Time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: 4 servings 1x
  • Category: Entrée
  • Method: Stovetop
  • Cuisine: Mexican

DESCRIPTION

This is a delicious Tex-Mex style dinner that is all cooked in one pan in 30 minutes. Quick and easy to make, quick and easy to clean up. You need to try this one!


Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 1 lb. lean ground beef
  • 2 tsp. chili powder
  • 1 tsp. garlic powder
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 cup uncooked long grain white rice
  • 1 (15 oz.) can diced tomatoes
  • 1 (14.5 oz.) can black beans
  • 1 cup low-sodium chicken or beef stock
  • 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
  • 1 large tomato, chopped
  • 1 green onion, chopped
  • Sour cream or Greek yogurt (optional)

Instructions

  1. In a deep large skillet heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 1 minute.
  2. Add the beef, chili powder, garlic powder, and salt.
  3. Stir and break up the meat. Cook, stirring occasionally,  until browned, 6-7 minutes.
  4. Add the rice, canned diced tomatoes, black beans, and stock. Stir.
  5. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cover (if your skillet doesn’t have a lid, use a double layer of aluminum foil or a large cookie sheet).
  6. Cook until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender, about 20 minutes.
  7. Stir. Sprinkled with cheddar cheese.
  8. Put the lid back on to melt cheese. Remove from heat and top with the diced fresh tomato and green onion.
  9. Serve with sour cream or Greek yogurt.

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Disclosure: This post contains an Amazon affiliate link meaning that if you click it and then buy something I receive a small commission. This is at no additional charge to you. All opinions are mine and are true.

This post originally appeared in October 2016. It was revised and republished in October 2018.