If you're after a crowd-pleaser that doesn't leave you with a sink full of washing up, this One Pan Cheesy Mexican Beef and Rice is about to become a regular in your dinner rotation. It's easy to make, family friendly and super tasty. Made with beef mince, basmati rice, green pepper, tinned tomatoes along with warming spices and topped with a glorious layer of melted cheddar.
Family Friendly Recipe
I've included recommendations in the recipe notes and below for how much spice to add, so you can easily adjust the heat to suit your family. Keep it very mild if you're sharing with a weaning baby or toddler, mild for children who used to a little spice, or turn it up to spicy for older kids (and grown-ups!) who can handle the heat. And if you make it mild to share with younger children, adults can add heat to their servings by adding jalapeños. This mince beef and rice one pot is flexible, fuss-free and exactly the kind of midweek dinner that makes life feel that little bit easier.
If you have a toddler, weaning baby or fussy eater and are wondering how to adapt this one pot mince and rice recipe for your family, see here >
- Watch the Recipe Video -
FAQ's For My One Pan Cheesy Mexican Beef and Rice
No it isn't, but it does use Mexican spices and herbs. I have put my own spin on it to make it a one pan dish, and used ingredients that I find to be family friendly.
The main ingredients you will need are:
- Beef mince (ground beef). Go for 5% fat if you can.
- Green pepper (bell). You only need one, but try to get a large one. Failing that, use 1 ½ small ones. You'll need to dice it around 1 cm piece.
- Onion. Just one, finely chopped.
- Tinned tomatoes (canned). Either crushed or chopped.
- Basmati rice. I haven't tested this recipe with any other rice, so to keep results as expected, stick to using basmati rice. Rice is finicky, and different types take longer to cook. If you use a different type of rice, I can't guarantee the results.
- Flavour bombs. You'll need 2 garlic cloves, plus cumin, smoked paprika, mild (or hot) chilli powder, dried oregano and tomato purée (or paste US).
You can see below my spicing chart, this will allow you to decide how much chilli powder (and what strength) you should add to this One Pan Cheesy Mexican Beef and Rice to be suitable for your family.
Read more about adjusting this recipe for your family >
I always make this meal in my shallow casserole pot (or dutch oven). Mine is around 28cm in diameter. You want to use some kind of wide based cooking pot, if you don't have a shallow one, use your widest deep pot.
You can serve it just as it is, and I usually do. Or you can add on guacamole, tortilla chips, or jalapeños on to adult servings for more heat.
There are elements you can prepare earlier on in the day. You can chop the green pepper and onions and store them in a container in the fridge. The garlic and spices can also be measured out and stored together in the fridge.
This recipe will feed 4-5 adults, with add on's like tortilla chips and guacamole definitely at least 5. This is a hard one to double as the cook of the rice will be effected and I wouldn't be able to guarantee results. Also the cheese layer won't work as well as the ratios will be off. If you did want to feed up to 10 people, I would recommend making this in tandem in two separate cooking pots.
You can store any One Pan Cheesy Mexican Beef and Rice leftovers in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to 3 days (cook day + 2). Leftovers can also be frozen, just defrost for 24 hours in the fridge and reheat in the microwave, until steaming hot all the way through.
More on safe food storage and reheating >
My One Pan Cheesy Mexican Beef and Rice is suitable for gluten, egg and nut-free diets. It is NOT suitable for those with a diary allergy, vegans or vegetarians.
Adapting My One Pan Cheesy Mexican Beef and Rice For Your Family
Eating together is beneficial for families of all ages and stages, for a multitude of reasons; nutritional, behavioural, psychological and for healthy family functioning. This section will show you how to tweak this One Pan Cheesy Mexican Beef and Rice recipe for sharing with a weaning baby, toddler or a fussy eater, which will help make it easier to eat together as a family.
Adjusting Spice Levels
The spice that brings the heat in this Mexican one pot mince and rice recipe is chilli powder. Here are my recommendations for adding this spice to your meal to make it suitable for your family:
| Babies and toddler first spice | ½ teaspoon mild chilli powder |
| Children used to mild spice | 1 teaspoon mild chilli powder |
| Children & adults who can take some heat | ½ teaspoon hot chilli powder |
| Spice loving adults & older children | 1 teaspoon hot chilli powder |
Keeping Fussy Eaters Happy
If you have a picky eater who prefers ground or minced beef as opposed to chunks of meat, this is a great one for you to try. Especially if they are okay with rice. And remember, you can adjust the spice to be really mild if your fussy eater can't tolerate any spiciness at all, or if you aren't sure they can. I would recommend you go with the very mild baby and toddler spicing level, and then if your fussy eater tolerates it, the next time you cook this meal, increase the chilli powder to the mild spice level.
Add On's for Adults
If you've made this one pot beef and rice to be very mild or mild to share with little ones, you may want to add some spice to the adult servings, and to do that all you need is a jar of jalapeños. You could also serve this dish with guacamole and tortilla chips if you like.
Making My One Pan Cheesy Mexican Beef and Rice Suitable for Baby Weaning
If you are sharing with a weaning baby or toddler, use no or low-salt beef stock and refrain from adding salt to the cook. Adults will need to add salt to their servings. Introducing very mild spice at weaning stage is important if you're a family who loves spice. You can see my recommendations above, I suggest using just a ½ teaspoon of mild chilli powder when sharing with a little one.
How to Serve to Babies & Toddlers
BABY-LED WEANING
Not going to lie, this will be a messy one for baby-led weaners! For younger babies remove the melted cheese from their serving. Ensure there are no large clumps of beef, chop if so. Allow baby to grab handfuls. For older babies, chop through the cheese. Once able to hold a spoon they can eat with that.
SPOON FED-WEANING
6 months
Remove the melted cheese and add some beef and rice to your stick blender pot or food chopper (if you have that one that purées) along with some low or no salt beef stock and whizz into a purée.
7-9 months
Dish up some beef and rice without the melted cheese and add to your food chopper. Use short sharp pulses to finely chop, checking and adding a little warm no or low-salt beef stock to loosen as you go.
10-12 months
Add the beef and rice to your food chopper pot. Gradually pulse, just a few times then check the consistency. It should lumpy with small beef pieces. If it needs loosening, add a little warm no or low-salt beef stock.
Toddlers
Serve as is, just make sure there are no large clumps of beef mince.
I've also added these notes to the bottom of the recipe so you have them to hand when you come to cook.
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One Pan Cheesy Mexican Beef and Rice
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 500 g beef mince 5% fat (ground beef)
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 large green pepper (bell)
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 teaspoon cumin
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
- ½-1 teaspoon mild or hot chilli powder (see notes)
- 1 tablespoon tomato purée (paste US)
- 400 g tinned chopped or crushed tomatoes (canned)
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- 700 ml beef stock
- 300 g basmati rice, washed and drained
- Salt & pepper to taste
- 165 g mature cheddar (sharp cheddar), grated
See notes for baby & toddler tweaks
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a wide-bottomed non-stick cooking pot (ideally a shallow casserole pot or dutch oven) over a med-high heat. Add the beef mince and fry for a few minutes, breaking up the meat with a spoon.
- Then add in the onion and green pepper and fry for a 5 minutes, or until onion is softened, stirring often. Drain off the excess fat if there is any.
- Add in the cumin, paprika, chilli powder and garlic and stir for 1 minute.
- Then add the tomato puree, the chopped tomatoes, rice, oregano, sugar, salt and pepper and stock. Stir well.
- Bring to the boil over a high heat, then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Lift the lid to stir occasionally so the food doesn't stick. If the rice isn't cooked at 15 minutes, add a little bit more hot water, stir, level out and then recover for up to 5 more minutes.
- Then sprinkle over cheese. Cover with the lid and leave for 1 minute with heat on low. Then turn heat off and leave for another 1-2 minutes until cheese has melted.
Notes
Spicing Recommendations
Babies and toddler first spice - ½ teaspoon mild chilli powder | Children used to mild spice - 1 teaspoon mild chilli powder | Children & adults who can take some heat - ½ teaspoon hot chilli powder | Heat loving adults & older children - 1 teaspoon hot chilli powderBaby & Toddler
STORAGE
Nutrition
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