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Taco Bell's Seasoned Ground Beef Taco Meat

This is a great way to get the Taco Bell experience at home without a ton of effort or special ingredients. This recipe is a copycat or their OLD recipe, back before they made it suck! This is the old school Taco Bell us old timers remember back in the day. If you want the new recipe, take out all the spices. Just kidding but then again, not really.
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes

Equipment

  • 1 Food Processor

Ingredients
  

Taco Bell Seasoned Beef Recipe

  • 1 lb. 90/10 ground beef
  • 1 tbsp Chili Powder
  • 1 tsp Paprika
  • 1 tsp Cumin
  • 1 tsp Ground Mexican Oregano
  • 1 tsp Granulated Garlic
  • 1 tsp Onion Power
  • 1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper
  • 1/2 tsp MSG
  • 1/2 tsp Salt
  • 1/2 tsp Black Pepper
  • 1/2 tsp Sugar
  • 1 tbsp Tomato Paste
  • 1 tsp Beef Better Than Bouillon or beef bouillon base
  • 1/2 cup Water
  • 1/2 tbsp Oat Flour or Masa Harina Corn Starch can be used in place of either of these.
  • 1 tsp Lime Juice

Instructions
 

  • Measure out all your spices and put them in a small bowl. Add the MSG and Sugar to the bowl as well
  • Heat a 12" frying pan or skillet over medium high heat
  • Add ground beef to the hot pan and break up as best you can
  • Cook until no pink remains
  • Transfer mat to a food processor, keeping the grease in the pan, and pulse on and off until meat is a fine texture
  • Return the frying pan to the heat and add oat flour to soak up the grease. stir until pan is dry.
  • Add all spices to the pan and stir around the pan to heat them up
  • Add Tomato Paste and stir into spices
  • Add Water and lime juice to the pan.
  • Add Beef Better than Bouillon to pan and mix until fully combined.
  • Heat spice gravy until it starts to thicken
  • Return meat to the frying pan and mix very well with the spice gravy
  • Let the meat simmer on low heat about 5 or so minutes. It is ready to serve.

Notes

The Food Processor will give you the best taste and texture for this recipe. No, you cannot use water while browning the meat like you would with chili. It messes up the recipe and gives a very different result. NOT taco bell!