Restaurant-Style Taco Meat Seasoning (2024)

FAQs

How do Mexican restaurants get their ground beef so fine? ›

Mexican and Tex-Mex restaurants boil raw ground beef with water and seasonings until cooked through to achieve a super fine texture, and the aforementioned Maid Rite sandwiches (aka Loose Meat Sandwiches, which are NOT Sloppy Joe's!) use steam to keep the cooked ground beef soft after cooking.

Most taco seasoning mixes contain salt, warming spices (such as paprika, oregano, and chili), onion powder, and garlic powder. This top-rated recipe is made with chili powder, ground cumin, dried oregano, sea salt, black pepper, ground paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, and crushed red pepper flakes.

For more than 80 years, Old El Paso has been bringing families and communities together to celebrate old and new traditions around delicious, Mexican-inspired flavors. We believe that any night can be a taco night, and we're here to help make it a little easier and a lot more delicious.

Crumble the ground chuck into a large skillet over medium heat. Cook, stirring, until browned. Remove from heat, rinse meat with hot water, and drain water and grease from beef. Return meat to skillet, and pour in seasoning.

With garlic and onions as the savory cornerstone, the most common Mexican spices and herbs are coriander, allspice, cloves, thyme, Mexican oregano, Mexican cinnamon (ceylon), cumin and cacao which showcase the breadth of Mexican food.

The ground beef at Mexican restaurants tastes seasoned, and it has a good amount of flavor, but it is almost neutral in flavor – a great foil for just about any sauce without taking over as our typical taco seasoned meat does. And that ground beef filling also has a softer, almost sticky texture to it.

Mexican seasoning and taco seasoning are two popular spice blends often used in the culinary world, particularly in dishes of Mexican origin.

Mix the seasoning into the meat before cooking!

To get the most seasoning flavor in your taco meat, mix it into the meat and let it rest in the fridge like you would ground sausage. This also helps keep more moisture in the meat because you risk squeezing the juices out of the meat when you mix it in after it's cooked.

It then is slow-cooked and simmered with proprietary seasonings and spices to provide Taco Bell's signature taste and texture. Our seasoned beef recipe contains 88% quality USDA-inspected beef and 12% seasonings, spices, water and other ingredients that provide taste, texture and moisture.

McCormick Taco Seasoning is crafted with a premium blend of zesty herbs and spices including chili pepper, paprika, oregano and garlic. Blended especially for chefs, McCormick Taco Seasoning gives chefs an all-in-one, ready-to-use mix to deliver intense, concentrated flavor to Mexican-inspired dishes and beyond.

What is the difference between McCormick original taco seasoning and McCormick premium taco seasoning? ›

The major difference between McCormick's 'Original' and their 'Premium' Taco Seasoning is that Premium also contains Smoked Paprika, Dehydrated Red and Green Bell Peppers, some Cocoa Powder and Black Pepper.

Dos Rios fully cooked, seasoned taco meat is ready in 5 minutes. No cooking is required, simply heat it up! Full of flavor, our taco meat is beef blended with our custom recipe of seasonings in two styles, traditional and chile verde.

Cook and stir ground beef in the hot skillet until browned and crumbly, 7 to 10 minutes. Drain and discard any excess grease. Pour water and seasoning mix over beef; stir to combine.

Once the meat is seasoned, add about 1 1/2 cups of beef broth and stir well. Bring this to a quick boil, reduce the heat, and cover with a lid. This will simmer on low for about 20 minutes or until the liquid has started to reduce.

Start by heating your preferred cooking pan, ideally cast iron or another heavy-bottomed pan, and drizzle in the olive oil. As the oil warms up, introduce your ground beef to the pan. As the beef begins to cook, around five minutes in, it's the optimal time to sprinkle in some salt.

When Mexicans marinate carne asada, they soak the beef in orange juice to tenderize the meat and boost the flavor profile.

Boiling ground beef is the best way to cook it so that it comes out in small, fine crumbles. Trust me, this is the secret to all those amazing tacos and pasta sauces at your favorite restaurant! It's also a healthier option, because the boiling process helps separate the fat from the meat, and it comes out quite lean.

“In the States, ground beef is also a popular taco filling, but in Mexico, you only see steak and pork tacos,” confirms Fernando Lira, a Puebla native who owns a Waterville Valley, New Hampshire Mexican restaurant.

Skip the restaurant fajitas and make them at home instead.

"I would never order fajitas at a restaurant. They're really nothing more than sautéed onions and peppers with a protein. Nothing exciting," said Montiel.