A bubbly casserole of sorts, this Mexican beef and bean is like a baked version of chilli con carne with lots of melty cheese – but faster to make. Think of it like your ultimate all-purpose Mexican beef – stuff in tacos, DIY burrito wraps, dunk with corn chips – like nachos!
Cheesy Mexican beef and bean bake
I can’t remember how this Mexican beef and bean dish first came to be. All I know is that when it came out of the oven in all its bubbly, melty cheesy glory, I wanted to get stuck into immediately but paralysed with indecision for how. So many options!
Like chili, with a warm tortillas on the side for dunking??
OR with corn chips, deconstructed nachos style?
Making stuffed tortilla pillows?? Which, I realised, is just a burrito actually. 😂 *Light-bulb-moment* DIY burritos! Add a pile of warm tortillas, sour cream + guacamole or quick avocado sauce for dunking. Everybody make your own!
All-inclusive-taco filling? So juicy and cheesy already, it’s like a good ole’ classic beef mince taco filling + taco sauce + cheese, all rolled into one. Efficiency, for the win!
Then another light-bulb moment. This is like the ultimate all-purpose Mexican beef filling!! It’s almost a little concerning how excited I was when I came to this conclusion. Good food has a habit of doing that to me. 🤭
What you need for Mexican beef and beans
Here’s what you need to make this Mexican beef and bean bake:
This is a casual, rustic dish – which means, lots of flexibility. I’m not so relaxed with substitutions for some recipes, so take it when you can! 😂
Ground beef / beef mince – Or chicken, turkey or pork. Any of these would work. (Even lamb actually).
Red onion – Or ordinary brown / yellow onions.
Green capsicum (bell pepper) – Or other colour capsicum, or other sauté-able vegetables like diced zucchini/courgette, carrot, green beans (chopped), corn. Even a cup of diced mixed frozen vegetables would work here!
Red kidney beans – Or black beans (on theme with Mexican food), or any other beans of choice. Or, more vegetables.
Tomato passata – This is pureed, strained tomato that is smooth, rather than lump like canned tomato. Substituted with crushed canned tomato, or what’s called tomato sauce or tomato puree in the US (eg Hunts).
Pickled jalapeno – Adds a sprinkle of spiciness plus tang because it’s pickled which is nice in this beefy dish. Canned chopped green chillies would be an excellent sub here (but this is a US thing, hoping it becomes a staple here in Australia one of these days!).
Garlic – Can’t be flexible here! 🙂
Cheese – Definitely not flexible here! Well, not flexible about the inclusion of some form of melting cheese. I’ve opted for Colby – adds flavour, melts well, gets a nice bit of golden colour on the surface, not too greasy. Feel free to use any of choice. If you use mozzarella, I’d suggest adding a sprinkling of parmesan on top (because mozzarella, while it melts beautifully, doesn’t have a much flavour).
The Mexican spice mix
And here’s what you need for the homemade Mexican spice mix. Some Mexican recipes I share have a longer list of spices. For me, this is about the minimum you can go without the flavour missing something. All staple spices! (You can substitute smoked paprika with plain).
How to make Cheesy Mexican beef and beans
It’s like chili cone carne – but faster to make because by finishing it off in the oven with a generous sprinkling of cheese, we can skip the stove simmer.
Sauté the onion, garlic and capsicum first. Use an ovenproof skillet. Pictured is my much-loved 26cm / 10.5″Lodge cast iron skillet (my essential kitchenware list is here!).
Cook the beef, breaking it up as you go.
Toast the spices with the beef. Good way to bring out flavour in spices plus get better flavour into beef mince / ground beef – FAST. 🙂
Add beans and tomato passata, give it a good mix then bring to a simmer.
Top with cheese then bake for 15 minutes just to melt the cheese.
Remove from oven and start the agonising process of deciding how to serve it! Tacos? Corn chip dunking? Burrito stuffing? ENCHILADAS? Nachos?? #FirstWorldProblems
Sides / toppings
Pictured in post for serving in all the above listed forms are:
Guacamole, and sometimes avocado sauce (essentially a smooth, faster version of guac)
Pico de gallo (fresh tomato salsa). Also this pureed tomato salsa would be great.
Sour cream (sub yogurt)
Fresh coriander/cilantro
Tortillas – small ones and larger enchilada size ones (for making small burritos).
Corn chips – for dunking
Other excellent options includes:
Mexican red rice, plain white rice (or brown, or cauliflower rice if you’re doing the low-carb thing). Rice in bowls then smother with the Mexican beef and beans.
And….. eeer… I’m stuck. Help?
– Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Cheesy baked Mexican beef and beans
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 red onion , finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves , finely minced
- 1 green capsicum / bell pepper , cut into 1cm / 1/2″ cubes (or other colour)
- 500g/ 1 lb beef mince (ground beef) (Note 1)
- 400g/ 14oz can red kidney beans or black beans , drained (or other beans)
- 1 cup tomato passata (Note 2)
- 1/3 cup pickled sliced jalapeño (Note 3)
- 1 1/2 cups Colby cheese , shredded (or other cheese, Note 4)
Mexican spice mix:
- 1 1/2 tsp cumin powder
- 1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika (sub normal paprika)
- 1 tsp garlic powder (sub onion powder)
- 1 tsp onion powder (sub garlic powder)
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (sub black pepper)
- 1 tsp cooking/kosher salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°C / 400°F (180°C fan).
- Sauté – Heat the olive oil in a cast-iron skillet over medium high heat (or other oven-proof pan). Cook onion, garlic and capsicum for 3 minutes.
- Cook beef & spices – Add beef and cook, breaking it up as you go, until you no longer see raw meat. Add spices, then cook for 1 minute.
- Beans & tomato – Add kidney beans and passata. Stir, then bring to a simmer.
- Cheese it! Scatter the jalapeño across the surface, top with cheese.
- Bake 15 minutes (no lid) then remove from the oven.
- Serve! Scoop into bowls and serve with corn chips or tortillas with your favourite Mexican fixings (guacamole or avocado sauce pico de gallo or restaurant style salsa, fresh coriander/coriander, sour cream). Dunk like nachos, make DIY burritos or tacos!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Dozer’s idea of obeying my command to stay outside the shop.
It doesn’t say the temperature of the oven????
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 200°C / 400°F (180°C fan).
It’s instruction number 1
I am not good with hot stuff, and I only had 399 grams mince. I cut down a little on the spices and when it was ready I ate almost half with doritos cheese nacho chips. loved it, will do this again for sure.
This is probably a stupid question, but do you drain the fat from the hamburger? Love your recipes and Dozer makes my day!
Hi Elaine! That is not a stupid question 🙂 I do not because fat is where the flavour is and I don’t get excessively fatty meat. But if there was tons of fat, I probably would drain *some*! N x
Thank you for replying. I can’t wait to try this tomorrow. By the way, your meatloaf recipe has become a family favorite! Thank you for all you do and please pat Dozer for me!!
Made this tonight. Whole family loved it. We served with guac, pico de gallo, iceberg lettuce, sour cream and wraps. This is a winner and will be on regular rotation here in my house with 4 males to feed.
This looks amazing! I must make this soon. Thanks Nagi.
The dish looks nice. If it may serve to enhance it: Latin Anericans do not use red onions. That’s gringo stuff. If you’re looking to get that ubiquitous nice Sautee flavor of Latin American dishes (“sofrito” in Spanish) always stick to white/yellow onion.
(Also, as delicious as it looks, it has nothing Mexican in it, name is a clickbait).
noone cares, it has texmex flavours and likely tastes delicious, that’s what we all care about, find an authentic mexican page if you care that much
I agree Karen – well said!
Same here! Nagi works so hard to make her recipes DELICIOUS and if that means she uses red onion (for the flavor) vs. white/yellow then all the more power to her; we love her all the more. She has so many people that adore her and her recipes that she doesn’t need CLICKBAIT to get people to visit her site. Go troll somewhere else, her fans won’t tolerate it.
This Cheesy Mexican beef and bean bake looks so delicious! I love how versatile it is and the fact that it’s so easy to make. I can’t wait to try it out for my next Taco Tuesday dinner. The pictures are making me drool!
I will be making this for sliders and for loaded fries – perfect!
Just to clarify – Pure TexMex. There is absolutely nothing “Mexican” about this dish other than the title. Not even the spices. To a Texan, this is umami. Quite the opposite to a Mexican. So please, label your dishes accordingly.
I get so irritated at people being so picky about what foods are named. It looks like a fun recipe. What difference does the name make.
Agree!
Well said.
WOW! Pure TexMex or not, what a rude comment. Get over yourself. The recipe sounds good.
What a stupid and un-necessary comment to make Laura C!!
How rude.
Ok Karen
😂😂😂! Such an excellent response, Allana . Thank you!
Just to clarify- go visit another website if your not happy!!
Who cares what’s it named!
Every recipe that comes from Nagi is sensational…
Goodbye 👋
That’s nice.
Just to clarify – Nagi fans are fiercely protective. This dish looks amazing. Mexican vibe is good enough for me. I just want to feed my family lovely meals, I don’t care for precision. Food is one big melting pot these days.
My thoughts exactly, I only buy cookbooks after trying authors recipes 1st , did not hesitate to buy Nagi after making many ordered 1st time it became available on Amazon, still waiting as copies sold out quickly!!! Every time someone asks to recommend a recipe I gave her website , also will make a great gift for friends and relatives!!!
Just move on nobody is interested or impressed with your Mexican knowledge just stick to your own lane. We love Naggis recipes couldn’t care a hoot if it’s true Mexican or not !!!!!
People come to this site not only for Nagi’s delicious recipes but for who she is. We love her authentic, genuine, witty, humble, etc, self. Nagi takes great care in developing recipes that are doable and relatable to the average cooks at home. Mexican or TexMex-we don’t care because we know it will be delicious coming from Nagi.
Could I halve this, there is just me and being older is a pain, as most recipes are too much…
Nagi I would love a cookbook suited for one…
Love all your dishes, but I find I am wasting food…my freezer is not the best…
maybe you can freeze the leftovers into single portions, that’s what I’ll do as we’re a family of two
I used less mince, all the beans and a little less of the spices. It was so good I ate almost half as soon as it was out of the oven.
I’d probably also serve it with sliced ripe olives!!
Been wondering what to have at my next dinner party. This is it! Was going to order from a local Mexican chain restaurant but this seems so easy and I can pop it in the oven once the guests arrive. Thank you Nagi! You’re the best.
Hi Nagi, my son turned me onto your wonderful web site. We have so many of your recipes which have become family favorites.
I signed up for your cookbook a number of months ago and was under the impression it would be delivered here in Canada in February. It has yet to arrived. Is there some delay for this side of the world?
Thanks for all your great recipes and stories about Dozer.
Cheers Brenda
Hi Brenda, there was indeed a delay on this side of the world, and I too am (patiently?) awaiting my pre-ordered copy to be delivered some time in March. On Feb 1, Nagi advised:
US/Can book release delay – Some disappointing news regarding the release of my cookbook in Canada and the US. Due to production delays out of our control, the release date has been pushed back from 21 February to 28 March 2023. I’m as disappointed as you!
This could also be prepared outside and placed in bbq/smoker to finish.
Guessing the oregano in this recipe is Mexican oregano & not Italian? So good over my tamales & w/simple garnish of scallions & fresh cilantro (coriander)…YUM!
This looks so good, but I do wish when recipes serve 5-6 that you could adjust the 6 servings instead of 5. (This also would apply to the recipes that serve 3-4 etc)
SO Tex-Mex! I love this kind of make-your-own meal. The sides I set out include chopped white onion, fresh seeded and sliced jalapeños/serranos, guacamole, pico de gallo, shredded cheddar (my cheese of choice), sour cream, hot sauce, lots of fresh chopped cilantro, and lime wedges.
I see this one going on heavy rotation in my household. JUST the sort of thing that will make everyone happy! Trying this week, will report back.
Your recipe is almost identical to my personal recipe, except i use Hatch Green chili pwder instead of cayenne. Many times we also put a sunny side egg on top and a sprinkle of more cheese and some green chili salsa. In the winter, we eat this everyweek.
Thanks CS Volkman, I was just at Trader Joe’s and picked up some Hatch Chili Flakes. I can’t wait to try them in this recipe because the scent is divine; I love Hatch chilis!
So excited to try this!!!