marilynpeight
This easy, Mexican style Taco Casserole with ground beef, chili beans and rice is a quick and easy crockpot dinner that is budget friendly and only takes 15 minutes to prep! This crockpot taco casserole is best served with shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes and sour cream. To make this recipe dairy free you can omit the sour cream or serve it with a dairy free plain yoghurt or dairy free sour cream.
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Easy Crockpot Taco Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- 3/4 cup diced onion white or yellow
- 15.5 oz. canned chili beans (with sauce)
- 2 3/4 cups beef broth *see substitutions below
- 1/4 cup tomato sauce marinara, pizza or pasta sauce.
- 3/4 package Taco seasoning mix *see note below.
- 1/4 teaspoon salt or to taste.
- 3/4 cup fresh tomato chunks or 3/4 cup drained stewed tomatoes
- 1 cup dry white rice uncooked
- shredded cheese for topping (optional)
Instructions
- Brown the ground beef and add the diced onions at the last 2-3 minutes of cooking.
- Place chili beans with juice, beef broth, tomato sauce, tomato chunks, taco seasoning and salt in a 2.5-4 quart crockpot. Drain the grease from the browned beef and onions, then add the beef mixture to the crock pot and stir everything to combine the seasonings.
- Cook the beef, beans, tomatoes and broth/sauce mixture on low for three hours, then stir in the rice. Cover and cook for 1-2 hours longer until the rice has softened. If the rice is still crunchy and has soaked up all the liquid you can add another 1/4 cup (or more if needed) of broth and cook for 15-30 minutes longer.
- Top with shredded cheese of your choice (optional) and serve with shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, sour cream (or dairy free sour cream or dairy free plain yoghurt) and Sweet onion dressing (optional). See Notes, Substitutions and Photos below.
Notes
If you loved this recipe be sure to rate it below!
Try serving Garlic Pretzel Knots and cup cheese with this meal.
My 2.5 quart crock pot with the broth, beef and tomato mixture.
Substitutions:
If you do not have beef broth on hand you can use 2 3/4 cups water and 3 beef bouillon cubes or chicken or vegetable broth can also be used.
Notes:
The amount of Taco seasoning is optional because the first time I made this Crock Pot Taco Casserole I used a whole package of Taco seasoning and my husband and I loved it, but it was too spicy for my toddlers. The second time I only used 2/3 of the package and then the kids were able to enjoy it as well.
Some like to add corn to their taco casserole. If adding a can of drained corn to this casserole you may wish to use a 3-4 quart casserole to ensure plenty of space and you can add the drained corn in when adding the tomato chunks.
After three hours I added the rice and gave it all a good stir. It’s literally so easy!
After 5 hours. For the sake of photos I did not add shredded cheese but adding shredded cheese is definitely my preference.
Feel free to pin for later and let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
this looks delicious! what time of tomatoes are used for the “tomato chunks”? are they canned tomatoes or fresh and if so what kind? Thanks!
Samantha
I used fresh tomato chunks but you could also use drained, canned tomato chunks.
[…] I like to eat this salsa with tortilla chips or even plain as a dinner side! Try serving it with chicken chimichangas or crockpot taco casserole! […]
Love this recipe!