Cheesy Beef Rotini

Pasta and cheese go together like yin and yang. Add ground beef and you get shamalama ding dang!

I bought a 3-pound package of ground beef on sale that I divided for three meals. The first of which was this scatch-made, hamburger-helper-esk pot of yummy goodness. I made this for dinner and two meals throughout the week but it will easily feed a family of four.

This is a very straight forward recipe with one element that needs special attention - the sauce.  The key to it is patience.

I use a roux made from the drippings of the ground beef as the base. Let the flour and fat cook together with the mirepoix for a couple minutes before adding the milk. It should turn a little browner during the process. The flour and fat need the heat to change chemically to become a thickener. Then add the milk and let the mixture simmer until it's noticeably thicker. Finally, add the cheese a little at a time and make sure it's completely melted before adding more. Nailing this processes will make this simple, kid-friendly meal a hit with everyone.

That's some Shamalama ding dang!

Eat well, cook often ...

THE RECIPE
Serves 4, 30 minutes
1 lb. Ground beef (73/27)
1 Onion, diced
1 Green pepper, diced
1 clove Garlic, minced
2 Tbs Flour
2 C milk
2 C Monterrey jack cheese, shredded
8 oz Rotini pasta

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain set aside.

In a 4 quart pot over medium heat, brown ground beef. Salt and pepper to taste. Remove to bowl with slotted spoon, set aside. In beef drippings saute onion and green pepper until soft, 3 to 4 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Add garlic, cook until fragrant, 1 minute.

Stir in flour, let cook 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in milk and simmer until thickened, 3 to 4 minutes. Add cheese a handful at a time, stir until melted, repeat until cheese is gone. Return beef to mixture and add rotini. Heat through, then serve.

Nacho Cheesy Rice

I enjoy making dishes like this for work during the week. It stores well and reheats nicely in the microwave, but most importantly, it really is a tasty dish. I can eat it like a dip with tortilla chips or garnish with chili flavored corn chips for texture. The rice helps make this stretch to 3 or 4 servings and only a pound of ground beef is used.

I like to make a cheese sauce in dishes like this because it stays in a more liquid or gravy-like form after it cools. Its much easier to reheat and return to the creamy texture when eating as a left over. Just throwing shredded cheese in a dish like this is great if you're eating it hot, but it clumps back together once it cools. The sauce route is much better if left overs are part of the plan - which is the case for almost everything I make.

Eat well, cook often ...

Nacho Cheesy Rice
1 lb ground beef
2 Tbs unsalted butter
2 jalapenos, seeded, diced
1/2 onion, dice (1C)
1 Tbs chile powder
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp Mexican oregano
1 tsp garlic, minced
2 Tbs flour
2 C milk
2 C pepper jack cheese, shredded
2C cooked rice
Chili flavored corn chips for garnish

In a large pan or pot brown ground beef over medium heat. Salt and pepper to taste. Remove to paper-towel lined plate with a slotted spoon. Add butter to drippings in pan, once melted saute onion and jalepeno until soft, 3 to 4 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Add spices and garlic, cook until fragrant, a minute or two. Return ground beef to pan, stir into mixture. Add flour, mix in to absorb liquid, stir and cook 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in milk. Bring to simmer and let thicken slightly. Add cheese 2 tbs at a time, stir constantly and let melt completely, then add more cheese. Repeat until cheese is gone. Stir in Rice. Remove from heat, let cool slightly, then serve. Garnish with chili corn chips.

Chipotle Beef and Bean Chili

Chipolte beef and bean chili

For the first time in a long time I spent my Saturday doing odd jobs around the house and watching college football. It was an unusually cool day for September. Perfect weather for a yummy pot of chili to cook and grub on while watching the action on the grid iron.

For my seasoning I replaced chili powder with chipolte sauce, which is found in the international isle with the Mexican cuisine at about any major grocery chain. The sauce is basically a stew of chipolte chilis (smoked jalapeno), onions, garlic and tomatoes. It has a nice smoky heat and is already a well developed flavor in and of itself. For extra boost, I also added cumin and oregano.

I prefer chili without beans, but when I grabbed the package of ground beef from the freezer earlier in the day to thaw, I realized it was only a pound and a half. Usually, I make it with 2 pound packages. To help the chili go further I added a can of chili beans that I had had lurking in the cupboard for some time. The beans really did help the dish go further.

Once the chili was ready I served it up and never even grabbed a spoon. I used corn tortilla chips to eat every bite. The salty chips turned out to be a great delivery method for the smoky, spicy and beefy mix. It had to have been something — because by the time the football ended — I had devoured 3 bowls of chili and a half bag chips!

Eat well, cook often ...

BEEF AND BEAN CHIPOTLE CHILI
 Serves 4 to 6, 2 hours
1.5 lbs ground beef
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 jalapenos, seeded and diced
2 Tbs cumin
1 Tbs oregano
1 can chipotle sauce (7 oz)
1 can chili beans (15.5 oz)
1 can crushed tomatoes (28 oz)
2 C water
Tortilla chips for serving

Season ground beef with salt and pepper, brown in a 4 to 6 quart soup pot over medium heat, 5 to 7 minutes, remove to a paper-towel lined plate.

In drippings saute onion and jalapeno until soft, 5 to 6 minutes, season with salt and pepper.

Add garlic, cumin, oregano. Cook until fragrant 1 to 2 minutes more.

Add chipotle sauce, chili beans, crushed tomatoes, water and return beef to pot. Mix well. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer until 3/4 of the liquid evaporate and mixture has thickened, 60 to 90 minutes.

Remove from heat and serve with corn tortilla chips.

Taco Seasoned Ground Beef

I purchased a 3-pound family sized package of ground beef and divided it for a couple of different meals. One half became cheesy verde burgers and the other half I turned into taco meat! Cooked ground beef seasoned for tacos can become an element of several meals like nachos, taco salad or even pizza. Its not limited to just tacos.

For a person cooking for themselves or cooking ahead for a family member, seasoned taco meat is absolutely perfect. It stores well and can be frozen. When I was in college my mom would make 5 pound batches of taco meat for me to store in the freezer. I might have ran out of money for beer on a regular basis, but I always had meat for a plate of nachos.

The hardest thing about eating leftovers is having the same meal on consecutive days. With taco meat you can change up all the things surrounding it and give the leftovers a nice variety.

For this batch of taco seasoned beef, I made crunchy tacos the first day and a hearty plate of nachos a couple days later. (I have one serving left that I put away in the freezer)

For the seasoning I use my homemade American Taco Spice. It's versatile and can be used to season any cut of meat for grilling (like Pork Chops) but its main purpose is to be a cheaper, fresh and more flavorful replacement of the store bought taco seasoning packets that are loaded with sodium and preservatives.

Out of a 3 pound package of ground chuck intended for a family, I was able to make 4 burgers and 3 serving of seasoned meat for tacos and nachos. That's making the cheaper bulk packages work for the single cook, which can be difficult, because it seems everything at the grocery stores is packaged and sold to feed a herd.

Eat well, cook often ...

TACO SEASONED GROUND BEEF
1.5 lbs ground chuck (80/20)
2 Tbs American Taco Spice

In a skillet over medium-high heat crumbled ground beef, mix in taco spice and cook until browned and cook through, 6 to 8 minutes. Remove from heat and serve or let cool, place in a freezer bag and store for later use.

AMERICAN TACO SPICE
3 Tbs chili powder
3 Tbs kosher salt
2 Tbs cumin
2 Tbs pepper
1 Tbs onion powder
1 Tbs garlic powder

Mix together, store in a tightly sealed jar.

FOR CRUNCHY TACOS
Taco seasoned ground beef
8 to 10 crunchy taco shells
1 C shredded cheese
1 tomato diced
1/2 onion, diced
Cilantro or lettuce
Taco sauce

Warm shells in microwave or oven for a crunchier bite. Stuff shells with meat and toppings. Grub!

FOR NACHOS
Taco seasoned ground beef
Tortilla chips, enough to cover dinner plate
1 C shredded cheese
diced tomato and onion
sour cream
salsa or taco sauce

Spread chips on plate. Top with meat and cheese, Heat on high in 45 second intervals with a minute rest between until cheese is melted. Top with tomato, onion, sour cream and salsa.

Tacos for 125: The Meat

Margarita chicken taco

When I originally started to plan this meal I was gunning for lime-garlic chicken and a flank steak preparation of some kind. As I got to pricing it out I quickly realized that I would need to replace the flank steak with ground beef because the steak would have eaten up to much of my limited budget. By switching to ground beef, not only would I have a beef taco but I could also make a 5 gallon pot of southwestern style chili.

During my search for a large container of lime juice for the chicken I wasn’t having any luck with finding a gallon size offering on the shelf. I did stumble upon half gallon containers of margarita mix though. I took a look at the ingredients and I realized it had what I needed as for as citric acid to be a good marinade for the chicken. I switched on the fly and bought a gallon of regular margarita mix for marinade.

I bought 30 pounds of chicken breast and 30 pounds of ground beef. 20 pounds each for tacos. The margarita mix was actually a great marinade that I plan on using again, it provided the yummy lemon-lime flavor with a bit of sweet. I seasoned the ground beef for tacos with a simple chili powder-cumin mix that provides all the great flavors of those store-bought taco seasoning packets without all the extra sodium.

After the meat for the tacos and southwestern chili was made I had 10 pounds of emergency chicken left that we never had to use. The plan was to see how things were going and cook it on the fly if necessary but we never had to break it out.

All of the meat was made the day before, refrigerated and then heated to temperature for service before the party. I stored everything in 5 pound bags which I brought out of the refrigerator and warmed up as needed throughout the party. It worked better than I had even planned and I would do this exactly the same way if I had to do it again.

MORE POSTS RELATED TO THIS MEAL
Salsa Verde
Gaujillo Sauce
Ancho Sauce
Meal Overview

THE RECIPES

Ground beef taco

MARGARITA CHICKEN
Makes 20 pounds; 3 to 4 hours
20 lbs Chicken breast
1 gallon Margarita mix

Marinate, grill chicken
In a large kitchen bucket soak chicken in margarita mix for two hours. Half an hour before removing chicken, prepare charcoal grill. Remove chicken from mix shaking of excess liquid. Season chicken with salt and pepper then grill in batches. Cook chicken until cooked through. 6 to 8 minutes per side or until internal temperature reaches 165°.

Dice, serve
Let chicken rest and cool slightly, then dice into small chunks. Put chicken in a warmer for service. If making a day ahead, store in gallon sized bags and  refrigerate until 1 hour before service time then re-heat for serving.

TACO SEASONED GROUND BEEF
Makes 20 pounds; 1 hour
20 lbs Ground beef (5 lb batches)
1 C Chili powder (1/4 C per batch)
3/4 C Cumin (3 Tbs per batch)
Salt and Pepper (Approximately 3 Tbs salt and 2 Tbs pepper per batch)

Cook, season beef
In a large pot over medium high heat cook ground beef in 5 pound batches until cooked through, 10 to 12 minutes per batch. Stirring occasionally, breaking up any chunks. Season with salt and pepper at the start. Half way through cooking add chili powder and cumin. Once finished remove to a large vessel and serve. If making a day ahead, let cool and store in gallon zip lock bags, refrigerate until an hour before service then reheat for serving.