No more boring beef mince recipes….. Kick off the week with THIS flavour packed Mexican Ground Beef Casserole!! With corn, capsicum/bell peppers and black beans, this rice casserole is juicy, cheesy, and packed with big Mexican flavours.
One pot, quick dinner idea that’s on the table in 30 minutes!
Mexican Ground Beef Casserole with rice
This is essentially the filling for the Mexican Stuffed Peppers I shared a few weeks ago. Why am I bothering?
Because when I share a pork chop recipe on Instagram, people always ask if it can be made with chicken.
When I share a chicken thigh recipe, people always ask if it can be made with breast.
And when I share Mexican Stuffed Peppers, people ask if it can be made without the peppers…… 😂😂😂
Which actually, as strange as it sounds, I thought was a very valid question because I can imagine how irritating it would be to watch that stuffed peppers video and drool when the juicy beef rice filling comes oozing out, knowing full well you have no peppers in your fridge.
So – here’s the filling recipe which is a Mexican flavoured ground beef casserole made with rice. It’s mouth-wateringly delish!!!
What you need for Mexican Ground Beef Casserole
Here’s what you need. Feel free to substitute the capsicum, born and beans with other vegetables of choice – you need about 5 to 6 cups of diced veggies in total.
How to make this Mexican Rice Casserole
This is a one pot quick dinner that will be on your table in 30 minutes!
Essentially, it starts by browning the beef with onion and garlic, then you add a ton of Mexican spices, rice and liquids then you give it a big stir and let it simmer away on the stove until the rice is tender.
To give it a good slug of extra flavour, I like to stir in cheese as well as green onion for freshness (I also like doing this because I get a kick out of watching the cheese melt into the rice 😇), top with a bit more cheese, clamp the lid on and leave it for a minute to let the residual heat to melt the cheese.
The texture of this rice casserole is like a creamy risotto – except it tastes like juicy Enchiladas.
I love the pops of flavour and texture from the corn and beans – adds extra interest!
Another quick beef mince recipe!
Regular readers know I’m a big fan of beef mince. It’s just so easy – no chopping required, highly versatile. A great flavour absorber, quick to cook.
And this Mexican Rice Casserole is the latest addition to my ground beef recipe collection. Other than Bolognese (which is, without a doubt, the recipe I make most often!), a few of my other favourites include:
-
Quick Asian Beef Bowls – there’s a lot of fans of this recipe!!
-
Salisbury Steaks – juicy seasoned beef patties smothered in mushroom gravy
-
Juicy Italian Meatballs – well, actually, all meatballs!
-
Chilli Con Carne, Beef Tacos, Baked Ziti, Baked Spaghetti, Moussaka, Meatloaf, Homemade Hamburger Helper….
I have to stop. I love them all! Of course I do. Otherwise I wouldn’t have shared the recipe!! ~ Nagi x
Watch how to make it
More easy, cosy casseroles
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Mexican Ground Beef Casserole with Rice (Beef mince!)
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion , finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves , minced
- 500g (1 lb) ground beef (mince), lean
- 1/3 cup tomato paste
- 1 1/4 cup long grain white rice , uncooked (Note 1)
- 2.5 cups (625 ml) chicken broth/stock , low sodium
- 400g (14oz) can corn kernels , drained (Note 2)
- 400g (14oz) can black beans , drained (or other beans)
- 1 capsicum/bell pepper , diced
- 1 cup green onions/shallots
- 2 cups (200g) cheese , shredded (anything that melts! Note 3)
MEXICAN SPICES:
- 0.5 tsp cayenne pepper (Note 4)
- 1.5 tbsp dried oregano
- 3 tsp cumin
- 3 tsp coriander
- 3 tsp onion powder
- 2 tsp paprika
- 1.5 tsp salt
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large pot over high heat. Add garlic and onion, cook 1 1/2 minutes until onion is translucent.
- Add beef and cook, breaking it up as you go, until you no longer see raw meat (about 2 minutes).
- Add Mexican Spices and cook for 30 seconds.
- Add capsicum and cook for 1 minute.
- Add tomato paste and broth, stir to mix in.
- Add rice, corn and black beans.
- Stir, bring to simmer then cover and lower heat to medium low (simmering gently). Cook 15 minutes.
- Remove lid, quickly stir through green onion and HALF the cheese.
- Smooth top then sprinkle on remaining cheese. Cover and leave for 1 minute just to melt cheese.
- Remove from stove and serve immediately, garnished with more green onion if desired.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
This is where he is as I’m writing this post (ie licking his lips at the sight of the photos…):
Another brilliant recipe from Nagi! Delicious and great mix of flavours. Plenty of fibre and protein. Being able to make this in one pot is the icing on the cake. Served it up with corn chips, sour cream, extra cheese and guacamole. Even my fussy 11yr old enjoyed it! 🙂
Absolutely delicious. I made this recipe as beef, pork and meat free dishes. They were all very quick and easy to make. My family loved them all.
Thanks Nagi & Dozer xx
Absolutely delicious. My family has varied dietary requirements so I made this recipe as beef, pork and meat free dishes. Very easy to make. All very very enthusiastically eaten.
Thanks Nagi & Dozer.
Hi Nagi, could you please add a pressure cooker version of this please? I have tried many times to convert it but not having much success.
My whole family loves this meal. I’ve swapped the paprika for sweet paprika because I have small children, and it’s a regular go-to. Thank you, Nagi, for your delicious recipes.
Made this for dinner tonight. I know you said not to use brown rice rice, Nagi, but I had some, already cooked, in the fridge. Sooooooo, I substituted crushed tomatoes (14-oz can) for the broth and tomato paste and added it in where the broth and tomato paste were in the direct ions.
I didn’t have enough green onions so probs used half what the recipe called for. Also my Dutch oven is tiny so there wasn’t rim to mix in cheese—so it all went on to, along with a sprinkling of fresh cilantro…
AWESOME!!!! Will definitely add this to my recipe rotation!! So good.
Thank you for another delicious meal!!
Been making this for years now it’s lovely just made it for a heap of friends as well for NYE 2024 dinner. Thanks for sharing!
Sorry, but no way will the rice be done in 15 minutes. Wrong time is not helpful when planning the rest of the meal and it has to sit for another 30 minutes.
Sooooo good! It was demolished by my family of 4 adults. Will definitely be doubling everything next time for leftovers.
May I ask what size casserole dish is required?
It’s not a casserole because it’s not baked in a casserole dish, i.e. 9×13, this is a one pan dish on the stove. So no dish needed.
I love this! It is delicious! I used 3 cups of stock so it didn’t dry out as I needed to hold it for a few hours until my family came home. And the best part: it’s couch food! Thank you!
Made this tonight and really enjoyed it, plus it was sooo easy to prep! I saw some comments about rice not being cooked so I par-boiled my rice whilst I was preparing everything else up until the point of the rice going in. The meal ended up amazingly delicious. We had it on wraps with lettuce, tomato, yoghurt, avocado and crushed corn chips – so it was like Zambreros at home 🙂 will def make this again.
Made this recipe a ton of times. I substituted long grain rice for parboiled rice and found that it works the best. Today I tried long grain again and following the instructions it was undercooked and had to add about 2 more cups of water.
Great dish, I like that its all in one pot/pan, however, rice still isn’t cooked even after 25min. This dinner ended up taking an hour to be on the table from starting prep to ready to eat.
Thank you for sharing this amazing recipe. We made it for dinner (without beans) and increased basmati rice to 1.5cups and store bought taco seasoning. Delicious ! Also made the pico de gallo recipe. We ate this for dinner with sunny side up eggs:) divine ! 💕💕definitely in our dinner rotation now 💕
This was easy and delicious. Although , despite simmering for an extra 5 minutes my rice still wasn’t fully cooked, next time I will add a little extra broth and simmer a little longer.
Another banger! To veggify this I tried a punnet of mushrooms chopped in the food processor plus about half a cup of red lentils which I boiled for about 10 mins before. Everything else the same and worked a treat!
Great one-pot all rounder for the whole family when I’m short on time. Or even when I have time, it’s always a winner.
Delicious. Followed instructions and came out perfectly. Only change was I added 2 jalapenos from my garden with the red bell pepper. Perfect level of spice and will definitely make again!
Omg delicious!!! I didn’t even bother with the cheese it was so good! I used plant-based sausage. So good!!!
Tasty! Thanks Nagi for this alternative to beef chili/nacho mix.
I measured everything as per the recipe, aside from subtracting 1/4 tsp cayenne and adding 1/4 tsp ground black pepper. Used my 28cm Le Creuset Dutch oven to cook on the stove top. A couple things – aside from grating cheese (ugh!), the prep for this is pretty fast. However, like many others have reported, when cooking with a (true) simmer the rice took 45 minutes (as well as 200ml more chicken stock) to cook until no longer crunchy. I used (freshly purchased) Sun Rice brand long grain rice. On the plus side, there was no burned layer on the bottom of my DO, but I imagine if you boil it faster in order to quickly cook the rice a burned crust might be the result. I served it with a dollop of sour cream chopped avocado with lime juice and chopped mini Roma tomatoes and green onions, and a side of tortilla chips – the latter adding some texture and crunch. Enjoyed by all (especially with a icy Corona)!
So my only advice is to allow an extra 30 minutes cooking time into your dinner schedule 😉
Forgot to add – this makes HEAPS, the leftover situation is fantastic and I’m truly looking forward to experimenting with it as a filling for soft flour tortillas – burrito style!