9 Ground Beef Dinners Way Better Than Tacos or Burgers

Looking for new ways to use ground beef? These tested, flavorful recipes go beyond the usual tacos and burgers.

By
Emily Johnson
Emily Johnson
Emily Johnson
Emily has worked as a food writer and editor for ten years, across publications such as Lucky Peach, Epicurious, Bon Appétit, and The New York Times Cooking.
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Published December 14, 2025
Overhead view of a fork of moussaka on a plate

Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

So you scored some on-sale ground beef at the grocery store and you’re wondering what to do with it. Of course, burgers or Tex-Mex-style tacos are absolutely a delicious option, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t remind you of the full versatility this ingredient offers. Creamy moussaka, salty-sweet-spicey Cuban picadillo, and tender, juicy seekh kebabs all start with a package of ground beef. We’ve rounded up recipes for those dishes and more below, so you can branch out of your burger-taco rut. And, okay, there are some twists on those dishes too—rice topped with taco meat and cheese, or a cheeseburger on a pizza, anyone? 

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  • Moussaka Recipe

    Overhead view of a fork of moussaka on a plate

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

    It’s hard to think of a more comforting food than classic Greek moussaka, with its layers of creamy potato, jammy fried eggplant, tomatoey meat sauce, and decadent béchamel. Recipe developer Kristina Razon spoke with many Greek cooks and tried many techniques for each component to come up with this perfected method. She uses a 3:1 milk and flour ratio in her bechamel and mixes it with kefalotyri cheese to create a sturdy sauce that won’t seep through and make the moussaka soupy. She combines both ground beef and lamb in the meat sauce for a rich, nuanced flavor. And she fries the potato and eggplant, which gives them a custardy, not mushy, texture.

  • Nigerian Meat Pie

    Nigerian meat pies on an ovular serving platter.

    Serious Eats / Maureen Celestine

    These beef hand pies are commonly found as street snacks in Nigeria, as well as in home kitchens. A simple mixture of ground beef, onions, potatoes, and carrots gets spiced with Nigerian curry and wrapped in flaky crust. Make these individual pies to snack on, or easily convert the dish into a large-format pot pie that can be served as a dinner main by putting the beef mixture in an oven-safe dish and topping it with the rolled out pastry.

  • Pressure Cooker Ground Beef and Bean Chili Recipe

    20190122-pressure-cooker-chili-vicky-wasik-17
    Vicky Wasik

    Chilis that come together quickly are often too good to be true. It takes time (and multiple steps, like toasting chiles and individually searing meats and sauteeing aromatics) to develop layered, complex smokey, savory heat and depth. But the pressure cooker is your way around all of this. High-pressure cooking allows flavors to meld and concentrate quickly. Plus, the high-pressure ensures tender beef. Relying on a powerhouse flavor arsenal of coffee, dark chocolate, and fish sauce to flavor your ground beef and beans doesn’t hurt, either.

  • Seekh Kebabs (Pakistani Spicy Grilled Ground Meat Skewers) Recipe

    20160801-seekh-kebab-recipe-48.jpg
    J. Kenji López-Alt

    The key to these bursting-with-flavor Pakistani ground-beef skewers is all in the perfectly-balanced spice mix. Combining coriander, cumin, sweet paprika, cayenne, and amchur powder in just the right ratios gives the meat heat, acidity, and sweetness. Getting their texture right can be tricky, but in the development process, Kenji Lopez-Alt found that making a puree of the ginger, garlic, red onions, and hot green chiles, then draining the excess moisture from them. Finally, setting up a two zone fire allows you to have skewers that are both moist and properly browned.

    Continue to 5 of 9 below

  • Cheeseburger Pizza

    Slice of cheeseburger pizza on a blue plate. Rest of cheeseburger pizza on graphic background

    Serious Eats / Deli Studios

    When you can’t decide between a burger and pizza, there is the beautiful, distinctly-American wonder: the Cheeseburger Pizza. This version from Molly Allen is a little elevated than the greasy ones you might have ordered late at night. To prevent excess grease from making the pizza soggy, you’ll cook your onions and ground beef ahead of time and let them fully cool before assembling them onto the pizza. You’ll make a special sauce of ketchup, mayo, and mustard and spread it on the pizza in lieu of a tomato-based one. And you’ll add a little cheddar into the cheese mix (along with classic low-moisture mozz) to bring home the cheeseburger effect.

  • Okinawan Taco Rice

    A plate of taco rice with beef, lettuce, and sliced tomatoes on top of white rice, served on a striped tablecloth

    Serious Eats / Melati Citrawireja

    Taco rice may seem like a Tex Mex dish, but it’s actually a staple of any Okinawan restaurant. In 1984, the chef Matsuzo Gibo conceived of the dish to cater to the large population of American soldiers stationed near his shop. The dish consists of short-grain Japanese rice topped with cumin and chile-spiced ground beef, cheddar cheese, iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, and salsa. This recipe from Kiera Wright-Ruiz swaps the usual shredded cheddar for gooey cheese sauce, so there’s creaminess in every bite.

  • Kotlet (Persian Ground Meat and Potato Patties)

    Overhead view of kotlets with tomatoes and french fries

    Serious Eats /  Nader Mehravari

    These pan-fried patties are made by mixing lightly-spiced ground beef or lamb with mashed potatoes. Their texture is lightly crisped on the outside, with a soft interior that tastes as much of potato as it does the meat or spices. Serve your kotlet hot, with french fries, salad, pickles, yogurt, flatbread, or rice—or a combination of any number of these dishes.

  • Cuban Picadillo

    A blue ceramic plate with picadillo, white rice, and black beans.

    Serious Eats / Diana Chistruga

    Picadillo—a stir-fry of spiced ground meat and pimento-stuffed green olives, capers, and raisins—is a signature symbol of Cuban home cooking. It can be made with ground beef or pork, or a combo of the two. Whatever you do, you’ll start with a carefully made sofrito: Be sure to take the proper time to softly sweat rather than brown your onions, red pepper, and garlic, because this is how you’ll develop the sweet, aromatic flavor that’s the basis of the entire dish.

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  • The Best Italian-American Meatballs

    20150107-italian-american-meatballs-vicky-wasik-29.jpg
    Photographs: Vicky Wasik. Video: Serious Eats Video.

    Daniel Gritzer spent hours, days, weeks, months testing to create the perfect Italian-American meatball—and he nailed it, thanks to a few tricks. Using a 1:1 ratio of beef-to-pork gives balanced and nuanced flavor. Make sure you use a high-fat content ground beef, too. He also adds buttermilk-soaked bread into the mixture. This keeps the meatballs moist, and prevents the ground meat from getting tough. You’ll also add pancetta, which works as a slow-release method for fat, giving you little pockets of richness throughout the ball. Finally, he found that broiling rather than frying meant even searing and even caramelization, without risking dryness within.

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