Tastiest Way to Season Ground Beef

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Set up for a more than flavorful addition to your recipes? Learn how to cook ground beef the right way with our pace-by-step guide.

Many recipes brainstorm by telling readers to "chocolate-brown the ground beef," only don't explain how. Is it piece of cake? Yes—but in that location are still ways it can go wrong. Here's how to cook ground beefiness the correct way, so information technology's tender, total of flavor and ready to use in your favorite ground beefiness recipes.

Use this method whether you need to know how to melt footing beefiness for tacos, how to melt footing beef for spaghetti, or whatever other dish you're craving for dinner.

How to Melt and Chocolate-brown Footing Beefiness

This recipe is for one pound of footing beef and is prepare in 8 to 10 minutes. For larger amounts of meat, employ a large skillet or chocolate-brown the meat in batches.

Ingredients

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• 1 pound ground beef
• Salt and pepper, to season the beef one time cooked

Editor's Tip: If using very lean ground beef or a stainless steel skillet decumbent to sticking, add a tablespoon or two of vegetable oil to the pan before adding the beef.

Tools Y'all'll Demand

• A stainless steel, cast atomic number 26 or nonstick skillet is a must. Look for a skilful-quality pan that distributes heat evenly.
• A sturdy wooden spoon or spatula similar this one is perfect for breaking upward the ground meat during cooking.
• This gadget helps to easily drain grease from the pan. A colander will also do the pull a fast one on.

Directions

Step one: Heat your skillet

Fix a medium- to big-sized skillet on a burner set to medium-high heat. Allow the pan to get hot.

Footstep 2: Interruption up and add together the beef

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Tear the ground beefiness into chunks and add to the hot pan in a single layer.

Step 3: Allow the beef to cook

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Let the beef cook without moving information technology for the kickoff 5 minutes. The beef volition begin to brown and develop color forth the bottom.

Step 4: Suspension up and move beef effectually

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Use a wooden spoon to interruption upwardly the larger chunks of beef and gently motility the beef effectually. Yous don't want to overwork the meat; just move information technology enough to brown information technology evenly. If the bottom is getting besides dark, turn the rut downward to medium.

Step 5: Drain the grease

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Cook the beef a few minutes more until it's browned and no pink color remains. Employ a draining utensil, a strainer or fifty-fifty a small plate to cascade off most of the grease into a heat-proof container. (Never cascade grease downwardly the drain!) Go along a small amount of fat in with the beefiness; this will help the meat stay moist and flavorful.

Employ your browned meat right away in 1 of these creative footing beef recipes or, if saving it for subsequently, allow it to cool. And so spoon information technology into a sealed container and store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. (Learn how to tell if ground beef is bad.) To freeze it, put the cooked-and-cooled beef in a freezer-safe  nil-shut purse and press out all the air. Keep it frozen for up to 3 months.

Tips for Cooking with Ground Beef

Defrost Frozen Ground Beefiness First

Ideally, for meat that is evenly cooked and moist, you want to chocolate-brown basis beef that is completely thawed. Here's how to defrost footing beef:

• Fridge method: 24 hours before cooking, remove the basis beef package from the freezer, put information technology in a bowl or zippo-top bag, and place it in the fridge. Your beef should exist completely defrosted past the time you're ready to cook.
• Water method: If y'all but have an hr or two, place your frozen footing beef package into a nix-top pocketbook, pushing out every bit much of the air equally possible. Then, place the bag into a bowl full of cold water and let the meat defrost for an hour. Y'all should change the h2o effectually the 30-minute mark to continue it common cold.
• Microwave method: Transfer the frozen footing beef to a microwave-safe plate and place it in the microwave. Set your microwave to the defrost setting and microwave the beef in 20-xxx 2d internals, flipping the beef each fourth dimension. It should take almost v minutes or then for the meat to defrost. Annotation: The edges of the beef might commencement to cook as they outset to defrost. This is fine equally long as you fully cook the basis beef correct later on.

Melt the Meat Evenly

Don't drop that brick of basis beef straight into the pan! To cook the meat evenly and foreclose steaming, break up the meat before it goes into the pan. Tear the meat into chunks by hand or with a wooden spoon and add these to the hot skillet in a single layer.

Use a Hot Pan

The most common mistake people make when browning ground beefiness is putting the beef in a cold pan. As it heats upwards, the meat begins to steam, which makes it look dull or gray. The goal is to chocolate-brown—every bit in sear—the meat, and to practise this the pan needs to be hot. And then brand certain your skillet is hot before you add the basis beefiness!

Avoid Abiding Stirring

After you add together the basis beef to the hot pan, let it cook untouched for several minutes. Many cooks make the error of constantly stirring footing beef every bit information technology browns, but this agitation drives wet out of the meat, creating a tougher texture. Only after the beef has a expert sear on the lesser and yous encounter the colour creeping up the sides should you begin to gently motility the ground beef in the pan.

Keep Some of the Grease in the Pan

Draining the grease from cooked ground beefiness makes your finished dish less greasy. However, for moist and flavorful meat, keep a tablespoon or two of that fat in. Stir information technology through your browned beef. You'll still exist removing most of the fat while stillprotecting the meat from drying out.

Bleed the balance of the grease into a heat-proof container. Once it solidifies, scrape it into your trash. (Some municipal compost programs may accept grease, but don't put it in your backyard compost.)

Season the Footing Beef

When it comes to seasoning your ground beef, expect until subsequently it has been browned and drained. Adding salt to raw footing beefiness pulls out moisture, drying the meat out and creating steam while it cooks, which prevents information technology from browning properly. The same goes for other seasonings, simply for a dissimilar reason. Much of the herbs and spices volition drain abroad forth with the grease, leaving your ground beef underseasoned.

Once your ground beef has been cooked and tuckered, it tin can exist seasoned with almost anything. Salt and pepper are the nuts and could exist paired with a taco seasoning blend, Erstwhile Bay, herbes de Provence or garam masala, to name a few options. It only depends what you're planning on making with the beefiness. For inspiration, check out our favorite ground beef recipes of the past year.

Don't Rinse Beef!

One TikTok user virtually broke the internet when she shared a video of cooked basis beef poured into a strainer and rinsed under the faucet, which washed all of the grease off the meat and right down the drain. (The video has since been deleted, but you lot can catch it in @simplyfoodbyty's duet with the original post.) The user claimed it was a technique learned in a nutrition class, but y'all definitely should non rinse browned footing beefiness.

For 1, grease and fats should never exist poured down the sink drain. (It's ane of the things plumbers want you to know.) The grease can solidify in the pipes, creating clogs and a huge mess in sewers and septic systems. Additionally, while pouring off excess fat from browned beef makes it healthier, removing every last drib of fatty by rinsing it away will exit the beef tough, dry out and tasteless.

If you lot're concerned about the amount of fat in ground beef, opt for the leanest option like footing sirloin. Or, use ground turkey or footing chicken in place of beefiness, which are reasonably priced and take less fat.

How to Cook Frozen Ground Beef

While defrosted ground beef volition have the best season and texture, yous can cook ground beef from frozen. Here'due south how:

• Rut your skillet as directed above.
• Add the frozen basis beef, repeatedly turning the brick of meat in the hot skillet and peeling away the outer layers equally they brown through.
• Go along until all of the beefiness is cooked.

Browning your ground beef this fashion should actually be a concluding resort; information technology's more time-consuming and all that handling will result in beefiness that's tough and unevenly cooked. Those in a fourth dimension pinch will love these quick and easy ground beef recipes instead.

At present that you know how to cook and dark-brown ground beef, you're prepare to make our best footing beef recipes.

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Source: https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/how-to-brown-ground-beef/

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