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This easy, flavorful Texas Hash is a family favorite recipe! It’s made with ground beef, peppers, rice, tomatoes, and chili powder.
Quick and Easy Texas Hash
Texas Hash is a quick and easy skillet dish that combines ground beef, rice, and diced tomatoes cooked together with onions and bell pepper – plus a touch of chili powder and other seasonings.
What’s great about this recipe is that it all cooks in one skillet (love the easy cleanup!) – plus it’s a hearty and filling dish that the whole family will love.
It’s been a favorite recipe of A Family Feast followers for many years too. Some readers have told us that they serve it with buttermilk biscuits on the side and others use their Texas Hash as a filling for stuffed peppers!
Reader Review
“This was amazing!!! Smelling it while it was cooking was torture. I enjoyed every single bite and even kept the leftovers for myself instead of sending them to work with my husband. Even my “I don’t like rice” child ate every bite. I just went ahead and stirred the cheese into the entire thing at the end. Yummy!”-Stacy
As written, this easy tomato-based beef and rice dish is perfectly seasoned with just a bit of lingering heat in every bite from the added chili powder. If you are super sensitive to spicy foods, start with less – and if you love extra spicy foods, feel free to add more chili powder!
Key Ingredients
- Ground Beef – Choose an 80/20 ground beef mix (that means 80% beef/20% fat). While it’s higher in fat content than some other ground beef options, the fat adds flavor! Just be sure to drain any excess fat one you’ve browned the beef – see Cooking Tips below for more information.
- Onion – We typically cook with yellow onions for their prominent flavor. A white onion can also be used but it will make the onion flavor stronger in this dish. Spanish onions are another alternative. They are larger and milder than yellow onions.
- Green Bell Pepper – The pronounced flavor of green bell pepper works so well in this recipe. You can use a sweet red, orange, or yellow bell pepper instead, but the flavors will be mellower.
- Fresh Garlic – Always cook with fresh garlic – not the jarred stuff!
- Spices & Seasonings – Including dry mustard powder, chili powder, kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, and Worcestershire sauce.
- Long Grain White Rice
- Tomatoes – Canned diced tomatoes are in this dish, as well as tomato paste to thicken the sauce. See the notes at the bottom of the recipe card for some additional information.
- Water
- Shredded Cheddar Cheese – For serving. This dish is equally good with or without cheese added on top when served.
Cooking Tips & Tricks
- Since you are using an 80/20 ground beef mixture, it’s very important to drain any excess fat from the skillet once you’ve cooked the ground beef and before you add the rice, tomato, and liquids. This will prevent the finished dish from being overly greasy.
- An easy way to remove the excess grease is to tip the skillet slightly, then use a turkey baster to suction up the excess grease.
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Texas Hash
This easy, flavorful Texas Hash is a family favorite recipe! It’s made with ground beef, peppers, rice, tomatoes and chili powder.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup diced yellow onion
1 cup diced green bell pepper
1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic
1 pound ground beef, 80/20
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup uncooked long grain white rice
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes with juice (see notes for brand recommendations)
1 to 1 3/4 cups water
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, for serving
Instructions
- In a non stick or enamel skillet that has a tight fitting cover, heat olive oil over medium high.
- Add onion, peppers, garlic, ground beef, dry mustard, chili powder, salt and pepper. Sauté until ground beef is no longer pink, breaking up beef as you cook. (Drain any excess grease.)
- Add rice and cook for two minutes letting rice absorb liquid.
- Add tomato paste and cook for one minute.
- Add canned tomatoes with juice, one cup of water and Worcestershire sauce. Stir, cover and simmer on medium low to low for 10 minutes covered.
- Check the liquid. If the most of the liquid has absorbed, add a quarter cup more. Repeat this every five minutes of cooking.
- After 20 minutes, remove lid and check for doneness. If the mixture is too wet, cook for another few minutes with lid off, or add more tomato paste. If the rice is not fully cooked, add a little more water and continue cooking for about five more minutes.
- If you are using the cheese, sprinkle on top of individual portions.
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Notes
Different brands of canned diced tomatoes have different tomato to water ratios. We made this recipe using Hunts canned diced tomatoes and one cup of water added to the cooking was enough. We made it again using Pastene canned diced tomatoes, and the ratio of water to tomatoes was less. This required us to add more water to cook the rice fully.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the origin of Texas Hash recipe? We found this recipe in my mother’s old recipe box, and (full disclosure) we made some adjustments to the seasonings to boost the flavor a bit. A reader in the comment section below mentioned that an old Betty Crocker Cookbook from the 1960s included a Texas Hash recipe that was baked. It’s entirely possibly my mom had that cookbook and/or found a recipe that adapted it to be a skillet meal.
- Can I make Texas Hash ahead of time? Yes! This dish reheats nicely.
- Can I make Texas Hash in a Slow Cooker? or Instant Pot? This recipe only takes 30 minutes to cook in a skillet so we’ve never tried making it in a slow cooker or instant pot. I’m sure it can be adapted but without some kitchen testing of a new recipe, we’d only be guessing at what changes to make.
- How do I reheat Texas Hash? We microwave individual portions to warm though. But, if you are serving a larger quantity, feel free to warm through in the same skillet you cooked in – just be sure to stir frequently so the hash doesn’t stick to the bottom of the skillet.
- How do I store leftovers? Place any leftovers in a covered container and refrigerate for up to three days.
- Can I freeze the leftovers? We’ve never tried freezing Texas Hash. (In general, rice softens and can even get mushy after it’s been frozen and thawed so the texture will likely change if you freeze this dish.)
- Can I use instant rice in this recipe? We haven’t tried it, but a reader in the comments had good luck adding instant rice about 10 minutes into the simmering process.
This Texas Hash recipe originally appeared on A Family Feast in September 2014. We’ve updated the post and photos but the delicious recipe remains the same.
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Just made this and it turned out great. I substituted half of the water for salsa and it has such a good flavor. The only thing I don’t like is how greasy it is since you don’t drain the grease from the burger. When I was done eating it, my plate was coated in a layer of grease.
Thanks for your feedback Cameron – you can definitely drain the excess fat if you prefer.
I love this recipe and wanted to make it for a new mom to help out with dinners. Can this recipe be frozen and heated up later?
Hi Nancy – In general yes, although sometimes rice can sometimes get a little bit mushy when frozen then reheated. Overall, I don’t think the dish will be ruined (I’d gladly eat it) but it may not be quite as good as freshly made. Hope that helps!
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Thank you !
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I had not heard of this dish before. I did not have a bell pepper on hand, so I substituted a can of rotel for the tomatoes and pepper. Really tasty!
Great suggestion Pat!
We love this dish. We all agree this is the best Texas Hash recipe yet.
Thank you!!
How would the recipe reflect if it was doubled? We have a healthy head count of 8 over here, lol
Hi Jess – If you plan to eat this as a side dish, I think doubling the recipe is good for 8 people. If you plan to serve it as the main course and all 8 guests are big eaters, you might consider tripling the recipe. One recipe uses a pound of beef, plus other vegetables and rice – so I’d use that as your guide for determining if it is enough to eat. Hope that helps! (No need to adjust the recipe if you double it – just use double each of the ingredients.)
Texas Hash was tasty and easy to make.. I didn’t have onions or bell peppers but it turned out well.
Thank you! Glad you liked it!
I thought the flavors in this were excellent. Two things to note: It did not say whether the rice was supposed to be cooked when you added it into the mixture. I had leftover white rice so I used that (perfect use!). Also, I thought this was incredibly greasy, especially that last portion served. Next time I will use a leaner ground beef and/or drain the grease prior to adding in the rice, tomato paste, and canned tomatoes. Just my opinion.
Thanks for your feedback Kym – we’ll clarify that 1/2 a cup of rice in the ingredients list is uncooked. (Given the number of servings for this recipe, we assumed that was self-explanatory but are always open to suggestions for how we can improve our recipe instructions.) If you used already cooked rice, I suspect that’s why yours seemed overly greasy – it wouldn’t have absorbed as much as using uncooked rice. Either way – we appreciate the feedback. Thank you!
Loved finding this recipe! My mother also made this for us when we were young.
My mother could not remember making this, so I have been experimenting on it for years.
This is the same recipe and is also called Texas hash.
My family has made some updates over the years. We have vegans in our family.
When they are visiting, we leave the cooked ground beef on the side with bowels of cheese,
Sour cream, sliced olives, avocado, crushed tortilla chips.
Everyone loves it. Thanks again?
You’re welcome Lucile! So glad everyone is enjoying the dish!
This recipe was delicious! I doubled the spices and the tomato paste. I also made our family recipe of Southern Gal Biscuits! It was amazing! Thanks for a good meal.
You’re very welcome Teresa!