What to Make With 1 lb of Ground Beef: 10 Recipes by Total Time
What to make with 1 lb ground beef: 10 Savour recipes that use one 450 or 500 g pack, sorted by total time, with servings per pack and what freezes.
By Ben Kowalski
Published · Updated · 9 min read
Quick answer
What to make with 1 lb of ground beef: 10 Savour recipes that each use one 450 or 500 g pack. Easy Beef Tacos are quickest at 25 minutes in total, then Korean Ground Beef Bowls and One-Pan Cheeseburger Mac and Cheese at 30 minutes. One pack makes 4 servings of the tacos, Korean bowls or stroganoff, 6 in five recipes, and 8 of the empanadas or slow cooker lasagna.
- Recipes featured
- 10
- Quickest
- Easy Beef Tacos (25 mins)
- Average total time
- 1 hr 16 mins
- Average calories
- 531 per serving
- Reading time
- 9 min
- Section
- Ingredient guides
What to make with 1 lb of ground beef (one 450 or 500 g pack): tacos, Korean beef bowls, cheeseburger mac and cheese, stroganoff, enchiladas, bolognese, meatball sliders, stuffed peppers, air fryer empanadas or slow cooker lasagna. Those are the 10 Savour recipes in this guide, each with one pack on its ingredient line. Easy Beef Tacos are the quickest at 25 minutes in total, Korean Ground Beef Bowls and One-Pan Cheeseburger Mac and Cheese follow at 30 minutes, and one pack serves 4 to 8 depending on the recipe.
The lines write the amount two ways: the cheeseburger mac and cheese calls for "450 g lean ground beef, 1 lb", and four others call 500 g "about 1 lb". Recipes that need more than one pack are on the full list of ground beef recipes.
What to make with 1 lb of ground beef, sorted by total time
Sorted by total time as stored on each recipe (prep, cooking and any resting or cooling time). The last column is the amount and leanness from each recipe's ground beef line.
Every recipe cooks the beef to 71°C (160°F), the temperature government food safety guidance gives for ground beef. Nine brown it in a pan until no pink remains; the sliders bake it as meatballs until the centre reaches that temperature.
Which 1 lb ground beef dinners take 30 minutes or less?
Three of the 10, all cooked on the stovetop and all in Quick Weeknight Dinners.
Easy Beef Tacos (Total 25 min (10 prep + 15 cook)) brown the beef with onion and garlic, then simmer it with a homemade spice mix, tomato paste and stock until the liquid coats the meat. One pack fills 8 small tortillas or taco shells, at about 450 calories and 30 g protein per serving (estimate).
Korean Ground Beef Bowls (Total 30 min (10 prep + 20 cook)) brown the beef in sesame oil, then simmer it in soy sauce, brown sugar, gochujang, garlic and ginger until the sauce reduces to a glaze. It goes over 300 g of jasmine or short-grain rice (uncooked weight) with cucumber and carrot, at about 600 calories and 33 g protein per serving (estimate).
One-Pan Cheeseburger Mac and Cheese (Total 30 min (8 prep + 22 cook)) cooks 340 g of elbow macaroni in broth and milk in the same pan as the beef, then stirs in 225 g of sharp cheddar off the heat. Diced pickles go on top, and the pack stretches to 6 servings at about 570 calories and 33 g protein per serving (estimate).
What can you make with 1 lb of ground beef and pasta?
Four of the 10 are in Pasta Recipes: the cheeseburger mac and cheese above, the stroganoff and bolognese here, and the slow cooker lasagna further down.
Ground Beef Stroganoff takes 35 minutes in total. The 85/15 beef is browned, drained and set aside, 250 g of mushrooms cook in butter in the same skillet, then the beef goes back into a broth sauce finished off the heat with 180 ml of full-fat sour cream. It serves 4 over 300 g of egg noodles, at about 720 calories and 39 g protein per serving (estimate).
Easy Spaghetti Bolognese takes 1 hour. The beef browns after the onion, carrot and celery, 125 ml of milk simmers off, then the sauce cooks with a can of crushed tomatoes for 30 to 40 minutes. It covers 400 g of spaghetti for 6 servings.
Which oven bakes stretch 1 lb of ground beef to 6 servings?
Ground Beef Enchiladas take 55 minutes in total (15 prep + 40 cook). The browned beef is mixed with a can of black beans, 125 ml (1/2 cup) of the homemade enchilada sauce and half the cheese, rolled into 12 corn tortillas and baked at 190°C (375°F) for 20 minutes.
Meatball Sub Sliders take 1 hour and turn the pack into 12 meatballs, baked at 200°C (400°F) until the centre reaches 71°C (160°F), then halved and layered with marinara and mozzarella in a slab of 12 slider rolls.
Stuffed Peppers with Ground Beef and Rice take 1 hour 20 minutes. The beef, 280 g of cooked rice and diced tomatoes are packed into 6 bell peppers and baked at 190°C (375°F), covered for 35 minutes, then uncovered under the cheese for 10 to 15 minutes. It is the only recipe here that lists a diet, gluten-free, and its FAQ says to check the labels on the tomato sauce and spices.
Can you use 1 lb of ground beef in the air fryer or slow cooker?
Yes, in two of the 10, and both brown the beef in a skillet first.
Air Fryer Beef Empanadas take 1 hour 25 minutes, including 20 minutes to cool the filling. The 450 g of beef is cooked with onion, red pepper, spices and green olives, spooned into 16 empanada discs and air fried at 180°C (350°F) for 10 to 12 minutes per batch. The air fryer cooking times and temperatures guide sets that beside Savour's other air fryer recipes. The recipe lists them as an appetizer that serves 8, and they are the only recipe in this guide rated Medium rather than Easy.
Slow Cooker Lasagna has the longest total time, 5 hours (15 prep + 265 cook + 20 rest). The browned beef goes into a loose sauce of marinara and passata, which is layered with uncooked regular noodles, ricotta and mozzarella and cooked on low for 4 to 4 1/2 hours, until the centre reads 74°C (165°F). Its tips say to cook on low, not high, so the edges do not overcook; slow cooker low vs high cooking times compares the two settings across Savour recipes. One pack serves 8 at about 585 calories and 39 g protein per serving (estimate).
How many people does 1 lb of ground beef feed?
In these recipes, 4 to 8. The beef per serving column is our arithmetic: the raw amount on the ingredient line divided by the recipe's servings. The table runs from the most beef per serving to the least.
For 6 or 8 servings, pasta, rice, beans, rolls or pastry make up more of each serving. Protein does not follow the beef: the slow cooker lasagna, with 62.5 g of beef per serving, and the stroganoff, with 125 g, both come to about 39 g protein per serving (estimate). The tacos recipe also lists a variation that stirs a can of rinsed black beans into the beef "to stretch it further".
Lean or 85/15?
Seven of the 10 ask for lean ground beef, and the Korean bowls narrow that to 90/10. The stroganoff, enchiladas and stuffed peppers call for 85/15, and all three drain or spoon off the fat after browning. The taco tips ask for lean, not extra-lean, beef, and the cheeseburger mac and cheese tips suggest about 85 to 90% lean so there is less fat to spoon off.
Can you swap the ground beef for turkey, chicken or mushrooms?
Only where a recipe says so. These are the swaps written into the recipes themselves:
- Ground turkey or chicken: the tacos and Korean bowls (turkey or chicken), the cheeseburger mac and cheese (turkey), the meatball sub sliders (chicken or turkey meatballs) and the empanadas (chicken). Each says to cook it to 74°C (165°F), the temperature government food safety guidance gives for ground poultry.
- Ground turkey in the bolognese: the recipe's FAQ swaps in 500 g of ground turkey with an extra tablespoon of olive oil, cooked to 74°C (165°F) before the tomato paste goes in.
- Half beef, half something else: the bolognese suggests half ground beef and half ground pork. The slow cooker lasagna suggests half Italian sausage, casings removed, browned until it reaches 71°C (160°F).
- Mushrooms instead of beef: the slow cooker lasagna's meat-free version replaces the beef with 400 g of chopped mushrooms cooked until browned and dry.
Which 1 lb ground beef recipes can you freeze?
All 10 have a freezer note of up to 3 months. Eight of the notes say to thaw overnight in the fridge, and the empanadas air fry from frozen. What goes into the freezer is not always the finished dish:
Two notes change how you reheat: the stroganoff gets fresh sour cream stirred in after reheating, and the frozen empanadas are brushed with egg wash and air fried at 180°C (350°F) for 14 to 16 minutes. Eight of the reheat notes give 74°C (165°F) as the target, and the tacos and bolognese notes say to reheat until hot throughout. Four of these recipes (the cheeseburger mac and cheese, enchiladas, stuffed peppers and slow cooker lasagna) are also in Freezer Meals.
Sources
Recipes in this post (10)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many servings do you get from 1 lb of ground beef?
Between 4 and 8 in the 10 Savour recipes this guide compares, each using one 450 or 500 g pack. The tacos, Korean bowls and stroganoff serve 4; the cheeseburger mac and cheese, enchiladas, bolognese, meatball sub sliders and stuffed peppers serve 6; the air fryer empanadas and slow cooker lasagna serve 8.
How much ground beef per person do Savour's 1 lb recipes use?
From 125 g down to about 56 g per serving, dividing each recipe's raw ground beef by its servings. The tacos, Korean bowls and stroganoff use 500 g for 4 servings (125 g each), and the air fryer empanadas use 450 g for 8 (about 56 g each).
What is the quickest dinner with 1 lb of ground beef?
Easy Beef Tacos, at Total 25 min (10 prep + 15 cook) for 8 tacos that serve 4, are the quickest of the 10 Savour recipes in this guide. Korean Ground Beef Bowls and One-Pan Cheeseburger Mac and Cheese come next at 30 minutes each.
Can you use ground turkey or chicken instead of ground beef?
Six of the 10 recipes in this guide say so. The tacos, Korean bowls, cheeseburger mac and cheese, meatball sub sliders and air fryer empanadas list ground turkey or chicken as a variation, and the bolognese FAQ gives a ground turkey swap. Each says to cook the poultry to 74°C (165°F), the temperature government food safety guidance gives for ground poultry.
Can you freeze dishes that use 1 lb of ground beef?
All 10 recipes in this guide have a freezer note of up to 3 months, but several freeze only one part: the taco filling, the cooked beef for the Korean bowls, the bolognese sauce without pasta, the meatballs in their sauce and the stroganoff sauce before the sour cream. The empanadas freeze sealed but uncooked and air fry from frozen.
More from the blog
Ingredient guides
What to Make With Leftover Rice: 7 Recipes That Use Cooked Rice
What to make with leftover rice: 7 Savour dinners that start from 1 1/2 to 4 cups of cooked rice, from 22-minute egg fried rice to stuffed peppers.
9 min read
Cooking guides
Air Fryer Cooking Times and Temperatures, Recipe by Recipe
Air fryer cooking times and temperatures from 18 Savour recipes, 180°C (350°F) to 200°C (400°F), with preheat, flip, frozen and reheat settings.
10 min read
Ingredient guides
What to Make With Pork Shoulder: 7 Recipes, Slow-Cooked or Sliced Thin
What to make with pork shoulder: 7 Savour recipes, from 35-minute ginger pork with 500 g sliced thin to slow cooker carnitas with 1.8 kg in chunks.
9 min read