Whenever the recipe calls for minced beef, this is how I cook it! If there’s no onion in the recipe, you don’t necessarily need to add any oil as the mince will have enough fat and it won’t stick to the pan. I tend to season my mince quite heavily, I have 5 go-to spices I use pretty much for all my mince dishes as I feel like whatever the dish is, this seasoning combo works!
YOU’LL NEED:
- 500g beef mince (12% fat)
- 1 brown onion, finely chopped
- ½ – 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 – 1.5 tsp salt
- ½ – 1 tsp black pepper
- ½ tsp white pepper
- 1 tsp mixed herbs
- ⅛ – ¼ tsp paprika
- ⅛ – ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
HOW TO COOK:
1 Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Add onions and cook on a medium-low heat for about 5 minutes.
2 Turn up the heat to medium-high and push the onions to one side. Once hot, add the mince and leave it untouched for about a minute.
3 Next, start breaking the mince with a wooden spatula. Then stir in the onions.
4 Keep breaking up and turning the mince as it cooks. Season towards the end and fry until brown. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
Notes:
- Many recipes say to take the meat in the room temperature 30 minutes before cooking as this should help the meat to cook more evenly. If you have time then you can do this, but with mince I don’t think it matters that much. If you take it out before you start chopping the onion, it won’t be ice cold by the time it hits the pan
- Beef mince cooks very quickly, in about 5 minutes. I prefer my mince less brown and “fried” as I think it gets easily dry the darker it gets. However, if you like it more “fried”, then make sure the pan is hot when you add the mince and allow the mince to develop a brown colour before breaking it up and turning. Also if you cook mince on a hotter pan, you may want to remove the onions so they don’t burn
- Note that even though I tend to use the same spices for most dishes with mince, the quantities might change a little from recipe to recipe depending what the mince is paired with and how the other ingredients are seasoned!