One skillet ground beef and wild rice with onion, garlic, bell pepper and rainbow chard is a quick and easy one-pot meal that results in a lovely well-balanced dinner.
When it comes to cooking dinner at home, I generally aim for three things:
1.) Affordability – I like to keep it inexpensive…no need for pretention in my household!
2.) Nutrient-Dense – I go for balanced meals that contain all three macros – protein, fat, and carbs. Bonus points for fiber, vitamins and minerals! I find that meals that hit all three are very satisfying
3.) Quick to Prepare – While I love cooking, I don’t typically want to spend a huge chunk of time on cooking, so I try to keep it around 30 minutes, or at the very most, 1 hour.
My skillet recipes fit all three criteria, and this ground beef and wild rice recipe is no exception!
Onion, garlic, bell pepper, ground beef, wild rice, broth, and rainbow chard is all we need to make this beauty happen! The combination of flavors is fresh and the meal itself is super satisfying! You can serve it up with a side salad or roasted veggies if you’re looking for even more vegetable power!
Let’s make it, shall we?
How to Make Ground Beef & Wild Rice Skillet:
Heat the avocado oil to medium-high in a cast iron skillet. Add the onion and saute, stirring occasionally until softened, about 5 minutes.
Move onions off to the side and add the hunk of ground beef. Sear the beef for 2 to 3 minutes per side before breaking it up into smaller pieces with a spatula.
Add the garlic, bell pepper, herbs, rice, and broth and bring to a full boil. Reduce the heat, cover the skillet, and cook at a gentle simmer for 40 minutes, or until much of the liquid has absorbed.
Add the chopped rainbow chard, replace the cover and cook until chard has wilted, about 3 minutes. Stir well and serve!
How to Make this Low-Carb/Keto/Paleo:
If you’re eating grain-free, you can skip the whole process of adding rice and broth – simply cook until the beef is cooked through and rainbow chard has wilted, and you’re good to go!
Recipe Adaptations:
- For grain-free, omit the rice and broth and simply cook until beef is cooked through.
- Swap the onion and bell pepper for any of your favorite vegetables. Broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potato, and butternut squash would be amazing
- You can use spinach or kale instead of rainbow chard
- Omit the onion and garlic and replace with 1 tbsp ground ginger to make low-FODMAP
Serving Suggestions:
While this recipe can absolutely be consumed on its own as a complete meal, here are some dishes that I believe will go well alongside it:
One skillet recipes for life!
One-Skillet Ground Beef and Wild Rice
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp avocado oil
- 1/2 medium red onion chopped
- 1 lb grass-fed ground beef
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 small red bell pepper cored and chopped
- 1 tsp sea salt to taste
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp ground paprika
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 2/3 cup wild rice
- 1 1/2 cups beef broth or chicken broth
- 1 small bunch rainbow chard chopped
Instructions
- Heat the avocado oil to medium-high in a cast iron skillet. Add the onion and saute, stirring occasionally until softened, about 5 minutes.
- Move onions off to the side and add the hunk of ground beef. Sear the beef for 2 to 3 minutes per side before breaking it up into smaller pieces with a spatula.
- Add the remaining ingredients except for the rainbow chard and bring to a full boil. Reduce the heat, cover the skillet, and cook at a gentle simmer for 40 minutes, or until much of the liquid has absorbed.
- Add the chopped rainbow chard, replace the cover and cook until chard has wilted, about 3 minutes. Stir well and serve!
This is good but unless you’re on a keto diet it’s not a “meal”. I thought bc it had rice it would be kind of like jambalaya but there’s really not much rice and it’s more like a skillet of ground beef with a little rice mixed in. So it needs something to accompany it – maybe a side of veggies or even add more rice or some kind of bread to scoop it over. You could also scoop it into romaine or butter lettuce or some other big leafy green for a yummy wrap 😋
Thanks so much for sharing your experience, Dionne! I think you give great advice! Most individuals will likely want a little something extra to go with the meal 🙂
This sounds amazing. I’m just wondering for a St.Patricks Day event,if I could make this dish with corned beef instead
Hi Sheri! I’m betting the recipe would work with leftover cooked corned beef. If it were me, I would cook the rice separately, sauté onion, garlic, and bell pepper in a skillet, then I’d add some chopped corned beef and mix it all together 🙂
I’m having the same problem as others. My pan has been simmering for over 50mins now and the rice is still not cooked. I’ve had to keep adding broth as the broth has evaporated but the rice is not cooked.
I had to use what i had on hand. For substitutions I used olive oil, green pepper, dried minced onion, and dried smoked chopped garlic salt, concentrated beef base, as well as a can of spinach. I also cooked the wild rice separate with the beef base, only because my husband wanted it that way. When all was done we mixed it together, it was very good! 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing, Theresa! This is super helpful to others who may want to try the same changes. I appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback! xo
Yikes – just made this and didn’t know it was COOKED wild rice.
Hi Jen – it’s not. You use uncooked wild rice and cook it into the meat with the broth 🙂
@Julia,
I cooked it with raw rice. It was delicious!
I’m so happy to hear it!
One of my favs by far
You might want to clarify that the wild rice should be cooked prior to adding with the rest of the ingredients. I assumed that the cook time would be enough to soften rice….it wasn’t. Otherwise, the taste was fine.
@Deb, i agree. The wild rice did not cook.