Whenever I make tacos or any other dish that requires ground beef, no matter how much I try to break it up with a spatula while it browns, I never seem to get as fine a texture as you see at restaurants or places like Taco Bell. What’s the trick?
Cook it to dryness. Stir regularly to break apart clumps. But I have found that if you add a little beer or broth to the meat, then cook it all off, the meat ends up very fine and very uniform. Perfect for a loose-meat sandwich or a fall-apart taco.
On some “food joint” type show I saw, they showed a shop that had a hot dog chili-sauce that had exactly that fine grain that I think you’re looking for.
The big difference was that they mixed the meat with water, and stirred constantly while cooking. They didn’t brown it, they boiled it. The “broth” became the base of the chili after they added the spices, tomatoes, and other ingredients.
For tacos and other “sauced meats”, this method would work just fine, as you’re going to add water to the process at some point anyway.
A woman I used to know would put her cooked ground beef through the food processor to get it as smooth as Taco Bell meat. I never understood the appeal; I want my homemade gringo taco meat to taste chunky and meaty.
Thanks for the tips. I’ll have to try cooking it in a liquid. Especially for when I make beef enchiladas where I think big chunks of beef kind of detract from the texture.
Ooh, I forgot. When I make real ragu Bolognese, I want it very fine-textured, too. After I fry off the meat and add the liquid (wine and tomatoes), I use a potato masher to squash out all the lumps as the meat is starting to cook in the liquid. The end result is surprisingly fine and thin - all the better for helping the meat in the sauce to cling to the tagliatelle.
I used one of these things from Pampered Chef to chop my meat while I brown it. It comes out very fine.
Whatever it is your making, if you want it fine, you just need to cook it on a low to medium simmer, a bit longer than you would generally.
It’s a bit hard to give specific direction here, as I have nothing of quantity to reference, but as a very basic rule if thumb, triple your stock/sauce or whatever cooking juice is involved, and triple your cooking times.
Break it up as usual initially… the cooking process itself will break down the meat.
If it starts sticking add liquid (stock/water or whatever your using) to keep it fluid enough to move around easily in the pot, but don’t flood it.
(Still, you do have to stir it occasionally)
Hope this helps 
Agreed–keep it simmering in water, adding additional water as it cooks off. I’ve also put my spaghetti sauce (with sausage and ground beef) through a few pulses in a food processer after it’s been cooked.
If you are going to add liquid, use an immersion blender. I use it to make my meat sauce an even consistancy.
Brown the beef about 90% of the way and then add a small amount of liquid (broth, water, or a sauce), and use the flat end of the spatula pressing down & back and forth against the pan to break apart - if the meat dries out before it is fine enough add more liquid.
I saw this technique on TV used to make a ground beef curry stuffing for something… I can’t remember the show.
I cooked my ground beef in water and taco seasoning last night to use on top of nachos and it turned out nice and fine-grained. I’m sure I could’ve given it an additional flavor boost if I had used stock or broth but I didn’t have extra. Thanks again!
I warm it up very, very slowly and as it gets to room temp and warmer mash it around with a spatula.