A pound of ground beef sits in my fridge most weeks with no plan attached to it.
For a long stretch it turned into the same skillet dinner every time.
Beef, a jar of something, rice underneath, eaten in front of the TV.
What broke the loop was a sweet potato I'd baked for something else and never used.
I split it open, forked up the flesh, and spooned the beef straight into it.
Salty meat against that sweet orange flesh, with sharp cheddar melting into both, was better than anything I'd done with a pound of ground beef in a year.
My wife had two.
It's been on our table every other Tuesday since, and I've spent that time getting the filling right.
The beef gets a real brown crust before anything else joins it in the pan.
Tomato paste goes into the hot fat and toasts until it darkens a shade.
Then a splash of broth lifts all that browned stuff off the bottom.
That is the entire difference between a filling that tastes like seasoned meat and a filling that tastes like something you'd order.
Sharp cheddar goes on last and spends two minutes under the broiler.
The potatoes bake while you handle all of it, so you're only really working for about fifteen minutes.
Make it once and you'll stop reaching for the jar!
Why You'll Love This Recipe
This is a one skillet dinner with an oven doing the slow part for you. Nothing here needs watching, and the payoff is a filling with real browned flavor in it.
- One skillet and a sheet pan. The potatoes go in the oven, the filling happens in a single pan, and there is nothing else to wash.
- Real browning, not just seasoning. The crust on the beef, the toasted tomato paste, and the deglaze are three separate layers of savory flavor.
- Cheddar that actually melts. Two to three minutes under the broiler beats scattering cheese on hot meat and hoping.
- One pound of beef feeds four. The potato does the filling up, so a modest amount of meat stretches further than it would over rice.
- The leftovers reheat well. The filling is better on day two, which is not something I say often.
- Bake the potatoes ahead. They keep 3 days in the fridge, so a Tuesday version of this takes 20 minutes start to finish.
The Filling Is the Whole Recipe
A baked sweet potato is soft and sweet and has almost no savory character of its own. That means the filling has to carry all of it.
Put lightly seasoned ground beef on top and the plate tastes oddly like dessert with meat in it.
I've made that mistake and it is a strange thing to eat.
Three things fix it, and none of them are complicated.
- A crust on the beef. Browned meat brings bitter, roasted, savory notes that raw seasoning cannot fake.
- Toasted tomato paste. Cooked in fat until it darkens, it goes from bright and tinny to deep and almost meaty.
- Salt and acid. Worcestershire sauce and Dijon mustard are there to cut the sweetness, not to be tasted on their own.
Get those three right and the sweetness of the potato turns into an asset instead of a problem.
Skip them and you've got meat on a yam.
Ingredients You'll Need
Everything here is regular grocery store stock, and the only choice that really matters is the fat content of the beef. Buy the right ground beef and the rest is easy.
- Sweet potatoes (4 medium). Look for ones that are similar in size so they finish at the same time. About 8 to 10 ounces each is the sweet spot.
- Ground beef (1 pound, 85/15). Do NOT buy 93/7 for this. The fat is what browns the meat and what carries the spices, and lean beef goes grey and dry in the pan.
- Yellow onion (1 medium), diced. Sweeter and cheaper than a shallot, and it softens into the filling instead of standing out.
- Garlic (3 cloves), minced. Goes in with the onion, near the end, so it never catches and turns bitter.
- Tomato paste (1 tablespoon). The most important tablespoon in the recipe. It gets toasted, not stirred in cold.
- Smoked paprika (1 teaspoon). Smoke is the flavor that reads as "there must be bacon in this" when there is no bacon in this.
- Chili powder (1 teaspoon). Warmth and color, not heat. This is not a taco filling.
- Onion powder (½ teaspoon). Rounds out the fresh onion. Small thing, real difference.
- Worcestershire sauce (1 teaspoon). Salt, tang and funk in one bottle. You will not taste it as itself.
- Dijon mustard (1 teaspoon). Quiet acidity that keeps the whole thing from reading sweet.
- Beef broth (⅓ cup). For deglazing. Chicken broth works if that's what you have open.
- Sharp cheddar (1 cup), grated off the block. Pre shredded cheese is coated in starch and melts into a grainy mess. Grate your own, it takes ninety seconds.
- Green onions (3), thinly sliced. On at the end for a little fresh bite against all that richness.
- Olive oil and kosher salt. For rubbing the potato skins before they bake.
How to Bake the Sweet Potatoes
This part is genuinely simple and I am not going to pad it out. Scrub the potatoes, dry them, and prick each one four or five times with a fork so steam has somewhere to go.
Rub them all over with olive oil and a good pinch of kosher salt.
Set them straight on the oven rack at 400°F with a sheet pan on the shelf underneath to catch drips.
They need 45 to 55 minutes, depending on thickness.
The test is a thin knife or a skewer sliding into the middle with zero resistance, and a little syrup bubbling out of the pricks.
Bake them ahead if you want. Cooled and refrigerated they keep 3 days, and 15 minutes in a 375°F oven brings them right back.
How to Make the Beef and Cheddar Filling
Everything below happens in one skillet while the potatoes are in the oven. Start it about 20 minutes before the potatoes are due to come out.
Step 1: Get the Skillet Properly Hot
A 12 inch heavy skillet over medium-high heat, empty, for a full 2 minutes.
You want it hot enough that a drop of water skitters instead of sitting there.
Cold pan is the number one reason ground beef steams.
Step 2: Brown the Beef in One Flat Layer
Add the beef and press it into a single flat layer that covers the pan floor, like a giant burger patty.
Then leave it alone.
4 to 5 minutes without touching it, without stirring, without checking every thirty seconds.
You'll hear it go from a quiet sizzle to a real one.
Break it up only after that, into chunks rather than fine crumbles, and cook another 3 minutes.
Season with the salt and pepper now, not at the start.
Step 3: Onion, Garlic and Toasted Tomato Paste
Push the beef to one side and add the onion to the cleared space with the rendered fat.
Cook 4 minutes until it's soft and translucent, then stir in the garlic, smoked paprika, chili powder and onion powder for 30 seconds.
Now the tomato paste.
Stir it into the hot fat and keep it moving for 60 to 90 seconds, until it goes from bright red to a deeper brick color and smells sweet rather than sharp.
That color change is the signal. Don't stop early.
Step 4: Deglaze and Reduce
Pour in the beef broth and scrape the bottom of the pan hard while it bubbles.
All those stuck brown bits are flavor, and they release in about 15 seconds of scraping.
Stir in the Worcestershire and the Dijon.
Simmer 3 to 4 minutes, until the beef looks glossy and just barely saucy.
You want it to hold its shape on a spoon, not pool like a chili.
Taste it. It should taste a little too savory on its own, because it's about to meet a sweet potato.
Step 5: Split, Fill and Broil the Cheddar
Switch the oven to broil.
Split each potato lengthwise, not all the way through, and open it like a book.
Fluff the flesh with a fork and push it toward the edges to make a trough.
Spoon the filling in, dividing it evenly across all four.
Scatter the sharp cheddar over the top and broil 2 to 3 minutes, until the cheese is melted with a few browned spots.
Watch it the whole time. Broilers go from perfect to ruined in about twenty seconds.
Finish with the green onions.
Tips for the Best Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
Most of these are about the pan, not the recipe. Ground beef is forgiving right up until it isn't.
- Skip the extra lean beef. 85/15 browns properly and stays juicy. If all you can find is 90/10, add a tablespoon of oil to the pan.
- Don't crowd the skillet. A pound of beef needs a 12 inch pan. In a 10 inch pan it stacks up, sweats, and never browns.
- Grate the cheddar yourself. Bagged shreds are dusted with anti caking starch and they melt grainy every time.
- Salt the skins. A salted skin is genuinely worth eating, and an unsalted one gets left on the plate.
- Fluff before you fill. Mashing the flesh a little with a fork lets the filling sink in instead of sliding off the top.
- Taste the filling before it goes in. It should be assertive. The potato will mellow it considerably.
Variations
The base filling takes additions well, so long as you keep it from getting wet. Anything you add with a lot of liquid needs an extra minute of simmering.
- Black beans. One can, drained and rinsed, stirred in at the deglaze stage. Stretches the filling to six potatoes.
- Chipotle in adobo. One minced pepper plus a teaspoon of the sauce, in with the tomato paste, for smoke and real heat.
- Pepper jack instead of cheddar. Milder and stringier, with a little chili warmth. My wife prefers this version.
- Pickled jalapenos. A few slices on top after the broiler. The vinegar is the point.
- A spoon of sour cream. Cold, on the hot filling, right before eating. Not traditional, extremely good.
Storage and Reheating
Store the filling and the potatoes separately and both keep beautifully. Stuffed and stored together, the potato goes soggy and the cheese turns to rubber.
- The beef filling. Airtight in the fridge for 4 days. Reheat in a skillet over medium with a splash of broth to loosen it.
- Baked sweet potatoes. 3 days in the fridge, wrapped. Reheat at 375°F for 15 minutes and the skin crisps back up.
- Freezing the filling. Cool it fully, press it flat in a zip bag, and freeze up to 3 months. Flat means it thaws in an hour.
- Reheating a fully assembled one. Oven only, 350°F for about 20 minutes, covered loosely with foil. The microwave turns the skin leathery.
- Meal prep. Four containers of filling and four baked potatoes on Sunday gives you four lunches that take 3 minutes each.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are sweet potatoes and ground beef actually good together?
Yes, and the reason is contrast rather than similarity. The potato is sweet and soft, the beef is salty, browned and chewy, and each one makes the other taste stronger. It's the same logic as bacon with maple syrup or beef with plum sauce. The only way it goes wrong is if the beef is underseasoned, which is why there's Worcestershire and Dijon in this one.
What fat percentage of ground beef should I use?
85/15. The fat renders out and becomes the cooking medium for the onion, the spices and the tomato paste, which is a big part of the flavor. With 93/7 you get grey crumbles and you have to add oil anyway. If your beef renders more fat than you want, pour some off after browning and before the onion goes in.
Can I bake the sweet potatoes ahead of time?
Absolutely, and I usually do. Bake them, cool them completely, and refrigerate up to 3 days. Reheat at 375°F for 15 minutes before filling. You can also bake them in the morning and leave them on the counter until dinner.
Can I use ground turkey or ground chicken instead?
You can, with one adjustment. Lean poultry has almost no fat, so add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the pan first and expect less browning. I'd also bump the Worcestershire to 2 teaspoons to make up the savory difference.
Why is my filling watery?
Usually one of two things. Either the pan was too crowded so the beef released liquid and boiled instead of browning, or the broth wasn't reduced long enough. The fix for both is the same: keep it on the heat until it looks glossy and coats the meat instead of pooling around it.
Can I freeze these?
Freeze the filling, not the assembled potato. Baked sweet potato flesh goes watery and stringy after freezing, but the beef filling freezes perfectly for 3 months. Press it flat in a bag so it thaws fast.
What else can I put on top?
Sour cream, pickled jalapenos, a squeeze of lime, chopped cilantro, or hot sauce all work. I'd add them after the broiler rather than before, since most of them are there for freshness or acid and the heat kills that.
Recipe
Skillet Ground Beef and Cheddar Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients
For the Sweet Potatoes
- 4 medium sweet potatoes about 8 to 10 ounces each
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
For the Beef and Cheddar Filling
- 1 pound ground beef 85/15
- 1 medium yellow onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- ⅓ cup beef broth
To Finish
- 1 cup sharp cheddar grated off the block
- 3 green onions thinly sliced
Instructions
Bake the Sweet Potatoes
- Heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Scrub and dry the sweet potatoes and prick each one four or five times with a fork.
- Rub the potatoes all over with the olive oil and kosher salt. Set them directly on the oven rack with a sheet pan on the shelf below to catch drips.
- Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until a thin knife slides into the center with no resistance and syrup bubbles out of the fork holes.
Make the Filling
- Heat a 12 inch heavy skillet over medium-high heat for a full 2 minutes, empty, until a drop of water skitters across it.
- Add the ground beef and press it into one flat layer covering the pan floor. Leave it completely undisturbed for 4 to 5 minutes so a brown crust forms.
- Break the beef into chunks and cook 3 minutes more, then season with the salt and pepper.
- Push the beef to one side, add the onion to the cleared space and cook 4 minutes until soft. Stir in the garlic, smoked paprika, chili powder and onion powder for 30 seconds.
- Add the tomato paste and stir it constantly in the hot fat for 60 to 90 seconds, until it darkens from bright red to deep brick and smells sweet.
- Pour in the beef broth and scrape the bottom of the pan hard for about 15 seconds to release the browned bits. Stir in the Worcestershire and Dijon.
- Simmer 3 to 4 minutes until the beef is glossy and just barely saucy, holding its shape on a spoon rather than pooling. Taste and adjust the salt.
Fill and Broil
- Switch the oven to broil. Split each baked potato lengthwise without cutting all the way through and open it like a book.
- Fluff the flesh with a fork and push it toward the edges to make a trough. Divide the filling evenly among the four potatoes.
- Scatter the grated sharp cheddar over the top and broil 2 to 3 minutes, watching constantly, until the cheese is melted with a few browned spots.
- Scatter the sliced green onions over the top and serve right away.
Notes
- Use 85/15 beef: The rendered fat browns the meat and carries the spices. Extra lean beef goes grey and dry.
- Do not crowd the pan: A pound of beef needs a 12 inch skillet or it sweats instead of browning.
- Toast the tomato paste: Stop only when it has darkened to brick red. This is the biggest single flavor gain in the recipe.
- Grate your own cheddar: Bagged shreds are coated in starch and melt grainy.
- Make ahead: Baked potatoes keep 3 days, filling keeps 4 days, and the filling freezes flat for 3 months. Store them separately.
