Taco Stuffed Sweet Potatoes With Seasoned Ground Beef
Split baked sweet potatoes filled with seasoned ground beef built on a five spice scratch blend and loosened with chunky salsa, then loaded with taco toppings in the right order.
Servings 4 servings
Ingredients
For the Potatoes
- 4 medium sweet potatoes about 12 ounces each, scrubbed
For the Seasoned Beef
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound ground beef 90/10
- 1 yellow onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt omit if using a seasoning packet
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 cup chunky salsa
- ¼ cup water
- 1 15-ounce can black beans drained and rinsed, optional
To Finish
- 1 cup sharp cheddar shredded
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 avocado diced
- 1 tomato diced
- 2 green onions thinly sliced
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro chopped
- 1 lime cut into wedges
Instructions
Bake the Sweet Potatoes
- Heat the oven to 425F. Scrub the sweet potatoes, pierce each one four or five times with a fork, and set them on a foil lined sheet pan.
- Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until the potatoes have visibly slumped, the skins have wrinkled, and dark sticky syrup is weeping from the fork holes.
Make the Seasoned Beef
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the ground beef and diced onion together and cook 7 to 8 minutes, breaking the meat into small crumbles.
- Drain off all but about a tablespoon of the fat, then add the minced garlic and cook 30 seconds.
- Add the chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, salt and pepper. Stir in the hot pan for a full 60 seconds, until the spices smell toasted.
- Stir in the salsa, the water and the black beans if using. Simmer uncovered 5 to 7 minutes, until the liquid has cooked down and the crumble is saucy but not soupy. Taste for salt.
Split and Fill
- Cut each hot sweet potato lengthwise, most of the way through but not all the way, and squeeze the ends toward each other so the split opens.
- Fluff the exposed flesh with a fork, then spoon the hot beef into each split.
- Add the cheddar straight onto the hot beef so it melts, then the tomato, green onion and cilantro, then the avocado, and finally the sour cream right before eating. Serve with lime wedges.
Notes
- Stuffed, not twice-baked: the flesh stays in the skin, gets fluffed with a fork, and the filling sits on top. Nothing is scooped out or mashed.
- Packet substitution: one standard 1 ounce taco seasoning packet replaces the whole spice blend. Skip the added salt entirely and taste first.
- Smoked paprika matters: it is the spice most packets leave out and the one that makes the beef taste griddled.
- Bake, do not microwave: the oven concentrates the sugars. Microwaved potatoes are wetter and blander, and the filling slides around.
- The salsa has a job: acid against the sweet potato, and a loose crumble that settles into the split instead of rolling off.
- Topping order: cheese onto the hot beef first, dry toppings next, wet things like sour cream last.
- Storage: beef and potatoes in separate containers, 4 and 5 days. Reheat in a 350F oven, not the microwave.
- Freezing: the taco meat freezes 3 months and comes back well. Baked sweet potatoes do not freeze well.
- Turkey or chicken: add 2 extra teaspoons of oil, since neither has the fat to carry the spices.