Description
A hearty one-skillet dinner combining ground beef, cream of mushroom soup, diced tomatoes, and rice, topped with golden melted cheese. Perfect for busy weeknight dinners.
Ingredients
Main Dish:
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 (10.75-oz) can cream of mushroom soup
- 1 (14.5-oz) can diced tomatoes with juice (don’t drain!)
- ½ cup long-grain white rice, uncooked
- ¾ cup shredded mozzarella cheese (or your favorite melting cheese)
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
Drop that hamburger in your skillet and turn the heat to medium-high. Start breaking it up with your spoon and let it sizzle. It’s gonna smell amazing and make you feel like you actually know what you’re doing. Once it’s all brown and cooked through, drain the grease off unless you want everything swimming in fat.
Open your cans and dump everything in – soup, tomatoes with all the juice, and the raw rice. Stir it up even though it looks completely wrong right now. Trust the process, as my yoga instructor would say.
Put a lid on it and turn the heat way down. Let it bubble quietly for 15 minutes while you clean up or scroll through your phone. Stir it occasionally so it doesn’t stick and burn because that smell never comes out of the pan.
Pro Tip: If it looks thick and the rice is still hard, add some water. If it’s soupy when the rice is done, take the lid off and let it cook down. This isn’t rocket science.
Turn your broiler on while the rice finishes up. If your pan can’t go in the oven without melting, transfer everything to a regular baking dish now. I learned this the hard way with my favorite non-stick pan.
Dump that cheese all over the top like your life depends on it. Don’t be shy about it – this is the moment that transforms boring rice into something your kids will actually eat.
Stick it under the broiler for 2-3 minutes max. Stay in the kitchen and watch it like a hawk because broilers are evil and will burn your dinner while you’re answering one text message. I’m speaking from experience here.
Taste it and add salt and pepper if it needs it. Then serve it up while it’s still bubbling because that’s when it looks most impressive and everyone thinks you’re a cooking genius.
Notes
Buy 80/20 ground beef because the fat makes it taste like actual food instead of cardboard. If you’re on a health kick, 90/10 is fine but don’t blame me when it’s boring. Get a big enough skillet because this stuff expands like those foam dinosaurs you put in water – I’ve had it overflow onto my stovetop more than once.
Right before you add the cheese, stir in a small chunk of butter. This is the kind of tip your grandmother would have told you if she wasn’t too busy being modest about her cooking secrets. Let it sit for a few minutes after broiling so the cheese doesn’t slide off when you try to serve it like some kind of dairy landslide.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Skillet/Broil
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cup
- Calories: 385
- Sugar: 6g
- Sodium: 890mg
- Fat: 18g
- Saturated Fat: 8g
- Unsaturated Fat: 8g
- Trans Fat: 1g
- Carbohydrates: 28g
- Fiber: 2g
- Protein: 26g
- Cholesterol: 75mg