Loaded Beef and Potato Skillet
Hello! I love one pan meals because that means less dishes. Last night I made this recipe for dinner and y’all it’s amazing. It takes awhile to cook, about 40 minutes in the oven, but it is worth it. It’s a pretty straightforward recipe, but let’s walk through it together.
This skillet has potatoes, ground beef, cheddar cheese, onions and bacon. It’s kind of “potatoes au gratin-ish”. This is comfort food at it’s best.
I recommend starting by slicing your potatoes. I used russets, but whatever potato you prefer should work fine. I sliced mine pretty thin on my mandoline, it was set at about 6mm. I would slice your potatoes about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.
I fried my bacon next. I cut mine into small pieces, about 1/2 to 1 inch big, before cooking it. That’s just my personal preference. If you’d rather fry it in whole slices and break it up later, that’s fine!
After the bacon is fried you are going to remove it from the skillet and brown your ground beef in the bacon grease. When the beef begins to brown, that’s when you want to add your seasoning and onion. Cook it until the onion is soft.
Next, you are going layer the potatoes on the bottom of the skillet. I do this by moving the beef and onions to one side and layering one side, then covering those with the beef and doing the other side. Then spread the beef evenly across the potatoes. When placing the potatoes in the skillet you just want a single layer of potatoes. I overlapped my potatoes just slightly.
After the beef is evenly spread out you’ll do another single layer of potatoes on top of it.
Now you will add the milk and the cheese to the skillet and put it in the oven. You want to cook it until there is not much liquid left and your cheese is browning on the edges.
Top it off with the bacon and a little parsley and it’s ready to serve.
A few things to note:
I used a 12 inch cast iron skillet. Any deep, oven safe skillet should be fine, however this may affect the cooking time slightly. Cast iron retains it’s heat and cooks evenly. With my cast iron I cooked it for 45 minutes, but next time I think 40 will be sufficient.
If you use a smaller skillet or don’t have an oven-safe skillet, cook the bacon and beef on the stovetop before transferring everything to a baking dish.
If you use ground beef with a lot of fat, or even use a milk with more fat, it will cause you to have more liquid in the pan after cooking. I use 93% lean ground beef and I used 2% milk and mine was fine. If you want, I’d suggest tipping the pan slightly after cooking and absorbing excess liquid with a paper towel.
Just keep an eye on it while it cooks. I’d suggest you start checking it after about 35 to 40 minutes of cooking.
Ok. Here’s what you’ll need:
1 lb lean ground beef
4 – 5 medium sized potatoes (peeled and thinly sliced)
8 – 10 slices of bacon
1 medium sized onion (diced)
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
2 cups milk (I used 2%)
1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese (shredded)
1 TBSP dry mustard
1 TBSP smoked paprika
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
Ok. Let’s do this!
Preheat oven to 400°
Cook bacon in a 12 inch cast iron or other oven safe skillet over medium high heat. Remove bacon and place on paper towels to drain.
Brown your ground beef in the bacon grease over medium high heat.
As beef begins to brown, add onion, Worcestershire sauce and other seasonings. Stir to combine.
When beef is no longer pink and onion is soft, turn off the heat. Push beef and onion mixture to one side of skillet.
Place a single layer of potatoes, slightly overlapping, on the bottom of the skillet. Move beef and onion mixture on top of those potatoes and continue to lay potatoes on the bottom of the other side of the skillet, then spread beef and onion mixture evenly across the potatoes.
Place another layer of potatoes, slightly overlapping, on top of the beef and onion mixture.
Add the milk to the skillet and top with cheddar cheese.
Place skillet in oven and bake for 40 – 50 minutes until very little liquid remains and cheese begins to bubble and brown along the edges.
Top with crumbled bacon and parsley.
I hope you enjoy this skillet meal as much as we did!
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Loaded Beef and Potato Skillet
Ingredients
- 1 lb lean ground beef
- 4 – 5 medium sized potatoes peeled and thinly sliced
- 8 – 10 slices of bacon
- 1 medium sized onion diced
- 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
- 2 cups milk I used 2%
- 1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese shredded
- 1 TBSP dry mustard
- 1 TBSP smoked paprika
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°
- Cook bacon in a 12 inch cast iron or other oven safe skillet over medium high heat. Remove bacon and place on paper towels to drain.
- Brown your ground beef in the bacon grease over medium high heat.
- As beef begins to brown, add onion, Worcestershire sauce and other seasonings. Stir to combine.
- When beef is no longer pink and onion is soft, turn off the heat. Push beef and onion mixture to one side of skillet.
- Place a single layer of potatoes, slightly overlapping, on the bottom of the skillet. Move beef and onion mixture on top of those potatoes and continue to lay potatoes on the bottom of the other side of the skillet, then spread beef and onion mixture evenly across the potatoes.
- Place another layer of potatoes, slightly overlapping, on top of the beef and onion mixture.
- Add the milk to the skillet and top with cheddar cheese.
- Place skillet in oven and bake for 40 – 50 minutes until very little liquid remains and cheese begins to bubble and brown along the edges.
- Top with crumbled bacon and parsley.