This hearty Italian Beef and Rice Skillet is made in less than 30 minutes and perfect for your busy weeknight!
My family LOVED this Italian Beef and Rice Skillet! I basically took the same idea as my Mexican Beef and Rice Skillet and switched up the flavor profiles for another unique and delicious dinner.
I wasn’t necessarily going for an “Italian” flavor profile when I set out to switch up this dish, but when I started playing around with different liquids and veggies to add, it all just fell into place.
If you didn’t want to use rice in this dish, you could totally swap it out for a smaller pasta. I just loved making rice skillets because my kids are huge fans of rice and it’s fairly cheap to make.
Ground Beef and Rice Skillet Variations:
- Feel free to swap out the rice for a smaller pasta
- Use your favorite type of veggies in place of the peas and carrots – green beans, broccoli or zucchini would be nice!
- For a saucier dish, try adding in 1/2 cup tomato sauce
- Use a combination of mozzarella and parmesan cheese to top the skillet for an extra cheesy dish!
One of my favorite things about this dish is that I pretty much have all these ingredients on hand at any time.
I always keep ground beef in the freezer as well as a frozen veggie mix. We always have canned tomatoes and beef broth (you could use beef bouillon and water in place of the broth), and of course always have rice on hand too. So really, this is an easy dinner that I can whip up when I am in a pinch and need a quick dinner that I know my kids will love.
Not only is this dish super easy to make, but my kids absolutely LOVED it! We served it with garlic bread and a spinach side salad.
Yes, even my kids like spinach salads… I’m lucky like that.
Italian Beef and Rice Skillet
I know you’re going to love this quick and easy ground beef recipe too!
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Italian Beef and Rice Skillet
Ingredients
- 1/2 onion, diced
- 1 lb. ground beef
- 15 oz diced tomatoes, canned
- 1 1/2 cups mixed veggies, peas and carrots
- 3/4 cup white rice
- 2 cups beef broth
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp garlic salt
- 1/2 tsp dried basil
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Brown the ground beef and onion in a large skillet until no longer pink, drain any excess fat.
- Return skillet to stove top and add in the tomatoes, mixed veggies, rice, beef broth, oregano, garlic salt, basil and pepper. Stir until combined and bring to a light boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover and let cook until rice is tender (about 17 minutes).
- Fluff rice with fork and top with the mozzarella cheese. Cover with the lid for about 3 minutes to let cheese melt. Sprinkle with parsley if desired. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
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Wow amazing dish this is a wonderful
Glad you enjoyed it!
How well do you think basmati or brown rice will work in this recipe?
Basmati rice and brown rice would work, just make sure to reduce the beef broth to 1 1/2 cups and you’ll need to cook it a little longer until the rice is tender.
I have instant rice can I just use that ?
Hi Judy, adding instant rice requires a few different steps for this recipe. The ratio of instant rice to water is 1:1, whereas the jasmine rice takes 1:2. In this case, you’ll want to use more like 2 cups of instant rice and adjust the beef broth to about 2 1/4 cups, so the mixture is not too dry. Hope this helps!
What,if anything,do you make to go with this?
We just had salad.
You can pair it with garlic bread and a salad! YUM!
do you cover when cooking the rice?
Hi AMG, yes, you’ll want to cover the pan when cooking the rice. Hope you enjoy the recipe!
Sorry. i did reread and covered. The family loved it. I doubled the beef and increased rice to one cup as our small tomato cans are 18 oz in Canada. My 6 yr old and 2 yr old twins devoured it.
Fantastic!! So glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Yum!!
Hi Katrina, I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe!
If you use cauliflower rice, should you use frozen or cooked? And at what point should you add it to the skillet? Thank you!
If you are using cauliflower rice, substitute the same amount frozen cauliflower rice for the regular rice. Add to the skillet at the same time as you would regular rice. Add only 1/2 c. broth instead of 2 c. and simmer uncovered for the same amount of time. Hope this helps!
I added green pepper, red and orange pepper. It is very tasty and easy to make. Thanks for sharing.
That’s great! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Made this tonight for dinner…..came out great
Great! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Can this be cooked in the Slow cooker?thanks x
I don’t think this would work well in the slow cooker.
Do you have to pre cook the rice?
No, you don’t have to pre cook the rice.
Never have diced tomatoes in the pantry. Can I leave out and add more liquid? Or use a measure of pasta sauce?
You could try using fresh tomatoes, diced or tomato sauce. Hope this helps!
So you had the uncooked rice in with the veggies and simmer for 17minutes?
Thank you for the great recipe. I’m always on the lookout for something easy and tasty with a pound of ground beef and ingredients that are always in the pantry. This one goes in my “Favorites” binder.
The last fresh leafy item is fresh parsley, correct? I am asking as its not included in the recipe.
You can garnish it with chopped fresh parsley. Hope this helps!
Just wondering if it is instant rice or regular rice?
I used regular rice.
I used regular rice.
Do you drain the tomatoes?
No need to drain the tomatoes. The liquid helps cook the rice.
This is my favorite recipe! I’ve made it several times, and it is always perfect. Just the right blend of ingredients, not too much tomato.
That’s awesome! So glad you’re enjoying it Belle!
Haven’t made this yet, but am looking forward to trying it. Can I substitute quinoa for the rice?
You can definitely substitute quinoa for the rice!
Do you have the nutrition facts for this recipe?
Hi Whitney, I just updated the post with the nutritional info! Thanks!
I made this tonight, and we all liked it. This is the 4th/5th recipe of yours that I’ve made, and they have all been good. We also like the tater tot skillet. Thanks for the easy and yummy recipes.
Can you freeze this.
Can you substitute cauliflower rice for this recipe?
Would brown rice work in this dish? If so, what would the cooking time be?
could i substitute chicken broth instead of beef?
NICE RECIPE’S
Thanks William!
If you do choose to use a pasta like orzo for example, would you cook the pasta separately and then mix it into the dish? Or just toss it in altogether from the beginning?
The great thing about this recipe is that you can just toss the orzo in (uncooked) with the rest of the ingredients. The extra liquid that is used to cook the rice should be plenty to cook the pasta too. 🙂
Sound delicious, will definitely give this one a try.
Had this tonight and it was wonderful! I skipped the peas and carrots, using both zucchini and yellow squash instead. Even my lucky teen loved it! I think I want to go the broth and try it as a soup, too.
Haha – picky teen (although she is lucky)
I’m glad to hear you and your teen enjoyed it!
1/2 Teaspoon sugar
Deeelish!!!!
Does pasta really go in this recipe?
I want to make this for my boyfriend since it doesn’t include any special spices and he’s quite the picky one this one
The recipe calls for rice, but you can substitute pasta for rice if you want.
Can I use steak instead of ground beef?
This would be a great filling for stuffed peppers!
I’m going to try this tonight! I don’t have Italian diced tomatoes only plain ones. Can I use these instead and maybe add Italian seasoning also? If so how much seasoning?
Yes! You can use regular diced tomatoes with Italian Seasoning. I would start with 1 tsp seasoning and add more to taste. Enjoy!
What kind off white rice?
I use a Jasmine rice.
Your bread looks amazing! Did you just spread melted butter and sprinkle on the spices? It looks so yellow I thought maybe there was cheese on it.
I am guessing you used a rice other than Mnute Rice, is this right? Any special kind?
I cooked this. Tastes great…
My family enjoyed this. It is very filling and inexpensive. After the first round, we added sharp cheddar to give it a little umph!
This looks great! I am going to try it tonight. Does it really only take 17 min to cook the rice? Whenever I cook rice, it takes foreveeeer for some reason!
I remember this happening to me when I first started cooking rice. For basic white rice, first bring 2 c water and 1 c rice w/ some salt to a boil, then cover and turn to low for 15-20 min. I was forgetting the bring to a boil step before starting my timer, so it did take forever. Brown rice takes 40-60 minutes, so that’s different. Good luck!
Thanks for the tip Meghan! 🙂
I use minute rice about a cup of broth and rice .cook like box said. Cover 5 minutes off stove covered. Residual heat cooks rice. After cooking other ingredients minus broth stir in cooked rice or pasta mix together and add cheese. I add about 1/2 Sugar and small can of tomato sauce. I start the rice first. Delicious.
1/2 Teaspoon sugar
I wondered if you could cook it in the oven instead?
Time, temp?
I would keep this one on the stove top.
How about including nutritional information? Iam working ion a lowfat/lowchloresterol diet
There are websites and apps that can help you calculate this info based on the ingredients you use (lean ground beef, low fat mozzarella). My Fitness Pal is one of my favorites.