90 Ground Beef Recipes Everyone Will Love

Ground beef is one of those things most of us tend to have in the freezer — maybe we've even got one of those great, big multi-pound logs if we succumbed to the temptation of the budget buy. The problem with ground beef is, sometimes it's pretty hard to come up with new ways to use it. Sure, there are always burgers, and tacos are great too. Spaghetti bolognese (which is the fancy way of saying spaghetti with meat sauce) works as well, but after that, the ideas kind of start drying up a bit.

Well, ground beef is a lot more versatile than you'd think. What's more, it cooks pretty quickly, so it's the basis for a wide range of meals you can whip up in a hurry. If you're more into slow food, though, ground beef also plays a role in long-simmered soups, chilis, and casseroles. The best thing about ground beef is, no matter what other ingredients you've got on hand, as long as you have a package of hamburger meat, you should be able to come up with a tasty meal without much effort. Here are some of our favorite ground beef recipes to get you started. There's enough here for a few months' worth of meals without ever having to repeat your menu.

Porcupine meatballs might sound a bit weird, but the ingredient list for this old-timey favorite doesn't include any prickly beasts. The meatballs are made with ground beef, of course, and the "prickles" come from the rice that's mixed into the meat to stretch it out and make the meal budget-friendly as befits its Depression-era origins. The meatballs are then simmered in tomato sauce, and the best part of this dinner is, you don't even have to cook the rice since the sauce does that part of the job for you!

Recipe: Budget-Friendly Porcupine Meatballs 

This rootin' tootin' cowboy stew takes your typical chili ingredients — ground beef, tomatoes, chiles, beans — and then adds an interesting twist by including sliced kielbasa. The prep time involved is pretty minimal, only requiring as much time as it takes to chop an onion and open a few cans, and then all of the cooking is done in your handy-dandy Instant Pot. By using a pressure cooker, you get a stew that tastes like it's been simmering on the range all day, but can actually be on the table in under half an hour.

Recipe: Instant Pot Cowboy Stew With Ranch Style Beans

Mmm, tacos ... plus pie? How does that work? Quite well, actually, kind of like a beef pot pie with a southwestern flair. This taco pie starts with a pre-baked pie shell, and the filling consists of spicy ground beef with all the taco fixings — scallions, tomatoes, salsa, sour cream, and cilantro — stirred right in. There's no top crust on the pie, since you finish things off with a layer of melted cheddar. (There's a hidden cheesy layer underneath the pie filling, as well!). The pie takes just 15 minutes to bake because you cook the ground beef ahead of time. Once the taco pie comes out of the oven, you can add to the deliciousness by topping it with extra salsa, sour cream, or scallions, plus maybe a few pickled jalapeños to add some extra heat.

Recipe: Easy Baked Taco Pie That Tastes Even Better Than It Looks 

While we usually think of meatballs as an Italian dish, something that's served atop a plate of spaghetti, or perhaps a Swedish specialty we enjoy at IKEA, meatballs don't deserve to be pigeonholed like that. Why not spice them up with southwestern flavorings? To make things even better, these meatballs are cooked in a sauce made from melted cheese and Ro-Tel, making for a chunkier, meatier version of the classic Ro-Tel dip. Like the dip, these Tex-Mex meatballs pair well with a side of tortilla chips, though you can also serve them over rice for a tasty main dish.

Recipe: Slow Cooker Tex-Mex Meatballs Perfect for Potlucks

While there's no bad burger but a burnt one, it helps to have at least one real "wow!" burger recipe in your repertoire, and this blue cheese burger recipe certainly fills the bill. These drool-worthy burgers are cooked on the grill, then topped with a heaping helping of melty, cheesy goodness. As a crowning touch, they're finished off with blue cheese's best friend: a Buffalo-style sauce made with Frank's RedHot Sauce. 

Recipe: Blue Cheese Burger With a Saucy Kick

You know what they say, you can never be too rich or too cheesy, and this goes double for food. Butter may make everything better, but cheese just makes things wonderful. This taco skillet just couldn't be much simpler to toss together: all you need is a can of corn, a can of black beans, a can of diced tomatoes, a pound of ground beef, and some spices, plus, of course, a few generous handfuls of cheese, glorious cheese! Spoon this taco skillet over a bed of rice, scoop it up with chips, or wrap it in a tortilla. Any way you serve it, it's bound to have you coming back for more.

Recipe: 20-Minute Cheesy Taco Skillet That'll Satisfy Your Mexican Food Craving 

While Italian wedding soup may sound like the most romantic of dishes, it actually has nothing to do with weddings but instead owes its name to a mistranslation. Nevertheless, this Neapolitan dish represents the perfect "marriage" of meatballs with greens, grains, and other veggies. (It's kind of an open marriage.) As you cook it in the Instant Pot, the pressure cooker function means it's done in just a few minutes, all the while retaining that slow-simmered taste that will make it seem like you spent a lot more time in the kitchen.

Recipe: Instant Pot Italian Wedding Soup for Busy Nights 

If there's one Italian-American dish that everybody knows and loves, that would be spaghetti and meatballs. Even Lady and the Tramp shared a plate during their doggie dinner à deux. While these meatballs may not turn your meal into a classic movie scene, they're certainly going to elevate any spaghetti dinner into something memorable. These meatballs are made with chopped fresh parsley and garlic, along with a sprinkling of parmesan, and they go together in just minutes before simmering to perfection in a pot of marinara sauce.

Recipe: The Best Homemade Italian Meatballs for Pasta Night 

While cabbage is super-healthy, not to mention incredibly cheap, it's also kind of blah on its own. With a tasty, meaty stuffing, however, cabbage goes from dull to delicious. These slow cooker cabbage rolls are a new twist on an old Eastern European comfort food. While these rolls are still filled with a hearty mixture of rice and beef and simmered in a slightly sweet tomato sauce, you cook them using the wonders of modern(ish) technology so the slow cooker saves you hours of standing over a hot stove.

Recipe: Slow Cooker Cabbage Rolls That Are a Breeze

Tacos are one of everybody's favorite foods whether or not it's Tuesday. Sometimes, though, you just don't feel like going through all of the fuss and mess of assembling each individual taco. How about a one-pot meal that takes tacos out of their shells and turns them into a delicious, hearty soup? This recipe couldn't be much simpler, requiring only 10 minutes prep time followed by another 10 minutes of cooking in an Instant Pot, and voilà! Dinner for six is served. Not expecting to set five more places at your table? No worries, just pop the leftovers in the fridge and enjoy them for lunch tomorrow.

Recipe: Easy Instant Pot Taco Soup 

If meatloaf sounds like the kind of uninspired dish you throw together when you're completely out of ideas — and hamburger buns — well, that's just because you've yet to run across that just-right meatloaf recipe. This bacon-wrapped meatloaf transcends the mundane simply by being encased in a bacon lattice, but then it takes things to the next level by including cheesy chunks mixed into the meat. As if that wasn't enough, you don't bake this meatloaf in the oven, you smoke it over a barbecue! While this recipe does take a lot more effort than plain old ordinary meatloaf, one taste and you'll know it was worth all the extra work.

Recipe: Bacon-Wrapped Meatloaf That Meat Lovers Will Rejoice Over

While chili means many things to many people, chili con carne is a dish that absolutely has to include meat since otherwise it would be "chile sin carne." The carne component in this easy-to-prep recipe is, of course, ground beef, which is cooked with all the usual suspects: onions, kidney beans, and tomatoes, plus a whole host of seasonings ranging from fresh garlic to powdered paprika, cumin, black pepper, and chili powder. This is another dish in which you can let your slow cooker do all the heavy lifting, then simply serve up the chili over rice, chips, baked potatoes, or hot dogs once it's done.

Recipe: Chili Con Carne That Will Spice Up Taco Tuesday

While school cafeterias and frozen TV dinners did their best to kill off anyone's urge to eat Salisbury steak, Bobby Flay almost single-handedly rescued this dish from this ignominious fate. He flavored his meat patties with spices and parmesan cheese and served them with a tasty onion and mushroom gravy.

Our recipe, dare we say it, takes all Flay's improvements and goes one better, adding the twist of shaping the Salisbury steaks into meatballs, instead. Not only are these bite-sized "steaks" much more fun to eat, but they also cook quickly, too, making this a meal you can have on the table in only half an hour.

Recipe: Bobby Flay's Salisbury Steak With a Twist

Who doesn't love Taco Bell? That mission bell in their logo might as well be Pavlov's bell since we're all trained to start drooling as soon as we see it. If you're trying to cut down on the amount of fast food you eat, though, you can make even better versions of your Taco Bell favorites at home.

While this recipe doesn't duplicate any one specific menu item, it instead allows you to duplicate the flavor of that spicy beef filling Taco Bell uses in so many of its creations. In addition to the spice blend, this beef is extra tender and juicy because of a secret ingredient you're not going to believe: ground oats! While the oats do not affect the flavor or texture of the ground beef they help it retain moisture so it doesn't dry out when cooked.

Recipe: Copycat Taco Bell Beef That's Better Than the Real Thing 

Italian rice balls, aka arancini, are one of the best-loved Sicilian dishes. If you're not familiar with the recipes, "rice balls" might seem like something that would be very bland and boring, but these are anything but. For one thing, the rice may be mixed with cheese and meat and marinara sauce. What really makes rice balls so delicious, though, is the fact that they're traditionally deep-fried, a cooking technique that could turn cardboard into a tasty treat. 

With this Italian rice ball casserole, we're keeping all the classic rice ball ingredients but layering them in a baking pan rather than frying them. The dish does retain its signature crunch, however, thanks to a topping of butter-browned breadcrumbs.

Recipe: Italian Rice Ball Casserole That's a Tasty Twist on a Classic

If you're anything like Garfield the cat, you hold a special place in your heart for lasagna. While lasagna may be Italy's finest contribution to the comfort food genre, the problem with this dish is that many recipes tend to be somewhat fussy and complicated. If your idea of comfort food is something you can dig into without putting in a huge amount of effort, you're going to love this one-pan lasagna recipe.

The time-saving secret that makes this lasagna so effort-free is this genius hack: We break up the lasagna noodles and cook them in the meat sauce! Even the ricotta cheese gets stirred right into the pot, so there's no need for layering or baking.

Recipe: One-Pan Lasagna That Fulfills Comfort Food Cravings

Okay, so a "quesarito" isn't an authentic Mexican dish, or even a word. It is, instead, a mashup of "quesadilla" and "burrito" dreamed up by somebody in the Taco Bell test kitchens. Pretty cheesy, all right, but then, it's Taco Bell, where you can never have too much cheese (or queso). If you want to try your hand at a DIY quesarito, this copycat recipe calls for a few extra DIY ingredients (the beef and the quesadilla sauce), although you can always just substitute store-bought taco seasoning and sauce.

Recipe: Copycat Taco Bell Quesarito

Giada De Laurentiis is known for her Italian recipes, although these don't always resemble the more familiar Italian-American versions we've come to know. One such dish is her lasagna, which is made with béchamel sauce and spinach and even topped off with butter for a dish that's oh-so-rich and ever so slightly decadent.

While Giada, of course, makes her own meat sauce, our simplified recipe adds ground beef and sausage meat to spaghetti sauce from a jar, instead. If you have a nonna who wouldn't approve of such a thing, you can always use your own homemade marinara.

Recipe: Giada's Lasagna With a Twist You'll Want To Make Again And Again

After a long, hard day, nothing is more comforting than a nice hot bowl of soup, especially a soup that's cooked itself in the slow cooker. While some slow cooker soups can be kind of bland and boring, that's definitely not the case with this taco soup. While it's packed with healthy veggies including corn, tomatoes, and two kinds of beans (black and pinto), it gets its zesty flavor from the taco spiced-beef. Prep time for this soup is minimal, five minutes max (plus however long it takes to hunt up the can opener). After that, you just set it and forget it and let the slow cooker take over.

Recipe: Easy Slow Cooker Taco Soup Brings a New Spin to a Classic Mexican Meal

While the best part of getting pizza delivered is the excitement of having it show up at your door hot and ready, the second-best part is eating the pizza itself. If you're a fan of Domino's cheeseburger pizza, this DIY version can't recreate the thrill you feel when the doorbell rings and someone (perhaps you) shouts out, "Get the door. It's Domino's!", but our version of the pizza tastes every bit as good. It will also be hotter and fresher than any Domino's pizza could ever be since it comes straight out of your oven.

Recipe: Copycat Domino's Cheeseburger Pizza That Tastes Every Bit as Good

There are fast food burgers, there are gourmet burgers, and then there are Gordon Ramsay's burgers. Sadly, Ramsay's masterpieces are out of reach of most of us who lack the proximity to a Ramsay restaurant to find out for ourselves just how much better they are than anything you can get from a drive-thru.

You can, however, attempt to re-create one of Ramsay's magnificent burgers on your own backyard grill. Our recipe simplifies Ramsay's original one by calling for the kind of ground beef you can find in the supermarket rather than a custom blend of short rib, brisket, and chunk ground beef. We also hide the cheese inside the burgers rather than using it as a topping.

Recipe: Gordon Ramsay's Burger Recipe With a Twist

Are you a secret — or not so secret — Baconator lover? No need to be ashamed of this. Who doesn't love a heaping helping of cheesy, beefy, bacony, goodness? Fast food isn't as cheap as it used to be, though, nor is it all that fast, either, especially if you pick the wrong time to go through the drive-thru. Instead of swinging by Wendy's to satisfy your craving, why not make your own Baconator at home? The best part of our copycat Baconator recipe is, you can even customize it by upgrading the cheese (cheddar makes everything better) or adding extra bacon. Plus, you get to add all the condiments you like without having to rip open any annoying little packets!

Recipe: Delicious Copycat Wendy's Baconator

Empanadas are a food truck favorite. It may never have occurred to you, however, to try your hand at making these hand pies at home. Well, there's no reason not to try this super-simple recipe. All you need is ground beef, cheese, spices, and a few veggies, and you can use pre-made frozen piecrust to make the dough pockets. Empanadas make for a great snack, or you can pair them with rice or a vegetable dish and make a meal out of them.

Recipe: The Empanadas You'll Make Again And Again

Ordinary meatloaf might seem like the most mundane of meals, and even the Barefoot Contessa's own recipe is a fairly straightforward take on the dish. Our recipe, on the other hand, adds a twist that really takes things up more than a few notches: crushed pork rinds! Believe it or not, this gas station snack adds a powerful flavor punch to the ground beef base of your meatloaf, along with a little texture. The addition couldn't be any easier, and only adds maybe 30 seconds to the prep time, or only as long as it takes you to smash up a bag of pork rinds.

Recipe: Ina Garten's Meatloaf With a Twist

Whoever thought of making a taco shell out of Doritos was a genius, all right. Forget the Flamin' Hot Cheetos guy, the Doritos Locos movie needs to happen. If you're starting to feel a desperate need for some Doritos Locos tacos right now but you can't make it to a Taco Bell, we're here to help you out. This copycat recipe for their Nacho Cheese Doritos Locos Tacos Supreme is quick and easy and oh so (nacho) cheesy, and it's guaranteed to satisfy your Doritos Locos craving.

Recipe: Copycat Taco Bell Nacho Cheese Doritos Locos Tacos Supreme

While casseroles tend to rank pretty low on the foodie totem pole, what they lack in prestige they more than make up for in convenience. This hamburger casserole recipe is no exception. It makes use of a few convenient shortcuts such as using canned soup and refrigerated crescent roll dough, and it takes only about half an hour to put together and bake. The end product, though, is an attractive biscuit-topped pie that delivers all the flavor of a tasty cheeseburger!

Recipe: The Hamburger Casserole You Need To Try

While Texas may feel it owns the patent on chili, Cincinnati would beg to differ. If you've never eaten Cincinnati chili, it's unlike any other kind of chili you've ever tried. The creation of southeastern European immigrants, this chili makes use of unconventional spices such as cinnamon and cloves and is typically served on a bed of spaghetti noodles. Our Cincinnati chili recipe is a fairly simple version of this chili parlor classic and is something you can have on the table in just one hour, start to finish.

Recipe: Cincinnati Chili That's Perfect for Pasta

Lasagna is a delicious dish no matter how you make it, but it can be a bit messy and has a tendency to collapse on the plate. These drawbacks mean it might not be something you'd want to serve when you've got company. These lasagna roll-ups, on the other hand, retain their cute little shape right up until you stick in a fork. While you can give the roll-up treatment to any lasagna recipe you choose, our rolls provide a lighter, healthier take on this old classic by incorporating spinach and Greek yogurt along with a cheese and ground beef filling.

Recipe: Lasagna Roll-Ups Are a Spin on the Classic Dish

Goulash is a dish that originated in Hungary, and traditional Hungarian goulash is a delicious dish that takes some time and effort to put together. This American goulash, on the other hand, is a budget-friendly, easy-to-put together, macaroni-beef casserole. It's nothing fancy, but it's plenty kid-friendly, and it even contains some sneaky hidden veggies so it's pretty nutritious, to boot. For an added flavor boost, you could toss in some diced hot peppers or red pepper flakes, and be sure to serve this goulash topped with plenty of grated cheese.

Recipe: American Goulash You Can Prepare for the Family

What could be better than tacos? The only thing we can think of is maybe nachos, which are like deconstructed tacos on steroids. What about a taco/nacho mashup, though? Leave it to Taco Bell to come up with such a brilliant idea. If you're craving this dish but don't feel like leaving the house, no need to shell out for those insanely high delivery fees that could triple the cost of your fast food order. Instead, why not stuff your own DIY nacho tacos? They're just as delicious as Taco Bell's Loaded Nacho Tacos (perhaps even better!), and they're incredibly easy to throw together.

Recipe: The Best Taco Bell Loaded Nacho Taco Copycat Recipe Ever

"Albondigas" is the Spanish word for "meatball," but should you order albondigas off a restaurant menu, you're going to get so much more than just a plate of plain old meatballs. Instead, the albondigas you'll be enjoying will be swimming in a delicious, spicy soup.

The meatballs in our albondigas recipe are bulked out with rice and flavored with southwestern seasonings. They're then simmered in a veggie-packed broth to make an inexpensive, yet hearty, one-pot meal.

Recipe: Hearty Albondigas Meatball Soup

Tacos are delicious, but messy. Casseroles are easy to make and even easier to serve, although they have a reputation for being a less-than-exciting dinner option. When you make a casserole out of taco ingredients, however, you get something that's super-convenient, yet has all the flavor and fun of everyone's favorite Tuesday night meal.

Our taco casserole includes the classic taco ingredients of ground beef, cheese, salsa, and tortillas, but kicks things up with the addition of black beans and black olives. You can also, if you like, pile on the guac and sour cream and all your favorite taco toppings, and as a bonus, you won't even have to worry about them falling out of the shell when you take the first bite!

Recipe: Mouthwatering Taco Casserole

TikTok recipe hacks can be, well, a bit dubious, but there are a few decent ones out there. This tortilla wrap recipe à la TikTok is one of the good ones. It's kind of like a Taco Bell Crunchwrap Supreme, involving as it does crunchy corn chips wrapped in a flour tortilla along with spicy ground beef, shredded cheese, sour cream, lettuce, and tomatoes. What makes this sandwich more than just an ordinary wrap, though, is the fact that it's finished off by dry-frying in a skillet, something that makes the cheese deliciously melty.

Recipe: The TikTok Tortilla Wrap Hack You've Been Dying to Try

If cabbage is one of your favorite veggies, there's no need to sing the praises of this least-exotic of super foods. Cabbage lovers and non-fans alike will enjoy this traditional Eastern European take on cabbage rolls. The cabbage leaves are stuffed with a savory mixture of ground beef and pork and rice, then cooked in a tangy tomato sauce for a hearty one-pan meal.

Recipe: The Cabbage Rolls You've Been Looking For

If you love baked ziti, you're sure to be a fan of its swirlier cousin, baked spaghetti. This dish couldn't be much easier to put together. Simply mix the cooked, drained noodles with marinara sauce (homemade or store-bought, whichever you prefer) and cooked ground beef, then top with lots of shredded mozzarella and grated parmesan and bake until it's hot and bubbly. You can make it in advance for a delicious, satisfying meal ready to go in minutes. Should you have any leftovers, you can freeze them to enjoy another day.

Recipe: The Baked Spaghetti Your Whole Family Will Love

We're not sure who invented taco pizza, but we're grateful to them every single time we can't make up our minds about whether to have pizza or Mexican food for dinner. This super-easy taco pizza recipe starts with pre-baked crusts, then tops them with spicy beef and refried beans and swaps out the pizza sauce for taco sauce and the mozzarella for queso or nacho sauce. From start to finish, it'll take you just half an hour to make, which is less time than it would take to get a pizza from all but the speediest of delivery services.

Recipe: This Taco Pizza Recipe Is Super Fun To Make

If you're just not in the mood for something starchy, the lettuce wrap makes for a delicious, nutritious alternative to a meal based around bread, rice, or noodles. This Asian-inspired creation makes use of ginger, garlic, soy sauce, kecap manis, and mirin to season the ground beef filling, then serves it up on a lettuce leaf along with some sauteed veggies. Our recipe serves two people as a main dish, but you can also use it as an appetizer to serve four or more.

Recipe: This Lettuce Wrap Is The Perfect Quick Lunch

If there ever was a dish that was meant to be made in a slow cooker, chili would be that dish. While a good chili usually doesn't require much messing with once you've added all the ingredients to the pot, the longer it's simmered, the more time those ingredients have to meld into a richer, more complex kind of deliciousness.

With this simple slow cooker chili, all you need to do is brown your ground beef with some chopped peppers and onions, then add the meat and veggies to the slow cooker with the tomatoes, beans, and spices. Set it, forget it, then get ready for some great eating in 4 to 8 hours.

Recipe: This Slow Cooker Chili Recipe Is About To Be Your Favorite

Is your favorite restaurant also a furniture store? If you're someone who'll use any excuse to go to IKEA — "I'm out of batteries! I really need another 99-cent dish brush!" Oh no, we're running low on rhubarb syrup!" — It's probably time to admit it: you've got a serious meatball craving.

If your house is already overstuffed with Billy bookcases and Lack side tables, you might want to consider learning to make your own meatballs. Our Swedish meatball recipe makes use of ground beef and pork, slow-cooked in a broth that is then thickened up with sour cream to turn into that delicious IKEA-esque meatball gravy we so adore.

Recipe: Slow Cooker Swedish Meatballs the Whole Family Will Love

Taco salad is a favorite with messy eaters everywhere. Basically, it's what we end up eating off the plate when our tacos collapse at first bite, but when your tacos are served as a salad to begin with, you're spared the embarrassment of asking for a fork.

Our taco salad recipe is a light, healthy version that uses beans as well as taco-spiced ground beef. While this salad doesn't call for any chips or cheese, you can of course feel free to finish off your salad with those or any other taco toppings you like.

Recipe: The Best Taco Salad You've Ever Tasted

Sloppy Joes might be something you haven't eaten for years. You might be surprised to find out Sloppy Joes made from scratch can actually make for a tasty, quick, and nutritious meal. Our Sloppy Joe recipe contains absolutely no mystery meat or other dubious ingredients. Instead, it's a flavorful mixture of ground beef and chopped veggies cooked in a seasoned tomato sauce. You can serve it over hamburger buns in classic Sloppy Joe style, or buck tradition and use it to top rice or pasta instead.

Recipe: Easy Sloppy Joes You Can Make In Under 30 Minutes

What's up with the whole sheet pan food trend? Suddenly it seems there are sheet pan versions of every main dish popping up all over social media. Well, it's easy to see why this particular food fad caught on since it's not only convenient, but larger-sized sheet pans allow you to cook up enough food to serve a whole party (a small one, at least).

Speaking of parties, what could be a better food for a casual get-together than nachos? These sheet pan nachos should serve six, although they're so tasty you just might want to have the ingredients on hand to whip up another sheet.

Recipe: These Sheet Pan Nachos Are Perfect For Every Party

Lasagna is a dish everybody loves, but not everyone has the time or the patience to make it themselves. All those steps, all those ingredients, all that layering ... This easy lasagna recipe skips a couple of steps by using store-bought spaghetti sauce and no-cook noodles. As a result, the most labor-intensive thing you'll have to do is brown the ground beef and grate the mozzarella, and you can even skip the latter step by opting for pre-shredded cheese. The lasagna that comes out of the oven won't taste like anything that ever saw the inside of a cardboard carton, but more like something you'd get at a restaurant.

Recipe: Easy Lasagna Everyone Should Know How to Make

What's the easiest thing you can think of to make for dinner that doesn't involve your phone and your credit card? Probably pouring a bowl of cereal, but ... blech. That's not much of a reward after a hard day at work. Instead, why not try a low-effort, high-yum recipe like these easy tostadas? This dish of tortillas topped with ground beef, refried black beans, salsa, and sliced avocados can be on the table in under an hour, which is likely less time than it would take for a restaurant to deliver.

Recipe: Easy Tostadas Are a Perfect Weeknight Meal

While Salisbury steak was once found on the menu of upscale restaurants, it's certainly come down in the world to the point where you're only likely to find it at a greasy spoon or, more likely, a budget-brand frozen meal. Still, if you actually take the time to cook the dish yourself, you'll find that it makes a tasty alternative to burgers and meatloaf. The savory mushroom gravy elevates the meat patties into something special, and when you serve the Salisbury steak over a bed of potatoes, rice, or noodles you'll have a hearty meal that's sure to satisfy.

Recipe: Simple Salisbury Steak You'll Make Again And Again

Tater tots are just so cute: little bite-sized cubes that taste kind of like french fries filled with mashed potatoes. While they were once a staple of elementary school cafeterias and Midwestern hot dishes, they've lately made it onto trendy restaurant menus and even spawned spinoffs like "totchos."

This tater tot casserole is pretty easy to put together, requiring just seven ingredients including its frozen tater-tot base. These are topped with onions, cheese, ground beef, and bacon for a dish that covers all the bases for everything you could possibly want out of comfort food: creamy, cheesy, hearty, and delicious, and requiring very little effort to make.

Recipe: The Easy Tater Tot Casserole Your Whole Family Will Ask For

Stuffed peppers make a satisfying meal for a night when you don't want to spend too much time in the kitchen. This one-pot recipe makes use of southwestern seasonings in these slightly spicy, beef-and-bean-stuffed peppers. While they take a little time to cook, the actual prep work involved is very minimal, and when they're done cooking, you'll have your meat and veggies all together to make for a self-contained meal.

Recipe: This One-Pot Stuffed Pepper Recipe Is Perfect For Busy Nights

If there are two things we know — or think we know — about lasagna, these would be that it's a) hard to make and b) not too healthy. Which would be too bad if both of these were true, since lasagna is c) undeniably delicious.

With this simple 5-ingredient lasagna, we took "difficult" out of the equation with the genius hack of using frozen ravioli in place of the ricotta and lasagna noodle layers. What's more, we boosted the nutrition of this dish by adding a bag of frozen spinach. All you need are three more ingredients, those being ground beef, marinara sauce, and shredded mozzarella, and your easy lasagna dinner will be on the table in practically no time.

Recipe: 5-Ingredient Lasagna That's Insanely Easy To Make

Enchiladas are one of everyone's favorite Mexican meals, and for good reason! Whether they are filled with meat or cheese or veggies or any combination of these, that sauce they're smothered in is sure to make them taste amazing. While they're not super-hard to make, this enchilada casserole recipe makes them even easier to put together since there's no rolling required. All you need to do is layer the tortillas with the seasoned beef, the cheese, and the sauce, then bake them until they're hot and bubbly. The hardest part? Waiting a few minutes to eat them so you don't burn your mouth.

Recipe: This Enchilada Casserole Only Takes 15 Minutes To Prep

Oh, IKEA, why do we love you so? You're furniture's kind of a pain to put together, after all, and it's nearly impossible to find anything in the store without spending hours wandering through that maze you call a showroom. So why do we find ourselves returning, again and again? In one word: meatballs.

If you find yourself stranded many miles from the nearest IKEA, this copycat recipe will allow you to recreate what have to be some of the world's finest spherical meat products. These copycat IKEA meatballs come complete with cream gravy, but if you can't find lingonberry jam, you can always serve them with a side of similar-tasting cranberry sauce.

Recipe: Copycat IKEA Meatballs to Fuel the Trickiest Furniture-Building Job

Egg rolls are one of those foods that we usually only get in restaurants or with takeout orders. Somehow, they always seem like something that would be fairly complicated to put together at home, plus the deep-frying ... messy and dangerous and best left to professionals. An egg roll bowl, however, is something else entirely.

An egg roll bowl simply takes all the tasty fillings that would go into an egg roll and instead piles them into a bowl (a bed of rice is optional). This 20-minute version starts with ground meat (either beef or pork can be used) plus sliced and shredded veggies, then seasons them with condiments to make a quick, easy meal that's as healthy as it is delicious.

Recipe: This 20-Minute Egg Roll In A Bowl Is Perfect For Busy Weeknights

Stuffed peppers are an often-underrated dish. You're unlikely to see them on restaurant menus, nor do they feature in many frozen meals. If you've got a package of ground beef and a few bell peppers in the house, though, they make for an easy, nutritious meal that comes in an edible container.

This recipe for Greek stuffed peppers makes use of ground beef (or lamb) cooked in an oregano-spiced tomato sauce, then topped with feta cheese. These peppers are pretty simple to put together, just take half an hour to cook, and are absolutely nóstimo — which, as you probably guessed, is the Greek word for delicious.

Recipe: These Greek Stuffed Peppers Are Incredibly Delicious

Do you love spaghetti and meatballs, but wish there was a way to make it into a one-pot (or pan) meal? Do we have some good news for you! Although you'll still need to cook the noodles and the meatballs separately, once you mix them together with the sauce and the cheese, you have something you can serve straight out of the oven. If there are leftovers, you can freeze individual portions to make a few days' worth of heat-and-eat hot lunches.

Recipe: The Easy Spaghetti And Meatballs Casserole Anyone Can Make

While we usually think of shepherd's pie as a classic British comfort food, there's no reason it can't lend itself to a little culinary experimentation. This Mexican shepherd's pie recipe retains the traditional ground beef filling and mashed potato topping, but takes things south-of-the-border with the addition of black beans, corn and peppers. It also gets a little kick from chopped chipotles, then finishes things off nicely with a generous sprinkling of shredded pepper jack cheese.

Recipe: Mexican Shepherd's Pie You'll Want To Make Tonight

Craving a Taco Bell Crunchwrap Supreme? Bet you are now, since just reading those words tends to trigger an irresistible urge. But still, those lines at the drive-thru ... Never fear, the whole crunchwrap concept is something that isn't too hard to recreate at home. Sure, it will take some time to make the filling and the tostadas and then wrap them up in tortillas, but making these crunchwraps yourself is a lot more fun than waiting for your order to be done.

Recipe: Copycat Taco Bell Crunchwrap Supreme Is The Perfect Lunchtime Treat

Beef stroganoff in its original form may have graced the tables of Russian aristocracy, but in mid-century America, it was repurposed as a more budget-friendly, easy-to-make comfort food. Our recipe holds firmly to the more democratic, less fussy casserole tradition, making things even easier by turning it into a one-pot dish.

That's right, this is a true all-in-one meal — you don't even need to cook the noodles separately! Instead, you add the uncooked noodles to the browned ground beef, then cover them with beef broth and simmer until the noodles soften. Finish the stroganoff with sour cream and sautéed mushrooms cooked in that same pot, and you can enjoy your delicious dinner with the satisfaction of knowing there won't be too many dirty dishes in the sink when you're done.

Recipe: One-Pot Ground Beef Stroganoff You Need to Try

We say spaghetti, you say meatballs, right? It's a classic combo, like donuts and coffee or beans and rice. It's also one that can be pretty time-consuming to cook, what with all its separate components: meatballs, pasta, sauce. This Instant Pot recipe is not only ready to go in under ½ an hour but, here's the truly amazing part, it doesn't even use store-bought spaghetti sauce! True story: all you need to do is follow this simple 6-step recipe, and you'll have a delicious homemade spaghetti sauce complete with meatballs. As an added bonus, the noodles cook right in the sauce, too. This is one recipe you're for sure going to want to bookmark since you'll be making it over and over again.

Recipe: The Instant Pot Spaghetti And Meatballs Recipe That Will Have Your Family Asking For Seconds

When you're in the mood for fast food, is there anything better than a Doritos Locos Tacos? Why yes, there is. Amazingly enough, Taco Bell found a way to improve upon perfection by introducing Fiery Doritos Locos Tacos.

If you're up for the challenge, though, we've found that this recipe is something that's possible to recreate in your own kitchen. No actual Doritos (fiery or otherwise) are involved. Instead, you'll be mixing together a hot sauce/spice blend and painting it on plain taco shells to transform them into a pretty darn good facsimile of your favorite Taco Bell treat.

Recipe: Copycat Fiery Doritos Locos Tacos to Keep You Away From The Drive-Thru

Who doesn't love a good 5-ingredient recipe? Simple, basic ingredients, ones you either already have on hand or can find in about a 5-minute trip to the store, tops. Minimum fuss, minimum mess, minimum cleanup — but can you truly have all of that and have a meal that's worth eating? A lot of these low-ingredient recipes, after all, taste like they cut more than a few corners. Well, we're happy to report, that's not the case with this 5-ingredient chili. You've got your ground beef, your onion, your tomatoes, your beans, and your chili powder, and yes, that truly is all you really need to make a great chili. This is a dish you're sure to enjoy for tonight's dinner, and you'll look forward to having the leftovers for lunch tomorrow, as well.

Recipe: The 5-Ingredient Chili Recipe You Need to Know About

Lasagna is pretty awesome, but what's even better is delicious homemade lasagna that you can have on the table in just 20 minutes. How can this be? Even frozen lasagna usually takes longer than that to cook, and it usually comes up a little short in the taste department. While this lasagna includes all the right ingredients — tomato sauce, ricotta and mozzarella cheeses, ground beef, and noodles — it does take a few shortcuts. For one thing, it makes use of oven-ready lasagna noodles rather than the kind you have to boil. For another, you cook the whole thing on the stove top rather than baking it in the oven. As to the taste, though, we're sure you'll agree it's every bit as delizioso as a lasagna made the traditional way.

Recipe: The 20-Minute Lasagna Recipe That's Perfect For The Whole Family

Do Shake Shack's burgers really live up to all the hype? Shake Shack is one of those fast food restaurants that seems to have built its reputation on trendiness and exclusivity, since unlike certain other burger chains, they're not the kind of thing you find on every street corner. While the buzz may be what gets people in the door, the Shackburgers may be what keeps them coming back.

If you're not in Shake Shack territory and you'd still like to see what all the fuss is about, this copycat Shackburger recipe makes for a pretty close approximation. Even the op secret "Shacksauce" — yeah, we think we nailed that, too.

Recipe: Copycat Shake Shack Shackburger You Need In Your Life

One of the odder food mashups to emerge over the past decade or so has been the donut burger. Just as the name implies, this is a burger sandwiched between two halves of a donut instead of a bun. Lately, a new variant has emerged: the donut burger breakfast sandwich, which basically ups the ante by adding a fried egg on top of a bacon cheeseburger and may even use sprinkle-frosted donuts to make the dish extra Instagram-worthy.

If you're thinking "Wow, that's so weird, I just gotta try it!", we've got the perfect recipe for you. These breakfast burgers are actually pretty easy to put together, so next time someone brings donuts into the break room, be sure to grab a few extras so you can make this bizarre (yet photogenic) breakfast.

Recipe: Donut Breakfast Burgers Are Easier to Make Than You Think

Should you find yourself in the throes of a Big Mac Attack, chances are you're never far from the nearest Golden Arches. Still, maybe you're trying to cut down on foods made with mystery ingredients, or perhaps you're boycotting Mickey D's in a huff over those always-broken ice cream machines. (We feel you on this.) Well, guess what? We've hacked the Big Mac so you can make it at home! Our recipe is easy-peasy, kinda cheesy, and tastes exactly like the real deal: two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun.

Recipe: Copycat Big Mac That's Almost Better Than the Real Thing

What makes Wendy's so unique among fast food restaurants? The burgers are, well, burgers, although they may be bacon-ier than some. The Frosties are great, as far as fast food shake-like dessert/beverages go, but not exactly unique (unless you count the fact that their Frosty machines are usually up and running, which isn't the case with a certain golden-arched competitor's ice cream machines). We'd argue that what really sets Wendy's apart, though, is the fact that they have chili on their menus.

If you find yourself with a Wendy's chili craving but your budget and/or dietary concerns make it a no-no, you may be interested to know that we've cracked the code with our copycat recipe. Make it as-is, or one-up Wendy's by customizing it with extra spices or veggies.

Recipe: Copycat Wendy's Chili

Once you've mastered the art of making your own version of Wendy's chili, you can move on to the next step in our copycat masterclass: DIY Wendy's taco salad! As with the chili, the great thing about this recipe is that you can follow it exactly and have a reasonable duplicate of the fast food favorite without having to leave the house. What's even better, though, is that you can customize the salad exactly as you like it. Sub in some spicy Doritos for the plain tortilla chips, swirl some Tabasco into your sour cream, make an extra-chunky salsa, or go for a healthier version by using plain yogurt as a topping.

Recipe: Copycat Wendy's Taco Salad

What makes a patty melt different from a plain old cheeseburger? Well, for one thing, it's served on sliced bread, not on a bun. For another, the cheese doesn't melt on the burger as it cooks. Instead, the burger is cooked separately, and then the sandwich is assembled — bread, burger, sliced cheese, any cooked toppings (onions, mushrooms, etc), and more bread. The sandwich is then cooked on a skillet like a grilled cheese sandwich, at which point the cheese lives up to the "melt" part of its moniker.

Pro-tip for impatient people: If you don't want to spend 45+ minutes caramelizing the onions used in this recipe, you can always top your patty melt with sauteed onions, instead. It will taste just as delicious, and take far less time to make.

Recipe: Simple Sourdough Patty Melt

Cuban picadillo is one of those "Abuela recipes," meaning that every Cuban granny cooks it their own special way. Which picadillo recipe is the definitive one? Your own Abuela's, of course! If you haven't got a Cuban granny of your own, though, then our recipe will give you a pretty good place to start. While this recipe does call for raisins, as many picadillos do, raisin haters take note that the dreaded dried grapes really don't stand out in this dish. Instead, they lend it a subtle sweetness that is actually quite tasty without being the slightest bit raisiny.

Recipe: Authentic Cuban Picadillo

What is an enchirito when it's at home, or rather, when it's at Taco Bell? Enchirito, it seems, is a Taco Bell menu-ism for a dish that's meant to combine an enchilada with a burrito. Unlike some of Taco Bell's more complicated menu items, the enchirito is fairly easy to DIY at home. To make it, you'll need some Taco Bell copycat beef (scroll up for the recipe), but the refried beans, the enchilada sauce, and, of course, the tortillas are all store-bought. With these shortcuts, the enchiritos themselves come together pretty quickly once you've tackled the beef portion.

Recipe: Copycat Taco Bell Enchirito

Have you ever wondered how celeb chef Anne Burrell makes her meatballs? Pretty much the same way anyone else does. She mixes ground meat with eggs, breadcrumbs, parmesan, and parsley. The celebrity chef does, of course, add a few special touches like using a mixture of meats including pricey ground veal. She also insists on an expensive brand of tomatoes for her marinara — San Marzano, of course, no Hunt's for her.

Our recipe developer sees Burrell's ground veal and San Marzanos, but then raises her some pecorino romano and crushed red pepper in the meatballs as well as Calabrian chili paste in the sauce. These last two additions make for a slightly spicier, but no less fancy, version of Burrell's basic Italian dish.

Recipe: Anne Burrell's Meatballs

Cheeseburger egg rolls are one of those bar food standards that show how fusion food has really gone mainstream. It's a good thing, too! Why should combining food genres be limited to high-end restaurants and fancy food concepts?

Even though egg rolls may seem like a difficult dish to make at home, store-bought egg roll wrappers take a lot of fuss and bother out of the process, and swapping the deep fryer for an air fryer pretty much removes any remaining complications. All you need to do is cook up some seasoned ground beef, then fill the wrappers with the beef and your choice of cheese (feel free to sub cheddar or jack for the American cheese called for in the recipe). "Fry" up the egg rolls and serve them up with a tasty sauce.

Recipe: Air Fryer Cheeseburger Egg Rolls

Duff Goldman may be known as the Ace of Cakes, but desserts aren't the only thing he can do well. He has quite the repertoire of game-day snacks (go Ravens!), including this recipe for some pretty darn delicious chili dogs. What makes Duff's dogs so special? For one thing, he grills the hot dogs and the buns, the latter after dipping them in melted butter. The chili, however, is what really takes them over the top, and he shared with us his not-so-secret recipe for chile-spiked meaty goodness. 

Spelling note for those who take notice of such things: "Chili" with an "i" refers to the dish itself, while "chile" with an "e" is a pepper. Goldman's chili contains several types of chile.

Recipe: Duff Goldman's Chili Dogs

Bierocks are one of those foods that you typically only find in the Midwest, although they're not actually native to the region. Instead, they seem to have originated with "Volga Germans," meaning German immigrants who lived in Russia. While the dish is essentially German, the Russian influence may explain may why it bears a certain resemblance to pirozhki. Bierocks are not small dumplings, however, but instead are fluffy bread buns filled with meat and cabbage.

This recipe for bierocks is a fairly labor-intensive one since it starts with making a yeast dough. Still, unless you're living in our nation's heartland, making your own bierocks might be the only chance you have to try this regional specialty.

Recipe: Authentic German Bierocks

Who the heck is Wick Fowler? You may have seen his 2-Alarm Chili kit on store shelves and wondered if he was just another made-up brand spokesperson like Betty Crocker. No, there really was a Wick Fowler, a Texan journalist whose papers are now part of Texas State University's Witliff Collections. Not only did Mr. Fowler help to launch the Chili Appreciation Society International, but he also created and marketed the 2-Alarm Chili that has outlived him by half a century.

While the easiest way to make Wick Fowler's chili is just to buy one of the kits, you may not be able to find these where you shop. You might also want to save on the expense of buying Wick's mix, or perhaps you just prefer the satisfaction of making everything from scratch. Whatever your reason for passing up the purchase, this copycat recipe will allow you to create a reasonable facsimile of Fowler's famous chili with no kit needed.

Recipe: Copycat Wick Fowler's 2-Alarm Chili

Casseroles may have fallen out of favor in recent years, but there's a reason they were a staple of 20th-century mealtimes. They're cheap, they're filling, and they're easy to fix. Not only is this hamburger potato dish all of those things, but it's also pretty tasty, as well, thanks to the generous layer of cheese on top. In fact, if you want to double down on cheesiness, you can even swap out the canned cream of mushroom soup for cheese soup, instead. (The casserole police might object, but we'll let it be our little secret.) You could also add some green chiles, chili powder, or taco seasoning to the beef to give it some southwestern flavor.

Recipe: Creamy Hamburger Potato Casserole

Yes, it's yet another meatloaf recipe! But not just any meatloaf, it's a celebrity chef meatloaf. So what makes Rachael Ray's meatloaf any different from everyone else's? Mainly the fact that she prefers a mix of meats such as beef and pork. Apart from her meat choice, The TV personalties' meatloaf is a pretty standard version of the dish. Our recipe developer, however, added a few twists of her own. For one thing, she swapped out Ray's (and your grandma's) bread crumbs for potato chips. For another, she added a pinch of curry powder to the ketchup glaze to give this loaf a little currywurst cachet.

Recipe: Rachael Ray's Meatloaf

While chili mac may not seem like the healthiest of meals, this dish can actually be good for you if you make your own chili instead of using the stuff from a can. Not only is the chili in this recipe made with the fire-roasted tomatoes mentioned in the title, but it's also packed with "stealth veggies" that may help you sneak a little healthy eating past a reluctant audience. While this particular recipe is made with plant-based "meat," you can easily swap that out for a pound of ground beef to give you a more traditional chili that's still super-nutritious.

Recipe: 20-Minute Fire-Roasted Chili Mac

While a patty melt may be a mashup meal that combines a burger with a grilled cheese sandwich, Applebee's goes one step further by creating their south-of-the-border version — a quesadilla burger. The cheese, instead of being used to top the burger, is melted over a tortilla. The burger then goes inside this cheese-crusted wrap. Our copycat quesadilla burger recipe even includes all of the toppings and trimmings Applebee's includes with their burger — the crispy bacon strips, spicy pico de gallo, and tangy salsa-ranch dressing. You're on your own, though, when it comes to finding a recipe for DIY Dollaritas.

Recipe: Copycat Applebee's Quesadilla Burger

Okay, we promise, this is the very last meatloaf recipe on this list! We just had to include it here, though, since it's a super-cute and tasty Halloween version of the dish. You take your standard loaf of meat, bake as usual (you could use the meatloaf recipe given here, or any other one you like), then wrap it in phyllo dough strips to dress it up as a mummy. As a final step, the mummy is then "embalmed" in a mixture of ketchup and mustard. The meatloaf mummy in the photo has candy eyeballs, but if the thought of candy-bedecked meatloaf does not appeal, you can always make eyeballs out of olives, instead.

Recipe: Halloween Mummy Meatloaf

A good bolognese recipe is something you always want to have in your back pocket. Unlike a classic long-simmered ragu, a bolognese sauce can actually come together pretty quickly, and the sauce for this version can be ready in not much more time than it'll take you to boil a pot of water and cook a pound of pasta.

While one of the ingredients in this bolognese recipe may seem a bit unexpected, you can always just omit the carrot, or you can shred it or dice it really, really fine to hide it from anyone who may be perturbed to find orange veggies in their pasta. You can also skip the pancetta if you want a more budget-friendly bolognese, it's nice to have, but not really necessary, as long as you've got the hamburger meat to beef up your sauce.

Recipe: 30-Minute Pasta Bolognese

Empanadas are a type of meat-filled pastry that is found throughout Latin America. Each country, though, puts its own special spin on the dish, and the empanadas in this recipe are based on the Argentinian style. This means that the filling somewhat resembles a picadillo, as the ground beef filling also includes both olives and raisins as well as a few hard-boiled eggs thrown in for good measure. In fact, this recipe might be something you'll want to have on hand come Easter time should you find yourself with a surplus of boiled eggs to use up!

Recipe: Authentic Empanadas 

Bobby Flay is famed for his mastery of the backyard barbecue, so of course, the burgers in the Flay-inspired recipe are cooked on the grill. They do, however, differ pretty significantly from the celebrity chef's signature burgers. Flay himself is more of a "let the meat speak for itself" guy, suggesting only cheese as an optional add-on. Here, our recipe developer really goes to town with the extras that include bacon and American cheese, which are used as a burger stuffing, with toppings like lettuce, pickles, and a kind of enhanced fry sauce made from ketchup, mayo, and mustard. If you enjoy all the trimmings, though, you might prefer these burgers to Flay's far more austere version.

Recipe: Bobby Flay's Burgers

People make chili with all kinds of interesting add-ins from chocolate and coffee to peanut butter and even cola. Beer, however, is a pretty widely accepted addition to most standard chili recipes. Cooking with beer is nothing out of the ordinary, and beer with chili is a popular pairing, so combining the two ingredients seems only natural, after all.

The beer chili in this recipe is kind of a hybrid, as the lengthy list of spices gives it a Cincinnati-esque flavor. The beer used by the recipe developer, however, is a Texas classic. While it's not necessary to use Shiner in this chili, a similar lager style will serve you in good as well. Chili tends to work better with something on the lower end of the bitterness scale, so an IPA wouldn't be our pick.

Recipe: Best Beer Chili

Do they have cornbread in Mexico? We've always thought of that dish as being more of a north-of-the-border thing. Still, there's no denying the fact that it does pair nicely with Mexican-inspired flavors, as is the case in this casserole. Here the cornbread forms a bottom layer which is then topped with a slightly spicy ground beef/tomato/corn mix. Feel free to add hot sauce or chopped jalapenos if you want it más caliente. The casserole is then topped with another layer of batter, which makes it into a cornbread sandwich of sorts. As a final touch, it gets a topping of tasty toasted cheese.

Recipe: Mexican Cornbread Casserole

While Halloween itself doesn't have a set dinner menu like Thanksgiving with its turkey or Easter with its ham, it's the one holiday where creative cooks are given the freedom to create all kinds of spooky (or in some cases, goofy) foods. One of the easiest "costumes" you can use to dress up your Halloween eats is that of a mummy. Mummifying food is super-easy since all you need to do is encase the item — in this case, meatballs — with some type of edible "bandages." Here we're using strips of crescent dough for the wrapping, while the mummies' glowing yellow eyeballs are made out of small dots of mustard.

Recipe: Halloween Meatballs

What do you typically have for Christmas dinner? Are you team turkey or do you prefer ham? Perhaps you're with the Whos down in Whoville and think a roast beast is best. If you're still on the fence about holiday dinner options though, we'd like to suggest something you may not have considered — Christmas meatballs!

So what makes these meatballs so holly-jolly, you may ask? For one thing, they're extra-fancy, as they're made from both ground beef and ground pork. (The directions list these as pork and beef "mince," which is a U.K. term that simply means ground meat.) What really gives these meatballs that holiday feel, though, is their color scheme, as they incorporate both green (parsley) and red (dried cranberries).

Recipe: Christmas Meatballs

Sloppy Joes and grilled cheese sandwiches are both childhood classics, but what happens if you combine the two? You get a comfort food mashup that's still pretty kid-friendly, but has plenty of adult appeal, as well. What we particularly like about this recipe is that it uses garlic-flavored Texas toast (the kind you can buy in the frozen foods section) in order to make a nice, sturdy platform for the admittedly messy fillings. Okay, so this may not be the dish you'll want to serve at a sophisticated soiree, but if you're eating alone and you're in the mood for a great big hearty sandwich, grab some napkins and tuck in!

Recipe: Tasty Grilled Cheese Sloppy Joes

Wendy's sells burgers, but so do a whole bunch of other fast food chains. How, then, do they set themselves apart from the pack? Sassy social media and cutesy commercials alone won't keep customers coming in the doors. Do you know what will, though? Bacon, and lots of it, which may be why so many of Wendy's burgers feature this ingredient.

One such burger was the pretzel bacon pub cheeseburger, and we use the word "was" because this limited-time offering no longer has a place on Wendy's menu. Luckily, one of our recipe developers was able to reverse-engineer a pretty good knockoff version of this burger, complete with its signature smoky honey mustard and beer cheese sauces.

Recipe: Copycat Wendy's Pretzel Bacon Pub Cheeseburger

One of Guy Fieri's signature dishes is his Dragon's Breath chili, which, as you might imagine, is pretty spicy. Our recipe developer created a version of this chili that retains all the chiles found in Fieri's chili but ditched the meat in favor of Beyond products and veggie broth. Well, if you're not following a vegan diet, feel free to untwist this recipe by using ground beef, sausage meat, and chicken or beef broth instead. Serve this bowl of DRagon's Breath topped with real sour cream and cheese, maybe throw on a few sliced jalapenos, and you'll have yourself a very Fieri (and fiery) chili.

Recipe: Guy Fieri's Dragon's Breath Chili Recipe With a Twist

Frito Pie is one of those dishes that's quite a bit older than you might think. Its roots date back to the 1930s (as do Fritos themselves), and the actual dish was created in the 40s. Frito pie over the years seems to have evolved into two main varieties, with one of these being the walking taco type beloved of convenience store patrons where chili and toppings are spooned right into the Frito bag. The other version of Frito pie, however, is more of a "mom's casserole" type dish, and that's the category our recipe falls into. No wonder these casseroles have stood the test of time! An oven-baked Frito pie makes for a quick, easy, meal that kids (and adults) are sure to gobble up!

Recipe: Frito Pie

Sliders are one of everyone's favorite bar foods since they're just so darn cute! Who doesn't love miniature foods? Plus, the small size means that you can eat more than one slider in a single sitting, something that allows you to experiment with a variety of toppings.

If you're looking to make sliders at home, though, it can be kind of a pain to fry up all those teeny little burgers and insert them into individual mini-buns. With this recipe, though, all you need to do is bake a single slab of burger meat (kind of like a flat meatloaf) and then sandwich it between two "planks" of Hawaiian rolls. This way, you can make a dozen sliders in just a single pan. Genius!

Recipe: Oven-Baked Hamburger Sliders