One-Pot Chipotle Beef Taco Rice

Ingredients

• 500 g beef mince
• 500 ml beef stock
• 400 g black beans, drained and rinsed
• 250 g long grain rice
• 400 g chopped tomatoes
• salt and black pepper to taste
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp chipotle paste
• 150 g sweetcorn
• 75 g cheddar, grated
• 15g coriander, chopped
• Warm tortillas, to serve
• soured cream, to serve
• Lime wedges, to serve

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a large lidded frying pan or casserole over a medium-high heat. Season the mince generously with salt and pepper before it goes anywhere near the pan — seasoned meat browns; bare meat steams.
2. Add the mince in two batches with the onion, breaking it up with a wooden spoon. Don't crowd the pan — all at once and the water comes out, the temperature drops, and you've boiled the beef instead of browning it. You want 6 to 8 minutes of deep, crusty colour and softened onion.
3. Stir in the garlic, chipotle paste and cumin. Cook for 30 to 60 seconds, just until fragrant and the paste turns glossy — this blooms the cumin so it tastes of itself rather than dust, and pulls the smoke out of the chipotle. Watch the garlic; burnt garlic turns the whole pan bitter.
4. Tip in the rice, chopped tomatoes and beef stock — the stock is what breaks the tomatoes down so they taste of fruit, not tin. Stir, bring to a simmer, then clamp the lid on and cook over a low heat for 15 minutes, stirring once halfway to stop the rice catching at the base.
5. Stir through the black beans and sweetcorn, cover again and cook for a further 3 to 5 minutes, until the rice is tender and everything is piping hot. Taste now — adjust the salt and pepper here, not at the table. The chipotle should hum; the salt should land.
6. Scatter the cheddar evenly over the top, lid back on, off the heat for 1 minute. The residual steam melts it into glossy pools without splitting.
7. Warm the tortillas in a dry pan or over a low flame until pliant and freckled.
8. Spoon the rice straight from the pan into bowls. Finish each one with a dollop of soured cream, a shower of chopped coriander, a pinch of chilli flakes and a generous squeeze of lime — the acid cuts through the richness and lifts the smoke. Tortillas alongside for scooping.