How to Brown Meat So It’s Actually, You Know, Brown

For the record, when you brown ground meat in a pan, it should be, well, brown and crispy. If it’s gray and mealy like mom’s taco meat used to be, you’re not really browning your meat. Those are just the facts. Learning how to brown meat the right way will leave you with a crispier, juicier, more interesting protein. Here’s how to show that ground beef, pork, or lamb the respect it deserves.

We want what’s on the left, not the right.

Photo by Alex Lau

1) Dry the raw meat on paper towels and let it come up to room temperature. This prevents it from steaming in the pan and moving from cool to hot too quickly. It basically ensures that it cooks more evenly.

Photo by Alex Lau

2) Add the meat to a hot, lightly oiled cast-iron pan and smash it into an even layer—then don’t touch it. You don’t want to break up your ground meat before it has time to gain some texture.

Photo by Alex Lau

3) Once you see crisp edges, use a spatula to divide the patty and flip it in pieces. Brown the other side, then break into bits—getting a full brown on both sides is what you’re aiming for. Then, make sure that you season the whole thing generously with salt—since ground meat tends to be pretty fatty, you’ll need to use a couple of good pinches to make it sing. That will give you the flavor, texture, and juice factor that will take you straight to the top of the ground beef game.

Now it’s time to actually use the technique. Ground meat is extremely versatile, shining in salads, tacos, lettuce wraps, casseroles, and just about everything else. Well, maybe not smoothies. Here are a few dishes that benefit from perfectly browned ground meat:

Larb is hailed as the national dish of Laos. Traditionally the salad starts with extremely finely chopped lean meat or fish and is seasoned with lime juice, chiles, fish sauce, and toasted ground rice. This recipe calls for ground lamb, a fattier protein than what’s usually used, and subs ground peanuts as a nod to the texture of the rice.