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❤️ Why you'll love it
- Not only is this casserole easy to make, but it is packed with flavor!
- You'll only need to use a couple of dishes to put this together, which means less to clean up.
- You can make this ground beef casserole in advance and easily freeze it into serving sizes making it the perfect meal-prep recipe!
Some foods just make us feel good, don't they? This simple John Wayne casserole is one of them! Cheesy, beefy, and a little spicy - it's definitely family friendly comfort food.
🧾 Ingredients
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- cheese
- yellow onion
- lean ground beef
- mayonnaise
- taco seasoning
- Bisquick mix
- bell peppers
- Rotel tomatoes with green chilies
- sour cream
- Ranch seasoning
🔪 Instructions
These are an overview of the instructions. You'll find the full instructions in the green recipe card at the bottom of the page.
- Brown ground beef in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the diced onions, bell peppers (you can use red bell pepper or green bell pepper), taco seasoning and ½ cup water.
- Blend together the sour cream, mayonnaise, shredded cheese and ranch seasoning to create the sour cream mixture.
- To create the biscuit layer combine the Bisquick with ¾ cup of water in a medium bowl. Stir the biscuit mix until combined.
- Pat dough into a 13-inch casserole dish to create the the biscuit base and bake for 5 minutes.
- Add the ground beef mixture, making sure to cover all edges of dough.
- Scoop on the sour cream and cheese mixture the top with the remaining cheese.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes.
- Serve up this beef and biscuit casserole for your whole family to enjoy!
🥄 Equipment
The following are affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
You'll need the following items to make this recipe successfully.
- 9 x 13 inch casserole dish
- a large skillet
- a couple of mixing bowls
🥫 Storage
You can store any leftover casserole in the fridge for up to 3 days in an airtight container. This can be reheated in the oven or microwave easily.
You can also store this easy casserole in the freezer for up to 3 months. Also use an airtight container to prevent any freezer burn.
📖 Variations
- If you do not like red meat, you can easily replace the meat mixture with ground turkey.
- We love cheddar cheese in my house, but if you want an extra kick of spice you can swap it for pepper jack cheese!
- And if you're really looking to amp up the level of spice, you can add jalapeño peppers to the top of the meat layer.
- Don't have enough onions handy to make this great recipe? You can always add onion powder to make up for it!
- Cream cheese makes for a great alternative if you don't like (or don't have) sour cream.
- Looking to make this a bit healthier? Sneak in any fresh vegetables you like as an extra single layer in this casserole.
💭 Tips
Expert Tip: Make sure to prepare your baking dish with non-stick cooking spray to get the most of your biscuit layer.
- If you're looking to make this more hands off, you can make your delicious layer of ground beef in a slow cooker.
- If you have leftover taco meat, you can use that in place of the ground beef mixture.
- This original recipe has fairly simple ingredients, but can adapt to different flavors. Feel free to experiment and use what you have on hand to create more layers!
- Save time (and dishes) by mixing the biscuit dough directly in the prepared baking dish.
👩🍳 FAQs
Absolutely! Instead of making a biscuit layer as the base, you can use tater tots, or any other kind of shredded potatoes. Just make sure they are gluten free.
The famous actor contributed the original John Wayne casserole recipe to a cookbook of the stars put together by Cara Connery in the 70s.
You can easily assemble this delicious casserole in advance and cover in your fridge with aluminum foil to bake at a later time.
📚 Related recipes
- Chicken casserole with stovetop stuffing is one of my favorite weeknight dinner recipes.
- This low carb green chile chicken casserole recipe has a similar flavor but with a healthy twist.
- If you love this John Wayne casserole recipe, then my indulgent hamburger noodle casserole is perfect for you!
- This easy cornbread casserole is bound to hit the spot and become a family favorite.
🍽️ Serve with...
- Crispy fried potatoes are a great side to round out a meal filled with comfort food!
- If you're looking to balance out this indulgent casserole with some veggies, then this green bean salad is exactly what you're looking for.
- My family also loves my sweet and spicy sweet potato dish to go alongside this cheesy casserole.
📞 The last word
My dad loved John Wayne - and I don't think he ever missed a movie when it was on tv. I can't tell you how many times I fell asleep on Dad's lap watching westerns and war movies!
This vintage casserole is a perfect example of what dinners were like - comforting, simple, and filling!
If you click on the number of servings in the recipe card you can adjust the measurements up or down for the exact number of servings you need. Don't forget that you can click on "add to collection" to save it to your own, private recipe box!
If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
📖 Recipe
John Wayne Casserole
Print Pin Recipe SaveEquipment Needed
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds lean ground beef
- 2 cups onion, diced
- ½ cup bell pepper, diced
- 1 ounce taco seasoning , 1 packet
- 1-½ cups Cheddar cheese, divided use
- ½ cup sour cream
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons Ranch seasoning, dry
- 10 ounces Rotel diced tomatoes with green chilies
- 2 cups Bisquick, or favorite biscuit mix
- 1 ¼ cup water, divided
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Spray 13X9 baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.
- Brown ground beef in a large skillet; drain off any grease that accumulates.
- Add diced onion, bell pepper, taco seasoning and ½ cup of water to pan.
- Stir until well blended.
- Bring to a simmer and cover.
- Simmer 10 minutes or so - until onion & pepper are soft.
- In a medium mixing bowl combine sour cream, mayonnaise, ½ cup of the cheese, and Ranch seasoning.
- Whisk until smooth and blended. Set aside.
- Add Bisquick (or other biscuit mix) to a large bowl.
- Pour in ¾ cup of water and stir to make a soft dough. You may ned a little more water.
- Gently press dough into bottom of pan and bake 5 minutes - just until set.
- Remove from oven.
- Spread ground beef mixture over the biscuit layer.
- Spread the Rotel over that.
- Spoon the sour cream mixture over that and gently spread over the top.
- Finish with the remaining cheese.
- Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until biscuit layer is done and the casserole is heated through.
Vanissa Bender
This was a huge hit with the family. Definitely putting in my rotation. One thing I did (not because I thought it would better) but because it called for a 1 1/2 lbs hamburger and I only thawed 1, I added bacon for more meat.
Carmela Cox
This is a favorite, I have made it many times and it's always good I sometimes use Jiffy cornbread mix instead of the biscuit mix and we love it.
Tena Dupree
There are some steps missing when you go to layer. Like when to put the Taco seasoning stuff with the peppers lol
Marye
No - that's step 14. It's there.