Americans have a tendency to overcomplicate the taco with toppings. We love to pile on the cheese, sour cream, salsa and what have you—the (usually ground) meat is almost an afterthought. But if you shift your attention away from the queso and focus on the protein, you get a better taco, with far less fuss.

You don’t even need a ton of spices. (And you definitely don’t need a packet of taco seasoning.) You just need a good, flavorful cut of meat, a few vegetables and some cumin. That’s all that’s required of you when making One-Pan Short Rib Tacos, also known as puntas de res a la Mexicana, a one-pan affair in which beef is spiked with cumin and balanced by the sweet acidity of tomatoes.

Like all the recipes in our soon-to-be-released cookbook, “Milk Street Shorts” (out October 14), this one is all killer, no filler. Every ingredient is there for a reason. The short rib provides deep, beefy flavor and plenty of richness. The onions give the dish a savory backbone. Juicy tomatoes give it a saucy quality, so there’s no need to get extraneous liquid involved. A few peppers, both hot and sweet, provide vegetal sweetness and chili heat.

And it all happens in a single skillet.

Swap out boring ground beef for silky short ribs

I don’t know how or when ground beef became the go-to taco filler in the States, though I suspect a certain fast food chain is to blame. Consider this my formal plea to let boneless short ribs take up that mantle.

Boneless short ribs are not the big “dinosaur” ribs that you find on BBQ menus, nor are they the short ribs that come from the flank of the cow, so don’t try to remove the bones from either cut. Boneless short ribs are part of the chuck muscle, right around where it meets the actual ribs and brisket. (You may have seen boneless short ribs fashioned into steaks and sold as Denver steaks.)

Like the rest of the chuck, boneless short ribs have a pronounced beefy flavor and lots of marbling. The result is a piece of meat that tastes like a ribeye, with the texture of a skirt steak. And, thanks to all that marbling, it can take a lot of prolonged exposure to heat without drying out. In fact, it benefits from it. Fat and connective tissue need time to melt and gelatinize; this recipe provides it.

When slicing boneless short ribs, be sure to cut against the grain. This shortens the muscle fibers so the pieces are tender instead of chewy.

Cumin and alliums provide a sturdy backbone of flavor

Earthy, slightly bitter and nutty cumin is the only dried spice used in this recipe. The rest of the flavor comes from alliums, both onion and garlic. The cumin and garlic are mixed with a little oil so they stick to the sliced meat; the onions are cooked in the skillet until they just begin to brown. The garlicky, cumin-spiced meat is briefly sautéed with the onions, giving it a savory backbone.

Here comes the night(shades)

A trio of nightshades—fresh tomatoes, red bell pepper and jalapeño—balance the deep, meaty savoriness of the dish. Strips of softened bell pepper contribute pops of fruity sweetness and jalapeños bring chili heat, but the real magic happens when the tomatoes soften and release their juices, creating a thick, flavorful sauce.

The result is a dish that’s ready to be scooped into tortillas or over rice. “Very similar to fajitas but even better,” wrote one reader. Or, as our Editorial Director J.M. Hirsch puts it, “Tacos, by way of stir-fry.”

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Claire Lower

Claire Lower is the Digital Editor for Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street, with over a decade of experience as a food writer and recipe developer. Claire began writing about food (and drinks) during the blogging boom in the late 2000s, eventually leaving her job as a lab technician to pursue writing full-time. After freelancing for publications such as Serious Eats, Yahoo Food, xoJane and Cherry Bombe Magazine, she eventually landed at Lifehacker, where she served as the Senior Food Editor for nearly eight years. Claire lives in Portland, Oregon with a very friendly dog and very mean cat. When not in the kitchen (or at her laptop), you can find her deadlifting at the gym, fly fishing or trying to master figure drawing at her local art studio.