Beef BBQ Cups
They’re your new favorite simple, easy, delicious, hand-held little meal, appetizer, or snack! Our Beef BBQ Cups are made with just a few ingredients and can have as little or as much from scratch flair as you’d like!
They’re best made with our Honey BBQ Sauce!
It’s a fun one, friends! Our recipe for these adorable and delicious Beef BBQ Cups are an adaptation of a recipe that from my husband’s childhood – with some from scratch flair, of course! These hand-held beefy bbqy bites have a pancake mix crust ground beef cooked in your favorite BBQ sauce and topped with melty cheddar cheese. They’re so simple and yet so SO delicious!
Ingredients Needed
- Ground Beef – I prefer a leaner cut of 90/10 for this recipe so there’s no need to drain the grease, but that’s totally up to you! This would also be tasty with some ground pork.
- Pancake Mix – My mother-in-law’s recipe calls for Bisquick, but in this household, we just keep a container of our Homemade Pancake Mix From Scratch because it’s so incredibly easy to whip together and store in the panty. And it’s so much more economical!
- BBQ Sauce – Use your favorite, of course, but we like these Beef BBQ Cups best with our Honey BBQ Sauce!
- Cheddar Cheese – Mild or sharp, whichever you have/prefer. While cheddar is our preferred, it’s also tasty with a mozzarella!
- Onion and Garlic – Because they’re basically a requirement for all of our savory dishes!
- Olive Oil and Water – Not pictured, but this is what you’ll need to make that pancake mix dough.
Cook the Ground Beef
Saute a little onion and garlic, add the ground beef and crumble it as it cooks and then just before it’s all fully cooked, add your BBQ Sauce of choice and give it all a good mix to finish cooking.
Create the Dough
Meanwhile, add the pancake mix to a large bowl with some water and just a little bit of olive oil and mix it into a slightly tacky dough ball. If it’s not tacky at all (tacky, not sticky!), then add another tablespoon.
Shape the Dough
Now, the fun part! Separate the dough into 12 equal peices (as close as you can get), and roll them into balls. Then press your thumb into the center of the dough ball and use your other hand to create a small bowl out of the dough. Place that in a well greased muffin tin. This is where our Olive Oil Mister comes really handy in getting the whole tin ready, fast!
Prep to Fill
Once you have all of your little pancake mix bowls ready, then add just a little layer of BBQ sauce to the bottom of them. We find that this helps prevent the cups from drying out.
Fill and Bake!
Next add the bbq sauced ground beef on top of the bbq sauce layer, finish with cheese, and bake.
Done! Adorable, delicious, Beef BBQ Cups!
These are so tasty and fun. BBQ sauced beef topped with melty cheddar served in baked almost pancake like little cup that’s just the right amount of sweet to highlight the sweetness in the BBQ sauce. My kids are obsessed with these!
They’re so cute and fun to serve!
We love when the vessel the deliciousness is served in is also delicious and edible! Plus, anytime my kids can eat something with their hands, it’s a win!
You Also Might Like
- Classic Stuffed Peppers
- Kimchi Sloppy Joes
- Whiskey BBQ Sauce From Scratch
- Loaded Beef Tostadas
- Cheesy Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms
- Turkey Taco Cups
- Dill Tuna Salad Cucumber Boats
Enjoy! As always, if you make this recipe or any of my others, I love to hear what you think! Leave a comment below, email me, or you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!
If you want to see more, be sure to sign up for my 5 Easy Ways to Start Cooking From Scratch!
Equipment
- large bowl
- Oil Sprayer optional
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef 90% lean
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1 cup onion minced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 + 1/8 cup Honey BBQ Sauce divided
- 1 cup cheddar cheese
Pancake Mix Cups
- 2 cups homemade pancake mix 286 g
- 1/2 + 1 cup + tablespoon cold water
- 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
Instructions
- Prep: Preheat oven to 400℉ and grease the muffin tin with an oil mister.
- Make Dough: Add the pancake mix, oil, and water to a large bowl and mix well until a tacky dough forms.
- Cook Beef: Heat a skillet over medium heat and add olive oil. Add onion and saute for 1 minute, stirring often, then add the garlic and saute for another 30 seconds. Add ground beef and break it up while it cooks. Let cook for 5-6 minutes stiring every minute or so. Add 1/2 cup of BBQ sauce and mix well, letting it cook in the beef for another minute. Remove pan from heat.
- Make Cups: Meanwhile, separate the dough into 12 equally sized pieces (as close as you can) and roll them into balls. To shape the cups, use thumb to press into the center of the dough ball and the other hand to pinch the edges outward and press thin until an even thickness cup forms. Add the cup to the greased muffin tin and flatten on the bottom of the tin and then press the edges up.
- Fill Cups: Add 1/2 teaspoon of BBQ sauce to each cup. Then fill the cups with cooked ground beef and top with shredded cheddar cheese.
- Bake: Bake in the oven on the center rack for 12 minutes or until the cheese is fully melted.
- Serve and Enjoy!
