Fideo is a quick and comforting traditional Mexican dish. There are several variations but are all based on fideo noodles which are short, thin noodles similar to vermicelli or angle hair pasta. This fideo con carne (fideo with ground beef) is an easy, one pot dish that is perfect for busy weeknight dinners.
When Carl and I lived in Ft. Worth our next door neighbor was a first generation Mexican American family. I learned a lot about cooking from scratch from the mom. She taught me so much about making simple, frugal meals. I’ll forever be grateful to her for taking the time to teach a young mom how important it is to cook from scratch.
To me, fideo is kind of like Spanish rice but with noodles. As I looked over the internet for “authentic” recipes I realized that ,just like Pancit Bihon, people kind of do their own thing when it comes to fideo.
I make fideo with ground beef but will also sometimes add in chopped greens like spinach, kale or swiss chard. For the tomatoes I use our home canned tomatoes, but have also used dehydrated tomato powder from grinding dehydrated tomatoes.
Notes on Ingredients
- Pasta – Fideo is short, thin, straight pasta. You can use vermicelli or broken thin spaghetti or angle hair pasta.
- Ground Beef – This recipe uses ground beef but you can leave it out or use shredded chicken, it all works
- Onion and Garlic – I use freshly diced onions and garlic. You can substitute a bit of onion or garlic powder if you don’t have fresh. But fresh is best!
- Diced Tomatoes – I usually use canned tomatoes but during the summer, I’ll dice fresh tomatoes and use them.
- Tomato Sauce – This is optional but if I have it I’ll use it as it gives the fideo more tomato flavor.
- Spices – cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper.
How to Make Fideo
In a large pot brown hamburger meat with onion and garlic. Since we use grass fed beef I rarely drain the grease from the hamburger but if you have a lot of grease in the pan you will want to drain some off.
Add pasta, if you have enough room in your pan you can brown the pasta just a bit. I’ve done it with browning the pasta and without and haven’t noticed a difference.
Add tomatoes, about 1 1/2 – 2 quarts of water and seasonings. Stir.
Bring to a boil. Turn heat down to low and cook until pasta is soft.
We like ours kind of dry so we leave the lid off but if you like it more like soup you can add more water and cover the pot while cooking.
More Mexican Fideo Recipes
There are tons of variations of fideo recipes – each family kind of does it’s own thing for seasoning and adding meats and both. The one main commonality is that the noodle are toasted! Here are some Mexican fideo recipes for sopa de fideo, fideo seca, fideo con pollo and many more.
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Fideo with Ground Beef Recipe
Fideo means "noodles" and this fideo with ground beef recipe is a frugal and tasty Tex-Mex one-pot main dish.
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 pound fideo vermachelli (or broken angel hair pasta)
- 1/2 medium onion -diced
- 4-5 cloves garlic -diced
- 1 – 14oz can diced tomatoes
- 1 – 8oz can tomato sauce (optional)
- 1 tbsp cumin
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Instructions
In a large pot brown hamburger meat with onion and garlic. Since we use grass fed beef I rarely drain the grease from the hamburger but if you have a lot of grease in the pan you will want to drain some off.
Add pasta, if you have enough room in your pan you can brown the pasta just a bit. I’ve done it with browning the pasta and without and haven’t noticed a difference.
Add tomatoes, about 2 quarts of water and seasonings. Stir.
Bring to a boil. Turn heat down to low and cook until pasta is soft.
We like ours kind of dry so we leave the lid off but if you like it more like soup you can add more water and cover the pot while cooking.
Enjoy!
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Frequently Asked Questions
Fideo means “noodles” in Spanish and is a traditional Mexican dish made with thin, toasted noodles cooked in a seasoned tomato broth. It’s very similar to Spanish rice in flavor and technique — the main difference is that fideo uses vermicelli-style noodles instead of rice. Like Spanish rice, every family makes it a little differently, so there’s no single “right” recipe.
Yes — and it makes the dish even more flavorful. Several readers have tried this and love the results. Use the same amount of stock as you would water. You can also use a combination of stock and water if you want a lighter flavor. If your stock is already salted, taste before adding the full amount of sea salt called for in the recipe.
Absolutely. Fideo is traditionally very flexible — ground turkey, shredded chicken, or chorizo all work well. You can also make it vegetarian by skipping the meat entirely and adding extra vegetables like zucchini, corn, or black beans. The toasted noodles and seasoned tomato broth are the heart of the dish regardless of what protein you use.
To make fideo as a sopa (soup), simply add more water or stock — an extra quart will give you a brothier consistency. Keep the lid on while it cooks to retain the liquid. Some readers also add diced potatoes for a heartier soup, which is a wonderful variation. Serve with warm flour tortillas and refried beans for a complete meal.
This recipe makes about 8 generous servings as written. As a general guide, plan on one pound of fideo pasta feeding 6–8 people when combined with the ground beef and broth. For 30 people, multiplying the recipe by 5 should give you plenty with a little left over — always wise with a crowd.
Fideo noodles are usually found in the Hispanic foods aisle of most grocery stores, often in small bags or boxes. If you can’t find them, broken angel hair pasta or thin vermicelli are the best substitutes — break them into 1-inch pieces before adding to the pot. The texture and cooking time will be nearly identical.
Angi Schneider is the author of The Ultimate Guide to Preserving Vegetables and Pressure Canning for Beginners and Beyond, both published by Page Street Publishing. She has taught canning classes for 177 Milk Street, been featured in Serious Eats, and written for Countryside Magazine. Angi has been sharing gardening, preserving, and simple living skills since 2010.
What a great deal!
I love pasta dishes, thanks for the new recipe to try!
I know, it was definitely a case of being in the right place at the right time. Thanks for visiting.
This is really interesting. Lately, I’ve been intrigued by cooking the pasta in the pot with the other ingredients. I should give it a try.Visiting from Tasty Tuesdays,Lizy
If you try it, let me know how you liked it. Feel free to share any changes you make. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit.
Seriously this is a great recipe. I love it when a recipe takes you out of the box and introduces a new unexpected flavor to a traditional dish. Thank you so much for sharing it on our BBQ Block Party.
Thanks for stopping by and for hosting the Block party. There’s some seriously great recipes linked up there.
I love Spanish rice so I am sure I’d love this too. Thanks for sharing!
Please join us again Thursday at:
http://summersacres.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-homeacre-hop-30.html
~Ann
Thanks for hosting and visiting us. If you try it let me know how you like it.
How much do I make of this for 30 people? Please help
Generally, 1 pound of spaghetti feeds 4 people. So, based on that you would need to multiply the recipe by 6 or 7 to feed 30 people. It just depends on how big their appetites are and how much other food you’ll have. Hope that helps.
@Angi Schneider, all of my one pound spaghetti/pasta packages say they feed 8, you must have big eaters that you cook for, LOL.
Yes! When I originally published this recipe all of our 6 children were still at home and 4 of them were boys….lol. Only the youngest is still at home and learning to cook for only 3 is harder than you’d think it should be!
1 lb. fideo or vermicelli . Approximately how many cups is that?
I have no idea. It comes in bags with the weight listed. If I had to guess it would be about 3 cups.
We make it like this and scoop it up into corn tortillas!
I used chicken stock in place of the waterand used el pato hpt tomato sauce and a can of rotele tomatoes for the diced tomatoes,it was awesome!
That sounds delicious! Thanks for sharing.
Easy and very tasty! Would make again and again.
I enjoy making fideo, but always as a sopa because it is one of my many favorites and go to’s of my childhood and one of my many favorite comfort foods – I gave it a twist and added potatoes and for me it’s like having picadillo and fideo all in one meal alongside the flour tortillas and refried beans..
Thank you for the recipe, I’m 54 years old now and never wrote down any recipes from my grandmother and I have been cooking since I was 8 years old, but your recipe is awesome and something I can share with my older children that has measurable amounts and not any of my a little bit of this and that due to personal memory processing for doing it so long
Hi Lana, I do the same thing with family recipes! I’m slowing making measurements and writing them down for my kids. I’m so glad you like my fideo recipe. I’ll have to try it as sopa with potatoes. Sounds delicious!