Try as I may to savor the summer, cold weather is here whether I like it or not—and I’m slowly trying to get back into the habit of cooking dinners.
But most of all, I don’t want to do a lot of dishes (although that’s a perennial problem of mine). When any recipe has fewer than five ingredients and aims to cut down on dishes and time, my ears perk up. Add the word “magic” to the title, and I’m really listening.
I first saw this “Magic Meat Sauce” on TikTok, posted by Melissa Ben-Ishay, the founder of Baked by Melissa and creator behind some of our favorite viral recipes in the last few years. Typically, her salads are what go viral, but she dubbed this dish a “four-ingredient magic meat sauce that is incredible.” After seeing another foodie friend post it to their social media calling it “ridiculously good,” I knew I needed to try it. And let me tell you now, it did not disappoint.
I Tried the Viral 4-Ingredient Magic Meat Sauce
The four ingredients are as follows: ground beef (duh), onion, garlic, and broth. In the video, Melissa used bone broth; I chose to use beef broth, although I think you could use any kind of broth you have on hand, or even just water if you adjust the seasoning accordingly. This list doesn’t count what we consider freebies: salt, pepper, and olive oil.
You start by heating a little olive oil, say a tablespoon or two, in a pan or pot that has a fitted lid (I used a Dutch oven). Then add your ground beef and start browning it and breaking it up into smaller pieces, as you would for any meat sauce or taco filling. Now for the “magic” part.
In a blender—not a food processor—blend an entire onion and several cloves of garlic with broth or water. You want enough liquid in there so that it can completely blend, not just chop into pieces as it would in a food processor. I was very skeptical about this part.
The food scientist part of my brain knows that when you start to cut an onion, the onion’s cell walls break down, releasing its tear-jerking components. Therefore the theory goes, the finer you cut an onion, the more cell walls break down, and the more pungent the onion. Blending completely eviscerates these cell walls, so I thought this would make it bitter or way too pungent. I was so wrong.
This magic mixture was certainly pungent—I wouldn’t recommend sticking your head in for a sniff—but once it was incorporated in with the meat, I found it caramelized super fast, and created a uniform, thickened mix within the first ten minutes of simmering. A slurry is typically a mixture of a starch (like corn starch) and a liquid used to thicken sauces, soups, and stews. Something about the blending process changed the fibrous makeup of the onion and garlic, making it work as a sort of thickening agent in the sauce.
The depth of flavor is impressive. After simmering for just 30 minutes, it tasted as though it had been braising for hours. In the video, Melissa says you can simmer it, covered, for a few hours, but the recipe states even 30 minutes works, and I have to agree. In fact, after trying it at the half-hour mark, I kept going in for taste after taste, burning my tongue several times in the process (worth it!).
Taste testing the sauce on a tortilla chip, like Melissa did.
Courtney Kassel/Allrecipes
And flavor itself was superb, albeit a bit neutral. Since it doesn’t have any spices added (Melissa added a bit of paprika for red color), it is a kind of blank canvas. But its neutrality is actually a strength, making this meat sauce incredibly versatile. I could just as easily see this served atop pasta or a hot dog as I could see it working as a filling for tacos, burritos, or enchiladas. We decided to add some chili powder and tuck it into burritos for dinner to absolutely delicious results.
Hot tip: The worst part of the recipe is that you have to clean your blender after, but luckily I have a great hack for that. Fill your blender pitcher a little less than half-way with hot water and add a little dish soap. Then simply cover and blend! Rinse with hot water and your blender is as good as new.
I was thoroughly impressed by this technique and will be adding it to my weekly recipe rotation this fall and winter. I will even try doubling it so I can prep a big batch at a time, then use it in different dishes throughout the week. You can find the full recipe on Baked by Melissa’s website.
