Barbecue Beef Cups

"Beef. It's what's for dinner." 

More specifically, barbecue beef, in a biscuit,  then covered in cheese.

That's it folks. That's really it, and it's perfection. The original recipe calls for canned biscuits, but I try to be a homemade person when it's easy enough to make it myself rather than buying it. It used to be easier for me to use store-bought biscuits, but after making my grandma's mile-high baking powder biscuits enough times, they're just as easy to whip up, especially if you don't have store-bought biscuits on hand.

This recipe is honestly so easy and so worth it. You brown a pound of ground beef, dump in a cup of cheese and a cup of barbecue sauce. You flatten out some biscuit dough and fit it in muffin cups, then fill them with the beef mixture and top with even more cheese. What makes this even better, is that they only take 10 minutes in the oven. Winner winner, beef dinner.

Whip up a batch of baking powder biscuits, and cut them out using a nifty cutter, or the rim of a glass. Flatten out the biscuits so they fit into a muffin tin while your ground beef is browning. For easy removal I suggest spraying the muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray.

Sometimes ground beef literally makes me gag when the fat isn't drained and it's just left to soak into the meat. So when I brown the beef I always tilt my pan to one side and use a paper towel (or two or three) to soak up the excess grease. 

Once the beef is cooked through, add a cup of your favorite barbecue sauce. I HIGHLY recommend using Sweet Baby Ray's original sauce. I have made these using a cheaper version of barbecue sauce and the end result just wasn't the same. If however, you have a different barbecue sauce you and your family love, maybe you will like that the best. 

Now, the original recipe only calls for topping the beef cups with cheese, but since my philosophy is that more cheese is always better, I not only top the cups with cheese, but mix in a cup of cheese as well.

 If you have a large cookie scoop or something similar, it makes for easy scooping into the biscuit cups. The original recipe says that you may have some meat leftover once you fill the cups. To me that seems like such a waste. However, by using my own biscuit dough in this recipe I'm able to make more than 12 cups and none of the meat goes to waste.  

After topping these generously with cheese, bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes at 375 degrees.

Barbecue Beef Cups

1 lb ground beef

1 cup shredded cheese

1 cup Sweet Baby Ray's Barbecue Sauce

   shredded cheese for topping

For Biscuits:

2 cups flour

2 tablespoons sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 cup butter, margarine, or shortening

1 egg beaten

2/3 cup milk

Sift dry ingredients. Add shortening and blend. Mix milk and egg into flour mixture until mixed. Roll 3/4 inch thick. Cut with cutter. Flatten biscuits into muffin tin. Makes about 18 cups.

Brown ground beef and drain. Once ground beef is cooked, add 1 cup barbecue sauce and 1 cup shredded cheese. Heat through and until cheese is melted. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Fill cups with beef mixture. Top generously with shredded cheese. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Enjoy while warm. These make great next-day leftovers and also freeze well. 

*This recipe has been adapted from http://life-in-the-lofthouse.com/barbecue-cups/