This taco casserole is layers of tortilla chips, refried beans and beef, all topped with plenty of cheese and baked to perfection. Add your favorite taco fixings such as lettuce, tomato and olives for a hearty and family friendly meal!
My family loves a comfort food dinner, they’re always requesting crockpot meatloaf, Instant Pot pot roast, turkey casserole, beef noodle casserole, chicken and rice casserole and this festive taco casserole. You can never go wrong with tacos!
I love to do taco night for dinner, but sometimes when I’m in a hurry, I just layer all the ingredients in a dish and bake them together, which is how this taco casserole came to be. This recipe has all of the components of tacos in the form of a cheesy casserole. You can even add your favorite taco fixings on top to take this dish to the next level!
Table of Contents
Taco Casserole Ingredients
To make this recipe, you will need olive oil, ground beef, onion, taco seasoning, diced tomatoes, tortilla chips, refried beans, cheddar cheese, and whatever toppings you’d like to add after the casserole is baked.
How Do You Make Taco Casserole?
This recipe starts with ground beef, which is cooked in a skillet with onions, tomatoes and taco seasoning. A layer of crushed tortilla chips goes into the bottom of a casserole dish, and is topped with refried beans. The next step is to add your layer of beef, and plenty of shredded cheese. Bake your casserole until it’s bubbling and the cheese is melted, then add some fresh toppings and serve.
Tips For Taco Casserole
- I typically use 90% lean ground beef, it has plenty of flavor but is not overly greasy. If you use beef with a higher fat content, you may need to drain excess grease from the pan after it is cooked.
- I recommend grating your own cheese instead of using the pre-shredded variety. The bagged grated cheese is often coated with anti caking agents and does not melt as well as freshly shredded cheese.
- This dish can easily be doubled for a crowd and makes for great leftovers.
- To crush your tortilla chips, place them in a resealable bag and use a rolling pin or meat mallet. You want your chips to be coarsely crushed, about 1/4 inch sized pieces.
Quick Tip
Use an offset spatula to make it easier to spread the beans into the pan.
Taco Casserole Variations
There are so many different ways to customize this casserole to your tastes.
- Protein: Use cooked diced chicken or ground turkey instead of beef.
- Cheese: Try pepper jack or Monterey Jack cheese instead of cheddar for a different flavor.
- Chips: Instead of regular tortilla chips, try a flavored chip such as nacho cheese chips, or you can use a layer of flour or corn tortillas on the bottom.
- Beans: Use black beans or pinto beans instead of refried beans.
- Seasonings: Add extra zest with hot sauce, cumin, chili powder and garlic powder.
- Vegetables: You can add extra vegetables to your beef mixture such as bell peppers or corn.
- Toppings: You can top your casserole with black olives, sour cream, avocado, salsa, guacamole, more crushed chips, pickled jalapenos, green onions or cilantro.
Recipe FAQs
If you have a larger portion of casserole that you’re looking to reheat, you can place it in a baking dish, cover it with foil and bake at 325 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until heated through. If you’re looking to reheat a single portion, microwave it in 30 second increments until hot.
Taco casserole will stay fresh in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 3 days. I don’t recommend freezing this dish as the chip layer may be soggy when thawed.
FOLLOW ME
This casserole is such a fun and easy way to do taco night. I find myself making it on a regular basis because my kids can’t get enough of it! Add some steamed vegetables on the side and you’ll have a dinner that will earn you rave reviews.
More Great Mexican Food Recipes
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Taco Salad Recipe
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Love This Recipe?
Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating in the recipe card below & a review in the comments section further down the page.
Taco Casserole
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1 pound ground beef I use 90% lean
- 1/2 cup onion finely diced
- 1 packet taco seasoning
- 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes do not drain
- 1 1/4 cups tortilla chips crushed
- 16 ounce can refried beans
- 1 1/4 cups cheddar cheese shredded
- Toppings such as shredded lettuce, diced tomato and sliced olives
- cooking spray
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9 inch square pan or 2 quart baking dish with cooking spray.
- Heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium high heat. Add the ground beef and cook for 5-6 minutes, breaking up the meat with a spatula.
- Add the onion and cook for an additional 3-4 minutes or until onion is translucent.
- Stir in the taco seasoning and diced tomatoes. Simmer for 3-4 minutes.
- Place a layer of tortilla chips in the bottom of the prepared pan. Spread a layer of refried beans over the top.
- Pour the beef mixture over the beans and top with the cheese.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes or until cheese is melted.
- Add toppings if desired, then serve.
Notes
- I typically use 90% lean ground beef, it has plenty of flavor but is not overly greasy.
- I recommend grating your own cheese instead of using the pre-shredded variety. The bagged grated cheese is often coated with anti caking agents and does not melt as well as freshly shredded cheese.
- To crush your tortilla chips, place them in a resealable bag and use a rolling pin or meat mallet.
I had a package of corn tortillas that were cracked and couldn't be used for taco's. So I broke them up and I used my crock pot. I did 2 layers. Since the crock pot add its own moisture, I put parchment paper between casserole and lid so it wouldn't become soggy. It turned out delicious. Next time I won't cook it as long. But using the crock pot in summer helps bc I can plug it in, in the garage so not to heat up the house. This is a big hit. It's definitely going into the menu rotation. I think I'll use nacho chips next time. Thank you for this delicious recipe.
I'm going to make this tonight. I have plain Tortilla chips, but I think I'll use nacho chips instead. I'm hoping it turns out well in the crock pot. I don't like using the oven in summer, but I love anything Taco 😁 and this looks and sounds amazing. Thx
Made this tonight! It was so good! We used a mix of beans!
could you add a layer of rice in here?
Yes that would be delicious!
Do you drain and mash the black beans ?
You would rinse and drain black beans. You can either mash them or leave them whole!
I would like to know could you rinse the black beans?
This was GREAT! Satisfied four teenaged boys. My only question...am I the only one that found it impossible to spread refried beans on the tortilla chips?? I had to heat the beans up and smoosh them on the chips. Still tasted great.
I also heated up the beans to spread them, then used an offset spatula to gently spread them around!
I heated the beans and mixed a little sour cream and salsa, spread really easy.
I just made this tonight and topped it with shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, diced avocado, sour cream and sliced black olives. It was A huge hit with all my family members. My 19 year old son who is very picky ate 3 heaping helpings and my 16 year old so. Had two and my 13 year old who isn’t a big Mexican food fan even cleaned his plate. It’s a keeper for sure!
Great recipe !!! You rock!!!!!!
Hi, Was wondering but could you make this dish and freeze it for future use? Im looking for casseroles where I can prepare , freeze and then reheat at a later time to save time.
You could do that, just be aware the chip layer on the bottom will turn soft after being frozen!
What a great dish for Cinco de Mayo! My friends would love this; glad I saw this recipe!
Tried this with ground chicken, added a dollop of guacamole and used low carb tortillas for an excellent Taco Tuesday meal. For my carb conscious guests, it hit the spot!
This will quickly become a favorite in our house!
Can't wait to dive into this! Love all the flavors going on and I'm so excited to make this!
This looks like my kinda dinner, I love Mexican!
I love taco everything! I am sure I will love this recipe!
WOW!! This looks incredible!! I bet it tastes ahhmaazing!! YUM!!
I’m a HUGE fan of tacos and casseroles, so when they’re combined in one, you better believe I’m in heaven! Thank you!!!
This sounds delish. We are going to party in a couple of weeks and i am taking this cass for sure!
I will be adding this to my dinner line up for the week! This looks amazing!