Taco night has never been so easy and so tasty! Our Baked Tacos are made with a blend of seasoned beef, refried beans and salsa tucked in between layers of cheese. Make these oven baked tacos for your next party or holiday or a fun, every day dinner at home with the family.
Why You’ll Love These Baked Tacos
We started making these when I needed a easy way to feed our taco obsessed family. Once I saw how the shells crisped up so perfectly and how the cheese melted into every bite, we were sold. Bonus: cleanup is a breeze!
- Easy Tacos For A Crowd: Instead of everyone gathering around and assembling all of their individual tacos, make a tray of these baked tacos and have dinner done all at once.
- Extra Crispy Shells: When you bake tacos in the oven, the shells are extra crispy and extra tasty.
- Customizable: Use your favorite protein or keep it vegetarian with extra beans.
Ingredients You’ll Need
A list of the primary ingredients you’ll need, with some substitutions if applicable. For a complete list of ingredients with amounts needed, head to the recipe card below.
- Ground Beef: We like to use a 85% lean ground beef for these tacos. You can also swap out ground turkey or chicken, even use leftover cooked chicken or a shredded rotisserie chicken.
- Shredded Cheddar Cheese: A go-to for tacos, of course. Other ideas could include Colby, Pepper Jack or Monterey Jack or even mozzarella for a milder flavor.
- Salsa: We prefer using a chunky salsa, but you can really use whatever kind you like. Spicy, or mild is totally up to you.
- Refried Beans: Regular or fat-free, again, that’s up to you. Just use whatever brand you normally buy, again, spicy or mild.
- Diced Green Chiles: Just for a bit of tang and a very mild heat. These are optional if you don’t want any heat at all but it is very mild and they do add a great flavor.
- Taco Seasoning: Buy the pack at the store, OR you can use our homemade Fajita Seasoning too!
How To Make Baked Tacos
Start out with a simple ground beef, bean and cheese filling to stuff the tacos. It only takes a few minutes to make in a skillet. Or you can use our Homemade Taco Meat recipe and stir in the refried beans and salsa.
- Make The Ground Beef Filling: Spray a skillet with non-stick cooking spray. Add the ground beef and cook while breaking up into crumbles until no pink remains. Drain any grease from the pan. Season the beef with the salt and taco seasoning, then add the refried beans and salsa and stir.
- Line Up The Shells: After you make the ground beef filling, place 10 taco shells in a 9″ x 13″ baking dish as pictured above. We like to use a taco shell with a flat bottom so they can easily sit in a baking dish without falling over.
- Add a layer of cheese to the bottom of each taco shell. The cheese provides a barrier between the shell and the meat so that the shell doesn’t get soggy as it bakes.
- Fill: Add the ground beef filling to each taco shell, followed by diced green chilis. Diced green chilis are very mild, but you can certainly leave them off these tacos if you prefer.
- Finish and Bake: Top the tacos with more shredded cheddar cheese and bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes. Just enough to warm the filling through and melt the cheese.
Can Baked Tacos Be Reheated?
While we love the fact that these baked tacos take all of the assembly away from taco night, they are best enjoyed right away. The taco shell will get a little soggy as it sits, but we have a solution for that too.
Leftover tacos can be reheated in an air fryer or the oven to bring back some of the crispiness in the taco shell. They won’t be as crispy as they were originally, but they will be crispy enough to enjoy.
Tips To Prevent Shells From Getting Soggy
Our first tip for getting crispy taco shells when making baked tacos is to add a layer of cheese to the bottom of the shell before adding the meat.
Some recipes call for adding a layer of black beans, but we wanted to come up with another solution since we know that everyone doesn’t want black beans in their tacos. The more beans the better in our house, but we aim to please everyone.
Another tip for getting the taco shells super crispy is to bake them for a few minutes in the oven before adding any of the filling.
Can You Make These Tacos In An Air Fryer?
Yes. In fact, using an air fryer to cook baked tacos results in the most crispy taco shell. Depending on the size of your air fryer, you might need to cook the tacos in 2 batches, but they cook super fast so that really shouldn’t be much of a time issue.
What To Serve With Tacos
Tacos are a meal on their own, but we do enjoy our side dishes! Here’s some of our favorite sides that go well with tacos.
Looking For More Mexican Inspired Dinner Recipes?
We do love our Tex-Mex dinner nights, in fact it’s one of our most requested cuisines. Besides just having a taco night, try some of these other Mexican inspired options:
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Baked Tacos Recipe
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeEasy Baked Tacos with crispy shells, seasoned meat, and melty cheese. Perfect for a quick weeknight dinner or feeding a crowd for parties. After you try these delicious, oven baked tacos you won’t go back!
Ingredients
- 10 flat bottomed taco shells (Like Stand N’ Stuff®, you can use regular taco shells too, you just might need a couple more so that they don’t fall over)
- 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 1/2 tablespoons taco seasoning
- 1 cup refried beans
- 1/2 cup salsa
- 4 ounce can diced green chilis
- 2 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
- Guacamole, sour cream, cilantro, salsa for topping
Instructions
Oven Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Spray a skillet with non-stick cooking spray. Add the ground beef and cook while breaking up into crumbles until no pink remains. Drain any grease from the pan.
- Season the beef with the salt and taco seasoning, then add the refried beans and salsa and stir.
- Layer the taco shells in a 9″ x 13″ baking dish (use the photos in the post for reference). Take 1 cup of the cheese and divide it between the taco shells on the bottom of the shell. Next fill the taco shells with the ground beef filling, dividing between the ten taco shells. Top with the remaining 1 1/2 cups of cheese and bake for 10 minutes.
- Serve the tacos as is or top with guacamole, sour cream or salsa.
Air Fryer Instructions:
- Preheat your air fryer to 400 degrees if needed. Place as many of the tacos in the basket that will fit, ours will fit 6 but it depends on the size of your air fryer. Follow the same directions above for filling the shells.
- Cook for 3-4 minutes until the cheese is melted and the shells are crispy. *The air fryer cooking method produces the crispiest shells!
Recipe Notes
Pro Tip: Pre-bake the taco shells for an extra crispy shell!
Reheat: To reheat leftover tacos in the air fryer, place the tacos in the basket of your air fryer and heat at 400 degrees for 4 minutes until crispy. To reheat tacos in the oven, place the tacos on a baking sheet lined with foil and bake for 8 -10 minutes until crispy.
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American / Tex-Mex
