Taco night has never been so delicious! Our Baked Tacos are made with a blend of seasoned beef, refried beans and salsa tucked in between layers of cheese. Make these tacos for your next party or holiday or just an every day dinner at home.
Why You’ll Love These Baked Tacos
If you’ve never sunk your teeth into a baked taco, here’s your chance. A baked taco is, of course, a taco that’s been baked with all the filling inside.
So instead of making taco meat and then setting aside grated cheese, beans and salsa for everyone to make individual tacos, it’s already done.
A ground beef filling mixed with refried beans and salsa gets stuffed into taco shells, nestled in between layers of cheese and baked. You end up with an incredibly crispy dish of tacos that everyone can dig into at the same time.
How To Make
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.
- 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.
- Assemble: After you make the ground beef filling, place 10 taco shells in a 9″ x 13″ baking dish as pictured above. Use the “Stand N’ Stuff” taco shells if you can as they 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 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 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 Can I 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.
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Baked Tacos
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeThese crispy Baked Tacos are always a favorite dinner! Super crunchy shells stuffed with a cheese, bean and beef filling. Super fun for parties and easy enough for every day meals!
Ingredients
- 10 Stand n’ Stuff taco shells
- 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 1/2 tablespoons taco seasoning
- 1 cup refried beans
- 1/2 cup chunky 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. 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.
- 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
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
