This kid-friendly easy beef taco casserole recipe lets you cook up a whole bunch of cheesy tacos all at once. Perfect for Cinco de Mayo!
Hey everyone! These days I am all about celebrating everything that can be celebrated, and guess what is coming up soon? Cinco de Mayo!
I love so many of the delectable flavors of Mexican food (even made in a completely inauthentic Irish girl way, as in this scrumptious and easy beef taco casserole). I can’t believe it was barely two months ago that we were sitting next to this gorgeous beach in Puerto Vallarta with these dear ones.
Happy days like those will come again one day, but until then I am trying to enjoy both the memories and the simple day to day things. I’ve been spending a lot of time in this chair with this blanket and a good book.
…and cooking and baking up all the comfort foods I can think of. In this case, comfort food comes in the form of a warm and wonderful casserole full of beef and cheese and tacos and YUM.
Here’s how you make this easy beef taco casserole!
Start by cooking up some ground beef with some of your favorite salsa – any kind you like and have on hand – and some taco spices.
Take a little more of that salsa and mix it up with some whipped cream cheese, and spread it all over the bottom of a casserole. This is going to let you stick a bunch of crunchy taco shells into the casserole without falling over.
I used a 13 x 9 inch casserole, and used this configuration, but you be you. However you organize your taco shells is going to be A-OK.
Now divide your beef mixture between those shells, and top each one with shredded cheese. Be generous. :)
Pop the casserole in the oven and cook it up until the cheese is nice and melty. The taco shells are going to get nice and soft on the bottom and stay crunchy on the top, which is pretty much the best of both worlds, taco shell-wise.
Scoop out a couple of tacos per person and give them a generous dollop of sour cream and scatter on some scallions. And there you go!
I have a bunch of other Cinco de Mayo recipes here, but once way or the other, make sure you celebrate. Even if it’s just with a strawberry margarita – we need all the good cheer we can get!
Stay safe and healthy and home. Sending love!
PrintEasy Beef Taco Casserole
This kid-friendly easy beef taco casserole recipe lets you cook up a whole bunch of cheesy tacos all at once. Perfect for Cinco de Mayo!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Stovetop, Oven
- Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- One 1.25 ounce package taco spices (see note)
- 1 16 ounce jar of your favorite salsa
- 1 8 ounce container whipped cream cheese
- 12 hard taco shells
- 2 cups shredded cheddar or Mexican blend cheese
- Sour cream for garnish
- 4 scallions, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 and get out a 13 x 9 inch casserole.
- Cook ground beef over medium high heat in a large skillet until browned. Stir in taco spices and half the salsa and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Combine the remaining salsa with the cream cheese and spread over the bottom of the casserole. Stand the taco shells up in the casserole.
- Divide the beef mixture among the 12 taco shells, and top each taco with cheese. Bake for 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted.
- Remove the casserole and top the tacos with spoonfuls of sour cream. Scatter with scallions and serve!
Notes
If you can’t get/don’t have packaged taco spice mix, here’s a version you can make at home from Spend With Pennies!
Keywords: kid-friendly easy beef taco casserole
Nancy says
Not tried yet, but as only hard corn shells are all that’s available, this may just work! I’m so close to buying a taco press (had one but never used it so it went) but haven’t yet!
Missing Mexican so will give this a try!
Thanks for all the lovely recipes!
Be safe!
Hi Nancy! I’ve been thinking about getting a taco press myself! In the meantime, so happy you are going to give this one a try…you stay safe and healthy too! :)
Theresa Murphy says
This looks really good! I made “regular” tacos earlier this week and, as luck would have it, I bought an extra box of shells! So, yeah me! I’m wondering if I can use an 8 oz block of cream cheese, softened, and “whip” it myself instead of the tub cream cheese? Worth a try! Thanks for keeping us in comfort food, Kate!
Hi my friend! I don’t see any reason why you can’t whip that cream cheese yourself – let me know how that comes out, okay? Stay healthy and xoxo!