Get Ready for Taco Night with this DIY Cheesy Taco Casserole

Something else I really love are tacos. They totally rock. I love hot soft flour tortillas, with a saucy beefy and cheesy mixture and add all the toppings! I always say that with tacos the messier the better! When the sauce drips down your arm that’s how you know you’ve made your filling right! Let me know in the comments if you love the joy of messy tacos!

Once many moons ago I had the idea of doing something daring. Normally you get your tacos already assembled and served to you right? As I was making my tacos, my beef mixture was looking amazing, but I wanted to just have that beef waiting for me and the cheese molten over it, as if I were making a lasagna or a pizza! Instead of assembling my tacos right there and then, I transferred the beef mixture into a casserole, grated the cheese on top, and tossed that casserole in the oven. I heated up my tortillas on the stove with a wire rack and got my toppings ready on the side. Here was the result.

From that moment on, my dream was to make a boatload of that beef and cheese mixture, have a ton of tortillas ready to go, and just have an epic self-serve feast of tacos. I wanted to have limitless tortillas and just keep them coming! Well, when I made and recorded this cheesy taco casserole recipe last night, I fulfilled my dream, and perhaps now this is going to be a dream of yours. Sounds like fun right? Well, make that dream come true for dinner tonight and enjoy this totally customizable and absolutely delicious taco casserole! This will transform the way you see traditional beef tacos! Let’s get to it!

Tools Needed

• Nonstick pan
• Wooden spoon
• Measuring cups
• Casserole dish
• Wire rack
• Cutting board
• Chef's knife
• Garlic press

Ingredients for Cheesy Taco Casserole Bake & Substitutes

• Ground beef: Use whatever leanness of ground beef you’d like. I’m using extra lean ground beef, but you wouldn’t go wrong with lean or even medium ground beef for more juiciness! If you don’t eat beef, feel free to substitute with pork, chicken, turkey or even lamb.
• Salt: A must to season your food! Use to taste.
• Onions: I love onions, and I recently realized I use them so often! I think I eat an onion a day! My favorite onions are red onions because I find they add such a perfect sweetness to any dish. They nicely complement the beef here. Feel free to use any onion of your choice.
• Tomatoes: If you don’t have fresh tomatoes, you could substitute with canned diced tomatoes.
• Garlic: Fresh minced garlic will be used to make our beef mixture. However, if you don’t have fresh garlic, you can substitute with granulated garlic.
• Tomato paste: I’m using a touch of tomato paste to add some richness and sweetness to our beef taco mixture. Furthermore, it helps to reduce the cooking time of the meat.
• Olive oil: Used to cook the beef filling. You can use vegetable oil if you’d like.
• Taco seasoning: I’d rather make my own taco seasoning, but feel free to purchase a ready-made blend. Check out my Excellent Quick and Easy Homemade Taco Seasoning recipe if you’re interested in making your own!
• Cheese: In this cheesy taco meat bake recipe, I’m using a combination of cheddar cheese and mozzarella cheese. I’ve used medium cheddar here for that rich taste, and I love combining it with part skim mozzarella for the gooeyness and cheese pulls you’ll get! For serving at the table, I’ve grated some extra cheddar cheese. You could also use a pre-shredded Mexican cheese blend if you’d like, or substitute the mozzarella with provolone. Other options for cheddar could be old cheddar, white cheddar, or even smoked applewood cheddar!
• Water: As needed to make your sauce as thick or thin as you’d like.
• Flour tortillas: You can use tortillas of any size, but here I chose to use mini tortillas to make the experience more fun! You can have a ton of these mini tortillas and stuffing them to the max is seriously so awesome! I definitely recommend these! Also feel free to use corn tortillas if you’d like.
• Cilantro: Just a few leaves for garnish to brighten up our casserole.

How to Make Cheesy Taco Casserole with Ground Beef

How to Make the Beef Mixture

1. Heat a pan on medium heat and add olive oil. Once hot, add the onions and sauté until it starts to turn soft.
2. Add the ground meat and using a wooden spoon, break any large chunks of meat.
3. Add garlic, mix well and then add taco seasoning, and salt to taste. Continue cooking and breaking any large chunks until the meat is no longer pink.
4. Add tomatoes, turn the heat down and mix well. Create a well in the center of the pan and add tomato paste. Cook for 1-2 minutes and then mix the tomato paste with the mince.
5. To make the mince saucier, add between 1/4 Cup to 1/2 Cup of water and simmer until you have a thick sauce. Transfer the mince to a large enough casserole.
6. Sprinkle the cheese over the top and transfer the casserole to the oven. Bake for 7-10 minutes or until the cheese is molten.

Assemble the Casserole & Bake

Preheat the oven to 400 F. You can prepare the beef mixture as the oven preheats.

Prepare the Tortillas

Lightly toast the tortillas on each side over a gas flame or if you have an electric stove, turn the heat on high, place a wire rack over the burner and heat the tortilla over the wire rack.

Alternatively, you can place the tortillas in the oven along with the casserole for 3-5 minutes.

Serve!

Your cheesy beefy taco bake is now ready! As your cheese gets molten in the oven, have your toppings and tortillas ready at the table! When you’re ready to serve, be sure to have a serving spoon and load up your tortillas by adding the beef mixture, avocado, Pico de Gallo, extra cheese, and/or any other toppings of your choice!

Storing Leftovers

If there are leftovers of the baked beef casserole, you can transfer them into an airtight container. They’ll stay fresh in the fridge for about two days. If you have leftover toppings, you can also store them in the fridge in the bowls or ramekins you’ve served them in, covered with saran wrap.

Reheating Instructions

To reheat the taco casserole, you could reheat in the microwave or in the oven. If you want to really re-create the casserole experience, then I recommend you reheat in the oven at 400 F, but if you just want to eat quickly, then reheating in the microwave for 2-3 minutes with a fresh sprinkling of cheese will do just fine! Feel free to enjoy leftovers family-style or to simply use in wraps, sandwiches, or to enjoy on their own!

Variations for Easy Cheesy Taco Casserole

• Make it spicier: In this cheesy taco casserole recipe, I used 2 Tbsp of taco seasoning to make a spicier beef mixture! If you want a more mild flavor, then reduce the amount of taco seasoning to 1 Tbsp.
• Make it saucier: To make the mince saucier, add between 1/4 Cup to 1/2 Cup of water and simmer until you have a thick sauce.
• Other toppings: I really just wanted to enjoy the meat and cheese here, but I topped with some avocado slices, extra cheddar cheese, and my fresh homemade Authentic Pico de Gallo! Of course, you can feel free to do whatever you want! That’s the awesome part about self-serve right, and the beauty behind this recipe really is to assemble yourself! Here are some other topping ideas you could have: Incredible Easy Homemade Guacamole, sour cream, tomato salsa, Fresh Black Bean Salsa. In fact, you could even serve some Indian Style Spicy Chili Corn if you want to make this an exciting fusion taco! The options are endless!
• Switch the protein! Instead of using ground beef, you could replace it with lamb, pork, chicken or turkey. In fact, you could replace the ground beef with shredded chicken, pork, or cubed beef! Furthermore, you don’t even need to replace the ground beef! You could add the extra protein as a topping over your beef filling. Yum!
• Change the tortillas! I’m using flour tortillas because they’re my favorite. You could also use soft corn tortillas, or find a fun kind of tortilla! I’ve used jalapeno tortilla, tomato-basil tortillas, spinach tortillas… If you don’t want to use soft tortillas at all and instead want to use hard taco shells for this recipe, then you would heat them in the oven.

Tips for the Best Cheesy Taco Bake

A few small things take this taco bake from good to unforgettable:

• Brown the beef well: cook the ground beef in a large skillet over medium heat, breaking it up with a wooden spoon and stirring so it browns evenly into a rich, even meat mixture.
• Nail the texture: stir a splash of water into the seasoned beef and let it simmer until it's saucy but not watery, so the mixture holds together once it bakes.
• Don't overbake: after you grate the cheese on top, the casserole only needs a few minutes in the 400°F oven — pull it the moment the cheese is molten and bubbly so the beef stays juicy.
• Warm the tortillas last: toast them on a gas flame or in the oven right before serving so they're soft and pliable when everyone builds their plate.

Serving Suggestions and Favorite Toppings

The best part of a taco bake is that it's totally customizable — set everything out and let everyone assemble their own plate:

• Build a toppings bar: diced avocado, sliced black olives, shredded lettuce, pico de gallo, sour cream, and extra grated cheddar all make great additions.
• Scoop it up: warm flour tortillas are my go-to, but a bowl of crunchy tortilla chips is perfect for scooping the cheesy beef straight from the casserole.
• Fresh finish: a shower of chopped cilantro and a squeeze of lime brighten up all that rich, molten cheese.

More Taco Casserole Questions