Baked Tacos
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Crispy oven baked tacos! Made with hard taco shells, ground beef, taco seasoning, cheese, pico de gallo, sour cream + avocado!
Yes. The answer is always yes to cheesy crispy baked tacos, especially on those busy, busy nights during the week.
With some ground beef, taco seasoning, shredded cheese, and all of your favorite taco toppings, these bad boys come together lightening fast. And the key is crispifying those hard taco shells for a few minutes BEFORE you add your filling. It will truly make all of the difference.
From there, you’ll pop it back in the oven again until you have melted cheesy beefy goodness. And you can make this work with ground beef, ground pork, ground turkey or even ground chicken. It’s all good.
We love it with some pico de gallo, avocado slices, and a dollop of sour cream with a fresh squeeze of lime juice. Taco Tuesdays (or Wednesdays/Thursdays/Fridays) never looked so so good.
Baked Tacos: Frequently Asked Questions
Not at all! Ground pork or ground turkey can be used instead of ground beef.
You can use your favorite kind of hot sauce but we personally love Cholula.
You can serve with some of your favorite toppings – pico de gallo, avocado or guacamole, queso fresco or cotija cheese, shredded lettuce, jalapenos, lime wedges, or cilantro.
Baked Tacos
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 ¼ pounds lean ground beef
- 1 small onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 (1.25-ounce) package taco seasoning
- ¼ cup water or beer
- 2 teaspoons hot sauce, such as Cholula
- 12 hard taco shells
- 1 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese
For serving
- Pico de gallo
- Avocado
- Sour cream
- Cilantro
- Shredded lettuce
- Lime wedges
Instructions
- Heat vegetable oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Add ground beef and cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the beef as it cooks; drain excess fat.
- Add onion, and cook, stirring frequently, until translucent, about 2-3 minutes.
- Stir in garlic until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Stir in taco seasoning, water or beer and hot sauce until flavors have blended, about 2-3 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly oil a 9 x 13 baking dish or coat with nonstick spray.
- Place taco shells in a single layer, standing up, into the prepared baking dish. Place into oven and bake until crispy, about 3-4 minutes.
- Working carefully, add 1/4 cup ground beef mixture to each taco shell; sprinkle with cheese.
- Place into oven and bake until cheese has melted, about 4-5 minutes.
- Serve immediately with desired toppings.
Video
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My Family loved these – and so easy for a quick weeknight meal!
These are the best tacos we have ever made. They are actually better than any from a restaurant and any frozen from a grocery store. They are easy to make. We do fry in Crisco and shape into a taco. The rest of the directions we follow totally.
We love hearing that, Pamila! Thank you so much for sharing.
I’ve been doing this for years, but I put the cheese in the taco shell before the meat. I find this keeps the fold in the shell from becoming soggy and tearing apart.
Excellent idea.
@damn delicious what kind of taco seasoning do you like best ?
We use McCormick taco seasoning.