Walking Taco Casserole takes your favorite picnic food and turns it into a delicious casserole that is perfect for a family dinner.
In our house, taco night could be every night and we would be very happy. If your family is like that, you will love this delicious spin on walking tacos. In this recipe we take all the fixings for walking tacos and put it into a taco casserole everyone will love.
Make sure you check out my section below on substitutions and variations so you can tweak this exactly to your family’s liking.
How to Make Walking Taco Casserole
This is a brief overview of how to put together this simple and delicious casserole. For the full recipe with all of the measurements, see the recipe card at the bottom of the post.
- Sauté the vegetables. We are adding a green bell pepper and an onion to this dish. Give them a good sauté over medium heat until they are soft.
- Brown the ground beef. Add it to the skillet and once it is browned, drain the fat and add in taco seasoning.
- Put the casserole together. Add the beef and vegetables to a 9 by 13 inch pan with pinto beans, salsa, diced tomatoes, and diced chilies. Top with corn chips and cheese.
- Bake the casserole. After baking, top with any additional taco toppings that your family enjoys.
Walking Taco Casserole Toppings
When making this, the sky is really the limit in terms of what you want to add on top. It is best with some toppings. Here are a few ideas to get you started.
- Sour Cream
- Taco Sauce
- Pickled Jalapeños
- Shredded Lettuce
- Diced Tomatoes
- Black Olives
- Cilantro
- Green Onions
Homemade Taco Seasoning
We love our recipe for homemade taco seasoning and have used nothing but that for years now. The recipe that I have comes in two sizes, a small batch which will replace the packet you get from the grocery store and a larger batch to keep on hand. If you make the larger batch you will want to just pull out three tablespoons each time a recipe calls for a packet of taco seasoning.
Homemade Taco Seasoning
Shredded Cheese
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I urge you to shred your own cheese when making this recipe. It is so convent to buy a bag of shredded cheese, but the thing that keeps it as individual shreds in the bag is preservatives. Those same preservatives make it really hard to melt.
Substitutions and Variations
One of my favorite things about taco night is that everyone can make their dinner exactly to their liking. Just like with traditional chicken tacos, this walking taco casserole can be mixed up and changed to be made to your liking.
- Swap the ground beef for ground turkey. My family usually prefers ground turkey, and that is fine to use in this recipe. You will likely just need to add in an extra tablespoon of olive oil in the beginning.
- Take out the diced tomatoes. If you have someone in your house who doesn’t like tomato chunks, used crushed tomatoes here instead.
- Leave out the green bell pepper. If you, or someone in your family, is sensitive to bell peppers, just leave them out.
- Change the beans. I love pinto beans in this recipe, and even think my crockpot pinto beans would be a great way to add in more flavor. But you could swap them for black beans or kidney beans as well.
- Leave off the corn chips or swap them for something else. One of the things that makes a walking taco a walking taco is serving it in a bag of Frito corn chips. That being said, if you don’t like them, they can be completely left off of this recipe and you still have a great casserole. You could also swap them for tortilla chips or Doritos!
Making Ahead
If you would like to make this recipe ahead of time, you can make it up until the point that you are adding the corn chips and cheese. Cover the prepared casserole dish and refrigerate for up to 24 hours. When you are ready to bake it, take it out of the refrigerator, top it with corn chips and then cheese and put it in the oven uncovered for 10 to 15 minutes.
Baking from Frozen
Having frozen casseroles that you can pull out and pop in the oven is such a time saver! To freeze this casserole, make it in a disposable casserole dish. That way you do not risk breaking your beautiful glass or ceramic baking dish by taking it right from the cold freezer and putting it in the hot oven.
- Make the casserole up through the point of putting the ingredients in the casserole dish. Do not top with chips and cheese. In other words, stop half way through step five.
- Cover the disposable casserole dish in aluminum foil. Wrap three times with plastic wrap and put it in the freezer for up to three months.
- When you are ready to bake it, take it out of the freezer. Remove the plastic wrap and put it into an oven that has been preheated to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, covered with aluminum foil.
- Remove the casserole from the oven, remove the aluminum foil, top with chips and shredded cheese and put it back into the oven until the cheese is nice and melted, about 10 minutes.
Leftovers
Leftovers of this delicious ground beef casserole can be stored in the refrigerator in an air tight container for up to four days. You will want to avoid putting any tomatoes or shredded lettuce on your leftovers, and instead add those after reheating the casserole. To reheat, cover and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 2o to 25 minutes. As with any leftovers, use your best discretion.
Other Twists on Taco Night
- My Taco Pizza is a huge hit with the kids. I know they are going to love this in your house too.
- My Taco Salad is a favorite of mine. It’s a great way to get all the flavors but eat a little lighter.
- Our one pan Taco Casserole makes clean up an absolute breeze!
- My Taco Stuffed Shells combine two of our favorites – taco night and pasta!
If you make this Walking Taco Casserole or any of my other recipes, leave me a comment and let me know what you think!
Walking Taco Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 yellow onion diced
- 1 green bell pepper
- 1 pound ground beef (453.6 grams)
- 3 tablespoons taco seasoning or a 1 ounce packed from the grocery store
- 15.5 ounces pinto beans drained and rinsed (439 grams before draining)
- 1 cup salsa (259 grams)
- 14.5 ounces diced tomatoes drained (411 grams before draining)
- 4 ounces green chiles drained (113 grams before draining)
- 3 cups corn chips
- 2 cups cheddar cheese (226 grams)
- 2 Roma Tomatoes diced
- 1 cup lettuce shredded
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray a 9 by 13 inch baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.
- In a large skillet over medium heat the olive oil.1 tablespoon olive oil
- Add the onion and green bell pepper and cook until softened, about four minutes.1 yellow onion, 1 green bell pepper
- Add in the ground beef and cook until no longer pink. Drain any excess grease from the pan and then stir in the taco seasoning.1 pound ground beef, 3 tablespoons taco seasoning
- To the prepared baking dish add the beef and vegetables, pinto beans, salsa, diced tomatoes, and diced chiles. Mix to combine and then spread to an even layer. Top with Fritos. Cover with cheese.15.5 ounces pinto beans, 1 cup salsa, 14.5 ounces diced tomatoes, 4 ounces green chiles, 2 cups cheddar cheese, 3 cups corn chips
- Bake for 10 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly. Top with tomatoes, lettuce, and sour cream.
Ruthann Childress says
I love all your recipes and plan on doing more also do u have any mixed drinks recipe thank u for your great recipes that others can enjoy
We have a whole website dedicated to fun cocktails. You can find it here: ShakeDrinkRepeat.com
Kathy says
I always check out the recipes from you when I find them in my emails. If I am looking for a recipe or have a recipe question I first check out your web site to see if you have a recipe for it. Thanks for being so user friendly and show recipes so easy to follow.
Kathy, this made my whole week. I can’t tell you how much I needed this comment. Thank you.