This beef and bean taco casserole is a fun twist on taco night, and is a great way to feed a crowd or hungry family! Freezer-friendly, this recipe is also great for meal-prepping or taking to a friend in need!
If you’re looking for an amazing way to jazz up a regular taco night, this beef taco casserole is the recipe for you! A mixture of seasoned ground beef and black beans is mixed with salsa and cheese, then baked until hot and bubbly. Play around with toppings like shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, sliced black olives, jalapeño slices and more! My favorite topping is some crunchy Fritos corn chips… it gives this taco casserole a “walking taco” feel, which my kids just love!
It seems like every region here in the U.S. has a type of food that it’s known for. Here in the Midwest, I think if there’s one thing we’re known for, it’s the casserole. Of course, other places in the country serve up casseroles too, but Midwesterners will turn anything and everything into a casserole!
Dishes like this beef taco casserole are amazing because they’re easy to put together, make-ahead/freezer-friendly, they’re ultra comforting, and kids love them.
Doesn’t that make you just want to dig in?
WHAT IS A TACO CASSEROLE
It’s everything you love about tacos, but in a super-comforting casserole form. My version uses ground beef, and that 2 pounds of meat is stretched farther by using black beans as well. Normally I use a package of taco seasoning, but if you have a homemade seasoning blend that you love, feel free to use that!
IS TACO CASSEROLE HEALTHY
As written, this recipe isn’t exactly healthy or figure-friendly, but with a few substitutions you could make it lighter. Swapping regular ground beef for extra lean ground beef, or even ground turkey would be a great way to make this taco casserole healthier. I promise, you won’t even be able to tell! Using reduced-fat shredded cheese is another way to lighten up the dish. Also, to reduce the sodium content, make sure you’re using reduced-sodium canned ingredients.
Feel free to play around with the toppings too… whatever you like on your tacos, will go perfectly on top of this casserole!
CAN YOU MAKE THIS TACO CASSEROLE WITH DORITOS
Ohhhh absolutely! Nacho cheese Doritos, Cool Ranch Doritos, regular tortilla chips, lime tortilla chips, chili cheese Fritos… the sky is the limit. My kids love the “walking taco” meal, which is where a lunch-box sized bag of Fritos is opened and topped with taco meat, cheese and toppings. This makes a portable taco salad, which is popular with kids everywhere! Topping this casserole with the Fritos makes this feel just like that, and my kids go crazy over it!
CAN YOU FREEZE TACO CASSEROLE
Yes! This taco casserole freezes beautifully, which makes it great for meal prepping, or even making a meal for a sick friend. To thaw, just set the casserole in your refrigerator overnight, and by dinner time the next day, it should be fully thawed. Full freezing instructions are below the recipe at the end of the post!
IS THIS TACO CASSEROLE SPICY
I would say this casserole is about a Medium heat level, as the jalapeño and green chiles add a bit of heat. If you’re looking to spice it up more…
- Add more than one jalapeño to the beef mixture, or don’t seed the peppers first
- Use medium or hot picante sauce
If you’re looking to tone down the heat and make it more mild…
- Swap out the jalapeño for a green bell pepper
- Make sure you use mild picante sauce
- Drizzle casserole with sour cream or Mexican crema to mask any heat
HELPFUL TOOLS
- Baking dish – this baking dish is a total workhorse for me!
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Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 lbs. ground beef (I usually use 80/20)
- 2 medium yellow onions, peeled and diced
- 2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and finely diced
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 pkg taco seasoning
- 1 - 2 (15 oz each) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
- 2 (4 oz each) cans diced green chiles, drained
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 5 Tbsp tomato paste
- 2 (16 oz each) jars picante sauce or salsa
- 3 cups Mexican blend shredded cheese, divided
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Spray a 9×13 or 3 quart baking dish with nonstick spray and set aside.
- Heat a large, deep skillet over medium high heat and add olive oil. Add ground beef and cook, crumbling with a wooden spoon or potato masher, until browned and mostly cooked, about 4-5 minutes.
- Add onion and jalapeno to beef. Cook, stirring often, until softened and fragrant, about 4 minutes. Add garlic and cook about 1 minute. Beef should be fully cooked and brown at this point.
- Drain any fat and return to skillet. Stir in taco seasoning, black beans, green chiles, salt, pepper, tomato paste and picante sauce. Cook 1-2 minutes.
- Set skillet aside and add 1 1/2 cups of shredded cheese.
- Transfer beef mixture to prepared baking dish and top with remaining 1 1/2 cups of cheese.
- Bake approximately 25 minutes, until hot and bubbly and cheese is melted. Top with desired toppings and serve!
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Chef Tips
Nutrition Disclaimer
The Chunky Chef is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.
DAKOTATEX says
I made this recipe last night. I did reduced the recipe quantities to 4 servings using the slide rule at the top of the recipe – (my wife and I like easy to re-heat leftovers but don’t need allot of leftovers!). It took a little while to do the math equivalents to ounces, cups or tablespoons on the recalculated quantities … but it was well worth it. Used a whole can of black beans and green chilies (both drained – rinsing the black beans but not the chilies) for 4 servings (I believe canned pinto beans (drained) might also work well as a substitute for black beans) and about 1/4 more cheese than I should have (I love cheese)! Nevertheless, excellent flavors and texture. Instead of topping casserole with various types of chips (fritos or doritos), we scooped the casserole into prepared “flat bottom” style taco shells, topped them off with additional picante sauce, julienne lettuce, with avocados and tomatoes slices. Your recipe tasted great and was simple as well as excellent. Thank you so much for the “development” work. This will be added to my recipe file and shared with friends/family! It was an entire “tex-mex” meal in a taco shell! One side note – I would suggest avocado might be a good side dressing for your recipe if it is eaten as a casserole – otherwise – put them on top of a filled taco shell! Again, thank you so much.
Karen says
Can the black beans be swapped out for something else? Maybe homemade refried beans OR canned “ranch style beans”? My family and I are not fond of black beans. In fact we hate them… HELP!? Thank you.
The Chunky Chef says
I’ve only tested this recipe as written. So without testing and retesting it myself, I can’t say for certain what would work best. I would say any other canned bean variety would work well though. If you try it, I’d love to know how it turns out!
Stephanie Soundy says
I tested this with pinto beans and salsa Verde and it was great!
Sharon says
This is really a really good dish. I cut the recipe in half since it’s just me. I will be freezing individual portions for later meals. I added a can of corn because I love corn 😃 I’ll definitely make this again.
Lauren says
I made this today and it’s delicious. I used 90/10 ground round, and I feel like it had plenty of flavor despite having a bit less fat. We topped ours with some crushed tortilla chips, sour cream, and cilantro, and it was truly fantastic. I will say that it’s very, very runny, but that’s probably my fault. When I make it again, which I’ll definitely be doing soon, I will try to use the extra thick salsa to reduce the liquid a bit. I’ll also try to be extra careful to get all the extra water out of the beans and chilis. Thanks so much!
Sandra | A Dash of Sanity says
It looks amazing! Adding this to our menu this week!
Erin | Dinners,Dishes and Dessert says
I need to try this immediately, it looks so good!
Delaney | Melanie Makes says
This is such a comforting dish!
I Heart Naptime says
Delicious! My family would love this!
Stephanie @TheCozyCook says
I seriously can’t keep looking at these pictures! This looks so good I can TASTE it, and what a fun way to stray from your typical weekday casserole! Mexican is me and my husband’s favorite so we’ll definitely be making this! Thanks for the idea!
Demeter says
Such a great meal to have in the freezer ready to go! I love how easy that makes getting dinner on the table.
Meghan @ Cake 'n Knife says
Now THIS is my kinda casserole! Love all the flavors and texture in this dish!
eat good 4 life says
Such a great party food. Perfect for summer parties!