Taco Bake
A casserole of crushed tortilla chips, taco beef, beans, salsa and cheese baked for 25 minutes until bubbling and golden.
Don't Make These Mistakes
Cook the beef until nearly dry.
Crush the chips roughly rather than to crumbs.
Add the cold toppings after baking.
Making Taco Bake
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Heat the oven to 190°C / 375°F. Brown the beef in a large pan for 8 minutes, breaking it up.
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Stir in the taco seasoning and water and simmer for 5 minutes until nearly dry. Add the beans and salsa.
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Spread half the chips in a 3 litre baking dish. Add half the beef mixture and a third of the cheese. Repeat the layers, finishing with the last of the cheese.
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Bake for 25 minutes until bubbling and golden.
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Top with the lettuce, tomatoes and soured cream and serve.
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Why It Works
Tortilla chips, taco beef, beans, cheese: that is the whole list, and the oven does the rest. A taco bake takes everything a good taco has and stacks it in one dish, with the chips standing in for the shell and softening just enough to hold the layers together. Everything goes in one dish.
Brown the beef with the seasoning and a little water, and cook until the pan is nearly dry. Stir in the beans and salsa. Crush the chips only roughly, leaving some pieces about the size of a thumbnail; fine crumbs turn to paste in the sauce, but chunky pieces keep some bite.
Layer chips and filling in a baking dish, finishing with cheese, and bake until the cheese is bubbling and the edges are crisp. The dish can be topped, after baking, with whatever a taco would have: lettuce, tomato, soured cream, jalapeños and a squeeze of lime. Serve it straight from the dish with a big spoon. Leftovers reheat well.
Storage and Reheating
Keeps for 3 days in the fridge. The chips soften; reheat in a hot oven.
Serving Taco Bake
- Lime wedges
- Guacamole
- Rice
- Pickled jalapeños
Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Buttermilk Biscuits, New York Bagels, Creamy Coleslaw.
The Numbers per Serving
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published .
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