The Ultimate Baked Tacos – Creamy Ground Beef Baked Tacos
Baked tacos are becoming a regular weeknight meal around our house. Creamy ground beef baked tacos are made with corn or flour shells, ground beef, taco seasoning, cream cheese, and salsa and topped with shredded cheese. If you are looking for an easy ground beef dinner ideas, these tacos are so simple and also great for Taco Tuesday.
This recipe can be made with ground pork, shredded chicken, or even beans. The simplicity of the baked taco recipe is what makes it versatile as well. There is plenty of cheese in this recipe to also make the tacos a gooey, crunchy combination.
Ingredients for Baked Tacos
To make these cheesy baked tacos, you need many of the same ingredients for ground beef tacos or ground beef enchiladas. I recommend some specific ingredients to help make these tacos even easier to make.
The ingredients you will need to make creamy baked tacos are:
- Taco Meat – Ground beef, pork, turkey or chicken can be used for your taco meat. I personally combine a pound of ground beef with a pound of ground pork for the best-flavored taco meat.
- Taco Seasoning – Lots of great choices for taco seasoning. Use your favorite. I buy taco seasoning in bulk because we use so much. Sometimes I even mix ranch seasoning and taco seasoning for my taco meat.
- Cream Cheese – A block of cream cheese works best. If you have whipped cream cheese, it can also be used if that is all you have on hand.
- Restaurant Style Salsa – I am specific about this. Restaurant-style salsa isn’t chunky. The salsa is runnier and smoother. It is what is best for mixing into these tacos.
- Taco shells – While we are a soft taco family, these bake tacos are best with the Stand and Stuff hard taco shells.
How to Make Ground Beef Baked Tacos
Begin making these ground beef tacos just like you would regular tacos, by browning the hamburger or ground pork. Add taco seasoning to the meat according to the package directions after the beef is completely cooked. For my Penzey’s taco seasoning, I use a tablespoon of taco seasoning for a pound of ground beef.
When the meat is cooked, mix into the ground beef cream cheese and salsa. Restaurant-style salsa works better for this recipe as there are not as many tomato chunks. However, the chunky style salsa will work just fine. Softened cream cheese mixes easiest into the meat. If it isn’t softened, pop the cream cheese into the microwave for 30 seconds to soften it up.
When the creamy ground beef mixture is done, place the taco shells in a 13X9 pan or a rectangular casserole pan. Place them close enough together so they help stand each other up. Also, put them across the top of the pan to fill it up with as many tacos as possible.
Then put the cheesy ground beef mixture into the tacos, filling them about half full. Spread the mixture out so it is filling the shell from end to end for the maximized taco-eating experience.
Finally, top the tacos off with shredded Mexican cheese blend. A cheddar, pepper jack, or colby-jack cheese would also work well on top of the meat mixture. Cover the ground beef completely with cheese.
Then bake the ground beef tacos for 10 minutes at 350°. The cheese will be completely melted while the taco shells will begin to brown from the baking. Every oven runs differently, so keep an eye on the tacos while they bake.
The Ultimate Baked Tacos
While the tacos are baking, get your taco toppings ready. We love sour cream, pico de Gallo, lettuces, and guacamole on our tacos. Load the tacos up individually or completely in the pan.
These tacos have quickly become our normal Taco Tuesday recipe. I make two pans of baked tacos since the first pan is gone before I get one for myself.
Easy Mexican Dinner Ideas
Creamy Chicken Tacos – Baked Chicken Tacos
Low-Carb Queso Fajitas – Cheesy Chicken Fajitas
Instant Pot Low-Carb Taco Soup
Crock Pot Chipotle Shredded Beef
Creamy Ground Beef Baked Tacos
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 tablespoon taco seasoning
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- 1 cup salsa
- 8 crunchy taco shells
- 1 cup shredded Mexican cheese blend
- taco toppings
Instructions
- Brown the ground beef in a skillet. When cooked completely, add the taco seasoning and stir together.
- Mix the cream cheese and salsa with the cooked taco meat.
- Place the taco shells in a rectangular baking dish. Then fill half full with the meat mixture. Top with the shredded cheese.
- Bake the taco for 10 minutes at 350° or until the cheese is melted and shells turning brown around the edges.
- Top the tacos with your favorite taco toppings like lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, and avacado.
Nutrition
Shared on Weekend Potluck
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Delicious! I did play with it a little and used ground turkey, added Rotel Tomatoes, half cream cheese and Frontera Taco Skillet Sauce. Baked them off and topped with avocado and lettuce and more hot sauce . Spicy and absolutely filling. Thank you!
Oh that sounds good too! So glad you had an easy dinner:)
These were a definite hit at our house! We could only find ranch flavor stand up tacos, but they were amazing!