This Taco Casserole Recipe is loaded with all of your Mexican favorites and topped with Doritos, Fritos, or Tortilla Chips! It’s easy to assemble days ahead of time and bake later for an easy dinner!
Be sure to try my Taco Stuffed Shells and my Salsa Chicken recipes next!
I’ve been on a casserole kick lately, especially ones that you can make ahead of time. It’s amazing how much easier your life becomes when you do a little meal prep ahead of time.
The fact that you can assemble this Taco Casserole up to 2 days ahead of time is really handy. And the ingredients are really easy to customize!
How to Make it
Note: This is an overview. See recipe card below this post for ingredient quantities and full instructions.
- Let the sour cream come to room temperature while you prepare the meat. This will prevent it from curdling when baked as it won’t be going from cold to hot right away.
- Cook/crumble the ground beef and onions in a pan over medium-high heat.
- Drain excess grease, add water and taco seasoning. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer for 5 minutes, then remove from heat.
- Spread the refried beans in an even layer over a 9 x 13″ casserole dish. Top with sour cream.
- Add the seasoned ground beef and onions on top.
- Top with cheese. Bake uncovered at 350°F for 15 minutes, until the cheese is hot and melted.
- Add the black olives and crunchy toppings. Bake uncovered for 8 minutes.
- Garnish with green onions, diced tomatoes, and/or shredded lettuce if desired and serve!
Make-Ahead Method
This Taco Casserole can be made up to 2 days ahead.
- To do so, cook the ground beef and onions and layer all of the ingredients in a casserole dish.
- Let it cool and cover it. Refrigerate for up to 2 days.
- Let it sit out and come to room temperature for 35 minutes prior to baking. This will prevent the sour cream from curdling.
- Bake, covered, in a 350° oven for 25 minutes.
- Uncover, and bake for 5 more minutes to fully melt the cheese.
- Add black olives along with the crunchy toppings. Bake for 8 additional minutes.
- Add the shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, and green onions prior to serving.
Crock Pot Taco Casserole
- This recipe is easy to assemble within a Crock Pot and heat right away or up to 2 days later.
- You’ll still need to brown the ground beef first, then layer the ingredients per the recipe instructions.
- Save the crunchy toppings and shredded lettuce/tomatoes/green onions until you’re just ready to serve.
Heating right away: High 2-3 hours or Low 4-5 hours
Heating from a cold state: Let it sit out for 35 minutes prior to heating to prevent the sour cream from curdling. Heat on high 4-5 hours or Low 6-7 hours
This Crock pot allows you to sear/brown meat right on the stove top. It also switches to warm once the cooking time is up.
Note that Crock Pots vary in terms on how quickly they heat up and how hot they get.
Taco Casserole for a Crowd or Potluck
- These aluminum foil pans make it easy to prepare this recipe for a crowd and the pans can be disposed of afterwards.
- This recipe serves 6 people. Click the number of servings to reveal a slider. Move the slider right to increase the number of servings if you’re making this for a larger crowd.
Storing Leftovers
- Leftovers should be refrigerated in an airtight container and are best if used within 3-4 days.
- Reheat in a microwave or a 350°oven until heated through.
Pro Tip: Leftovers make a great dip or filling for burritos!
Freezing
- Taco casserole makes a good freezer food and can be stored for up to 3 months, although I recommend that you leave out the sour cream and serve it on the side with this casserole if you plan on freezing.
- Leave out the crunchy toppings and shredded lettuce when you freeze as well.
- Let it defrost overnight and bake as instructed, or bake it frozen and add 1 hour of baking time.
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Taco Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 lb. ground beef, I use 80% lean
- 1 small yellow onion, diced
- 1 oz. taco seasoning, equivalent to 2 Tablespoons
- 16 oz. refried beans
- ¾ cup sour cream, *see notes
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- ¼ cup black olives, sliced
- ¾ cup crunchy toppings such as tortilla chips, Doritos, and/or Fritos
To garnish:
- Green onions, (optional)
- 1/3 cup lettuce, shredded
- 1/3 cup tomatoes, diced
Instructions
- Let the sour cream come to room temperature while you prepare the meat. This will prevent it from curdling when baked as it won't be going from cold to hot right away.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Add the ground beef and diced onions to a large pan and cook and crumble over medium heat until the meat is cooked through.
- Drain excess grease.
- Add ¾ cup water and taco seasoning. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Let it cool for 8-10 minutes.
- Spread the refried beans in an even layer in a lightly greased 9 x 13-inch casserole dish.
- Spread the sour cream over the refried beans, followed by the slightly cooled beef, then the cheese.
- If you’re preparing this head of time, let it cool and cover and refrigerate until ready to bake.
Baking:
- If baking right away: Bake, uncovered, for 15 minutes, or until the cheese is hot and melted.
- If baking after the casserole has been refrigerated: Bake, covered, for 25 minutes. Remove the cover and bake for an additional 5 minutes.
Add the toppings:
- Top the casserole with black olives and crunchy toppings. (Add additional cheese if you like as well.)
- Bake uncovered for 8 minutes.
- Garnish with green onions, diced tomatoes, and/or shredded lettuce and serve!
Notes
*A combination of Cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese works well too!
Crock Pot Taco Casserole
- This recipe is easy to assemble within a Crock Pot and heat right away or up to 2 days later.
- You'll still need to brown the ground beef first, then layer the ingredients per the recipe instructions.
- Save the crunchy toppings and shredded lettuce/green onions until you're just ready to serve.
Heating right away: High 2-3 hours or Low 4-5 hours Heating from a cold state: Let it sit out for 35 minutes prior to heating to prevent the sour cream from curdling. Heat on high 4-5 hours or Low 6-7 hoursThis Crock pot allows you to sear/brown meat right on the stove top. It also switches to warm once the cooking time is up.
Nutrition
This was wonderful. Thank you very much for the recipe.
I was wondering if I added corn and green chilies to it if I would need to decrease the water that is added for the seasoning packet. Do you have any suggestions as to this?
This was perfect as is but I thought I would try to add to it a bit. I hope this does not offend you. Thank you once again for this wonderful recipe.
Hey Tamara! I think that sounds delicious! I love it when people come up with ways to incorporate new ingredients! Corn and green chilies would be great! No need to decrease the water that you add as long as you drain the green chilies (assuming there is water in the can, there might not be- but wanted to mention it just in case.)- Enjoy! 🙂 Thank you for the review as well. Much appreciated. -Stephanie
I tried the Taco Casserole last nite. Awesome! Easy to fix and delicious. Thanks.
Hey Tonya! I’m so happy that you enjoyed the Taco Casserole, my family loves this one too! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment! Have a great weekend. -Stephanie
I made this for supper last night and had leftovers for lunch today. This is really good and very easy. It reminds me of the tamales I made several weeks ago but was soooo much easier. I normally do prep work on Sunday afternoons so our weekday suppers are not so involved. It took about 10 minutes to warm up the meat mixture and layer the casserole. Another 30 minutes and we were ready to eat! Delicious!
Hey Janet! I’m so happy that you enjoyed the Taco Casserole and that you found it to be an easy dinner that you can make on the regular! 🙂 Mission accomplished! Thank you for taking the time to come back and leave your feedback, I really appreciate it. -Stephanie
I have been looking for a Taco casserole that was easy to make and I found it now. This was so easy to prepare. I love the pictures. I will surely be making this again and again.
Hey Georgia! I’m so happy that you enjoyed this recipe and that you found the pictures to be helpful, I always try to make it as easy as possible to follow along, thanks SO much for taking the time to come back and leave that feedback and a review. Truly appreciate it! Take care, Stephanie
This taco casserole is really good! I made it exactly as written and used homemade taco seasoning. This recipe is a definite keeper!
Hey Bonnie! I’m so happy that you enjoyed this recipe!! Homemade taco seasoning sounds delicious, I need to get my own homemade seasoning up on the blog sometime! 🙂 Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a review! -Stephanie
Family favorite! So good and easy to make.
Hey Deb! That’s so great to hear, excellent! Thank you so much for taking the time to come back and leave a review, you’re the best! Have a wonderful weekend. ❤️ -Stephanie
I’ve made this twice and the second time I didn’t have sour cream. I was SO SURE I had some! So instead I added another layer of cheese. It was still good but the sour cream does add a certain something. I love the tortilla chips on top. Nice recipe
Hi Deb!! I’m so happy that you enjoy this recipe! (You know? I always do that with sour cream! Always sure I have some, now I buy 2 at a time, hahaha!) Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment! -Stephanie
I really enjoyed the recipe. Very easy.
Hi Joann! I’m so happy that you enjoyed this recipe! We LOVE this in our house too. Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a comment, it’s so very appreciated! -Stephanie
Do you think you could substitute the ground beef for black beans? I’m trying to make more vegetarian options and this looks delicious but was wondering if the beef could be substituted? Thanks!
Hi Amanda! Absolutely, that would work just fine, enjoy! 🙂
Very good and easy. The only thing I did was put in a 9×9 pan instead. Also put the lettuce and dorito chips on after it was baked. Would make this again.
Hi Vickie, wonderful! I’m so happy that you enjoyed it, thank you for taking the time to leave a comment! -Stephanie