Today I want to share with you one of my mom’s go-to recipes, Taco Casserole. She passed away ten years ago from breast cancer, and she has been on my mind a lot lately. So here you are, one of my mom’s favorite super-duper easy recipes.
She was a magnificent mother, but a cook she was not. She was good at making yummy food, but she really, really disliked it, so all of her recipes were very simple. Consequently, they have become the standby recipes for my sisters and I as well! She called this one Taco Bell Casserole. Try not to be too deterred by that incredibly classy name. Heehee.
Ingredients you’ll need to make Mom’s Taco Casserole:
- 1 can of refried beans (the vegetarian ones are lard-free I believe)
- 1 pound of ground beef
- 1 packet taco seasoning
- onion flakes, salt, and pepper
- shredded cheese of your choice (I usually use cheddar or Monterey jack)
- salsa
- tortilla chips
- lettuce tomato, and sour cream for toppings.
Start by spreading the refried beans into the bottom of a casserole dish.
Now cook up the ground beef. As you cook it and break it up in a skillet season it with onion flakes, salt & pepper, and taco seasoning to taste. (Don’t taste it until it is cooked, obviously.) My mom didn’t do exact measurements because she was just throwing stuff on, but I would guess she used about 1 Tablespoon onion flakes, 1 teaspoon each of salt & pepper, and about half of a packet or so of taco seasoning, depending on how strong you want the flavor of the meat to be. But don’t hold me to those measurements in a court of law, because on this recipe I usually follow her example and throw in whatever feels right at the moment. It’s difficult to mess up.
Drain the grease from your beef and layer it on top of the refried beans.
Next comes shredded cheese of your choice. I usually use cheddar since I always have it on hand, but Monterey Jack is fun as well, and my sister is obsessed with pepper jack, so she would probably combine pepper jack and cheddar. Just cover it with a good, solid amount. I would say 1 1/2 – 2 cups of shredded cheese, but I am a cheesy, cheesy lady, so you may want to cut back on that a bit if you are not.
Top the taco casserole with your favorite salsa. Once again, we are using the mom method of “eyeballing it” here. I would guess you will need 1-2 cups of salsa.
Bake the taco casserole for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees. It doesn’t look al that appealing in this picture, but it is tasty—I promise!
Top tortilla chips with a generous helping of this taco casserole, and garnish with sour cream, lettuce, tomatoes, homemade authentic pico de gallo and anything else that sounds delicious to you! Yum, yum, yum! The easiest dinner you will ever make! Aside from frozen pizza, of course. No, just me? Hmmm….
- 1 can refried beans
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 package taco seasoning
- onion flakes
- salt and pepper
- shredded cheese
- salsa
- tortilla chips
- lettuce
- tomato
- sour cream
- Start by spreading the refried beans into the bottom of a casserole dish.
- Cook up the ground beef, breaking it up in a skillet while seasoning it with about 1 Tablespoon onion flakes, 1 teaspoon each of salt & pepper, and a half packet of taco seasoning. (May be adjusted to taste.) Drain the grease from your beef and layer it on top of the refried beans.
- Cover the top of the casserole with 1½ – 2 cups of shredded cheese.
- Top the taco casserole with 1-2 cups of your favorite salsa.
- Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.
- Scoop the casserole on top of chips and top with lettuce, tomato, and sour cream. Enjoy!
If you enjoyed this recipe then you may also like these simple recipes:
Sweet Pulled Pork Recipe (SLOW COOKER!)
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This not only sounds good…. looks good too !! Going to make this tonight,. I have almost everything so no need to shop, My Mom was the same way… she was NOT the greatest cook… but she did try… and measuring was never part of her routine… and that’s me now… I just keep adding, until it looks and tastes good… that’s when I know when to stop!!
Enjoy! 🙂
I can’t wait to try this! If you have it on hand you could also add in cream cheese & taco seasoning to the beans like in “Texas Crack” and add onions and pepper in the meat part. YuuumO! Can’t wait to make this tonight for dinner!! 🙂
Mmmmm….GREAT idea!!
Yummy! That looks good and it sounds super easy, I need that for tonight, thank you!
Hugs, Cindy
Oh this looks TOO good! I’m not sure why, but I’ve never really been a huge casserole person – I like eating them, but never make them. But now that I have 2 kids, I know that that will be the most reasonable way to get dinner on the table!
I have been craving something Mexican and these look delicious! Thank you for stopping by to share your blog on the #OMHGWW, hope that you will stop by for #OMHGFF that starts on Thursdays at 11:00AM.
Have a great week!
Karren