Delicious Baked Tacos include crunchy tortilla shells filled with a seasoned meat and bean taco filling, topped with cheese and then baked. They’re fun and easy to make (or even to make in advance!);don’t expect leftovers!
We always reserve at least one day a week for “taco night” and these Baked Tacos make a regular appearance (along with fajitas, carne asada tacos, shrimp tacos and carnitas!) They’re also great for feeding a large group because you can prepare a whole bunch in a pan a few hours ahead of time and bake them just before you’re ready to eat. The taco meat mixture is made up of ground beef, beans, tomato sauce and pantry spices you already have, giving it a crave-worthy flavor that can’t be beat!
How to Make Baked Tacos:
- Cook the ground beef in a large skillet over medium heat, breaking it into very small pieces until browned. Remove grease. Add onion and saute for a few minutes. Stir in the dry spices.
- Add the tomato sauce and pinto beans and stir to combine. Turn the heat to low and simmer for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line two 9×13” pans with the taco shells.
- Spoon taco mixture into tacos. Top with cheese. Bake for 10 minutes.
- Top with a little bit of lettuce, tomatoes, and sour cream and salsa, if desired.
Make Ahead and Freezing Instructions:
To Make Ahead: The taco meat filling can be made 2-3 days in advance (depending on the freshness of your ingredients), stored in the fridge. When ready to use, fill tacos and bake as instructed. Assembled tacos, in the shells, will keep for a few hours stored in covered in the refrigerator (the taco shells will start to soften too much if assembled for longer than a few hours before baking).
To Freeze: You can freeze taco meat filling in a freezer safe container for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, fill tacos and bake as directed.
Consider trying these popular dinner recipes:
- Slow Cooker Pot Roast
- Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas
- Honey-Lime Chicken Enchiladas
- Italian Grilled Cheese
- Gourmet Baked Mac N Cheese with Bacon
- Crispy BBQ Chicken Wraps
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Recipe
Baked Tacos
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef (or ground turkey)
- 1 small onion , chopped
- 1 Tablespoon chili powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 8 ounces tomato sauce
- 16 ounce can pinto beans , or black beans
- 20 hard tacos shells
- 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese , or your preffered kind of cheese
- 1 romaine heart , chopped
- 2 Roma tomatoes , chopped
- salsa and sour cream , for topping, optional
Instructions
- Cook the ground beef in a large skillet over medium heat, breaking it into very small pieces until browned. Remove grease. Add onion and saute for a few minutes. Stir in the dry spices.
- Add tomato sauce and pinto beans and stir to combine. Turn the heat to low and simmer for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line two 9x13'' pans with the taco shells.
- Spoon taco mixture into tacos. Top with cheese. Bake for 10-15 minutes.
- Top with a little bit of lettuce, tomatoes, and sour cream and salsa, if desired.
Notes
Macros Recipe Adaptation
1 lb. ground turkey, 16 oz. black beans, Mexican cheese.Per Serving Amount
98.3 grams meat mixture, 2 hard taco shells, ⅛ cup cheese, ¼ cup lettuce, 6 grams tomatoes.Macros
330 kcal, Fat: 15g, Carbs: 26g, Protein: 21g (serves 10) | MFP: Baked Tacos (TBFS Macros)Nutrition
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Have you tried this recipe?!
RATE and COMMENT below! I would love to hear your experience.
I originally shared this recipe February 2016. Updated January 2021.
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I made these tacos last night and they’re great! Baking them adds a lot of flavor and softens the shells a bit. We had plenty of leftovers and they heated well today for lunch!
These were a huge hit with my picky family!! I might try with soft corn tacos next time just to see since I tend to always have those on hand. Perfect for large crowd too.
Lots of flavor for easy prep! I didn’t use onion because I didn’t want to deal with some of the kids complaining:)
I almost threw in the towel when I was trying to get the shells to stand up in the pan, but then I decided to fill them and put in the pan as I filled each one- voila, they stood up w/o falling over. Used store bought Ortega taco shells and they didn’t get soggy.
I will make again! (Maybe with Tres Leche Cake from here- a family favorite!)
I loved the ease of these and they were very tasty but mine were so soggy that they just fell apart…I drained my grease and then pressed it with a cloth and I drained my beans vey well…I don’t know what happened…good idea for tacos though!!
I’d like to bring these to a camping potluck (no ovens, but power available) as they are just so delicious! Do you think it would work to make filling in advance, put in slow cooker on the day of and then sprinkle with cheese and place on warm, then scoop filling into soft tortillas or hard shells ??? Thanks for all your delicious recipes!!
Yes, that would work great! Enjoy!
Made this for dinner tonight, hubby loved it. It was very good a, flavorable and easy. I used boxed taco shells, I baked them for 4 min, let them cool and put then in a 8×8 (we only need 6 tacos). Worked out great!
Amazing! Fixed this tonight. I used homemade seasoned refried beans instead because it needed using but it was delicious. This is a new family fav!
When making these are you draining the pinto or black beans or are you using refried?
Hi Kelly, Thanks for checking out the recipe. Make sure and drain the beans and please let us know what you think of the recipe.
Love the tacos! What’s the tasty looking sauce you have beside the picture? These are absolutely delicious!
I’m wondering what the serving size is? I’m assuming the calories posted are based off of serving size. Thank you!
Nice and quick, and you can have most of the ingredients in your pantry.
I’ll be making this again. I didn’t make any changes to ingredients and I thought it was really tasty.
These were incredible! I used the La Tiara white and yellow corn authentic Mexican taco shells, which were perfect. I will definitely make these again!
Bob’s Red Mill has their brand of TVP (texturized vegetable protein) that looks, feels and tastes just like fried hamburger if you follow the package instructions. I prefer it because it has no “grease”.
Is there a way to make these without meat? They look delicious but would enjoy a vegetarian option if there is one. Thanks!
Lentils are a fantastic substitute!
Delicious. Made for one, reduced to 3 tacos. Perfect.
Use soy meat substitute
First off let me tell you how much i love your site.
The only issue i had with these was the Soggy shells is there a trick to stop that from happening?
Other that that these were awesome!
Wow, These were the best tacos I’ve had in awhile. And so simple to make. I thought it was going to make a ton and almost offered some to my neighbor, but after I took my first bite I knew my husband and I could pound at least 5 each an the rest for our 3 young kids. (only had 2 leftover) :). My husband is always a kind critic, he’ll eat my food but does not compliment me unless he really genuinely loves it. Well these tacos got the compliment.
I’m so thrilled to hear that, thanks for your sweet comment Brittany!
Hi, Just discovered your site from Pinterest and LOVE it. A ? for you for these oven baked taco’s do you grease the baking pan or should one use non stick foil in the bottom before layering the tacos?
Thank you so much.
You could just lightly grease the pan if you want–mine never stick, but if you’re worried about it, that’s a good solution 🙂
Thank you so much for your speedy response to my ?. Also, I had saved 3 recipes on my custom meal plan, however, today they are not there any more and its showing 0 saved recipes. Am I doing something wrong?
Thanks & sorry for too many ?’s.
You’re welcome! As for the custom meal plan, my website doesn’t have the capability at this time to save recipes after being closed out of. You’ll have to add them again and print the shopping list, or email it to yourself when you’re done, before leaving. Sorry for the inconvenience!
I made baked tacos once, but the bottom of the shells got soft and fell apart. Bummer! I drained everything well before filling the shells. Any suggestions?
I have found that the “store brand” hard shells are thinner and flimsy-er, be sure to use a name brand for shells.
Also, when you brown the ground beef ALONG with draining it, put a couple of paper towels down and pour the ground beef on them
to absorb all the juice.
Lauren, what brand of corn hard taco shells do you like best for this baked recipe? Thank you!
I usually use Old El Paso 🙂
I make these pretty often. I remember my sister LOVING hard shell tacos when i was a kid but i was rather ambivalent about them. I really like them this way. I made them for probably the 5th time last night and my kindergartener kid raved about how much she loved them. 🙂
Thanks for the great week night meal!
Thanks for these recipes. My super picky kids loved the baked tacos.
Love your site. I was completely tired of the same old meals. These tacos were a huge hit my family.
Thank you Nicole! I’m so happy I could help with the dinner “rut” we all get in sometimes. Thanks for following TBFS!
My family does not like the hard tacos. Do you think soft tortillas would work? Such a great concept!
Hi Nancy, My only worry with soft tortillas is that the bottoms may get soft/soggy when you put the filling in and bake them….but it could work. I haven’t tried it to say for sure. But let me know if you do!
The whole family loved them. So glad to find a new taco recipe.
I really like the way these turn out compared to separately heating taco shells and then adding ground beef. This is way better. Another fabulous recipe. Thank you
These look so yummy! Cannot wait to try!
I’ve never tried baking tacos before, but I love this idea! 😀 These look delicious!