🌮🥗💃 My Layered Taco Salad Recipe is a classic taco salad that everyone LOVES, it’s EASY, and it’s ready in 20 minutes! There’s ground beef, refried beans, red peppers, tortilla chips, cheese, lettuce, and tomatoes!
Easy Layered Taco Salad for a Crowd
This easy ground beef taco salad is a crowd-pleaser made with layers of crispy chips, seasoned beef, refried beans, melty cheese, and fresh veggies. Ready in just 20 minutes, it’s perfect for potlucks, picnics, or weeknight dinners. Warm beef and beans soften the chips and melt the cheese, while cool lettuce, juicy tomatoes, and crunchy toppings bring the perfect mix of textures. A nostalgic, hearty salad everyone will love!
Recipe Ingredients
- Olive oil – I prefer the slightly peppery flavor of olive oil, but avocado oil also works well to brown the taco meat
- Lean ground beef – Your homemade taco salad won’t taste the same as mine, but ground chicken or ground turkey can definitely be substituted
- Refried beans – You can use pretty much any kind of bean you like when making the layered taco salad. Instant Pot black beans or pinto beans work well
- Taco seasoning – I use store-bought seasoning to save time, but you can use a homemade taco seasoning if preferred
- Veggies – I use red bell pepper, Romain lettuce, and Roma tomatoes. Feel free to substitute or add any veggies you have on hand, like iceberg lettuce or red onion
- Tortilla chips – I like to use baked tortilla chips, but store-bought plain or flavored chips taste great for an easy taco salad. I typically use white corn tortilla chips, but you can also use Doritos, or experiment with Fritos or another favorite kind of corn-based chip
- Shredded cheese – Use a Mexican cheese blend, cheddar cheese, or whatever you like best
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make a Layered Taco Salad with Ground Beef
Layering a taco salad is so quick and easy! Once you brown the ground beef, you can start layering all of the ingredients in a pan.
Here’s a step-by-step process of how my layered taco salad recipe comes together:
- Brown ground beef with a red bell pepper.
- Add refried beans and taco seasoning to the beef mixture.
- Turn the mixture out over a base of chips on a large platter or in a large serving bowl. I use this 9×13-inch baking dish.
- Sprinkle the beef and bean mixture with cheese, lettuce, more cheese, crushed chips, and tomatoes.
- Add any toppings you like, such as salsa, pico de gallo, avocado, guacamole, sour cream, black olives, green onions, cilantro, etc. Dig in!
What Goes Well with Taco Salad?
Layered Beef Taco Salad Recipe
Equipment
- 9×13-inch baking dish (or similar 3-quart baking or casserole dish)
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 pound lean ground beef, I used 85% lean
- 1 medium/large red bell pepper, seeded and diced small
- one 16-ounce can refried beans, I used fat-free
- 1 (1.25 ounce) packet taco seasoning, I used reduced sodium, medium heat
- 15 corn tortilla chips or Doritos, whole and intact
- 3 cups shredded cheese, divided (I used a Mexican cheese blend)
- 2 cups chopped romaine lettuce
- 1 cup lightly crushed/broken tortilla chips or Doritos
- 1 roma tomato, diced small
Instructions
- To a large skillet, add the olive oil, beef, red pepper, and cook over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes, or until beef is cooked through; stir and crumble beef as it cooks.
- Add the refried beans and stir to combine.
- Add the taco seasoning and stir to combine. Turn off the heat; set pan aside.
- To a 3-quart casserole dish or 9×13-inch pan, add approximately 15 tortilla chips to create a base layer of chips. If you need a few more or less than 15 chips to cover the base of the pan, so be it. They don’t have to be perfectly arranged.
- Evenly add the beef and bean mixture over the top of the chips.
- Evenly sprinkle with 2 cups of the cheese.
- Evenly sprinkle with the romaine lettuce, the remaining 1 cup cheese, 1 cup lightly crushed/broken tortilla chips, and the tomatoes. Serve immediately.
Notes
- Salad will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 4 days, noting the chips will become softer and soggier as time passes.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Taco Salad Recipes:
Loaded Beef Taco Salad — Loaded with crisp romaine lettuce, sweet corn, juicy tomatoes, and more! It comes together in just 20 minutes and is topped with the most incredible cilantro lime dressing!
Ground Beef Taco Salad Bowls — Making homemade taco salad bowls is so easy and they’re perfect for holding this family-favorite taco salad including seasoned ground beef, black beans, cheese and more! Everything is topped with a creamy lime-cilantro dressing that’ll have everyone finishing their salad!
Layered Chicken Taco Salad — Juicy chicken, avocado, tomatoes, corn, black beans, cheese, tortilla chips, and more in this LOADED salad that’s EASY and ready in 15 minutes! A creamy lime-cilantro dressing adds tons of FLAVOR!
Loaded Chicken Taco Salad with Creamy Lime-Cilantro Dressing — Fast, easy, fresh and healthy! All your favorite taco flavors in one big kickin’ salad that everyone will love!
Yum to all — these are great!
Thanks for the 5 star review, Janet, and I’m glad you’re happy with the recipes!
What size dish do you need for your recipe? Approximately how many people would this feed? We want to make it for our kids at church.
Sorry about that Barbara, there was a glitch for a bit on this recipe and it wasn’t displaying properly but it’s all set now. It’s a 9×13 inch pan or similar.
Can’t wait to taste it!
I could eat this salad every day! So delicious!
We could too! :)
Looks fantastic! I like your other suggestions of salsa and fritos too!
You can’t go wrong with those additions, right! :)
I want this right now!