Contest Winning Taco Casserole Recipes

BEST TACO CASSEROLE RECIPE EVER

Steps:

• To start, add your ground beef to your large skillet. Using a Mix and Chop (essentially a ground beef masher), break up your ground beef while cooking it over medium heat.
• Continue to break it up and sauté the meat.
• While browning the meat, heat your refried beans in a bowl in the microwave.
• Once the refried beans are hot, spread them out over the entire bottom surface of your glass 13×9 pans that have been sprayed with cooking spray.
• Ensure the layer of refried beans is flat and evenly spread in the pan.
• Using another rubber spatula, stir your ground beef until it is fully browned.
• Add taco seasoning packets to the browned ground beef.
• Add water to the taco seasoning and ground beef.
• Mix to blend your taco seasoning and water with the ground beef and simmer until the water starts to cook away and the meat gets saucy.
• Add the bag of southwest vegetables to the ground beef mixture.
• Stir your meat and vegetables mixture around to fully cover the vegetables in the taco sauce, beginning to heat the vegetables through.
• Should you determine after stirring in the vegetables that you'd like extra vegetables added, which is completely optional and up to you here, you can choose to add another bag of the southwest vegetables or add more corn to your mixture.
• Stir all the vegetables to cover completely and cook thoroughly.
• Add Rotel to your vegetables meat mixture.
• Stir thoroughly to combine all ingredients and let simmer to cook off some of the excess moisture.
• Once you are satisfied with the sauce level left in the pan after cooking your ingredients thoroughly, go ahead and scoop your taco meat mixture into a large bowl so you can add cheese and mix comfortable without spilling.
• Add copious handfuls of shredded cheese and stir until the cheese is well-melted and combined.
• Add this cheesy taco mixture to the layer of refried beans in your baking pans. Layer evenly across the top. Look at all that delicious ooey gooey cheese already!
• Ensure the taco mixture is even across.
• Sprinkle lightly more shredded cheese over top.
• Ensure the cheese is evenly spread on top before baking.
• Cover your pans with foil and bake in the oven for about 10 or so minutes. (Remember, this was already cooked fully on the stove, we're just heating this until it's cooked altogether now.) Remove from oven and remove foil.
• Top once more with shredded cheese. (Didn't I tell you that this was going to be awesomely cheesy?)
• Top with tri-colored tortilla strips (which add even more color and taste amazing).
• We went a little crazy with our tortilla strips, but they taste REALLY great on top! Look at that gorgeous color, can you blame me for going crazy with it?
• Once you feel the dish is sufficiently topped with the tortilla strips, bake uncovered for another five minutes to brown the toppings slightly.
• Remove from oven. Appreciate the gorgeousness and color in this dish as you let it cool slightly before serving.
• Best served in a bowl! I served this over cheesy rice, but you can also serve it over regular tortilla chips, with taco shells, flour or corn tortillas - the deliciousness never ends!

FANTASTIC TACO CASSEROLE

Steps:

• Brown ground beef and drain.
• Add taco seasoning and cook according to package directions, adding proper amount of water.
• Put corn chips on bottom of 8x8" dish.
• Cook refried beans on stove until hot.
• Add 1 cup cheese and 1 cup salsa. Stir until combined.
• Pour beans over corn chips in dish.
• Add beef to top of beans.
• Sprinkle remaining cheese over top.
• Sprinkle green onions and black olives over cheese.
• Bake in a 375 degree oven until the cheese is sufficiently melted.
• Take out of oven and sprinkle chopped tomatoes on top. Wait 1-2 minutes and then serve.

FANTASTIC TACO CASSEROLE!

Steps:

• Set oven to 350 degrees.
• Cook beef, onion, bell pepper, chili flakes and garlic until beef is no longer pink; drain then season with seasoning salt and black pepper (or cayenne pepper).
• Stir in water, taco sauce, green chiles, half of the olives and taco seasoning mix (you can use 2 packages of seasoning mix if desired for this).
• Cook over low heat for about 6-8 minutes.
• Layer HALF of broken shells on bottom of greased 13x9 baking pan; cover with HALF of meat sauce, then sprinkle with 2 cups (or to taste) cheddar cheese.
• Repeat with remaining broken taco shells, meat sauce and then top with remaining cheese (to prevent the cheese from getting hard, you can sprinkle on the last 10 minutes before the end of baking time and return to oven until melted).
• Bake for 20 minutes or until bubbly, and cheese is melted.
• After baking, sprinkle with remaining olives, tomatoes and green onions.
• **NOTE** I sometimes drizzle bottled salsa sauce (mild or spicy) on top of the ground beef and then on top before baking.

TACO BAKE CASSEROLE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Spray a 9x13-inch baking pan with cooking spray.
• Cook ground beef and onions in a skillet over medium heat until beef is browned, 7 to 10 minutes; drain grease. Stir in water and taco seasoning; cook, stirring often, until thickened, about 2 minutes. Add refried beans, salsa, olives, and green chiles. Cook and stir over low heat until ingredients are warmed through, 3 to 4 minutes.
• Place half of the taco shells in the bottom of the baking dish. Pour in half of the ground beef mixture; sprinkle with half of the Cheddar cheese. Repeat with remaining taco shells, ground beef mixture, and Cheddar cheese.
• Bake in the preheated oven until cheese is melted and bubbly, 20 to 25 minutes.

CONTEST-WINNING TACO CASSEROLE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°. Cook pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook beef and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Add cheese, salsa, tomatoes and taco seasoning. Drain pasta; stir into beef mixture., Transfer to a greased 11x7-in. baking dish. Cover and bake 20 minutes. Uncover; sprinkle with tortilla chips. Bake until heated through, about 10 minutes longer.