Quick Taco Bake with Doritos

This Quick Taco Bake with Doritos is a weeknight lifesaver and guaranteed crowd-pleaser. It layers seasoned ground beef, creamy filling, shredded cheese, and crunchy Doritos for a comfort food casserole that disappears fast.

Anything taco-flavored is a hit in our house—especially when I use my Homemade Taco Seasoning to give it a flavorful, from-scratch boost. I don’t know about you, but when everyone in my family happily eats the same dinner, I feel like I’ve won Mom of the Year (or at least Mom of the Day!).

This recipe is just one of many from-scratch meals we love—see more in our Comfort Foods and Classic Recipes collection.

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What You’ll Need:

• 10-inch cast iron – I love using cast iron for cooking! This recipe is versatile, though, so if you don’t want to use a cast-iron dish, you can use a 9×13 or a 7×11 rectangular dish. Just make sure to adjust the cooking time if you use a larger dish, as the ingredients will be spread thinner and will heat a bit faster.
• Crescent rolls – You can grab a can of your favorite crescent rolls or make them yourself. Either way, the crescent roll crust is one of my favorite parts about this quick taco bake with Doritos.
• 1 lb ground beef – I love to batch-cook ground beef for quicker meal prep. Buying from local farmers is my favorite way to support small businesses and ensure that our food is being processed properly.
• 8 oz tomato sauce – garden fresh tomato sauce that’s canned at home is definitely the go-to for me
• 15 oz diced tomatoes – anytime I can use something that I canned at home, I know I am adding that much more nutrients to my family’s diet, and my hard gardening work is paying off! Save my Diced Tomato Canning Recipe for later.
• 2-3 tbsp Taco Seasoning or one packet – I love customizing my own seasonings. Taco seasoning is the first one I ever tried, and I haven’t gone back since.
• 8 oz sour cream
• 1.5 cups shredded cheese
• Doritos or other chips – I know, I know, I usually go with pretty healthy recipes around here, and Doritos don’t really fit, but we do sometimes have unhealthy things *gasp* We love Doritos and once in a while we eat them! I haven’t found an alternative that we like, so if you have one, please tell me in the comments.

Quick Taco Bake with Doritos Recipe Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Brown 1lb of ground beef or turkey until it is cooked through. Add 2-3 tbsp (or one packet) of taco seasoning, homemade if possible. Stir in 8oz of tomato sauce and about 15 oz off diced tomatoes. Stir until combined and simmer for 5-10 minutes. Some of the water from the sauce should evaporate, thickening the sauce.

Unroll crescent roll dough into the bottom of a prepared pan or cast iron. This recipe is very flexible, so you can use a 9×13 or 11×7 rectangular pan or a 10-inch cast iron. Cover the bottom of the pan with crescent rolls and press it into the bottom.

Place the ground meat mixture on the dough. Spread out the sour cream layer and top with cheese. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the sauce is bubbly and the cheese is browned. Top with crushed Doritos (or other nacho cheesy chips).

I have tried baking the Doritos into the dish, but they tend to get burned and too crispy, so I opt to add them at the end and use them as a scoop to eat the casserole with when it’s done!

More Taco Recipes

We really love recipes that I can use my favorite Taco Seasoning Recipe for. I love that it is customizable and doesn’t contain all the preservatives. You can make it spicy or milder based on your family’s taste buds! Here are some other recipes to try it with:

• Crockpot Taco Chili
• Crispy Baked Tacos
• Crockpot Taco Spaghetti
• Mexican Pizza
• Burrito Bowl

How to Batch Cook Taco Meat – Meal Prepping Tips

Taco meat, or plain ground beef in general, is such an easy thing to start with if you’re new to batch cooking or meal prepping. Start with 3-5 lbs of ground beef and a little olive oil. Depending on how big your skillet is, you may need to brown the meat in a few different batches.

I have a Large 15-inch Cast Iron that I love to use for meal-prepping ground beef because I can brown a lot of it at once. Honestly, I don’t use this cast iron very often because it is huge, but it is really convenient if you have a large cooking surface and big meals to make.

When I batch cook ground beef, I use a FoodSaver and the 11-inch bags to vacuum seal the food. I use a really old model that has long been updated, so it definitely lasts a long time. It is essential for keeping food good for longer in the freezer.

If you plan on using your taco meat fairly soon after freezing, you can just put it in large zip-lock bags, but for long-term storage, I recommend a vacuum sealer. Nobody wants to go through all that work and then have freezer burn on their food, am I right?

Storing in Plastic vs Glass

I don’t love keeping my food in plastic, which is why I prefer canning or storing in glass, but sometimes I do use these plastic bags to vacuum seal for the freezer. Something I don’t do with my vacuum-sealed food is boil it in the bag.

A lot of people recommend this because it is so convenient (and it is), but I don’t want to heat my food up in plastic and increase the amount of contaminants in it. So, I opt to cut it out of the bag and heat it in a safer way. I know, I know, it’s super easy to toss the whole frozen bag of taco meat into boiling water and watch it magically thaw, but it’s not worth it to me.

If you’re making Taco Chili with your pre-cooked taco meat, you can toss it into the crock pot frozen and don’t have to worry about thawing at all. That’s a win-win.

FAQs for this Taco Bake Casserole