Baked cheeseburger tacos are stuffed with ground beef and cheese, baked, and topped with lettuce, tomato, and a classic burger sauce.
Baked tacos are a new thing that I’ve been seeing a lot of lately. They’re always made with crispy corn taco “shells”, the taco receptacle of my youth. While I usually make my tacos in a soft corn tortilla (it’s just a lot easier to keep a big stack of corn tortillas around), a crunchy corn taco shell takes me back to eating at my parents’ dinner table. They’re pure comfort food for me.
Of course, I’m not going to come here and tell you guys how to make plain old tacos. Whether you buy seasoning packets or you make your own seasoning (which is what I do), you don’t need me to tell you how to make a classic Americanized taco a la Taco Bell. That’s the beauty of tacos, though. You can literally put anything in a taco…even dessert (though I’d argue that flour tortillas are better suited for dessert than corn).
When you’re a food blogger, you sit around all day and think of what to cook next (I mean, I do work, but you never know when an idea is going to come to you, so you have to be prepared). Oddly enough, inspiration usually strikes me during church, and, lest I forget, I pull out my phone and make a note in my OneNote app. I am so organized it’s kind of scary, because I was the kid with a million papers falling out of my Trapper Keeper (eighties kids represent!). If I weren’t, though, I’d be in trouble. I work a 7.5 hour day at my job then come home and work until bedtime. Thank God for those organizational skills.
Wow, I really went off-topic there. Sorry about that. I was trying to tell you about how I arrived at the idea of cheeseburger tacos. Honestly, though, I have no idea. It was jotted in OneNote, and I was craving tacos, so…baked cheeseburger tacos. I had to talk myself down off the ledge of buying nacho flavored taco shells at Publix (because Doritos are a weakness) but for the purpose of staying true to the flavors of a cheeseburger I grabbed the plain. I stirred some ketchup and mustard into ground beef, topped it with cheddar cheese, and melted it. Topped with crisp iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, crumbled bacon, and a classic burger sauce (think Big Mac-esque), these baked cheeseburger tacos will satisfy your taco craving and your burger craving.
Baked cheeseburger tacos for the win!
Mary
Yield: 8 tacos
10 minPrep Time:
25 minCook Time:
35 minTotal Time:
Save Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 crunchy corn taco shells (Stand and Stuff work best here)
- 4 strips bacon, diced
- 1 small onion, finely diced
- 1 pound ground beef (I used ground sirloin)
- 2 tablespoons ketchup
- 2 tablespoons yellow mustard
- salt to taste
- 4 ounces grated cheddar cheese
- iceberg lettuce, chopped
- tomatoes, diced
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons ketchup
- 2 tablespoons yellow mustard
- 1 tablespoon dill relish
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Arrange the taco shells in a 9x13 pan.
- In a medium skillet over medium heat, cook the bacon until crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon to a paper towel lined plate and set aside. Drain away all but one tablespoon of the drippings. Return the pan to the heat.
- Cook the onions until they are beginning to soften. Add the ground beef and cook until browned. Drain away any fat and excess juice.
- Stir the ketchup and mustard into the meat. Season with salt to taste. Divide the meat among the taco shells then top with the cheese. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the shells are heated through.
- Remove the tacos from the oven and serve immediately, topped with lettuce, tomato, burger sauce, and crumbled bacon.
