Description
Easy Taco Lasagna recipe that actually works. Ground beef, corn tortillas, lots of cheese. Takes an hour, feeds eight people, costs nothing.
Ingredients
For the Meat Layer:
- Ground Beef: 2 pounds of whatever’s not too expensive (80/20 is fine)
- Taco Seasoning: 2 packets because one isn’t enough for this much meat
- Garlic: 4 cloves or that squeeze bottle stuff, whatever
- Chili Powder: 1 tablespoon
- Cayenne Pepper: ½ teaspoon (seriously don’t skip this)
- Water: ½ cup
For the Lasagna Layers:
- Corn Tortillas: 18 of the 6-inch ones (count them or you’ll run short)
- Salsa: 1 big jar, whatever brand doesn’t suck
- Green Onions: 1 cup chopped up
- Sour Cream: 1 container, get the real stuff not that watery garbage
- Cheddar Cheese: 1½ cups shredded
- Monterey Jack Cheese: 1½ cups shredded
Instructions
Heat a large skillet over medium-high, cook the ground beef while breaking it up for about 10 minutes until no pink remains, then drain the grease. Stir in the seasoning packets, garlic, chili powder, and cayenne, add water, and simmer on low for 10 minutes until the mixture is thick and saucy.
Turn your oven to 375. Grease that 9×13 pan with whatever – butter, cooking spray, doesn’t matter. Just do it or you’ll hate yourself when you try to serve this later.
Put six tortillas in the bottom. They’ll overlap and that’s totally fine, you’re not building rocket ships here. Take about a third of your salsa and spread it over the tortillas. Don’t measure, just eyeball it.
Scoop half your meat over the salsa and spread it around so it’s mostly even. Sprinkle half the green onions on top. Now grab big spoonfuls of sour cream and just plop them around randomly – don’t try to make it smooth. Those lumps melt into amazing creamy pockets.
Sprinkle half a cup each of both cheeses over everything.
Do exactly the same thing again. Six tortillas, another third of salsa, rest of the meat, rest of the green onions, more random sour cream blobs, another half cup of each cheese.
Last six tortillas go on top. Spread the rest of your salsa over them. Dump all the leftover cheese on there – this is the part that gets golden and bubbly so don’t hold back.
Stick it in the oven for thirty minutes then check it. If the top is golden brown and cheese is bubbling around the edges, you’re done. If not, give it another ten or fifteen minutes.
Don’t keep opening the oven door to peek every five minutes or you let all the heat out and it takes forever. Set a timer and trust it.
Notes
Don’t crowd the meat when you brown it. If your pan’s too small, do it in batches. Crowded meat steams instead of browning and tastes gross.
Drain that grease like it’s your job. Pat it with paper towels, tip the pan, whatever it takes. Nobody wants to eat greasy food that makes their stomach hurt.
Buy chunk cheese and grate it yourself instead of the pre-shredded stuff. Takes two extra minutes but melts way better. That anti-caking powder they put on bagged cheese stops it from melting smooth.
If the top starts browning too fast but the inside isn’t done, cover it with foil for the last bit of cooking time.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Mexican-American