Easy Oven Baked Tacos make an easy weeknight dinner that everyone will love!
Corn tortillas are filled with the best taco meat, and cheese. The tacos are baked in the oven until the cheese is melted and the tortillas are crispy. Top them off with your favorite toppings or dip them in some sour cream or salsa for an easy dinner!
What kind of taco meat do you put in Oven Baked Tacos?
The taco meat that is used for these oven baked tacos is a game changer!
The taco meat is made with ground beef and simple seasonings but has amazing flavor.
I like to make sure my ground beef is broken up into smaller uniform pieces so I use my potato masher to do it! The tiny bits of taco meat are perfect to stuff inside of these tacos.
Mix all of the seasonings into the ground beef and set the meat aside.
The Tortillas for Oven Tacos
Oven baked tacos with corn tortillas are where it is at! You can use flour tortillas but they won’t be as crispy and flavorful.
You can use smaller “street tacos” corn tortillas or regular sized corn tortillas. You can also use white or yellow corn tortillas. It all comes down to what you prefer.
I prefer a thin yellow corn tortilla. Because they are thinner they bake up nice and crispy. These tortillas are a bit bigger than street tacos and when feeding a family of boys they prefer them bigger.
If you use bigger corn tortillas you should be able to make 8-10 oven baked tacos with corn tortillas. If you use smaller street tacos you will get around 12 oven baked tacos.
NOTE: You may get more or less than this depending on how much meat and cheese you put in the tortillas. You can stretch the meat and get more tacos, or stuff them full of taco meat and get less tacos.
What Kind of Cheese is best for Oven Tacos?
There is no right or wrong cheese to use for oven tacos. I prefer straight cheddar cheese or a Mexican Blend. Colby Jack, Monterey Jack or even Pepper Jack with a kick will work. Use what you prefer!
Assembling Tacos Baked in the Oven
You will need a sheet pan or baking sheet. Line the baking sheet with parchment paper or grease your baking sheet.
Take your tortillas and lay them on the greased or parchment paper lined baking shPut some shredded cheese on half of the tortilla.
*Depending on what size of tortillas you use and the size of your baking sheet, you may have to bake the tacos in batches.
Next, put some taco meat on the other half. Divide the meat as best you can according to how many tacos you are making.
Baking Oven Baked Tacos
Bake the tacos for a few minutes so the tortillas can get nice and warm and the cheese will start to melt. This will make it so when you fold the taco up the tortilla won’t crack! And the melty cheese will help it stick together.
When the tacos have warmed and cheese is melted, take the tacos out of the oven. Fold the tacos and put them back in the oven.
Bake the tacos until the tortilla is crispy and crunchy. If you prefer them a bit soft just take them out when they are to your liking. If they start to brown on the one side too much before they are done, just flip them over.
Serving Baked Tacos
You can add your favorite toppings to the baked tacos, or add them to the side and dip your taco in them. Sour cream, salsa, hot sauce, onions, lettuce and tomato are classic toppings but I prefer simple sour cream and green onions.
For some other tasty twists on tacos, try my Enchilada Tacos, my Chicken Tostadas. Other Mexican inspired recipes to try are my Easy Chicken Enchiladas, Ground Beef Enchiladas, and my Easy Blender Salsa.
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Oven Baked Tacos
Ingredients
Taco Meat
- 1 lb. ground beef *I use 80/20 lean ground beef
- 1/2 cup water
- 3 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp all-purpose flour *see notes as to why you add this
- 2 tsp beef bouillon *Better Than Bouillon is amazing
- 1 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 1 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp white sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
Other Ingredients Needed for Oven Tacos
- 8 corn tortillas *Or more – see notes
- Shredded Mexican cheese blend *cheddar cheese or other types work great too
- Taco Toppings of your choice *toppings not included in nutritional information
Instructions
Making the Taco Meat
- Brown your ground beef in a skillet over medium heat. I like to break up the ground beef into small uniform pieces. A potato masher works great to do this.
- OPTIONAL:Drain/rinse your meat. Add the ground beef back into the same pan.
- Add the water, tomato paste, all purpose flour and seasonings. Mix them into the ground beef. Adjust the seasonings to your liking.Lower the temperature to med-low and let the meat heat so the flavor can simmer and develop. If there is excess sauce let the meat heat until it has cooked down a bit.
- This Easy Taco Meat makes tasty tacos, burritos, enchiladas, taquitos, quesadillas and so much more!
Making and Baking the Tacos
- Preheat your oven to 425℉. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease the baking sheet.
- Put the corn tortillas on the parchment paper or greased baking sheet. Then put cheese on half of the tortilla and some taco meat on the other half.*Divide the meat according to how many tacos you want to make. I usually get 8 regular sized tacos.
- Bake the tacos in the oven for about 5 minutes just to soften the tortilla and let the cheese melt. They should not be in long enough to get crispy.
- After the cheese has melted a bit and the tortilla has softened, take them out of the oven. Fold the tacos and put them back in the oven.
- Bake the tacos for about 15-20 minutes or until the outsides are nice and cripsy. If you want them a bit softer take them out when they are to your liking. *If the side touching the sheet pan starts to get too crispy you can flip the tacos.Bake them to your liking.
- Take the tacos out of the oven when they are done. Serve them with your favorite taco toppings.
Notes
Nutrition information is automatically calculated and should only be used as an approximation.