Extra Cheesy Beef Oven Baked Tacos

These oven baked tacos stuff what I’ve dubbed the best taco meat ever and cheese into 15 corn tortillas for a perfect crowd-pleasing dinner or meal prep recipe. They’re super easy to make, and the recipe can easily be doubled or tripled to freeze some for later.

Each oven baked taco has 11 grams of protein, 10 grams of carbs, 4 grams of fat, and 3 Smart Points. So load up!

Ingredients for the Best Taco Meat Ever

I make A LOT of Tex-Mex recipes, but I feel confident saying this is one of the most flavorful ground beef mixtures I’ve ever made. Here’s what you’ll need (I’ll touch on modifications below):

• ground beef, diced onion, minced garlic
• salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, chipotle chili powder (or chopped chipotles like in my ground turkey taco meat)
• red enchilada sauce

That’s it! Throw the onion, garlic, and beef in a pan to cook before stirring in the spices and sauce.

And you’re good to go.

Update: If you love this beef mixture and want other uses, my taco meal prep bowls combine this beef with diced chiles and a load of veggies for a super high volume meal.

How to Make the Oven Baked Tacos

If you’ve made my baked chicken tacos, these beef tacos use the same tortillas and baking method. It’s crazy simple.

Microwave extra thin corn tortillas so they’re foldable, fill half of every tortilla with cheese-beef-cheese, fold and cover with a second baking sheet to press close, and bake.

Like I mentioned in my cheesy beef baked taquitos recipe, if you have trouble folding the tortillas, or they crack during folding, heat them a bit longer! You want them nearly too hot to handle.

Bada-bing-bada-boom. Extra crispy, cheesy, beefy tacos in bulk.

Modifying Your Oven Baked Tacos

I’ll quickly run through a few ingredient questions. If I miss something, drop your question in a comment below.

The Taco Meat

Like I mentioned above, the onions cook down and are barely noticeable in the finished product. But if you have an extra picky eater, a FODMAP sensitivity, or any other reason to avoid onions, leave ’em out. The taco meat will survive.

You can definitely use ground turkey or chicken in place of beef. But be sure to match the fat content if possible. Or if you use a fattier cut of meat, you might drain some fat away before adding the spices and enchilada sauce. Too much fat will likely make the bottom of your tortillas soggy or run out during baking.

You can also use other protein options like my Mexican shredded beef or chicken.

Cheese

I love the melty-ness of mozzarella and the sharpness of cheddar, but you could go with any type of cheese in your oven baked tacos. Monterey jack would be the obvious choice to replace both cheeses.

It’s also worth mentioning, these tacos are extra cheesy. If you wanted to save a bit of fat, calories, and Smart Points, you could reduce the amount of cheese used. Just be sure to get some on both sides of the meat to fully seal the tacos.

Tortillas

If you wanted to use regular corn tortillas to make larger oven baked tacos or even flour tortillas, both should work fine. Though you’ll likely need to modify the bake time.

As an estimate, I’d guess a thicker tortilla might take an extra 5 minutes. But don’t quote me on that.

Reheating Your Oven Baked Tacos

If you’re going from the refrigerator, reheating the tacos in an oven or air fryer at 400 degrees for 3-5 minutes should do the trick. Just be sure not to burn the shells.

For frozen, you can thaw at room temp or overnight before using the same instructions above. Or you can try reheating them wrapped in foil at a lower temp. That way they warm throughout without burning on the outside.

Time will also vary based on how many you reheat and once. I pop two in the air fryer for about 3 minutes and think they’re even better reheated than fresh.

If you’re curious about my air fryer recommendation or any other tools or products I use, I have an Amazon list with everything in one place.

Creamy Salsa Dip

Update: I totally forgot to include the recipe for the creamy salsa dip! It’s basically the same thing I used for my copycat Cheesy Gordita Crunch recipe—a 2:1 ratio of fat free Greek yogurt to salsa. You can also use more of the enchilada sauce or hot sauce like I did in my black bean and corn quesadillas recipe.

In this case, I used 1/2 cup Greek yogurt and 1/4 cup salsa with a tablespoon or two of diced pickled jalapeño peppers.

You can get creative with different styles of salsa or additional ingredients. If you wanted to make your own salsa and freshen things up, check out the mango salsa from my chipotle bbq chicken tacos and the pineapple salsa from my shredded pork tacos recipes.

And to take your game to the next level, combine some fresh tomatillos, salsa verde, pickled jalapeño peppers, and cilantro with Greek yogurt and ranch seasoning. See my creamy jalapeño ranch dip for precise measurements.

Okay, I think that’s all ya need to know. These tacos are one of the most re-created recipes from my blog so if you have questions, I guarantee you can find hundreds of posts about them in my free Facebook group. And when you try these oven baked tacos, be sure to let me know what you think!

More Recipes with Extra Thin Corn Tortillas

If you want to make 45 oven baked tacos, you certainly won’t find any judgement from me. But just in case you want to put leftover tortillas to use in another way, here are a few of my favorite recipes:

• Tex Mex White Bean Chicken Soup
• Crispy Pineapple Chipotle Chicken Tostadas
• Healthier Chilaquiles (these use the same enchilada sauce from this recipe, too)
• Bean and Cheese Air Fryer Taquitos

I really love these tortillas, okay?