Taco Casserole Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What are the main ingredients of this casserole? ›

In the United States, a casserole or hot dish is typically a baked food with three main components: pieces of meat (such as chicken or ground meat) or fish (such as tuna) or other protein (such as beans or tofu), various chopped or canned vegetables (such as green beans or peas), and a starchy binder (such as flour, ...

The time a casserole takes to cook will vary from 2-2½ hours for chuck, blade and thick flank, up to 4 hours for shin, leg and neck. Pork cuts for braising and casseroling normally take 1½ hours, and lamb much the same.

Most people will eat about 1 to 2 ounces of meat per taco. For 20 people figure at least 70 to 80 tacos. That's about 10 pounds of meat roughly. People tend to fill tacos with solid meats like not ground beef or chicken with less meat fillings than ground meats.

Let's talk anatomy: A standard dinner casserole usually includes a protein, a starch, a vegetable, a sauce (or other binding ingredient), and cheese. But making a casserole is not an exact science, and you can definitely break away from this formula. Check out some fun side-dish casseroles and desserts below!

Not every single casserole has all of them, but as a rule of thumb, here's what to look for: a starch, a binding agent or sauce, and a protein or vegetable. Many casseroles also have both vegetables and proteins, as well as a crunchy element to give some textural contrast, and cheese.

Uncovering the foods promotes browning and crisping, and reduces the amount of liquid in the finished dish. If a casserole looks soupy when it's ready to bake, bake it uncovered unless the ingredients include pasta or rice, which absorb liquid.

Then, as the heat from the pot cooks the food, the heat passes into the air, creating steam. That steam is hot, and that heat goes out of your kitchen exhaust as waste. But when you put a lid on, the heat stays in the pot. It helps cook your food faster.

Each taco shell or small soft taco-size tortilla fits about 2 ounces or 1/4 cup of meat. If you add diced onions, you could stretch a pound of ground beef to make about a dozen tacos. With just the meat and spices, you can make about 8 tacos from a pound of meat.

The average taco actually only has 1 to 1 1/2 oz of meat on them. If I was making tacos for fifty I would calculate 3 tacos per person. So 150 tacos, so 150 x 1.5 oz so 225 oz. or 14 pounds of ground beef.

How many tacos will 10 pounds of ground beef make? ›

The "conservative" amount of ground beef in a typical taco is 2.5 ounces, but because of the other taco fillings we can estimate 2 ounces of beef for the average taco. So that being said, probably about 8 tacos per pound of ground beef.

Handy tip: Prepare Ahead!

A day or two before the party, brown your ground beef and add the taco seasoning. Place the cooked beef in a foil pan. Pour your black beans into a separate foil pan, add the taco seasoning and stir thoroughly.

You can use ground chicken or turkey and cook it just like ground beef. Another option is to use thinly sliced grilled chicken. Fish can be a little more delicate to work with and does not hold as well. Use fish if you are serving a small group and are able to prepare and serve immediately.

Do Authentic Mexican Tacos Have Cheese? You'll often see Monterey Jack and Cheddar cheeses in Tex-Mex recipes, but you won't find it in authentic cuisine. The two most commonly used for cooking in Mexico is queso fresco and queso Oaxaca.

Casserole history

Apparently, casseroles originated as communal pots that people shared for meals. The oldest recipe for a casserole, around 1250, consisted of pasta sheets cooked in water, layered with grated cheese and spices.

The Criteria: What to Look for in a Casserole Dish

Look for a dish that has wide, looped handles, and that is made of stoneware or ceramic for heat retention. We also preferred dishes with softer, rounded interior corners since they were often easier to clean.