Taco Recipes For Any Night Of The Week
Tacos are tasty, versatile, and can easily adjust to your whims and desired level of spiciness. With many variations in what constitutes a taco, you could theoretically make every day Taco Tuesday and still enjoy tons of variety for a long time. Want to throw together a quick weeknight dinner in 10 or 20 minutes? Tacos can get you there. Looking for a casual, but colorful and impressive spread to share with family or friends? Tacos come through again.
Tacos can take many forms, which is what makes them so versatile. At their simplest, they are encased in a hard or soft tortilla shell, filled with meat, beans, or vegetables, and topped with cheese, salsa, and other condiments. Once you've got the basics down, you can mix and match ingredients in this formula to your heart's content. That said, it always helps to start with a recipe, and this thorough list will get your creative juices flowing any night of the week.
5-Ingredient Costco Tacos
Costco has everything you need to make this fresh and flavorful 10-minute taco dinner. It's spicy, sweet, and packed full of protein and fruit. While you could pick up the main ingredients of pineapple, rotisserie chicken, corn tortillas, and avocados at just about any store, the Robert Rothschild roasted pineapple and habanero sauce is sure to be at Costco. Otherwise, just swap in another sauce of your choice. This recipe is especially suited for quick weeknight dinners. With pre-cooked rotisserie chicken, most of this recipe's tasks consist of simply assembling ingredients.
Recipe: 5-Ingredient Costco Tacos
20-Minute Breakfast Tacos
Could you eat tacos for every meal? If you have these quick breakfast tacos in your rotation, then absolutely. They're tasty, come together fast, and offer a savory, veggie- and protein-packed option to start your day off right. Flour tortillas hold eggs, cheese, onion, pepper, and potatoes. They're a hearty option to eat at home or wrap in foil to enjoy on the go. Better yet, you can get from craving to tacos in about 20 minutes.
Recipe: 20-Minute Breakfast Tacos
Easy Chicken Tacos
These classic chicken tacos are simple, fast, and easy to make. With familiar taco flavors and simple ingredients, they're good for picky eaters or as a base for more adventurous toppings. Pick up a rotisserie chicken or just use any kind of cooked chicken. From there, you only need to cook onions and peppers with the chicken and spices, then finish off the tacos with your favorite add-ons. Feeding a crowd? Serve up the tacos hot and set out toppings in separate dishes so everyone can build their own.
Recipe: Easy Chicken Tacos
Aldi 5-Ingredient Carnitas Tacos
These five-ingredient tacos are the ideal choice when you want to keep your shopping list short and your belly full. The carnitas seasoned boneless pork shoulder from Aldi comes loaded with all the seasonings you need for authentic flavor without having to round up a bunch of different spices. The shredded pork goes a long way in these traditional carnitas tacos packed with onions, cilantro, and Aldi's fresh-cut salsa. You can cook the pork shoulder roast in the Instant Pot, a slow cooker, or in your oven.
Recipe: Aldi 5-Ingredient Carnitas Tacos
Shrimp Tacos
These shrimp tacos take things to the next level: They start with quick-pickled red onions, which add a beautiful pop of pink color and a tangy-sweet crunch that plays well with the lime and spicy jalapeno. The real secret to what makes these handheld delights special, though, is the Parmesan-crusted tortillas, sporting a golden color and wonderfully crisp texture. Topped with cilantro, avocado, and hot sauce, these tacos pack freshness and flavor into every bite. The recipe makes four tacos, so double up if you're serving a hungry crew.
Recipe: Shrimp Tacos
15-Minute Jackfruit Tacos
There are many reasons to try jackfruit as a filling in your tacos, the main one being that it's a fantastic, nutritious substitute for meat. You'll also love that shredded jackfruit has little flavor on its own, so it soaks up the flavor of any sauces and spices you add to it. Finally, because it needs only to be warmed through, it's ready to eat in just minutes. Serve jackfruit tacos with all your favorite fixings, like guacamole, cilantro, and salsa.
Recipe: 15-Minute Jackfruit Tacos
Copycat Taco Bell Fiery Doritos Locos Tacos
You can recreate Taco Bell's addictive Doritos taco shell at home with a regular taco shell and spices. Or, if you're feeling ambitious, you can make your own seasoned taco shells from scratch. Our recipe will show you how to coat the taco shells with a potent spice blend and Cholula chili-lime hot sauce to replicate that signature Doritos Locos Taco flavor. Ground beef and simple accoutrements, including lettuce, tomato, and shredded cheese, will satisfy your Taco Bell craving without ever leaving home.
Bacon Weave Taco with Mac and Cheese Filling
While tacos are typically filled with protein and fresh vegetables, this comfort food version features bacon and mac and cheese. The weaving process and homemade filling take a little time and effort, but it's worth the splurge. First, cook your mac and cheese in the slow cooker with an IPA beer that adds bitterness and bite to balance out the cheese. Next, follow our guide to weave and cut cooked bacon strips into pliable shells. Fill them with mac and cheese, and dive in.
Chimichurri Steak Tacos
Instead of the usual taco-seasoned ground beef, try a vibrant filling of steak and chimichurri sauce. While these tacos are gorgeous to look at, with the bright green herb sauce and red tomatoes spooned over chunks of perfectly cooked flank steak, they also taste incredible. The fresh ingredients include parsley, cilantro, orange, and lime. Other ingredients may already be in your pantry, including vinegar, soy sauce, and chili powder. The recipe makes a dozen steak tacos in soft corn tortillas, so invite your friends over and enjoy.
Recipe: Chimichurri Steak Tacos
15-Minute Lentil Tacos
Precooked lentils make it easy to prepare these tacos any night of the week. The lentils are quickly simmered with diced onion, vegetable stock, and a blend of spices to make a hearty and flavorful filling. Once that's done, all that's left is to set out your favorite taco fillings, like guacamole, shredded cheese, sliced olives, and diced tomatoes, and fill up the shells. This recipe makes enough filling for 15 tacos, and can even be made ahead of time and then warmed up.
Recipe: 15-Minute Lentil Tacos
Slow Cooker Al Pastor Tacos
Traditionally, al pastor-style pork is cooked on a vertical rotisserie until tender and juicy. Using your slow cooker is an ideal way to easily create al pastor at home. Create a flavorful sauce using smoky chipotle peppers, garlic, pineapple, and beer, then coat a pork roast in the mixture and let it braise for eight hours. Shred the meat to create al pastor tacos with toppings of diced red onion, diced pineapple, and cilantro, and you'll swear you bought these from a proper taqueria.
Recipe: Slow Cooker Al Pastor Tacos
Copycat Taco Bell Bacon Club Chalupas
This Taco Tuesday, instead of the usual hard taco shells or soft tortillas, make a batch of copycat Taco Bell bacon club chalupas. The crisp and puffy shells hold a filling of shredded chicken, bacon, lettuce, and diced tomato. Follow the Mashed recipe for homemade Chalupas, which you can make up to three days in advance. Serve the filled chalupas with a creamy, zingy blend of ranch and guacamole, and relish in a feast of varying textures, temperatures, and flavors.
Ground Turkey Tacos
There are so many potential fillings for tacos, ranging from undeniably indulgent to summery and light. This recipe is on the latter side of things, since it's made with lean ground turkey. Don't worry: The protein gets plenty of flavor after simmering with spices including chili powder, paprika, cayenne, and cumin. Instead of spooning that filling into store-bought hard taco shells, though, elevate the dish by making your own crisp shells out of regular corn tortillas. They fry up in just a few minutes in a little oil and make your tacos noticeably more delicious.
Recipe: Ground Turkey Tacos
Easy Chicken Taquitos
Taquitos are a fun twist on regular tacos and can be served for dinner or set out as a savory appetizer. Just shred precooked chicken breasts or meat from a rotisserie chicken to make the filling, which is tossed with spices and herbs, green chilis, and shredded cheese. For a fun pre-feast activity, have your family or friends help fill and roll up the taquitos for baking. Since the recipe takes only 20 minutes from start to finish, there's no reason not to make a batch tonight.
Recipe: Easy Chicken Taquitos
Chimichurri Shrimp Tacos
Want to mix up your shrimp taco game? Chimichurri adds a new dimension of flavor to your taco night rotation. With charred tortillas and this colorful sauce, these tacos look like a big production. And yet, it only takes about half an hour to make this impressive and flavorful meal. Make your own chimichurri sauce with cilantro or basil, or use prepared sauce. The shrimp cook in roughly four minutes, about the same time it takes to char the tortillas in the oven for crunch and flavor.
Recipe: Chimichurri Shrimp Tacos
Quick Cauliflower Tacos
Looking for a vegetarian taco recipe that's full of flavor, color, and texture? Here you go. These are filled with shredded purple cabbage and white beans, plus cauliflower florets that have been oven-roasted until tender and browned. You'll love the avocado sauce made with lime juice and cilantro, especially since it blends up in about a minute. Pile everything into hard taco shells for lots of crunch, or use soft tortillas for more tender tacos. You won't miss the meat at all.
Recipe: Quick Cauliflower Tacos
Cheesy Puffy Tacos
Though they're not at all like traditional tacos, these cheesy, puff pastry tacos are still delicious and a fun twist on the classic. The recipe makes 18 folded pockets loaded with taco-seasoned ground beef and lots of melty cheese, making them perfect for a buffet. Bake them until they're puffed and browned, and serve the tacos with a spicy sour cream sauce. This is an excellent Super Bowl party food, by the way.
Recipe: Cheesy Puffy Tacos
Mushroom Tacos With Guacamole
Gorgeous and filling vegetarian tacos that come together in only 15 minutes? What a perfect recipe. Homemade guacamole with onions and diced tomatoes is a cinch to prepare, while cremini mushrooms are a breeze to sauté with spices and oil. Add the fillings to soft tortillas, and dig in. That's it. Recipe developer Alexandra Shytsman reminds home cooks not to rinse the mushrooms, as they'll absorb the water and end up mushy in the final dish. Instead, wipe off any dirt with a damp paper towel.
Recipe: Mushroom Tacos With Guacamole
20-Minute Fish Tacos
Skeptical of fish tacos? You won't be after you learn how to make this flaky seasoned salmon in only 20 minutes, plus a quick batch of pickled jalapenos. These form the fresh and bright filling inside these crispy tacos, along with guacamole and two no-cook sauces that also come together in minutes. Not only will you have a delicious meal, but you'll also have some new techniques under your belt to apply to other recipes.
Recipe: 20-Minute Fish Tacos
Copycat Taco Bell Loaded Nacho Tacos
While these may be copycat Taco Bell tacos, we're willing to bet that they're going to taste fresher and a thousand times better than anything you bring home from the drive-thru. Season your ground beef or other meat filling with a packet of Taco Bell seasoning, and add it to soft flour tortillas with a hefty drizzle of nacho cheese sauce. These are complete with a flurry of shredded lettuce and cheese, plus one surprise ingredient: fried tortilla strips for crunch in every bite.
Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos
Make taco night a little easier by putting your slow cooker to work. This chicken taco recipe has a filling made of shredded, seasoned chicken along with toppings like shredded cabbage, salsa, and sour cream. Chicken breasts cook up in the slow cooker in just four hours, soaking up ample flavor from spices, diced onion, and salsa. You can also make the chicken a day or two in advance for an quick-to-reheat taco filling.
Recipe: Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos
Roasted Sweet Potato And Black Bean Tacos
Whether your guests are vegetarian or carnivorous, no one will miss the meat in these flavorful and hearty tacos. Cubed sweet potatoes are roasted until they're soft and browned, and they team up with black beans sautéed with diced onions and spices. Spoon the warm filling into hard or soft tortilla shells and serve with plenty of cool and colorful toppings for contrast, like salsa, queso fresco, guacamole, and sour cream.
Instant Pot Birria Tacos
Making birria the traditional way requires hours in the kitchen, but our Instant Pot version is finished cooking in only one hour. Chuck roast emerges from the Instant Pot with a meltingly tender texture, infused with flavor from onion, ancho chiles, cinnamon, and cumin. The shredded meat is folded into tortillas with cheese and then cooked in a skillet until the cheese is melted, creating a big batch of comfort food to share with family and friends.
Recipe: Instant Pot Birria Tacos
20-Minute Chicken Tacos
Seven simple, easy-to-find ingredients come together in these chicken tacos that go from the fridge to your table in about 20 minutes. Seasoned chicken tenders and red onion, cilantro, avocados, and limes create a simple taco with wide appeal. Want to mix it up a bit? You can turn this recipe into a DIY taco bar by setting out toppings including salsa, sour cream, cheese, lettuce, and diced tomatoes.
Recipe: 20-Minute Chicken Tacos
15-Minute Spicy Thai Tofu Tacos
The ingredients list for this taco recipe may look long, but many of them are probably already in your pantry. Anything you're missing you'll ultimately be happy to have on hand, such as sesame oil and ginger powder that make it easy to build flavor in all kinds of recipes. Sauté cubed tofu in spices and soy sauce, then whisk up a spicy peanut sauce with lime juice and maple syrup. Add both to warm taco shells with diced avocado and tomatoes, and this just might become your new favorite fusion recipe.
Recipe: 15-Minute Spicy Thai Tofu Tacos
20-Minute Vegetarian Chimichurri Tacos
If you made it to this point in the list, you've probably been convinced to try your hand at a homemade chimichurri sauce made with parsley, vinegar, spices, and garlic. The condiment adds so much fresh flavor to foods and, best of all, takes no time to blend up. For these vegetarian tacos, the sauce is spooned over a filling of sautéed mushrooms and black beans, while additional veggies, crema, and shredded cheese complete the vibrant and filling meal.
15-Minute Vegan Breakfast Tacos
Instead of searching for the best fast food or premade vegan breakfast options, make these easy breakfast tacos at home in only 15 minutes. They're an especially tasty way to use fresh vegetables from your garden or the farmers market. The filling is a blend of onions, peppers, mushrooms, and crumbled tofu, all cooked in a skillet with spices and salsa. The recipe makes enough for six people, and you can always halve the quantities to feed a smaller crew or just yourself.
Recipe: 15-Minute Vegan Breakfast Tacos
Copycat Taco Bell Nacho Cheese Doritos Locos Tacos Supreme
This copycat recipe has a really long name, which, fortunately, doesn't hint that it takes a long time to make these tacos. For Doritos flavor, look for nacho cheese-flavored hard taco shells from brands like Old El Paso. (They even make a ranch-flavored shell for tacos that taste like Cool Ranch Doritos!) Cook ground beef with a packet of Taco Bell seasoning, then you're ready to fill the shells along with sour cream, lettuce, tomato, and cheese — no trip to the restaurant necessary.
Recipe: Copycat Taco Bell Nacho Cheese Doritos Locos Tacos Supreme
Slow Cooker Birria De Res Tacos
When you want to make birria tacos that feel close to authentic with a long, slow cook time, this is a great recipe to try. Because the meat is made in a slow cooker, there's plenty of hands-off time to get other food prepared or just relax. The filling is a blend of chuck roast and bone-in short ribs that cook with dried chiles, onion, garlic, cinnamon, and other aromatics until they're fall-apart tender. If you manage not to eat all of the filling right out of the slow cooker, fold it into some tortillas with cheese, and fry until mouthwateringly golden.
Recipe: Slow Cooker Birria De Res Tacos