Taco Skillet is everything you love about tacos made in one pan, in 25 minutes! Easy, quick, and healthy Mexican food you can make exactly the way your family likes it.
We also love this chicken enchilada skillet and cilantro lime chicken rice skillet!
Taco skillet! Skillet recipes are one of my favorite healthy meals. They remind me my childhood in Ukraine when grandma used exact measurements only when baking. The rest was cooked with “eyeball” and “use what you have” strategies.
Plus, skillet meals work so well with Mexican recipes! I’ve previously shared recipes for a chicken burrito skillet, Mexican chicken and rice and for skillet enchiladas.
Why You’ll Love This Taco Skillet
- So flavorful: Here we have ground turkey seasoned with onion and taco seasoning. Then simmered with black beans, green chilies, and diced tomatoes.
- Cheesy crust: Cover with tortillas, let the cheese melt and you will be able to slice it with a spatula. Even your kids can perform self-serve.
- Quick and easy: All cooked in one pan, with fridge and pantry staples, and in under 25 minutes!
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Protein: Use any ground meat like ground beef, pork, lamb, chicken, or ground turkey like I did. Drain fat from fattier meat. If following vegetarian diet, fry tofu, use tofu crumbles or any other substitution.
- Seasonings: Taco skillet flavor is built with sauteed onion, taco seasoning and diced green chilies. No chilies? Use extra taco seasoning, chili powder, or throw in some jalapenos or green pepper to saute with the onion.
- Canned vegetables: Diced tomatoes and black beans. Often I prefer to use Instant Pot black beans if I have some frozen in the freezer.
- Fresh vegetables: Lettuce, tomatoes and cilantro for toppings. You can also add corn, mushrooms, zucchini or bell pepper when sauteeing.
- Tortillas: Corn tortillas add the most authentic Mexican flavor. You can also use wheat tortillas or tortilla chips. Skip completely for low carb version. Also, this reminds me, you can skip beans for lower carb and more high protein meal too.
- Cheese: I am using marble cheese, a mix of white and yellow cheddar. Use Tex Mex cheese, yellow or white cheddar.
How to Make Taco Skillet
Make sure to use large 14 inch skillet or 12 inch skillet but deep one that you have cover for. If you don’t have a large lid, use large baking sheet or round pizza pan to cover it.
- Saute onion and meat: Saute your veggies and spices quickly in a bit of oil. It will brighten their flavors. Then add ground meat of choice and saute for about 7 minutes or until almost cooked. This step requires muscle work, constant stirring and breaking meat into small pieces.
- Add canned goods and simmer: Add diced tomatoes (do not drain), black beans (drained), green chilies (see recipe notes for sub) and maybe even frozen corn. Cook this mix while covered for about 5 minutes.
- Top with tortillas and cheese: And let stand covered with heat off to allow tortillas to soften and cheese melt. Just wait till you dig in!
- Now top with fresh veggies: Like typical taco fixings – lettuce, tomatoes, cilantro, green onion, diced avocado or guacamole or salsa guacamole.
How to Store and Reheat
This taco skillet recipe is almost indestructible, it’s very hard to ruin it and leftovers taste delicious for days!
Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container for up to 3-4 days. I prefer glass storage containers for taste reasons.
Reheat in a microwave or right in the pan with a splash of water or chicken broth, covered and simmered on low heat for 7ish minutes. Also if you turn off heat and let skillet stand covered for a few more minutes, it will keep heating through.
Freeze in a glass airtight container for up to 3 months. Thaw before reheating in the fridge overnight or on a counter during the day. Then reheat as per instructions above.
Easy-peasy. Hope you enjoy this taco skillet and I would love to hear from you!
More Quick Mexican Dinner Recipes
- Tex Mex chicken and zucchini
- Ground beef tacos
- Ground turkey and zucchini skillet
- Chicken burrito recipe
- Mexican bean salad
- Sweet potato skillet
Taco Skillet
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground turkey, beef or chicken
- 1 large onion finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 2 teaspoons taco seasoning low sodium
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 ounces can diced green chilies
- 14 ounces can low sodium diced tomatoes not drained
- 14 ounces can low sodium black beans rinsed & drained
- 8 small corn tortillas
- 1 cup Tex Mex or cheddar cheese grated
- Handful Romaine or iceberg lettuce shredded
- 2 small tomatoes diced
- Avocado, cilantro, green onion for toppings (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat large non-stick skillet on medium-high heat and swirl 1 tablespoon of oil to coat. Add onion and saute for 1 minute, stirring occasionally.
- Add ground meat, taco seasoning and salt. Saute for 7 minutes, constantly stirring and breaking into small pieces with spatula.
- Add diced green chiles, diced tomatoes, black beans; stir and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer on low heat for 5 minutes.
- Lay tortillas overlapping each a other abit, sprinkle with cheese, turn off heat, cover with a tight lid and let stand for 5-10 minutes.
- Sprinkle with lettuce, diced tomatoes and whatever else Mexican topping you like.
- Serve hot with desired toppings like cilantro, green onion, avocado, yogurt, salsa etc.
Video
Notes
- Store: Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
- Freeze: Up to 3 months.
- If using ground beef or pork, I recommend to drain the fat.
- Wheat tortillas would work just fine.
- If you don’t have diced green chilies, use more taco seasoning or chili powder. Also green bell pepper or jalapenos amount to taste and sauteed works. Throw it in with onions.
- Add corn, skip beans or tortillas – make skillet yours.
Slava Ukraine
This was delicious, easy to make & quick–all of my favorite things about a recipe. I will definitely be making this frequently!
So happy to hear you enjoyed it!
One of my very favourite recipes. I also use it as a base for Shepherd’s pie now!
oh yum! A southwest shepherd’s pie variation, sounds delicious!
Great meal! Quick, easy, & healthy. Family loved it.
Thanks, Olena !
You are very welcome Philamena!
This is delicious! I skipped the green chiles because I don’t like them, so I added more taco seasoning as suggested. The only issue I had was that it ended up a little soupy and not dry like in the picture, so we ate it as taco filling instead of a taco skillet, but we loved it! Very easy to make and tasty! Will make it again.
Thank you!!
Not sure why the skillet ended up more watery for you. But good call on using it for taco filling 🙂
This very quickly became a 2-3 time a week meal for us! We use lean ground chicken and forgo the chiles for green pepper. I also only use 1/2 an onion and about 3-4tsp of low-sodium taco seasoning. I find any less and it’s a bit bland, and any more onion really overwhelms the dish (maybe my onions are just too large?). I also use fire-roasted low-sodium diced tomatoes and drain them before adding, or I find it turns into more of a soup instead of a taco.
Even with my substitutions and small tweaks, the recipe is insanely easy and makes A LOT while being incredibly healthy and delicious. It’s definitely a permanent staple to our diets.
Love receiving such fantastic feedback and tips on variations! Thanks, Ali!
I made this recipe last night, and my husband LOVED it. I was surprised because he’s sometimes picky about food, and the recipe was so fast and easy! He loves healthy recipes with lots of fresh, healthy ingredients, and it can be hard to find recipes that are simple, quick, AND healthy. I pan fried a few flour tortillas and we had this taco skillet as the filling. Definitely keeping this recipe. Thanks for all the healthy, fast recipes! I found this website a few weeks ago, and I keep coming back to it for healthy dinner ideas!
Hi Maddy! So glad you found my website and are enjoying my recipes!
Making this tonight but has anyone doubled the recipe? I’m wondering about the “ extra tortillas”, recipe says 16 if doubling, not sure how they’ll all fit. Thx!
Easy and delicious! Thank-you!
Made this with meatless ground “beef”. So easy and delicious!