This taco-inspired comfort-food casserole is a weeknight dinner for happy family eating!
A lightly creamy blend of Southwestern-spiced ground meat, black beans, and corn is layered between soft tortillas with just enough shredded cheese to hold everything together.
Since no chopping is necessary, this hearty, healthy taco pie is a fast fix with pantry staples, a low-effort, high-reward dinner for busy nights.
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What You'll Love About This Recipe
- Quick prep relies on pantry spices. No dicing or mincing veggies.
- Healthy, low in calories with plenty of protein, fiber, calcium, and more!
- Hearty, substantial, and satisfying
Ingredients
- Vegetable oil
- Ground meat (chicken, turkey, beef, plant-based ground meat)
- Taco seasoning
- Onion powder
- Garlic powder
- Cayenne pepper (optional)
- Can of tomatoes
- Salsa
- Black beans
- Corn
- Cream cheese
- Tortillas (whole wheat)
- Shredded Colby-Jack cheese
Vegetable oil: You'll need this if using ground poultry. For ground beef or plant-based grounds, use non-stick spray to coat your skillet. I like neutral oils low in saturated fat like sunflower or canola.
🌮Taco spice: For convenience, you can use the kind that comes in a packet. For less sodium and additives, try making your own mix. I keep a jar of this homemade taco seasoning in the pantry.
🌶️Cayenne pepper: This will kick up the flavor and works well with the creamy element in the pie, but only use a pinch or omit if you don't like any hot spice. Also, if your salsa is hot, just leave it out.
🌽Corn: The recipe calls for frozen, but canned is fine, too.
Cream cheese: This helps tame the spices, binds the pie together, and makes it delightfully comforting.
Tortillas: Grocery stores now have a mind-boggling array to choose from. If you want lower carbs and more fiber, you're in luck. Whole wheat tortillas are my fave. Jumbo, burrito-size tortillas keep the filling from leaking out of the sides of the pie.
How to Make
Wash your hands, lathering with soap and rinsing with running water for 20 seconds, before starting.
Preheat oven to 375℉.
Cook the ground meat breaking it apart to form crumbles until almost no pink remains. Sprinkle spices over the meat.
Cook the meat all the way through, mixing the spices in completely.
Add the tomatoes and salsa, and stir to blend, scraping up any browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pan.
Toss in the rinsed black beans and frozen (or canned) corn. Cook until the corn is no longer frozen.
Mix in the cream cheese. Remove from heat.
Coat a pie dish with non-stick spray and line with a tortilla.
Pile half of the taco filling into over the tortilla.
Top with another tortilla and sprinkle with cheese. Spread the remaining ground meat mixture over the tortilla and cheese.
Top with a final tortilla and sprinkle with the rest of the cheese.
Bake until the cheese is melted, golden, and crusty, about 25 minutes.
Remove from oven and let stand for about 10 minutes. Slice and serve with a large, wide lasagna or casserole server (affiliate link).
Find the full recipe with amounts and complete instructions at the bottom of this post.
🧊Storage and reheating🔥
The prep and cooking steps for this recipe are very straightforward. The pie/casserole stores well, freezes beautifully, and reheats easily.
Cooking tip: If you make the recipe with ground beef, you may need to drain grease from the pan after browning.
With ground beef or plant-based grounds, the tightly wrapped pie keeps in the refrigerator for nearly a week. With poultry, it will last in the refrigerated for 3 to 4 days before it starts to spoil.
🔪After time in the cool confines of the fridge, it slices perfectly. You can reheat individual slices, covered, in the microwave for a minute. Or, warm it in a 375°F oven for 15 to 20 minutes, until an instant-read thermometer (affiliate link) reads 165°F.
Make-ahead prep
This is a perfect recipe for meal prep. Make an entire pie up to a day in advance of cooking or place the assembled pie (uncooked) in the freezer, tightly wrapped for about 3 months.
Thaw in the refrigerator overnight, or bake from frozen. The thawed pie will take 30 to 45 minutes, and the frozen pie will need an hour in a 400°F oven. Keep covered until the last 10 minutes of cooking.
(Use a sheet of foil coated with non-stick spray so the cheese doesn't stick.)
Check for doneness with an instant-read thermometer inserted in the center. It should reach a temperature of 165°F or greater.
👩🏽🍳Is it a healthy meal?
This yummy casserole excels in serving up protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Each slice has:
- 21 grams of protein
- 7 grams of fiber
- 247 mg calcium (excellent source)
Note that the nutrition information was calculated using ground chicken. Other types of ground meat are typically higher in protein and iron, so you could get more of these nutrients with a different choice of meat.
Nutrition Speak: A good nutrient source offers 10% to 19% of the Daily Value. An excellent source provides 20% or more.
Other benefits:
- Potassium
- Magnesium
- Manganese
- Vitamins A, B(s), and C
- Zinc
Although the pie/casserole has plenty of stick-to-your ribs carbohydrates in the form of beans, corn, and whole wheat tortillas, a slice counts as less than 2 servings of carbohydrates.
Combine this with the good amount of fiber, and the dish is a green-light choice for a diabetic diet.
🧂Unfortunately, the sodium in the dish is not optimal. But, you can fix this by making your own taco seasoning, choosing no-salt tomatoes and beans, and reading your salsa label to be sure it's not high in sodium.
FAQ
Yes; if you use corn tortillas instead of wheat and check the ingredient labels to be sure they are gluten-free, you can easily transform it into a gluten-free meal.
For a vegetarian main course, simply use plant-based ground meat, such as Impossible ground beef.
To adapt the recipe for vegan palates, omit the cream cheese (or use a vegan version, such as Daiya or Miyoko's), and top the tortillas with vegan cheese.
This filling is hearty and thick and bound together with the cream cheese. It does not become soggy. Just the opposite; it firms up more as it cools.
Let it stand for at least 10 minutes after removing from the oven to firm up. Your slices will not be perfect but will hold together well enough.
Of course, fresh vegetables add taste and nutrition. Sauté them with the ground meat at the beginning of the cooking process.
Other recipes you might like...
If south-of-the-border flavors are your favorite, try these Bell Pepper Boats with Taco Stuffing, one of the most popular recipes on the blog!
Love chicken tacos? Try this slow-cooker (or Instant Pot) recipe for Shredded Chicken Taco Filling. So. Easy.
This hearty Pork Pozole is more effort, but the hominy corn stew is perfect on a frigid, winter day. Enjoy it the traditional way, on New Year's Day, with a tortilla on the side!
Taco Pie with Tortillas
Equipment
- 1 Skillet, large
- 1 Pie dish 9-inch
- Liquid and dry measuring cups
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon sunflower oil or another neutral oil like canola or soybean
- 1 pound ground turkey or chicken Can swap in another ground meat like beef, chicken, or plant-based ground meat.
- 2 Tablespoons taco seasoning use low-sodium if possible
- ½ teaspoon onion powder optional
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder or granules
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper optional
- 1 14-ounce can tomatoes petite diced or crushed, low sodium
- ½ cup salsa
- 1 14-ounce can black beans drained, rinsed, low sodium or no salt
- 1 cup corn frozen
- 3 Tablespoons cream cheese low-fat or regular
- 3 whole wheat tortillas large
- 1 cup Colby-Jack cheese shredded
Instructions Start Cooking
- Wash hands thoroughly, lathering with soap and rinsing with running water before starting.
- Preheat oven to 375℉.
- Heat oil in a skillet and add ground turkey, chicken or other meat. Cook briefly and sprinkle with onion and garlic powders and taco spice. Continue cooking until no longer pink.1 Tablespoon sunflower oil 1 pound ground turkey or chicken 2 Tablespoons taco seasoning ½ teaspoon onion powder ½ teaspoon garlic powder ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Add tomatoes and salsa and scrape up any brown or stuck bits of meat on the bottom of the skillet.1 14-ounce can tomatoes ½ cup salsa
- Add the black beans and corn, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the corn is no longer frozen.1 14-ounce can black beans 1 cup corn
- Stir the cream cheese into the mixture until it is well incorporated, and then remove the skillet from heat.3 Tablespoons cream cheese
- Spray a 9-inch pie dish with olive oil and line the bottom with a large tortilla. Spread half of the meat-bean-corn mixture over the tortilla. Top with another tortilla and half the of shredded cheese. Cover the cheese with the remaining filling and place the last tortilla on top. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Place in 350℉ oven for about 30 minutes, until the cheese is melted and starting to brown and the filling is piping hot! Remove from oven.3 whole wheat tortillas 1 cup Colby-Jack cheese
- Let the tortilla pie sit and cool at least 5 minutes before slicing and serving.
Nutrition
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
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