Beef Taco Bowls

Beef Taco Bowls is an easy recipe that will soon become your favorite and fun way to celebrate Taco Tuesday! Tortillas bake into cute crunchy taco cups that are filled with our saucy beef mixture and taco toppings. 

Taco Bowls

Let's change up Taco Tuesday with a fun taco recipe this week. Let’s make Beef Taco Bowls!

Everyone loves Taco Tuesday and it's so much fun to make tacos different ways.

Here at Swirls we have so many Taco Tuesday recipes for you. You can let your imagination run wild.

There are open-faced tacos, tacos in taco boats, taco bowls, vegan tacos, vegetarian tacos, steak tacos, fish tacos, chicken tacos, tacos in baked potatoes and even walking tacos....the list goes on and on.

But today we are serving our tacos up in these adorable mini taco bowls made from tortillas! Say what?

Yes, a bowl made out of a tortilla! And they’re really so easy to make. Wait until you try this recipe.

Beef Taco Cups is a twist on the traditional taco recipe. Baked tortillas form cups for our saucy ground beef taco filling and toppings!

To make taco cups, simply bake tortillas in a muffin tin for just ten minutes to form a crunchy shell that will be the bowl for your taco filling. Gently overlap the tortillas and they will fold easily to fit into the muffin tin. For even easier folding, simply heat them for several seconds in the microwave to warm them up and make them more pliable!

Our crunchy taco cups are the perfect bowl for a flavorful saucy ground beef taco filling.

I love using my easy homemade taco seasoning to make this easy ground beef taco filling but a store bought taco seasoning will be delicious too. 

An assortment of taco bowl toppings, or your favorite taco toppings, finish off this beef taco cups recipe.

You’ll want to make the bowls with tortillas that are taco style and about 6-inches in diameter. This size of tortillas will fit beautifully in a standard size cupcake tin.
Now you can eat two of these smaller taco cups made with the 6-inch tortillas or you can make big taco bowls and eat just one.

For a large taco bowl, you will want to use the larger size of tortillas that are about 8-inches in diameter. Simply bake the 8-inch tortillas in a jumbo muffin tin and you’ll have yourself a mighty big taco bowl to fill!

Kids, and grownups too, will have so much fun on Taco Tuesday when Beef Taco Bowls are on the menu! 

How To Make Taco Cups With Tortillas

Scroll down for the full recipe instructions and ingredient amounts in the recipe card below

1. Heat oven to 350°F.
2. Line 8 muffin cups with tortillas. Carefully fold back edges of tortillas to leave openings in centers for the filling. Bake 10 min.
3. Meanwhile, heat a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Cook ground beef, onion and taco seasoning until beef is browned.
4. Stir in tomato sauce and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Spoon beef mixture, about 1/3 cup per bowl, into tortilla bowls. Top with cheese, lettuce, sour cream and tomato. Garnish with cilantro leaves.

Swirls of Flavor Recipe Tips

• Use flour tortillas, not corn tortillas. Corn tortillas are not pliable enough to shape into cups
• Gently overlap the tortillas and they will fold easily to fit into the muffin tin. For even easier folding, simply heat them for several seconds in the microwave to warm them up and make them more pliable!
• Personalize your taco cups and serve with your favorite taco toppings
• Serve taco toppings in a cupcake pan. So much fun!
• Make large taco cups! Use 8-inch flour tortillas and bake them in a jumbo cupcake pan at 350F for about 12 minutes
• Turn this recipe into a beef appetizer. Just cut tortillas into small rounds and bake in a mini muffin tin for taco bites!

Substitutions

• Substitute ground turkey for the ground beef
• Substitute ground chicken for the ground beef
• Top with shredded taco cheese in place of the shredded cheddar cheese
• Replace sliced scallions with chopped red onion

How to make large taco bowls

• Line 4 jumbo muffin cups with 8-inch flour tortillas.
• Carefully overlap edges of tortillas to leave openings in centers for the filling
• Bake 12 minutes at 350F
• Cool in pan 5 minutes
• Divide filling evenly between the four large taco cups.
• 4 servings/1 bowl per serving

What to serve with taco bowls

• Cilantro Lime Rice
• Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread
• Salsa Verde via Everyday Eileen
• Mexican Fruit Salad Recipe via Bowl Me Over

Ingredients for ground beef taco bowls

• flour tortillas, taco style
• extra lean ground beef
• onion
• homemade taco seasoning or store bought taco seasoning
• tomato sauce
• shredded cheddar cheese 
• lettuce
• sour cream
• scallion
• tomato
• cilantro

Be sure to visit the Swirls of Flavor Amazon Storefront for GG's kitchen recommendations!

Taco Toppings

Have fun with your taco cups and top them with your favorite toppings! Here are a few suggestions!

• avocado
• black beans
• cheese
• chopped onions
• chopped tomatoes
• cilantro
• fresh heirloom tomato salsa
• guacamole
• homemade mango salsa
• homemade peach salsa
• refried beans
• rice
• salsa
• scallions
• shredded lettuce
• sliced jalapenos
• sour cream

Decorations for a taco party

I make commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Taco time is a good time for a taco party! Tacos are the best party food and always put me in a fiesta state of mind!

If you decide to actually go all out and have a taco party, you definitely must start with hanging this Taco About A Party Banner (this makes me crack up every time!).

Then add a colorful Serepe Plastic Tablecloth, or this set of hand woven serape table runners in fextive colors (or both!) and these adorable Fiesta Paper Striped Party Straws with Tacos, Sombreros and more on them.

A taco serving plate with all the sections is an ideal way to serve all your favorite toppings and be sure to don your let's taco about it t-shirt (again, cracking up here!) and let the fiesta begin!

Easy Taco Recipes

I know that you will want to make Beef Taco Cups every week, because they are so much fun, but trust me, you'll also want to try these taco recipes too. Remember, variety is the spice of life!

Season slices of juicy skirt steak with a few basic spices and enjoy them nestled in a crunchy corn shell topped with a lime-scented mixture of fresh heirloom tomatoes. Spiced Skirt Steak Tacos are a party in your mouth with a burst of flavor in every bite!

A taco filled with saucy spicy buffalo chicken topped with celery, carrots, tomatoes and creamy Roquefort blue cheese puts a twist on tacos that combines your favorite foods, tacos and buffalo chicken, and make Buffalo Chicken Tacos!

A Walking Taco Bar is the perfect way to serve up a saucy taco filling and your favorite toppings in a bag of chips for the big game. Crush the chips in your bag, top them with a flavorful beef taco filling, pile high with lots of taco toppings, add a plastic fork and you’re all set!

Brown Rice Taco Bowl is a taco in a bowl! Your Taco Bowl is filled with a seasoned ground beef and salsa mixture, creamy avocado, juicy tomatoes, cheddar cheese and red onion all on top of hearty good-for-you brown rice.