Taco Salad with the Best Taco Salad Dressing (VIDEO)
This fresh and easy Taco Salad is loaded with juicy beef on a bed of crisp lettuce with all of your favorite toppings. Don’t forget to drizzle it with our amazing lime crema taco sauce.
For a fun and authentic Mexican restaurant vibe, serve this in a Tortilla Taco Bowl. Watch the easy video tutorial and get ready for your next taco night!
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We love tacos, from our famous Fish Tacos to Breakfast Tacos and even Taco Soup – Tacos are a fun menu item to make and taste just as good as going out for tacos (except fresher and with better ingredients).
Taco Salad Video
A taco salad is a deconstructed taco and it’s a great way to change up traditional tacos. They are so satisfying and super easy to make. Watch Natasha make this Taco Salad with the best dressing!
Ingredients
- Tortilla Bowls – You can use storebought tortillas or Homemade Soft Flour Tortillas to make crispy Taco Salad Bowls! If you’re looking to cut calories, you will still love this salad in a regular salad bowl.
- Ground Beef – we use lean ground beef and be sure to drain the excess fat.
- Taco Seasoning – you can use storebought but we highly recommend Homemade Taco Seasoning for the best flavor (it’s also not too spicy which our kids love).
- Iceberg Lettuce – this is our top choice for a taco salad – it’s crisp, fresh, and classic.
- Toppings – you can use any of your favorite taco salad toppings. See the list below for ideas and inspiration.
Pro Tip: If you are looking to substitute beef, just about any ground meat will work here. Try ground turkey for a turkey taco salad or ground chicken.
The Best Taco Salad Dressing
Here’s our little secret: We are using our famous Fish Taco sauce (minus sriracha since the kids don’t like spicy foods), and it’s the perfect dressing for salad. Drizzle it over the top using a spoon or put it in a squeeze bottle for easy serving. Since it has garlic powder in it, I like to stir it together and let the flavors meld for at least 10 minutes. Here’s what you’ll need to make the taco salad dressing:
- Sour Cream – regular or low fat will work
- Mayonnaise – get the real one so it doesn’t change the flavor
- Lime Juice – always use freshly squeezed (not concentrate)
- Garlic powder – we love dried garlic powder because it adds great flavor while keeping the sauce super smooth and not too garlicky.
How to Make Taco Salad
If you have made Ground Beef Tacos in the past, you already know how to make the salad. The process is very similar.
- Make the Tortilla Taco Salad Shells: These are optional but highly recommended. While they bake and cool, you can work on the taco meat and salad toppings.
- Cook Beef: In a large skillet over medium heat, brown your beef, breaking it up with a spatula until no pink remains. Drain off excess fat, add taco seasoning and water, and cook for another 3-5 minutes.
- Make the Dressing: Stir the dressing together and set it aside for the flavors to meld for 10-15 minutes.
- Assemble: Chop lettuce and divide into serving bowls. Top with ground beef.
- Serve: Add remaining desired toppings and serve with a drizzle of dressing and a squeeze of fresh lime juice over the top.
Pro Tip: If your beef has released any excess fat, tilt the pan for the fat to pool at the corner of the pan then spoon off the excess fat. If you don’t skim it off, the fat will solidify on the meat when it cools and you don’t want that.
Taco Salad Toppings
We love the classic toppings but you can change up Taco Tuesdays with these fun taco bar options:
- Pico de Gallo
- Black beans, rinsed and drained
- Cherry tomatoes, halved
- Tortilla Strips (or crushed tortilla chips)
- Black olives
- Cheese such as cheddar or Mexican
- Red onion, diced
- Chives or green onion, chopped
- Guacamole
- Grilled Corn on the Cob
To Serve
- Taco Bar – you can arrange all of the ingredients in separate bowls and let your guests build their custom taco salads. We love this option when there are gluten-free or keto dinner guests. P.S. You can get gluten-free taco seasoning.
- Layered Salad – if you want to serve this as one large salad for a party, you can assemble it in a 9×13 glass casserole as a layered taco salad (similar to a 7-layer dip) starting with the lettuce then beef, and sprinkle the remaining toppings evenly over the top.
- Taco Salad Bowls – serve this as a side salad or as a main course. Divide lettuce between bowls, add ground beef, and desired toppings.
Pro Tip: If you prefer, you can toss the salad together with the dressing and then put it into the taco salad shells. If you go that route, make sure to do that just before serving so the dressing doesn’t make the lettuce or taco bowl soggy.
Make-Ahead
Meal planning with taco salad is genius – all of the ingredients keep well and taste just as good when made ahead in a meal prep container and you can combine all of the ingredients just before serving. Pack a lime wedge to squeeze over the top before serving.
- Pack your lettuce into sandwich-sized plastic bags for max freshness and place it into a meal prep container.
- Arrange toppings in strips: taco meat, cheese, and avocado (squeeze fresh lime juice over avocados to slow down the browning process).
- Pico and Dressing keep best stored in small lidded containers or zip bags.
- Pack tortilla strips separately since those will soften.
Taco Salad is a quick and easy meal. You can use this basic recipe over and over changing up the toppings to make dinner exciting.
More Taco Recipes for Taco Night
If you make tacos on your regular rotation, you’re sure to find several new favorites in this list. Can you tell we love tacos? We can’t get enough!
Easy Taco Salad Recipe with the Best Dressing
Ingredients
Ingredients for Taco Salad:
- 4 Tortilla Taco Salad Bowls, optional
- 1 lb lean ground beef, 90/10
- 3 Tbsp Taco Seasoning, or 1 packet
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 iceberg lettuce, medium head, chopped
- 1 avocado, peeled, pitted and sliced
- 1 cup pico de gallo, or to taste
- 1/2 cup Mexican cheese blend, or to taste
- 1/2 cup tortilla strips or chips
- 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
- 1 lime, cut into wedges to serve, optional
Ingredients for Taco Salad Dressing:
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/3 cup mayonnaise
- 2 Tbsp lime juice, freshly squeezed
- 1 tsp garlic powder
Instructions
- Make Crispy Tortilla Bowls if using. While they bake and cool, proceed with the recipe.
- In a large skillet over medium heat, brown your beef. When there is no pink left on the meat, spoon out all of the excess fat then add taco seasoning and 1/2 cup water. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat and cool until it’s lightly warm or room temperature.
- In a small bowl or measuring cup, add the dressing ingredients and stir to combine. Refrigerate and let the flavors meld while you prepare your toppings.
- Chop lettuce and place into serving bowls (serves 6 as a side salad or 4 as a main course). Divide ground beef between the bowls over the lettuce.
- Add remaining toppings as desired then garnish with cilantro drizzle with the dressing and serve with lime wedges to squeeze over the salad.
Notes
Nutrition Per Serving
Natasha Kravchuk
Hi! I'm Natasha Kravchuk. Here you'll find delicious, trusted recipes with easy step-by-step photos and videos. 
gm your a great chef love everything you cook. I want to make this great taco salad I need to know what size bowls you used to put the taco shells in. thank you have a great day.
I used a variety of different-sized bowls and even a measuring cup for molding the tortilla shells. I like using a 3-4 cup bowl such as an oven-safe Pyrex bowl (affiliate link), preferably with a flatter base so the salad doesn’t easily tip over on your plate. If you don’t have 4 oven-proof bowls, you can bake these in batches.
Hi Natasha!!
I did see sharky in your video, he’s so cute!!! I enjoy cooking and baking and your Taco Salad looks awesome!!! I will have to make that someday for my husband and myself. I preordered your Cookbook!! I can’t wait to get it. Congratulations on your New Cookbook Natasha!!!
Hi Mary! Thank you so much for pre-ordering my cookbook.
I substitute plain Greek yogurt for the sour cream…makes it more healthy!
Thank you so much for sharing that with us, Carol!
I am having a luncheon for woman but do not want to stay in kitchen long. Can you make the shells a day ahead and will they stay crispy? Also, can I prepare all other ingredients in advance and refrigerate?
Hi Nancy! Yes, see my “make-ahead” notes in the taco shell blog for storing instructions. Once the shells are cooled to room temperature, cover them loosely and store them at room temperature (in a low-humidity environment) for up to 2 days. You can make the ground meat in advance and reheat it. You can make the pico de gallo one day in advance and refrigerate it. I would not cut the avocados until closer to serving the taco bowls are will turn brown.
Hi Natasha I made this taco salad bowl twice. It’s superb everybody at home enjoyed it.I just like to try this with chicken filling without ground beef.just give me a idea for a chicken marinating.
Hi Sanari! That sounds great. You can use the same taco seasoning to season the chicken meat. You can also search my website for other chicken recipes and ideas like my chicken fajitas recipe.
Thanks Natasha for sharing your ideas.I will marinate the chicken meet with taco seasoning and try and see. Also I will try with chicken fajitas. I am going to have a tarco night. For that I am going to make your Nachos also because both the marinations are with ground beef I want to have something different. Thanks again for sharing your ideas and lovely recepies. I have tried out lot of your recepies and they were all very great.
You’re very welcome, Sanari! I hope they turn out great!
Natasha and Family,
Just ordered your cookbook, can’t wait to try every recipe. Ignore the TROLLS, you have an army of fans. YOU are #1 on Amazon for cookbooks, not them !!!!! LOL
Hi Alexis! Thank you so much for your love and support. I appreciate it more than you know.
Hi Natasha, I finally made this tonight.
All the ingredients inside the shell were amazing.
I baked the tortilla shell according to instructions and I’m wondering if I did something wrong?
The shell looked perfect, I layered all my ingredients….
But the shell to me was a little bit on the chewy side. This is the first time I’ve had a tortilla shell baked versus deep-fried for a taco shell salad.
Do you have any advice? An inclination of what I might’ve done wrong?
I put the tortilla shell in the skillet and slightly browned it on both sides to make it pliable, then put it in the tortilla mold and into the oven in the appropriate amount of time.
Great recipe and delicious!
Mo
Hi Mo! I’m glad you loved the recipe. You could try frying the tortillas a little while longer to give them lift, and color, and a coat of oil so they can continue to crisp up in the oven. Make sure to use enough oil that they are coated well, this is what helps them get crisp. Was your oven fully preheated before you started to bake them? You can bake them a little longer to reach the desired level of crispness. I hope that helps.
Oven was fully preheated. I will try your tips and techniques of browning them a little bit longer in the skillet and coating with oil before putting them into the mold.
Do you have an oil type recommendation? Canola? Olive oil? Etc..
You can use any high-heat oil. I will often use light olive oil, it has a higher smoke point than virgin olive oil.
Thank you for showing me how to make a tortilla bowl! I’ve always wanted to learn how to make one.
I can’t wait for your book this fall. I ordered mine in March. Yay!!
You’re very welcome, Terry! Thank you for pre-ordering my cookbook. That means so much to me.
We had this for our first time and it was amazing with the homemade sauce. Never had anything so delicious. Will be making these again! Keep up all the great recipes. We love them.
Hi Cynthia! I’m so glad to hear that. Thank you so much for sharing.
Hello, Natasha!
I like all forms of Mexican food, so I would like to offer a tasty suggestion for those who may want to have add exciting authentic taste to your scrumptious recipe.
I like to substitute the ground beef with picadillo – a tasty shredded beef.
Recipe:
1 to 2 lbs. Chuck roast or round steak.
1 Walla Walla Sweet onion (small), diced finely.
1/2 cup beef bullion
3 large poblano peppers – peeled, dried and seeded, sliced into thin strips
1 tablespoon chili powder
scant salt and pepper.
In a cast iron skillet, fry onions until clear sear the meat, 2 minutes each side.
Place meat and onions in a slow cooker on high for 3 hours. Afterward, the meat will broken down then take two forks and shred until the meat is in small pieces.
Add the pepper slices, chili powder, beef bouillon, salt and pepper. Stir and cook on “Low” for 1 more hour.
Whether in a taco shell or in a salad, the picadillo really brings out the “Mexican” in the dish.
Hi Keith! Thank you for sharing that with us. It sounds delicious!
Hi Natasha,
I am going to make this taco salad tonight, it looks simple to do. I saw Sharky and he ate your lime:) 🙂
Love All Your Recipes & You Too!!!!
Hi Melinda! Thank you! So glad to hear that. I hope you love this recipe.
We had this for our movie night and my fam loved it! This taco salad is packed with flavors! Yummy!
What a great idea for movie night! Thank you for sharing. I’m so glad your family loved it.
I feel the need to apologize for the unkind comments you must read from time to time. I love your recipes and so enjoy your videos. You are a joy! Could I please have the name of the juicer you used. Thanks.
Thank you for your love and support. I appreciate it! This is the link for the citrus juicer (affiliate link).
This taco salad was so delicious and the dressing was amazing too!! Everyone in my family loved it, thanks!
Hi Olivia! Thank you for trying the recipe. I’m so glad you loved it.
this was everything that I was looking for and more! thank you for adding in a taco salad dressing, becuase I would usually just use ranch, but this dressing made it so much better! thank you so much for sharing!
Hi Jess! You’re very welcome. I’m so happy to hear that.
You are definitely missing jalapeños! Sliced or diced raw, homemade pickled or even canned, you have to have jalapeños 😉!
Haha! I’m sure they’re an amazing add-on! I hope you enjoy the recipe!
Hi, I’m definitely gonna make the recipe and the dressing sounds delicious. We like to put crushed Doritos on our taco salad. I did see sharkey. Thanks for all the great recipes!
Sounds amazing, Ann! I hope you love this recipe as well.
We love Taco Salad an a simple dressing is equal parts Mayo and salsa.
Sounds delicious! 🙂
I use Crema Mexicana and salsa. If you are not familiar, this is Mexican-style sour cream. It’s creamier and less sour. Great in scrambled eggs.
Thinking about making this recipe for July 4th weekend….does it keep well in the fridge or would you recommend not using for a multi day event?
Hi Angie, we found it best fresh. It may work to pre-chop everything ahead and mix just before serving. I hope that helps!
Absolutely inedible! Since I was making it for the first time, I followed receipe exactly. It should never have called for an entire envelope of taco seasoning! Did you actually feed this to your children? Probably half a packet of seasoning would have been plenty but I will not go back to this recipe.
Hi Jewell, I’m sorry you had this experience. I use a 1 ounce packet of taco seasoning (about 4 tbsp). Did you by change use a larger packet, reduce, or leave out some of the ingredients in this recipe? I find this to be a good balance between the lettuce and all the other ingredients but you can always use less, many of my readers adjust this to their taste preference.
I understand the need to express your disappointment but adding in that snarky comment about feeding it to her children was just mean and ugly. Shame on you.
Every taco meat recipe I have ever seen uses 1 packet of taco seasoning mix for the 1 lb of meat. This is standard. Not sure how this would have resulted in a inedible dish?????
I’m sorry, but a recipe for taco salad should include ingredients for taco “seasoning”…. I’d hate to think you meant that packaged store bought poison….
Hi Christel, yes, packaged taco seasoning is what we used in this recipe. For those who’d like a healthier option, you can create your own taco seasoning with your preferred ingredients (such as chili powder, garlic, onion, paprika, cumin, etc.) However, I do not have a recipe for this at the moment.
Can I make mini taco bowls with small tortillas to serve this in?? Can I make them ahead of time or will they get soft?
Hi Fran, I think that would work. If you fill the taco bowls, I think they would get soft. So it’s best to prep it and put them together before you serve them.
Hi Natasha, First, I want you to know I am continuing to pray for your family and friends in the Ukraine. My heart aches for them !
Now, I am having 6 ladies for lunch next week and thought I would make a generous taco salad, a mixed fruit salad…and of course, a dessert. Wondering, can you help me with the quantities for the taco salad?
Hi Sue, thank you. This recipe serves 6 people as a side salad. If you want to have generous servings you can increase by 1/2 or double it. If you scroll down to the recipe card and put your cursor over the number “6” in red, you can adjust the serving size of the recipe. I hope this helps.
Great recipe! Another idea for this salad is by using small bags of nachos. You cut with scissors the side of the bag, then spoon in your burger and all the fixings. Kids love it this way with their own little salad – plus no dishes to clean!!!
Hello JP, Thanks for the tips and ideas. That’s a good one!
I’ve been thinking of what recipes would be easy for my husband to make for dinners. I had surgery Thanksgiving day w/broken ankle and still recuperating. So my husband is the cook now. I was thinking of easy dinners. Your taco salad looks so good and easy for him. I love your recipes!
This is a very EASY recipe! I’m so glad you both loved it! I hope your recovery goes smoothly and quickly!
I was wondering what I can use besides pico de gallo? I can not have anything spicy in my food I have a very sensitive stomach?
Hi Brittany, you can make the pico de gallo without the jalapeno to make it not spicy. I hope that helps and you love this recipe!
All your recipes are just perfect; but I ant seem to print the secrets for a better cook. Thanks for all your recipes, I’m Greek and even my family likes the, and my fuzzy daughter and granddaughter. Stay with it.
Hi Georgia, the 5 secrets come into your email inbox when you sign up using one of the forms on our blog (there is one at the top of the site on the homepage). You should be able to print from your email. I’m so glad you love the recipes!
I really enjoy your food blogs. Good recipes and so easy to follow.
You’re so nice! Thank you!
Love this recipe!!
Glad you loved it!
Could i leave out the avocado , and sub cucumber for it
Hi Sheila, we love it with Avocado, but I bet that could work.
This is almost exactly how I make our Taco Salads, which is a favorite in our household. I am sure others will come to enjoy it as much as we do. Thanks Natasha!
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review!
Looking forward to trying something new for Taco Tuesday tonight; looks too good to pass up, indeed!
I hope this becomes your new favorite!
I never thought of taking taco salad like this. Love love love this idea and have used it on several days. Thanks for the idea.
You’re welcome, I hope this becomes your new favorite recipe!
Yummy! I love a good taco salad, so I’ll definitely have to try this one as soon as possible! So excited!
Hi Beth, please do! We would love to hear your feedback too after you try it.
Hi Natasha, Love your video’s/recipes. Sharkey was by your hip at 3:33-3:34ish. 🙂
Eliza
Thank you, Eliza!
I love how easy and delicious this Taco Salad is!! I will definitely be making this tomorrow for lunch! YUM!
I hope you love this recipe! We love Taco Salad around here!