Taco Bubble Up
Taco Bubble Up uses ground beef, cheese, biscuits, and your favorite taco flavors to make a quick casserole for dinner in 40 minutes! A family favorite!
AN EASY DINNER CASSEROLE
This easy Taco Bubble Up recipe is a quick dinner fix that the whole family will love! The dish features layers of biscuits, ground beef, taco seasoning, enchilada sauce, cheese, and more all baked together in one delicious casserole. It’s so easy to make and will be a hit with everyone at the dinner table. It really is family friendly and it can easily be customized to suit your family’s preferences! I’m thinking you’ll soon have this one on regular menu rotation!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
When the biscuit pieces cook, they “bubble up” underneath the layers on top of it.
This dish does have a slight kick to it but not an overwhelming amount. If you want to make sure that it really is super mild, just make the appropriate ingredient choices. Use mild taco seasoning, mild enchilada sauce, and either mild Rotel or just a can of petite diced tomatoes instead of the Rotel. It’s easy to customize this dish to your tastebuds. I will say this, if you are sensitive to spice at all (like with making tacos or enchiladas) then this dish is probably not for you.
Sure thing. Here are some other ideas to try: cheddar, Monterey Jack, quesadilla cheese, or pepper jack cheese.
Yup. Feel free to swap the ground beef out for any other ground meat. Try ground pork, ground sausage, or ground chicken or a meat substitute.
If you can’t find the smaller cans of biscuits, you can get the larger can. However, one large can has 16 ounces and the two smaller cans equal up to 12 ounces. So, you’ll end up with extra biscuit dough. But it should still work out fine, it just might not have as much sauce. Or you could just leave out one of the biscuits. If using the bigger can, you’ll want to cut the dough up into smaller pieces.
Honestly, I have only ever made this with the tomatoes. Even the tomato haters in my family are good with it because they are so small. Generally people who don’t like tomatoes almost always have their own substitutes they prefer. If you are one of those people, please comment below what you would use. I am not sure of any substitutes myself, maybe some sort of canned beans. I suppose you could just leave them out but they are also adding additional liquid to this dish so bear that in mind. Maybe add a small splash of broth or water (I’m not sure how much exactly as I’ve never measured how much liquid is in a can of diced tomatoes.)
If you’re feeling more Italian, try my Pizza Bubble Up or Lasagna Bubble Up recipes! I even have a dessert bubble up – Blackberry Bubble Up.
Leftover Taco Bubble Up should be stored in an airtight container and kept in the fridge for up to 3 days. You can freeze it for up to 3 months. To reheat leftovers, cover a baking dish in foil with leftovers inside and reheat so it won’t dry out. Microwaving may change texture and dry the leftovers out.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED: (SEE RECIPE CARD BELOW FOR THE FULL RECIPE)
- ground beef – I used 80/20 ground beef. See FAQ (frequently asked questions) above on other meat options.
- packet taco seasoning – if you are sensitive to spice, make sure to get the mild taco seasoning. Sometimes you have to really look hard on the packaging as they don’t always make it super obvious.
- enchilada sauce – when you are buying enchilada sauce, pay attention to the heat level. They will say “mild”, “medium” or “hot”. So purchase the one that is more suitable to you. You could also use a green enchilada sauce if you prefer. Some people will love this dish to be super spicy and others not. You’ll need to customize it to your tastes.
- diced tomatoes with green chilies (Rotel) – as I state above in the FAQ, if you want to make sure there isn’t too much spice in this dish, you can ditch the Rotel and just get some petite diced tomatoes.
- Pillsbury Homestyle Grands biscuits – you can really use any brand. This is just what I used. Just make sure it is the same amount.
- colby jack cheese block- I freshly grated the cheese but if you don’t have to time to shred cheese, you can use the bagged pre-shredded cheese. It works just fine!
HOW TO MAKE TACO BUBBLE UP
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Spray a 9×13-inch baking dish with cooking spray and set aside. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, brown and crumble the ground beef until there isn’t any pink left, 8-10 minutes. Drain well. Add the taco seasoning, enchilada sauce, and diced tomatoes with green chiles to the skillet, stir to combine. Take off the heat and set aside.
Cut the biscuits into 8ths and place them in a large bowl. Add the taco meat mixture to the bowl and gently fold the biscuit pieces in.
Transfer the mixture to the baking dish. Top with the cheese.
Bake, uncovered for 25-30 minutes until bubbly around the edges, the cheese has browned, and the biscuits are cooked through.
Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving with your favorite taco toppings and fresh cilantro on top if using.
CRAVING MORE RECIPES?
Taco Bubble Up
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef (I used 80/20)
- 1 ounce packet taco seasoning (see notes below)
- 10 ounce can enchilada sauce (see notes below)
- 10 ounce can diced tomatoes with green chilies (Rotel) (see notes below)
- 2 (6 ounce) cans Pillsbury homestyle grands biscuits
- 8 ounce block colby jack cheese, shredded
- your favorite taco toppings
- fresh cilantro, for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Spray a 9×13-inch baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.
- In a large skillet over medium-high heat, brown and crumble the ground beef until there isn’t any pink left, 8-10 minutes. Drain well.
- Add the taco seasoning, enchilada sauce, and diced tomatoes with green chiles (Rotel) to the skillet, stir to combine. Take off the heat and set aside.
- Cut the biscuits into 8ths and place them in a large bowl.
- Add the taco meat mixture to the bowl and gently fold the biscuit pieces in.
- Transfer the mixture to the baking dish.
- Top evenly with the shredded cheese.
- Bake, uncovered for 25-30 minutes until bubbly around the edges, the cheese has browned, and the biscuits are cooked through.
- Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving with your favorite taco toppings and fresh cilantro on top, if using.
Notes
- Please refer to my FAQ’s (Frequently Asked Questions) and ingredient list above for other substitutions or for the answers to the most common questions.
- PLEASE READ! Spice levels are COMPLETELY different for everyone. Some folks are going to want this very spicy and some won’t want much at all. I do my best to keep most dishes like this in the middle where most people tend to like it. This dish does have a slight kick to it but not an overwhelming amount in my opinion (but my tastes might be very different from yours). If you want to make sure that it is super mild, please make the appropriate ingredient choices. Use mild taco seasoning, mild enchilada sauce, and either mild Rotel or just a can of petite diced tomatoes instead of the Rotel. If you can’t stand spice, like with making tacos or enchiladas, this is not the dish for you.
- You need some sort of sauce so this isn’t dry. You could substitute the enchilada sauce for a green enchilada sauce or maybe some tomato sauce or soup (but I think that might be pretty plain) maybe even a queso (although I haven’t tried any of these substitutes so can’t say for sure). The diced tomatoes are also adding moisture from the liquid in them so bear that in mind.
- Keep in the fridge for 3 days, freeze 3 months. To reheat I would do so in the oven covered with foil so it doesn’t dry out.
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer
“The Country Cook” is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.
Hi Brandie, do you think this can be frozen, either baked or unbaked? We are 2 Seniors, and I would like to divide this into two 8” pans – one for now and one to have at a later date. Thank you
Hi Carol – yep it can be frozen! I haven’t tried cooking it from frozen when it was unbaked but it reheats well from frozen when it was already baked. 🙂
Thank you! I will be trying it