Hot Taco Dip Recipe: Made of layers of delicious taco meat, creamy cheeses, beans, and salsa and topped with a lime and onion topping, this warm taco dip is baked and makes a deliciously easy appetizer recipe. It’s delicious served alongside other Mexican dishes, especially this walking taco casserole!
When hosting a party or looking for a dip to make for any occasion, a taco dip is always an excellent choice, whether it’s this warm taco dip or this cold taco dip.
But if taco recipes, in general, are your favorite, like they are ours, you’ll also love this taco chicken casserole, this taco soup, and this taco pasta!
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Why This Recipe Works
This is the best taco dip recipe! Here’s why:
- Taco flavors: Who doesn’t love tacos? When you can have tacos in dip form, it gets even better!
- Make-ahead recipe: You can assemble this up to two days ahead of time if needed. To do this, layer the dip but do not add the topping. Store the layered dip in the fridge until you are getting ready to cook. Let it sit out at room temp for about 20-30 minutes before baking and add 10 minutes to the cooking time. Place foil on over the top for the first 10 minutes of cooking then remove for the last 25 minutes to keep the cheese from burning.
- Ready in only 45 minutes: Assemble, bake, and enjoy in about 45 minutes! Perfect for a last-minute dip idea when entertaining.
Ingredients Needed
I’ve highlighted a couple of ingredients with some relevant notes. Aside from this, the ingredients needed are pretty basic.
- Cheeses – This recipe uses shredded cheeses and if you have time and the ability to shred the block cheeses yourself, that can make the dip even creamier. However, using pre-shredded cheese is just fine to use.
- Taco meat – we give directions on how to make the taco meat but if you have leftovers from tacos the night before, it’s a great way to use leftover taco meat!
- Refried beans – we use black refried beans for this recipe but feel free to use your favorite.
- Salsa – we use thick and chunky salsa for this recipe to reduce the amount of liquid in the dip, which could make it soupy.
- Taco Seasoning – we love using homemade taco seasoning but you can use a package of storebought for this recipe.
Substitutions
If there are some items in this recipe that you’re not fond of, or that you may be out of, here are some suggestions that may help:
- Cheeses – we feel like cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses are the best for this dip but other cheeses such as a Mexican cheese blend or pepper jack cheese could also be wonderful!
- Meat – we love using ground beef for this recipe but you could also use ground turkey, sausage, or your favorite meat substitute. See more of our ground beef dinner ideas!
Make it Spicy
If you love adding spice, you can use some or all of these ingredients: hot taco seasoning, unseeded jalapenos, pickled jalapenos, hot sauce, chili powder, or hot salsa.
Equipment
We used a pie dish for this cheesy beef taco dip but if you need to bake it in something different, you can try using a 13×9 casserole dish or a 9×9 square baking dish, being careful not to overfill the dish, where it could bubble-over. (To be safe, you can place the dish on a rimmed baking sheet in the oven, to catch any overflow.)
How to Make Hot Taco Dip
This is an easy taco dip recipe, and takes just a few steps!
This taco dip is broken into 4 components:
- cooking taco meat
- assemble the layers
- bake
- top with toppings
*Be sure to see the recipe card below for the full ingredients list & instructions!*
Heat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9.5 inch deep dish pie plate with cooking spray.
STEP 1. Brown ground beef. Brown meat over medium heat in a large skillet, making sure to break up into small pieces while cooking. When done, and no pink remains, drain and rinse fat from beef then return it to the pan (Images 1 & 2).
STEP 2. Make taco meat. Add taco seasoning and stir until fully incorporated (Images 3 & 4).
Tip: Do not add water like the taco seasoning packaging may call for. This will make it soupy. However, if you prefer a juicier dip, you can add a bit of water.
STEP 3. Make creamy mixture. In a medium mixing bowl stir together cream cheese and sour cream. Stir until very few clumps remain or use a mixer (Images 5 & 6).
How to Layer Hot Taco Dip
STEP 4. Beans and Creamy Layer. Evenly spread refried beans in the bottom of the dish (Image 7) and then spread the cream cheese mixture on top of the beans (Image 8).
STEP 5. Salsa and beef. Spread the salsa on top of the cream cheese mixture (Image 9) then spread the ground beef over the salsa (Image 10).
STEP 6. Cheese. Finally sprinkle the cheeses on top of the meat (Images 11 & 12).
STEP 7. Bake. Bake for 25 minutes until warm and bubbly.
STEP 8. Making toppings – if desired. While the dip is baking, mix all the topping ingredients (lime juice, red onion, cilantro, jalapeno, tomatoes) together in a small bowl (Images 13 & 14).
STEP 9. Add toppings. After baking let dip cool for 5 minutes before adding the topping (if doing so) and serve with your favorite corn chips (Images 15 & 16).
Recipe Pro Tips
- Additional topping ideas. If you’re looking to add more toppings to this cheesy taco dip, you may want to try black olives, pickled jalapenos, taco sauce, avocados, corn, Mexican cheeses, black beans, chopped green onions, shredded lettuce, etc.
- What to serve with this hot dip: Tortilla chips, corn chips (such as Fritos), fresh vegetables, pita chips, and more!
What to Serve this Taco Dip with:
This warm taco dip would be delicious to serve with these Tostadas.
Or, these crispy chicken tacos or these fried tacos would be amazing along with it!
Recipe FAQs
Most taco dips are made of a taco seasoned ground beef, with a creamy layer of cream cheese and sour cream, and then topped with your favorite taco toppings.
It could be because the ground beef wasn’t drained enough, water was added when making taco meat or the salsa was more watery.
Store any leftovers in an airtight container, or cover with plastic wrap, once it has cooled off, for 2-3 days in the refrigerator.
More Dip Recipes You’ll Love
If you love dips as much as we do, then you’ll also love these other dip recipes:
Did you make this? I’d be so grateful if you left a “star” rating below to let me know what you thought! Then, the next time you need a quick and easy recipe, come back to Fantabulosity to browse all of my easy recipes!
Recipe
Hot Taco Dip
Equipment
- 9.5 inch, deep dish pie plate
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- ¼ cup taco seasoning or 1 Packet
- 1 cup black refried beans
- ½ cup sour cream
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened to room temperature
- 1¼ cup thick and chunky salsa
- 1½ cup monterey jack cheese shredded
- 1½ cup cheddar cheese shredded
Optional Toppings
- 2 teaspooons lime juice
- 2 Tablespoons red onion diced
- 2 Tablespoons fresh cilantro chopped
- 2 Tablespoons jalapeno seeded and diced
- 3 Tablespoons tomato diced
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9.5 inch deep dish pie plate with cooking spray.
- Brown meat over medium heat, making sure to break up into small pieces while cooking. When done, and no pink remains, drain and rinse fat from beef then return it to the pan. Add taco seasoning and stir until fully incorporated.
- In a medium mixing bowl stir together cream cheese and sour cream. Stir until very few clumps remain or use a mixer.
To Layer Hot Taco Dip
- Evenly spread refried beans in the bottom of the dish, next spread the cream cheese mixture on top of the beans, spread the salsa on top of the cream cheese mixture, then spread meat over the salsa, and finally sprinkle cheese on top of the meat.
Bake Dip
- Bake for 25 minutes until warm and bubbly.
- While the dip is baking, mix all the topping ingredients together in a small bowl.
- After baking let dip cool for 5 minutes before adding the topping (if doing so) and serve with your favorite corn chips.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
Kristyn says
Yes, please!! This is gone within minutes at my house! It’s packed with so much flavor!!
Abeer says
I added some mozzarella cheese too because I didn’t have enough cheddar and it was still so delicious.
April says
This was delicious! Easy to make and super addicting.