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The Best Taco Dip

5 from 8 votes
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This taco dip has layers of real taco meat, sour cream, refried beans, cheese, tomatoes, olives, avocado and more! This is the ultimate taco dip and blows all the other ones out of the water! Usually there is no taco meat, too much cream cheese and not enough flavor in traditional taco dip recipes. This is literally like scooping up a taco in a chip!

If you are looking for the lettuce and cream cheese taco dip, that is actually a 7 layer dip. Really delicious, but this dip is full out TACO taste, baby.

For more tasty taco recipes, why not try these Classic Weeknight Tacos? Or this Light and Delicious Ground Beef Taco Salad.

The Best Taco Dip

You know me, I won’t call anything the best until I’m pretty sure that the food in question actually kicks the butt of every other recipe out there. This IS the best taco dip. How can you make a taco dip without taco meat?? Once you try it this way, you are never going back to the cream cheese and lettuce type – which to be honest, is actually a 7-layer dip. THIS is a taco dip that you scoop up with tortilla chips!

It might look like it could be approaching healthy, but this tasty taco dip is anything but. Tasty, spicy beef, creamy sour cream, and some tangy refried beans make this recipe for taco dip amazing as a party snack or just eaten in one go from a giant bowl.

Feel free to add a layer of crunchy lettuce in the dip as well, but that might be starting to approach the territory of slightly too healthy.

Taco Dip Ingredients

See the recipe card below for the exact quantities

  • Ground beef
  • Taco seasoning
  • Garlic
  • Sriracha
  • Refried beans
  • Sour cream
  • Colby jack cheese
  • Black olives
  • Bell pepper
  • Red onion
  • Tomatoes
  • Avocado

How to Make the Best Taco Dip

  • Cook the beef in a skillet until the water released from the meat evaporates, and it begins to turn brown
  • Add the minced garlic once the beef is totally cooked.
  • Add in your taco seasoning and stir until the meat has thickened slightly and the spices have toasted. Cool the meat.
  • In a serving dish, spread your refried beans in a single layer and top with your meat.
  • Cover with sour cream, cheese, and then all of the other toppings
  • Serve with tortilla chips, veggies, or lettuce cups

Do You Have to Use Store Bought Taco Seasoning?

While this recipe calls for regular taco seasoning, there’s nothing stopping you from making some delicious homemade seasoning.

We have a great recipe for some taco seasoning at home, but you can always tinker and customize it until it is exactly as you like it.

One great tip to make any seasoning even better is to give all of the ingredients a gentle toasting in a dry skillet beforehand. This works doubly well if you are using whole spices, like whole cumin seeds, and then grinding them afterward.

Toasting them beforehand helps to ramp up their flavor, making it taste just a little bit richer and more intense.

What To Serve This With

This taco dip is basically a taco deconstructed into a dip, so it makes sense to complete the picture with some taco shells – you can break them up and scoop!

You can either buy those regular hard-shell tacos from the store or look for something you can dip, like tortilla chips. For an even prettier presentation, try and find those tortilla chips that come in the form of a scoopable cup. This way, you can put a little bit of everything on your chip and eat it as a mini taco.

You could also use some soft shell tacos to get sort of a wrap-like texture. If you go down this route, make sure you get corn tortillas and warm them up in a hot skillet beforehand. This helps keep them flexible and able to wrap up more taco dip.

Looking for more delicious ground beef recipes? Try these:

Happy cooking!

Love,

Karlynn

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Taco Dip

Quick, easy and delicious taco dip is always a hit for game day, parties or even just movie night at home with the family.
5 from 8 votes
Prep Time
25 minutes
Cook Time
25 minutes
Course
Appetizer
Cuisines
American, Mexican
Servings
12
Calories
213
Author
Karlynn Johnston

Ingredients
 

  • 1 pound ground beef (ground turkey and chicken work great too! )
  • 3-4 tablespoons taco seasoning
  • 2-3 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 tsp Sriracha chili sauce optional
  • one 454 gram can refried beans
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1 cup Colby jack cheese shredded
  • one small can can sliced black olives drained well
  • 1/2 red bell pepper chopped
  • 1 small small red onion
  • 2 small small tomatoes chopped and drained on paper towel
  • 1 large avocado diced

Instructions
 

  • In a large skillet, brown the ground beef. Add in minced garlic once the beef is browned and continue to cook.
  • When meat is cooked, drain the grease then add in the taco seasoning and 2-3 tablespoons of water. Stir and cook until the water has cooked off and the sauce has thickened down, Add in your sriracha at this point. Make sure that the meat is seasoned well, as this is what brings the flavor to your dip.
  • Cool the taco beef completely.
  • Spread refried beans on the bottom of either a 13×9 dish or a 10×8 dish-depending on how thick or thin you want your layers. I used 10×8 in the photos shown.
  • Spread the seasoned meat evenly over the bean layer.
  • Spread the sour cream on top of the meat layer.
  • Top the sour cream with the cheese.
  • Over the cheese, sprinkle the olives, peppers, onion, tomatoes, avocado and jalapeno.
  • Cover and refrigerate until serving. Serve with tortilla chips or veggies, or even lettuce cups.

Recipe Notes

  • You can add shredded lettuce to the top layer if you like the crunch.

Nutrition Information

Calories: 213kcal, Carbohydrates: 5g, Protein: 10g, Fat: 17g, Saturated Fat: 8g, Cholesterol: 47mg, Sodium: 169mg, Potassium: 284mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 2g, Vitamin A: 593IU, Vitamin C: 12mg, Calcium: 110mg, Iron: 1mg

All calories and info are based on a third party calculator and are only an estimate. Actual nutritional info will vary with brands used, your measuring methods, portion sizes and more.

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Taco dip with layers of real taco meat, sour cream, refried beans, cheese, tomatoes, olives, avocado and more! This is the ultimate taco dip!

Karlynn Johnston

I’m a busy mom of two, wife & cookbook author who loves creating fast, fresh meals for my little family on the Canadian prairies. Karlynn Facts: I'm allergic to broccoli. I've never met a cocktail that I didn't like. I would rather burn down my house than clean it. Most of all, I love helping YOU get dinner ready because there's nothing more important than connecting with our loved ones around the dinner table!

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