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Fun to make and fun to eat, Walking Tacos are sure to be your favorite party food! These tacos are easy to assemble, customizable, and are the perfect way to feed a crowd. Serve them for birthday parties, game day, tailgating, and they’re great for potlucks. If you want to liven up Taco Tuesday, a Walking Taco Bar is the best way to put a smile on your family’s faces!
What’s a Walking Taco? It’s one of the BEST party foods ever! It starts with a bag of chips, Fritos or Doritos, that you pile all your tasty taco toppings into, then you get to dig in!
Events and Celebrations to Serve Walking Tacos
- Birthday Parties – you can set up a make-your-own taco station and lay out all the toppings.
- Taco Tuesday family dinner – this recipe is a easy way to make weeknight dinner’s fun and easy on cleanup!
- Picnics and Cookouts
- Game Day Parties, tailgates, or any sporting events – since they’re so easy to assemble, you can make these anywhere, even at a little league game!
- Graduation Parties or Housewarming Parties
- Potlucks, and Block Parties
Walking Tacos are designed to be a meal on the go, just grab a fork and dig in! However, they also make terrific lunches to bring to school or work. You can pack your topping in separate containers along with a bag of chips and assemble lunch in no time.
The perks of this recipe are endless! On top of being easy to make, this recipe requires almost no hands-on cooking and is very minimal on cleanup. Walking Tacos are also a picky-eater-approved family dinner, this recipe is easily customized to suit different tastes so that everyone will enjoy!
Ingredients Needed For This Recipe
- Frito’s or Doritos – pick your favorite
- Ground Beef – Cooked and drained
- Taco Seasoning – Click this link for my favorite taco seasoning recipe, or you can use your go-to seasoning blend
- Lettuce – shredded
- Cilantro – chopped
- Jalapenos – thinly sliced
- Red Onion – diced
- Tomatoes – diced
- Prepared or premade Salsa – your favorite brand
- Sour Cream
- Prepared or premade Guacamole – your favorite brand
- Sharp Cheddar Cheese – shredded or grated
- Black Beans
- Limes – sliced in quarters
PRO TIP: When you serve these Walking Tacos, make sure that you always have forks on your serving table. Since these aren’t the traditional, handheld, tacos they can get a bit messy but the forks will make it easier on folks.
How To Make Walking Tacos
Three super-simple steps are all it takes to enjoy this crazy delicious recipe!
- Chop vegetables and prepare toppings. Place each topping in a different serving bowl.
- Brown ground beef in a skillet and add taco seasoning. Drain fat once done cooking. Transfer to serving bowl set aside.
- To assemble Walking Tacos, crumple bag of chips with your hand while still sealed. Open bag and begin to assemble tacos with toppings of your choosing. Grab a fork and dig in!
How To Set Up A Walking Tacos Bar
When I serve this recipe, I like to set it up as a buffet table. Set out all taco fixings in small bowls with serving spoons, along with your bags of chips.
If I’m making these for a party, I like to buy a variety pack of Doritos. That way, even if you don’t know everyone’s chip preference, you’ve provided enough options for them to choose from.
At birthday parties, cookouts, or potlucks, you can set up an entire Walking Taco station for people to come and prepare their own customizable meals. The options for topping are endless, and completely up to you!
Alternative Topping Choices for Walking Tacos
As I said, you can really make this recipe your own! Here are some other great topping ideas for your next party!
- Pickled Corn with Red Onions and Cilantro
- Grilled or Shredded Chicken
- Ground Turkey
- Grilled or Sauteed Vegetable
- Crock Pot Pulled Pork
- Pico de Gallo
- Corn
- Hot Sauce
- Bell Peppers
More Like This…
Walking Tacos
Equipment
Ingredients
Taco Meat
- 2 lbs Ground Beef
- 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
- 3 cloves Garlic – minced
- 1 tablespoon Taco Seasoning – use your favorite
Toppings to assemble Walking Tacos
- 8 bags of Frito’s or Doritos – pick your favorite
- 2 cups Lettuce – shredded lettuce
- 1 cup Cilantro – chopped
- 7-10 Jalapenos – thinly sliced
- 2 cups Red Onion – diced
- 2 cups Tomatoes – diced
- 1 jar Prepared Salsa
- 1 container Prepared Guacamole
- 1 cup Sour Cream
- 2 cups Sharp Cheddar Cheese – shredded or grated depending on preference
- 1 can Black Beans – drained and rinsed
- 2 Fresh Limes – sliced in quarters
Instructions
To Prepare Taco Meat
- Place a large skillet over a medium heat. Add olive oil and minced garlic to the skillet. Once garlic is fragrant, add ground beef, stirring occasionally until cooked. Once beef is cooked, drain off fat and transfer to serving bowl. Set aside.
To Prepare Walking Tacos
- Chop all your vegetables. Place each different topping in a different serving bowl. Set out each topping, including ground beef, on serving table.
- Crumple closed bag of chips in your hands. Open bag and begin to layer toppings of your choosing into bag of chips. Once you've assembled your walking taco, grab a fork and enjoy!
Marisa RS says
I love it! My uncle use to use same idea for CHILI !!! And way back when you couldn’t look up recipes online. I was young (in reference I’m soon to be 57 LoL) and it was his ‘invention’ for fast food Chili for each person so you could add your own toppings. He used fritos corn chips but also had other chips for each person’s preference. Doritos, tortilla chips etc! All good easy to make to each individual’s taste! Love the share and bringing back Mmm mmm good memories!
Donya says
Hey there Marisa!
Thank you so much for your interest in this recipe and your fantastic rating, I am so happy to hear that this recipe brought back some fond nostalgic memories! It sounds like your Uncle and I would be friends, that is a terrific idea! Thank you so much your kind words and for sharing this with me, I really hope you enjoy this recipe!
~Donya