Tacos are a good cheap eat that offer a tremendous amount of variety. Here are 8 favorite taco fillings that won’t break the bank.
Tacos are just the start. Be sure to check out these easy Mexican dinner recipes for more inspiration.
Pictured: Pork Carnitas Tacos
Tacos. Tacos. Tacos. What was once an exotic food is now daily fare in most parts of the country.
And for good reason!
Tacos are filling, fun, and full of great flavors. Plus, it’s not too expensive to rustle up some tortillas and easy taco fillings, making them a good cheap eat, for sure.
For our part, my family could eat tacos several times a week without complaint! They’re just so good, particularly when you find your favorite combinations.
How to Make Great Tacos & Taco Fillings
So, let’s consider how to build a better taco. You’re going to have three basic components:
- shells/wrappers
- filling – we’ll get to this in a minute
- toppings
Let’s take a look at the different options:
Taco Shells
Taco shells can range from crunchy fried shells, soft tortillas (flour, corn, whole wheat), and even lettuce wraps. There are small and large tortillas. You can buy tortillas at the store or make your own corn tortillas or your own flour tortillas.
You can even fry your own taco shells – which I might add, are amazing and addicting and probably the best thing to happen to taco night EVER. But I digress….
Certain tools come in handy when making homemade tacos, like a tortilla press for making homemade corn tortillas and taco holders or taco baskets for serving tacos.
Once you’ve got your shell and you fill it with a meat (or meat and veg or veg) filling, you’re going to want some toppings.
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Taco Fillings And Toppings
Taco toppings can be pretty simple or fairly elaborate depending on your filling and how deluxe you want to get. Any combination of these taco toppings is delicious:
- shredded lettuce, shredded cabbage, baby spinach, or coleslaw
- shredded cheese, such as Jack, cheddar, or a mix
- chopped tomatoes
- chopped onions or scallions
- chopped cilantro
- salsa or hot sauce
- sour cream or cream sauce
- guacamole or diced avocado
- sliced olives
- lime wedges
Where shells and toppings are concerned, you can pretty much pick up a few commercially made items at the grocery store, but the filling is what really matters. Only homemade taco meat is gonna cut it.
Check out these simple, economical, and delicious taco fillings:
Quick & Easy Taco Fillings
Make taco night extra special with one (or more!) of these homemade taco fillings.
Easy Homemade Taco Meat
Homemade Taco Meat cooks up quickly with ground beef, chicken, turkey, or plant based grind and seasoning it with our homemade taco seasoning.
Grilled Shrimp or Fish Tacos
When we moved to San Diego, I fell in love with fish tacos. I first tried to recreate them at home with this recipe for Grilled Fish and Shrimp Tacos. But, my Quick Fish Tacos (shown above) in my latest cookbook are pretty stellar with the panko breading and spiced sour cream. Either recipe is “Happiness on a Plate.”[…]
Barbacoa Beef for Tacos, Lettuce Wraps, Bowls, & Burritos
This Barbacoa Beef comes together quickly and easily in the slow cooker. The tangy, tender beef filling is perfect for tacos, lettuce wraps, bowls, and burritos. It’s that season again when you’ll start seeing chuck roasts and steaks go on sale. Do me a favor, and buy a few the next time you see a […]
Queso Fundido Makes for Great Tacos
Many years ago, I discovered the beauty of Queso Fundido: spicy sausage covered in a layer of spicy pepper jack cheese. You can serve it as an appetizer, but we love it as a main dish with homemade corn tortillas. So good! This is for sure a top favorite taco filling at our house.
Once you vary the wrapper (crunchy, soft, flour, corn, whole wheat, lettuce leaf), the filling, and the toppings, there’s really no end to the taco combinations you can create.
Sally
Brisket tacos with pepper jack cheese (from Homesick Texan). TBH, I think I like anything I can fold in a tortilla. We visited Fr Worth for 5 days in December and had tacos every day. We ate at Velvet Taco three times; they have very unusual tacos. My favorites were shrimp and grits tacos and cornmeal fried catfish tacos.
Jessica Fisher
Yum! Great inspiration to make at home!
VanessaKC
Mushroom mince with lentils is fast, frugal and delicious.
Jessica Fisher
Sounds delicious!