Looking for a low-prep dinner for those busy weeknights? This crockpot Mexican casserole is bursting with your favorite Mexican flavors, yet it’s so much cheaper and healthier than getting takeout at a local restaurant! {Gluten-free}
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Easy Mexican Casserole with Tortillas
If your family loves Mexican food, then this healthy slow cooker Mexican casserole is sure to be a new family favorite!
Made with layers of corn tortillas, nutrient-rich vegetables like bell peppers, onions, and green chiles and protein-rich ground beef, this easy recipe is perfect for the whole family!
Why We Love Mexican Crockpot Casserole
- Make ahead: Since this easy Mexican casserole with tortillas comes together in a slow cooker, you’ll be able to get dinner on the table in no time!
- Healthy: Loaded with healthy veggies, beans, and taco meat, this crockpot tortilla casserole is much more nutritious than hitting the drive-thru!
- Customizable: This slow cooker casserole is naturally flexible. Change the veggies, protein, or type of beans to make it the perfect meal for your family. Don’t forget to offer everyone’s favorite toppings!
Ingredient Notes
- Oil: Use a little avocado or olive oil to saute the vegetables and ground beef.
- Lean ground beef: Since this slow cooker taco casserole recipe uses lean ground beef, it’s naturally high in protein and full of flavor.
- Vegetables: To make this Mexican casserole with ground beef, you’ll need to dice some bell peppers, poblano pepper, and yellow onion.
- Taco seasoning: I prefer to use homemade healthy taco seasoning mix to reduce the sodium and avoid preservatives. For an easy meal on the fly, use the store-bought stuff!
- Diced green chiles: These add delicious flavor and heat to this Mexican casserole! Adjust the heat depending on your family’s preferences.
- Fire roasted tomatoes: Add 2 cans of fire-roasted tomatoes. If you find the tomatoes with green chile, you can skip the extra green chilies.
- Black beans: Choose low sodium canned black beans. Be sure to drain and rinse them.
- Corn: You can use frozen corn kernels or drained canned corn.
- Fresh cilantro: Chopped cilantro makes a great garnish.
- Corn tortillas: By using corn tortillas, you can add that classic taco flavor and texture without making individual tacos!
- Shredded Mexican cheese: The best Mexican crockpot casserole has plenty of cheese! This cheddar cheese mix will melt perfectly on top of the casserole.
How to Make Mexican Casserole in Crockpot – Step-by-Step
Step 1: Prepare Taco Meat Mixture
- Spray slow cooker insert with non stick cooking spray.
- Heat a large, high sided skillet over medium high heat. Add a drizzle of oil, followed by the ground beef, bell and poblano peppers, and diced onion. Cook until ground beef is no longer pink, and cooked through. Drain.
- Add the taco seasoning, green chiles, tomatoes, beans, corn, and cilantro to the pot and stir to combine. Taste mixture and add salt and pepper to taste.
Step 2: Assemble Layers in Crock Pot
- Put about 1 heaping cup of the mixture into the bottom of the slow cooker. Place 2 corn tortillas on top of the mixture. Add another heaping cup of the mixture, a handful of cheese, and 3 more tortillas.
- Keep layering in this order until all filling has been added to the slow cooker: 3 tortillas, filling mixture, handful cheese. Reserve a handful of cheese for the next step.
Step 3: Cook & Serve!
- Cook on low for 3-5 hours, or on high 2-3 hours, until everything is just warmed through. Do not overcook, the tortillas will begin to fall apart.
- During the last 15 minutes of cooking, add the reserved handful of cheese, replace lid and cook until melted.
- Serve immediately, garnished as desired.
Keep scrolling to the recipe card below for the full printable recipe!
Tips for the Best Mexican Casserole
- The ground beef can be substituted for ground turkey, chicken, or pork.
- It’s important to drain one can of the tomatoes as the veggies will release a lot of liquid during cooking.
- The corn tortillas can be substituted for flour tortillas, or omitted completely. If you don’t add them, you can try serving over cooked rice, quinoa, or cauliflower rice instead.
- This casserole is also delicious scooped up with tortilla chips. Just assemble the casserole without the tortillas.
- This casserole is best served right away as the corn tortillas will break down over time and become mushy.
Recipe FAQs
Once cooked, leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. Be sure to save any garnishes, like green onions or sour cream, on the side to keep them fresh while you reheat the leftovers.
The casserole can be assembled up to 8 hours in advance, but the corn tortillas will be much softer the longer it sits. For best results, follow through step 3, store filling in the fridge until ready to assemble and cook.
Although this recipe was created for slow cookers, you can easily adapt it to be an Instant Pot meal! Instead of cooking the beef and vegetables in a large skillet, use the sautee function. Then, follow the rest of the steps directly in the pressure cooker. Be sure to heat it using the slow cook function; you don’t want to add any pressure.
Storage Guidelines
Leftover Mexican casserole with ground beef can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
If you have a lot of leftover Mexican lasagna, you can also freeze the leftovers in a freezer-safe container for 1-3 months. Be sure to let the leftovers thaw in the fridge overnight before reheating them. The tortillas will be soft but still delicious.
Optional Toppings
For a little bit of fun, offer your family’s favorite taco toppings and let them make this recipe their own! Here are some of my favorite toppings for Mexican casserole recipes:
- Salsa (like this roasted jalapeno salsa)
- Diced avocado
- Guacamole (try this guacamole without tomatoes!)
- Chopped cilantro
- Sour cream or plain Greek yogurt
- Lime juice
- Pico de Gallo
- Avocado creme
- Minced onion
- Crushed tortilla chips
What to Serve with Mexican Casserole
There are many ways to make this recipe your own! Create a toppings station with all the fixings so everyone can make each serving to their liking.
This weeknight meal is also great with these side dishes, appetizers, and drinks. These would be perfect for Cinco de Mayo or your next Taco Tuesday!
Try it with:
- Tossed Green Salad
- Beef Nachos Supreme
- Pineapple Mango Salsa with tortillas chips
- Pina Colada Smoothie
Recipe Variations
- Crockpot Mexican chicken casserole: Instead of making this recipe with ground beef, either cook and shred chicken or use ground chicken.
- Oven baked Mexican taco casserole: Layer the ingredients in a casserole dish and bake for 45-50 minutes at 350 degrees F.
- Mexican chicken and rice: Feel free to skip the tortillas and serve this great recipe over a side of rice.
More Similar Recipes
- Crock Pot Taco Meat
- Make Ahead Breakfast Burrito Casserole
- Low Carb Chicken Fajita Casserole
- Mexican Ground Beef and Quinoa Taco Bowls
- Sweet Potato Taco Bites
Did you make this recipe? Scroll down to leave a star rating and review!
Crockpot Mexican Casserole with Ground Beef
Ingredients
- Olive oil or avocado oil
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 bell pepper (any colour)
- 1 poblano pepper diced finely
- 1/2 large yellow onion diced
- 4 tablespoons reduced sodium taco seasoning (homemade or store-bought)
- 4 ounce can mild diced green chiles
- 2 15 ounce cans fire roasted tomatoes 1 can drained, 1 undrained
- 1 15 ounce can low sodium black beans rinsed and drained
- 3/4 cup frozen corn kernels
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
- 8 corn tortillas
- 2 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend
Instructions
- Spray slow cooker insert with non stick cooking spray.
- Heat a large, high sided skillet over medium high heat. Add a drizzle of oil, followed by the ground beef, bell and poblano peppers, and onion. Cook until ground beef is no longer pink, and cooked through. Drain.
- Add the taco seasoning, green chiles, tomatoes, beans, corn and cilantro to the pot and stir to combine. Taste mixture and add salt and pepper to taste.
- Put about 1 heaping cup of the mixture into the bottom of the slow cooker. Place 2 corn tortillas on top of the mixture. Add another heaping cup of the mixture, a handful of cheese, and 3 more tortillas. Keep layering in this order until all filling has been added to the slow cooker: 3 tortillas, filling mixture, handful cheese. Reserve a handful of cheese for the next step.
- Cook on low for 3-5 hours, or on high 2-3 hours, until everything is just warmed through. Do not overcook, or the tortillas will begin to fall apart. During the last 15 minutes of cooking, add the reserved handful of cheese, replace lid and cook until melted. Serve immediately, garnished as desired.
Notes
- The ground beef can be substituted for ground turkey, chicken, or pork.
- It’s important to drain one can of the tomatoes as the veggies will release a lot of liquid during cooking.
- The corn tortillas can be substituted for flour tortillas, or omitted completely. If you don’t add them, you can try serving over cooked rice, quinoa, or cauliflower rice instead.
- This casserole is also delicious scooped up with tortilla chips. Just assemble the casserole without the tortillas.
- This casserole is best served right away as the corn tortillas will break down over time and become mushy.
i see in multiple photos corn , but im not sure how much to put in ?? i am excited to make this tomorrow night
Oh I apologize! I somehow missed the corn in the recipe card. It’s now been updated. Thanks for the heads up! Hope you enjoy the recipe :)