Our family loves riffs on take-out food, and I love making fast food at home because it is much healthier and cost-effective. This Mexican Pizza is a perfect example. We start with corn tortillas and crisp them up before adding pinto beans, taco meat, and taco sauce. All of those are great homemade recipes so you can completely control the ingredients and the taste! You will love this Taco Bell copycat recipe. To be clear, there is nothing in the Mexican cuisine that resembles this. The name for this delicious dinner recipe refers to something on the Taco Bell menu. But of course, you will love this version much much more.
Tips and Tricks
Use corn tortillas. If you only have flour tortillas on hand, don’t let that hold you back from making this recipe, but know that they will bake faster than corn tortillas so watch them closely in the oven. They also won’t crisp up in quite the same way. Shred cheese from a block. Finely grate the cheese from a block rather than buying a bag of pre-shredded cheese. It will melt and taste so much better and is worth the extra minute or two. Make it your own. If there is an ingredient that you don’t like, leave it out. You can also add things like black olives, fresh chopped cilantro, sour cream, salsa, guacamole, or pico de gallo.
Bake the tortillas. Brush both sides of the tortillas with oil. Put them on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for eight minutes until they are crispy. Flip the tortillas halfway through and rotate the pan. Cook the taco meat. Cook the ground beef in a frying pan over medium heat, breaking it up as it cooks. Drain any excess fat and stir in the tomato sauce and the taco seasoning. Build the pizzas. Spread some refried beans on four of the prepared tortillas. Top each one with taco meat followed by another prepared tortilla. Top each pizza with taco sauce and shredded cheese. Bake and garnish the pizzas. Lower the oven temperature and bake the pizzas for about eight minutes. Top the cooked pizzas with freshly diced tomatoes and green onions and enjoy!
Skip the store-bought seasoning packet that may have extra salt and additives and make it from scratch. It is so easy and can be used in tons of recipes. I also have a recipe for making pinto beans in the instant pot. If it would work better for you, just grab a can of refried beans for this Mexican pizza. If you have leftover pizza, store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three days. Reheat it in the air fryer or oven until heated through.
