Air fryer tacos
Corn tortillas stuffed with seasoned beef and cheese, air fried until shatteringly crisp, then filled with cool lettuce and salsa.
- 40 min total
- 30 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 4
- About $3.01 a serving
- 650 calories
- Gluten-free
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 1 lb 85/15 ground beef
- ½ yellow onion, finely chopped
- 12 corn tortillas
- 1½ cups Mexican blend cheese
- 2 cups shredded lettuce
- ½ cup salsa
- 1 lime, cut into wedges (optional)
From your pantry
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp dried oregano
- ¾ tsp salt
- ⅓ cup water
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
Each serving has about 650 calories, 37 g protein, 42 g carbs and 37 g fat, and costs about $3.01 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No 85/15 ground beef? 90/10 ground beef works.
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No Mexican blend cheese? Shredded cheddar or cheddar cheese or Monterey Jack cheese works.
- No shredded lettuce? Iceberg lettuce or romaine lettuce works.
- No salsa? Pico de gallo works.
- No limes? Lemons work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Cook the beef and onion in a large over medium-high 7 to 8 minutes, breaking up the beef, until no pink is left. Spoon off the fat.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Medium-high heatTimer: 7 min 30 sec
Food safety: Ground beef, pork and lamb are done at 160°F. When it’s cooked through there’s no pink left anywhere in the pan.
Stir in the chili powder, cumin, paprika, garlic powder, oregano, salt and water, and cook 3 minutes, until thick and no longer wet.
Medium heatTimer: 3 min
Dolly’s tip: Cook off the liquid. A runny filling makes soggy tacos.Heat the air fryer to 400°F for 3 minutes.
Wrap the tortillas in a damp paper towel, 6 at a time, and microwave each stack 45 seconds, until soft.
Dolly’s tip: Warm tortillas fold. Cold ones split down the middle.Fill each tortilla with about 3 tablespoons beef and of cheese, fold it in half, and brush the outside with a little oil.
Pinch. A pinch is what you can hold between your thumb and two fingers, less than an eighth of a teaspoon. It’s a small, forgiving amount, so there’s no need to measure.
How you’ll know: It’s a light sprinkle you can barely see on the food, not a little pile.
Stand them in the basket leaning against each other and air fry in batches 5 to 6 minutes, until crisp and .
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Timer: 5 min 30 sec
Dolly’s tip: Leaning them together keeps them from flopping open.Tuck lettuce and salsa inside each taco and serve with lime wedges.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
More dinners like this
Air fryer beef taquitos
45 min
Air fryer beef quesadillas
25 min
Beef enchilada skillet
35 min
Sheet pan beef tostadas
35 min
High-protein dinners ›Air fryer ground beef recipes ›What to make with ground beef and lettuce ›What to make with ground beef and Mexican blend cheese ›What to make with lettuce and Mexican blend cheese ›