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Taco Rice Casserole Recipe

This Taco Rice Casserole Recipe is the perfect weeknight dinner. You cook the meat, dump everything else raw into a casserole pan, and bake it. So easy.

For more ideas of what to cook, check out all of our recipes.

Taco Rice Casserole is the perfect weeknight dinner to satisfy the whole family. Get the recipe at www.drugstoredivas.net.

Every time I have the casserole pan in the oven, Pete says he hopes I’m making this Taco Rice Casserole recipe. It is, easily, one of the top five things I make, according to Pete.

It’s pretty much a deconstructed taco. But, it’s better than a cooking tacos because, basically, all you do is dump everything in a casserole pan and bake it.

That makes it so much easier on you than cooking tacos and you can make this on a weeknight when you’re tired, and still impress your family so much.

What’s not to love?

A plate of tacos with lettuce, tomato, and cheese on top and the words "5+ Taco Recipes For Cinco De Mayo" digitally written on top.

This Taco Rice Casserole is just one of the taco recipes we have on Drugstore Divas. For more ideas, check out all of our Taco Recipes.

Taco Rice Casserole Recipe

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Taco Rice Casserole Ingredients:

How To Make Taco Rice Casserole:

Pre-heat the oven to 350 F.

Cooked meat in a casserole pan.

Brown the meat on the stove. Drain any excess grease. Add the meat to the bottom of a casserole pan.

Chop the tomatoes into cubes.

If using frozen spinach, thaw the spinach and squeeze out any excess water. (If using fresh spinach, obviously you can skip this step.)

Spices, soup, tomatoes, and spinach in a casserole pan.

Add the tomatoes, spinach, cream of mushroom soup, rice, water, corn, black beans, taco seasoning, and salt to the casserole pan.

Corn, kale, beans, in brown broth.

Stir until everything is combined.

Small aside: It’s a little easier to stir the casserole completely after adding each of the ingredients. This will help evenly distribute the ingredients. If you don’t stir completely, you’ll end up with one section filled with corn and one completely lacking any.

Cheese on top of a casserole.

Shred your cheese, then sprinkle an even layer of cheese on top.

Bake, uncovered, for 90 minutes.

Serve the Taco Rice Casserole in bowls with tortilla chips and a dollop of sour cream on top.

Taco Rice Casserole: Frequently Asked Questions

How can you store leftover Taco Rice Casserole?

Keep any leftover Taco Rice Casserole in the casserole pan. When the Taco Rice Casserole has cooled completely, put the top on the casserole pan and put it in the freezer. It will keep in the freezer for four days up to a week.

How do you reheat Taco Rice Casserole?

The easiest way to reheat Taco Rice Casserole is in the microwave. Put a serving of Taco Rice Casserole in a microwavable safe bowl and microwave on high for 90 seconds, then stir. Microwave additionally at 30 second intervals until the rice is heated through.

Can you use frozen spinach in this Taco Casserole with Rice?

What I actually do is I buy fresh, bagged spinach when it’s on sale and throw it in the freezer. Then, I just pull it out of the freezer, chop it up a little, and throw it right in the rice. You don’t have to worry about thawing it like you do traditional frozen spinach and it doesn’t wilt down as much as frozen spinach.

But, if you don’t have bagged spinach in your freezer, and you’re buying groceries for this, frozen spinach tends to work a lot better than fresh spinach in this recipe.

The fresh spinach wilts down so much so it will almost be non-existent after you cook it. The fresh spinach will also produce excess water while it cooks down so your casserole may be a little more watery when it’s done.

You want to thaw the frozen spinach first, then squeeze out any excess water before adding it to your casserole.

If you’ve never done this before, leave the package of spinach in the sink for a couple hours until it unfreezes. Then, the easiest way to squeeze excess water from frozen spinach is to put it in a large strainer and, using the back of a large spoon, push the frozen spinach against the edges of the strainer so the water drains through the holes. Don’t use a paper towel to do this or you’ll end up with either a lot of the spinach on the paper towel or a lot of the paper towel in the spinach.

You can also, quite literally, pick up the frozen spinach and squeeze it too, but that’s a little messy.

Do you have to shred your own cheese in this Taco Rice Bake?

Bagged, shredded cheese is packed with preservatives. Those preservatives help keep the cheese as individual pieces.

But, pre-shredded cheese doesn’t melt as well as block cheese that you shred yourself. So when I’m making a recipe where I want the cheese to melt, like pizza, block cheese is the way to go. It takes a couple extra minutes to shred it, but it’s worth it.

In this recipe, finely shredded cheese bought in the bag actually is the best cheese. I’ve used regular shredded cheese, cheese I shred myself, and finely shredded cheese, and I like the finely shredded cheese best. It doesn’t melt as much when you bake this, but it does when you stir it into the casserole.

Block cheese, which I recommend in basically every recipe where cheese gets heated except this one, crisps a lot in this recipe. And while I like a crunchy cheese topping so much (especially on macaroni and cheese), it doesn’t add any real cheese flavor to this Taco Rice Casserole.

So, any cheeses are fine, but finely shredded cheese is best.

Guacamole Wonton Cup on a plate.

What do you serve with Taco Rice Casserole?

This Taco Rice Casserole has everything you need: rice, meat, vegetables, and cheese. So, besides tortilla chips and a scoop of sour cream, you don’t need to serve anything else with it.

If you wanted to, though, you could serve it with our Guacamole Wonton Cups or Grilled Mexican Street Corn Salad.

Yield: 6 Servings

Taco Rice Casserole

Taco Rice Casserole is the perfect weeknight dinner to satisfy the whole family. Get the recipe at www.drugstoredivas.net.

Taco Rice Casserole is the perfect weeknight dinner to satisfy the whole family. Get the recipe at www.drugstoredivas.net.

Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 40 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 45 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 2 Roma tomatoes or 14 oz. can diced tomatoes, drained
  • 10 oz. package of spinach
  • 1 can cream of mushroom soup
  • 1 cup white rice
  • 2 cups of water
  • 1 can corn, drained
  • 1 can black beans
  • 1 packet taco seasoning
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 4 oz. cheddar cheese block (6 oz. if pre-shredded cheese)

Instructions

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 F.
  2. Brown the meat on the stove. Drain any excess grease. Add the meat to the bottom of a casserole pan.
  3. Chop the tomatoes into cubes.
  4. If using frozen spinach, thaw the spinach and squeeze out any excess water. (If using fresh spinach, obviously you can skip this step.)
  5. Add the tomatoes, spinach, cream of mushroom soup, rice, water, corn, black beans, taco seasoning, and salt to the casserole pan. Stir until everything is combined.
  6. Shred your cheese, then sprinkle an even layer of cheese on top.
  7. Bake, uncovered, for 90 minutes.

Nutrition Information

Yield

6

Serving Size

1

Amount Per Serving Calories 491Total Fat 23gSaturated Fat 9gTrans Fat 1gUnsaturated Fat 11gCholesterol 86mgSodium 2413mgCarbohydrates 37gFiber 10gSugar 5gProtein 34g

Have you made this Taco Rice Casserole? Let us know in the comments.

Cindy Ingalls

Saturday 9th of November 2019

This gives new meaning to Taco Tuesday. This dish looks so delicious. I can't wait to make it for my family.

Valentina

Saturday 9th of November 2019

I'm sending this to my personal chef.. my husband lol can't wait to try it!

Dani Flanders

Thursday 7th of November 2019

OMG! This is speaking my language! I LOVE tacos so this a great way to do something a little different!

susan1375

Wednesday 6th of November 2019

Sounds an easy to make delicious meal

Cindy Nico

Wednesday 6th of November 2019

I've never made a taco casserole looks really good and have to give it a try

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