These quick & easy Idaho Tacos are a welcome addition to the dinner rotation! Baked potatoes are topped with all your favorite taco fillings.
Idaho Tacos
Do you ever fall into a dinner funk? Do you have those days when nothing sounds good, or you don’t know what to make? That happens all too often here in the Love Bakes Good Cakes house.
Thankfully, I have an arsenal of quick and easy recipes, just like these Idaho tacos. Meals I know my family loves using ingredients I almost always have on hand, with recipes that are quick and easy!
This recipe uses baked potatoes as the taco – then you fill and top it off with all your favorite taco toppings! It’s so, SO delicious and perfect for a weeknight meal!
To make things even easier for me, I often use my slow cooker for baking the potatoes. I can quickly mix up the taco meat at dinnertime and get dinner on the table in a flash.
It’s nice to change the dinner menu from time to time. I hope your family enjoys this as much as mine does!
Idaho Tacos: Ingredients & Substitutions
For this Idaho Tacos recipe, you will need …
Ingredients
- ground beef, taco seasoning – this will be your taco meat! Feel free to substitute homemade taco seasoning in place of the packet of seasoning.
- baked potatoes – hot and pre-cooked. Get microwaveable ones from the store, make them yourself, etc. Whatever is easiest! You can also use sweet potatoes in place of regular baked potatoes.
- softened butter – for your baked potatoes, underneath the toppings.
- cheese and green onions – the “standard” toppings I always add to these tacos. Of course, feel free to choose your own!
- salsa, guacamole, and sour cream – optional toppings for your Idaho tacos.
How to make Idaho Tacos
First, prep your beef. In a large skillet, cook and crumble the beef over medium heat until no it’s longer pink. (Drain the beef if necessary!!) Add taco seasoning and prepare the beef according to the taco seasoning package directions.
Would you like to save this?
We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
Next, prep your potatoes. With a sharp knife, cut an X on the top of each potato, and fluff the potato pulp with a fork. Add 1 tablespoon of butter to each potato if you want!
Finally, add your toppings and chow down! Top each potato with one-fourth of the taco meat, cheese, and green onions. Serve with salsa, guacamole, sour cream, and other yummy taco toppings!
Idaho Tacos: FAQs
This recipe only takes about 20 minutes—10 for cooking and 10 for prepping the ingredients.
Yes! You can either freeze the potatoes and seasoned ground beef separately or top the potatoes with the ground beef before freezing. Don’t freeze them with the rest of the toppings, though! Add the other toppings after you reheat the potatoes.
Besides the usual suspects of cheese, green onions, salsa, guacamole, and sour cream, I recommend…
– more seasonings like chili powder or cayenne powder
– hot sauce, if you like heat
– more cheese, like mozzarella, pepper jack, and Monterey jack
– white or red onions
Basically, anything that tastes good on a taco tastes great here too!
Absolutely – I encourage you to try it that way if you love sweet potatoes!
Other recipes you may enjoy
Idaho Tacos
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 envelope taco seasoning
- 4 hot baked potatoes
- 4 tablespoons butter softened
- ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 cup chopped green onions
- salsa guacamole, sour cream (optional)
Instructions
- In a large skillet, cook and crumble beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain beef if necessary. Add taco seasoning and prepare according to the taco seasoning package directions.
- With a sharp knife, cut an X on the top of each potato; fluff the potato pulp with a fork. Add 1 tablespoon of butter to each potato, if desired.
- Top each potato with one-fourth of the taco meat, cheese, and green onions.
- Serve with salsa, guacamole, and/or sour cream if desired.
Notes
- Top these Idaho Tacos with your favorite taco toppings!
- You can use sweet potatoes in place of regular baked potatoes.
- Try my Slow Cooker Baked Potatoes in this recipe.
- Feel free to substitute homemade taco seasoning in place of the packet of seasoning.
Nutrition
Please note that the nutritional information listed on this page is an estimation based on the products I used. Ingredients and nutritional information can vary significantly between brands. Always be sure to read labels. Please verify that a recipe fits your needs before using it. Nutrition info may contain errors, so please verify it independently. Likewise, recipes may contain errors, so please use your common sense when following them.
Originally published on October 14, 2020. Updated on January 21, 2023.
It is really yummy. I made it and put a lot of cheese on my idaho taco.