Cheesy Crunchy Frito Pie Recipe with ground beef, ranch style beans, cheese and enchilada sauce baked with crispy Fritos on top is a childhood favorite!
We love childhood favorite recipes like Tater Tot Casserole, Ultimate Sloppy Joes and Cheesy Taco Pasta.
Frito Pie
Frito Pie is certainly not going to win any creativity awards for me, but it is a quick and easy childhood classic we enjoy once in a while as a treat.
Plus, parties. YES, this is one of the first side dishes that disappears during gameday parties.
The origins of this dish is pretty murky, but it likely came from Texas where an old recipe for a Texas Frito Pie was published in the 1940s which included Fritos chips being served with chili. The beans and beef in this recipe make a slight approximation to chili, but without the effort of making a delicious chili.
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This is an easy frito pie.
You could also make this Frito Pie with canned chili, but I prefer to make recipes with mostly homemade ingredients (ignore the obvious Fritos in this recipe for a moment) and making the beef and bean mixture from scratch takes just minutes.
If you’re thinking back to your childhood you may remember a version of this recipe called “walking tacos” which is a frito pie in a bag made with a small bag of fritos topped with chili, cheese and onions.
In college we served these walking tacos with topping bars and felt fancy. We topped them (and these are great toppings for your frito pie too) with:
- shredded lettuce
- salsa
- diced tomatoes
- sour cream
- guacamole or diced avocado
- jalapenos
- rice
- refried beans
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The dish doesn’t have to be too complicated and you can adjust flavors as you’d like. Sometimes we make these flavors more like a traditional taco and use taco seasoning in the mix, top with salsa instead of enchilada sauce and serve with sour cream, lettuce and tomatoes.
We’ve also made the recipe with ground chicken and ground turkey, added sautéed fajita peppers and roasted corn. You can go as fancy as you’d like, but for this recipe we are sticking with the classics.
Easy cooking variations:
Slow Cooker Frito Pie:
Add all the ingredients except the fritos to a slow cooker in the same order and cook on high for 2 hours, top with chips and cheese and cook for another 30 minutes on high, uncovered.
Meal Prep Frito Pie:
Assemble all the ingredients except for the chips ahead and refrigerate. When ready to bake top with the chips and cook for an additional five minutes to account for temperature difference.
Individual Frito Pie:
Cut open mini bags of Fritos on their side. Bake the Frito Pie without the fritos, then scoop a portion and spoon on top of the bag of fritos. Top with sour cream and cheese.
Frito Pie
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 yellow onion chopped
- 20 ounces Ranch Style beans drained
- 4 cups Fritos chips
- 20 ounces enchilada sauce
- 2 cups cheddar cheese shredded
- green onions sliced, optional
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and put the ground beef and onions in a large skillet on medium high heat.
-
Cook the beef and onions for 6-8 minutes or until cooked through then layer the meat in the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan.
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Add the beans on top followed by the enchilada sauce, cheese and chips.
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Bake for 20 minutes uncovered and garnish with green onions if desired.
Love love love this recipe! Adding the enchilada sauce is brilliant and adds amazing flavor. I make this for company all the time and they love it. I don’t think there’s ever been leftovers no matter how much I make:). Thank you!!!
Yay!! Glad to hear it’s a hit!
What side would anyone suggest?
I’d probably suggest Mexican rice and make a fun toppings bar for everyone to load up on top of their Frito pie. Enjoy!
Would this be good in a tortilla.
Sounds delicious!
You guys are making this harder than it has to be, and grosser with the ranch style beans.
Put some regular ol’ pinto beans to cook.
Cook some ground beef, and make red chile with it.
Chop up some lettuce, tomatoes, onions and cheese.
Put the Fritos on the bottom of the bowl, put the pinto beans you put to cook (some like to drain the bean juice and others like it with the juice), and garnish with the rest.
Then you have an authentic New Mexican style Frito Pie, not whatever this is.
That’s certainly one way to make it more like a New Mexican version. I love recipes like this because you can make it like you are used to growing up or you can alter it to how you like. Thanks for sharing your version!
I schmered a can of refried beans on the bottom of the pan. I used venison burger and added a 4 oz. can of green chiles and a packet of taco seasoning with 1/4 cup of water to the onion and meat. I drained 2 cans of the Ranch beans and only used about 3/4 of the 20 enchilada sauce. Then I cubed 16 oz. of Velveeta with 1/2 cup of shredded Mexican bland cheese. It came out thick, cheesy, well seasoned and very tasty.
Yum!
This recipe is our go to meal, my husband loves it. I did add a few variations. I use 1 1/2 pounds of hamburger, and 3 cans of ranch beans (15 oz) I also use hot enchilada sauce, and add black olives. Then we have enough for leftovers.
Mmm, thanks for the suggestions. Sounds amazing!
Delicious just a little runny
Hi! This looks amazing! Can you tell me what ranch beans are…I’ve never heard of them. Thx!
They are basically a type of baked beans just jazzed up with flavorings. You can find them in your grocery store in the bean aisle. I hope you enjoy it!
Easy and tasty! Will make again for sure
I made this last night and added that
He
I made this last night and added the Fritos today. I used jalapeno corn chips. It was fabulous!!! We like this anyway but I have always used left over chili. This had a Mexican flair and we liked it a lot. Thanks so much for sharing.
Sounds amazing!
recipes look an sound great cant wait to try them
hope you love them!
Made the dish as per instructions and it was OK. My wife said let’s have frito pie and I searched and saw your recipe. It’s pretty basic but the enchilada sauce addition is not the best. The sauce is bland and it overpowered everything else. A true frito pie was adapted from left over chili. I would probably not make this again.
Sorry it didn’t live up to your expectations.
Please make it your own, it is basically a taco using Fritos instead of corn taco shells. I agree with you that the enchilada sauce is too much, we use our favorite salsa!! We modify the ingredients to satisfy our taste. This is a throwback item that when I was a kid, was only available at the Sonic Drive In……….nostalgia. Happy eating!!!
O-M-G was this a YUMMY recipe! Thank you so much for sharing! I made a few modifications. I swapped ground beef out for ground turkey instead. I also added chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, pepper and a couple of pinches of Lawry’s seasoning salt to my ground turkey & onions. I could not find any “ranch style beans” at my local grocery stores so I ended up using Bush’s Southwestern Style Pinto Beans.
Lastly instead of using fritos as they can sometimes be too salty…I had some restaurant style corn tortilla chips on hand. I put several handfuls into a ziploc baggie and smashed the baggie up a little bit (not to the point where the chips turned to crumbs). The finished product was AMAZING. I included a dollop of sour cream on top of each of my servings. When my son stopped by to grab a bite to eat as he usually does each evening…he was initially disappointed when he saw what I had cooked for dinner that was UNTIL he tasted it. I stopped counting how many bowls he ate after his 4th :-)! Thanks AGAIN for sharing such a simple yet delicious recipe! This is most certainly a KEEPER!
How awesome!! Thank you so much for coming back to let me know!
Hi Sabrina-Have you ever made this with refried beans instead of ranch style beans.
I haven’t but if you decide to try, I’d love to know how it turns out. Thanks!
OMG!!!! This looks delicious! I love frito’s and I NEED to make this for dinner next week! 🙂
Happy eating!
Now that’s my kind of pie!
OH MY YUM!! This looks incredible!
Thanks!
This dish looks amazing, and I can hardly wait to make it.
I hope you enjoy it Ivory!
So cheesy and flavorful. This is the perfect frito pie!
Thanks!
What a great recipe! My boys will love it! Thanks!
Definitley kid approved!!
I made this for my daughter’s swim party and it was a huge hit. So easy to make and loved by everyone!
Awesome Joanie! I’m so glad you guys enjoyed it! Thanks for coming back to let me know!
THIS is my love language!
Haha, love it!!
Just a note. I’ve always heard that Frito Pie started in Woolworth’s in Santa Fe, NM. It’s on the “Square” in Santa Fe. I’m originally from NM, so don’t know if true or not. Will make recipe later!