Cheesy Taco Stuffed Shells made with jumbo pasta shells, salsa, cheese and taco meat are the perfect EASY weeknight meal that you can prepare ahead of time too!
I love using either my Guapo’s Famous Fresh Pico de Gallo in this recipe or incredibly easy, store bought jarred salsa. You can also swap out the salsa in this recipe in a 1 to 1 ratio with my favorite Homemade QUICK Enchilada Sauce to make them taco stuffed shells with enchilada sauce.
If you’re looking for alternate to the shredded cheese or to mix things up a little you can absolutely make the taco stuffed shells with velveeta or nacho cheese as well. Even better you could just double the shredded cheddar cheese and have the ultimate cheesy taco stuffed shells.
Or if you want something a bit different you can also make my Mexican Stuffed Peppers with all the taco flavors but none of the pasta!
LOOKING FOR MORE GREAT CHEESY PASTA DISHES? LOOK NO FURTHER:
- Cheesy Taco Pasta
- Bacon Cheeseburger Hamburger Helper
- Pepperoni Pizza Hamburger Helper
- Philly Cheesesteak Hamburger Helper
- Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta Bake
- Chicken Bacon Ranch Lasagna Roll Ups
Thinking of some other stuffed shells ideas?
- Pepperoni Pizza stuffed shells with marinara sauce, pepperoni and mozzarella.
- Chicken Bacon Ranch Stuffed Shells with the Cheddar Bacon Ranch Pinwheels filling and baked with alfredo sauce.
- Philly Cheesesteak stuffed shells with the Philly Cheese Steak Sloppy Joes filling but with double the cheese!
- Chicken Parmesan Stuffed Shells with chicken nuggets, marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese.
Tools Used in the making of these Taco Stuffed Shells:
Jumbo Pasta Shells: Make sure you buy these and not the large ones. Also, husbands may inadvertently think “large” is the right size…not saying mine did that! 😉
Jarred Salsa: Cuts the prep time down to just a couple of minutes and the flavors are still outstanding.
Taco Seasoning: I’ve use my homemade taco seasoning recipe if you’d prefer not to use a packet. This is the packet I’d recommend if not using homemade.
Taco Stuffed Shells
Ingredients
- 12 ounces jumbo pasta shells
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 packet taco seasoning
- 2/3 cup water
- 1 1/2 cups jarred salsa divided
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese divided
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Cook the pasta shells in a pot according to the directions on the box and drain.
Add the ground beef to the pot and brown well.
- Drain the fat.
- Add the taco seasoning and water, stir and cook until water is gone.
- Stir in 1 cup salsa and 3/4 cup cheese.
- Scoop into the jumbo pasta shells and top with the remaining salsa and cheese.
Bake in a covered pan for 15 minutes.
Made this for the family and we loved it. So easy and so delicious ?
I made these stuffed taco shells. They were amazing. Very easy to do. This is definitely a keeper. I wouldn’t change a thing. Only next time I think I will cover with foil in oven.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Sooooooo good!!
I made this for a group of friends LAST YEAR..they still talk about it!
They want to do it again? easy recipe. You can knock it out quick. We do birthday dinners. Several have said “ i want the stuffed shell thing you made as my birthday dinner”