Taco Casserole

I created this myself before I realized there were so many recipes on recipezaar. I was looking for something to bring to a pot luck that would taste good and be easy to make. I recommend when you purchase the taco shells, get one of those packages of the soft and hard tacos in a single package. The crunch is nice in the middle of this recipe.

• Ready In: 30 mins
• Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 1  lb hamburger
• 8  taco shells
• 1 (14 ounce) can  refried beans
• 1 (14 ounce) can black beans
• 5  jalapeno peppers
• 1  medium yellow onion
• 1  red bell pepper
• 1 (4 ounce) can black olives, sliced
• 1 (16 ounce) package  of shredded  Mexican blend cheese
• 1 (16 ounce) container  of fresh salsa
• 1 (4 ounce) can corn
• 1 (6 ounce) can  enchilada sauce
• 1 (16 ounce) container sour cream

Directions

1. Brown the beef in a pan with the onions. Drain fat and then using the taco seasoning from the taco kit, (or just a taco seasoning mix you like) prepare the hamburger according to those instructions, but then add the corn and black beans (drained) into the hamburger mix.
2. Once browned and the taco meat is ready, take the soft taco shells and “butter” them with the refried beans. If you are doing this right, you won’t use the whole can, this is for flavor, not to create a heavy dish.
3. Cut the taco shells in half so they will go into a 6X9 glass baking dish. Put the flat sides of the cut soft shells against the sides of the dish, overlapping the round sides in the middle with the bean sides UP.
4. Once the first layer of soft taco shells is on the bottom of your dish, put a thin layer of the hamburger meat over this layer.
5. Take the hard shells and break them in half. Put them over the meat in the dish until fully covered.
6. Put another layer of meat over the hard shells.
7. Put another layer of the “buttered” soft shells over the meat.
8. Put the remaining hamburger mix over the soft shells.
9. Cover the hamburger with the cheese.
10. Take the enchilada sauce and pour just a small amount around the edges of the entire dish. Don’t pour this over the cheese; it is only for the edges. Let it seep into the dish, but don’t smother it.
11. Put in the oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.
12. While cooking, dice jalapenos into small pieces. I suggest seeding and taking the white ridges out first, but this is your choice.
13. When the dish is done, put it aside for about 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
14. Cut into squares and serve, garnish with sour cream, salsa, jalapeno peppers, red peppers and black olives to taste.
15. Variants:
16. Add more cheese between layers. This will make the dish much heavier, but if you like cheese, you will probably try this on your own anyway!
17. Use spicy taco mix and spicy refried beans if folks will like it.
18. I have also tried this with a corn meal pie crust instead of tacos, this is quite delicious, but you don’t layer it, it is more like a meat pie.