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Cool ranch turkey taco casserole combines ground turkey with Doritos, vegetables, Greek yogurt, taco seasoning, and more, for ultimate flavour. This is a simple recipe to make and a sure way to spice up taco night. If you’re on the lookout for a Mexican inspired meal, give this easy taco bake Dorito casserole a try.
This simple casserole with ground turkey is a tasty recipe using Doritos and several south of the border ingredients. Dorito casserole is perfect for busy weeknights when you want all of the flavour without a long prep or cooking time.
Ingredients for this Cool Ranch Dorito Casserole
This cool ranch turkey taco casserole calls for ground turkey, onion, jalapeños, taco seasoning, yogurt, ranch seasoning, Doritos, corn, chillies, and taco cheese. You will also need cilantro for a garnish along with some shredded lettuce and cabbage to serve.
Feel free to make ingredient substitutions in this Mexican inspired meal. For example, ground chicken, rotisserie chicken or even pork or ground beef would work in place of the ground turkey. You could also make a whole chicken in the Instant Pot! You can omit the jalapeños and canned chillies if you want a milder result. If you want to include beans then refried beans, black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, or any other kind would be good. Add other desired toppings like bell peppers or chopped tomatoes.
Instead of taco cheese, you could try cheddar cheese or pepper jack, for example. Fiesta blend cheese is also good. That is a mixture of Monterey jack, cheddar, quesadilla cheese, and asadero. This quick and easy casserole is easy to customize exactly how you like it.
How to Make Cool Ranch Turkey Taco Casserole
To make this turkey taco bake, first you will sauté and brown turkey with red onion and jalapeños, seasoning them with taco seasoning. Next add the yogurt and ranch seasoning and then you can take the pan off the heat.
The next step in this taco casserole with Doritos is to break the Doritos into pieces. Grease a baking dish and then layer some of the Doritos with the turkey mixture. Add the corn, tomatoes with chillies and cheese. Now you can repeat these layers.
Crush the remaining Doritos to make crumbs and sprinkle them over the top of this casserole with ground turkey. Add the rest of the cheese then bake for half an hour. Add red onion, jalapeños, cilantro, shredded iceberg lettuce, and shredded red cabbage on top. You can shred the lettuce and cabbage while the cool ranch turkey taco casserole bakes, unless you’ve bought it pre-shredded. Feel free to add all your favorite taco toppings.
How to Serve this Casserole with Ground Turkey
There are various ways to serve this recipe using Doritos. Since it has taco meat, veggies and chips, it doesn’t necessarily need a side dish. You might like to serve it on a bed of shredded cabbage and lettuce, or you could add some avocado slices and maybe sour cream before serving. Chopped green onions also add a colourful touch or you might even want to add some black beans or kidney beans to the mix.
If you want to make a side dish, you could prepare a green salad rather than adding shredded cabbage and iceberg lettuce to the cool ranch turkey taco casserole. Make any adjustments you want and enjoy this Dorito casserole your way.
Easy Taco Bake FAQs
Yes you can make cool ranch turkey taco casserole ahead and keep it refrigerated. When you’re ready to cook it, you can continue with the recipe, giving it half an hour in the oven. Check if it’s hot in the center since it’s straight out of the refrigerator. If not you can give in an additional 10 or 15 minutes.
Leftovers should be covered and kept in the refrigerator in an airtight container. This casserole dish will be fine for up to 3 days.
No, you can use any kind of corn chips or tortilla chips in cool ranch turkey taco casserole. You could also use nacho cheese flavour although the cool ranch flavour Doritos are so good in it. Another option is to use broken up hard taco shells.
The exact time will depend how much you are reheating at once as well as your oven. But I would say 20 to 30 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees F is a good guideline. You can also reheat individual portions in the microwave.
Cool Ranch Turkey Taco Casserole Recipe
Cool Ranch Turkey Taco Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 Pound ground turkey
- 1 red onion, diced
- ½ Cup jalapenos, canned, sliced
- 1 packet taco seasoning, 1.25 Ounces
- 1 Cup Greek yogurt
- 1 Tablespoon ranch seasoning
- 2 Bags Doritos, cool ranch, 9.25 Ounce bags
- 1 Bag frozen corn, cool ranch , 10.8 Ounces, sometimes called fiesta corn
- 1 Can tomato and green chilies, 10 Ounces, drained, such as Rotel
- 3 Cups cheese, taco cheese, shredded
- cilantro, optional garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
- Heat a pan over medium high heat. Once hot, add ground turkey, ½ the diced red onion, and ½ of the sliced jalapeños. Season with taco seasoning and cook for 10 minutes. Drain the grease out of the pan.
- Add greek yogurt and ranch seasoning to the turkey and stir until well combined. Remove from heat.
- Add ¾ of the Doritos to a ziplock and break into quarter sized pieces. Add remaining ¼ of the Doritos to a separate ziplock to be used in step 8. **Pieces should be about the size of a quarter, careful not to break down into too fine of crumbs.**
- Lightly spray a 9×13 casserole dish with olive oil or canola oil. Line the bottom of the pan with ½ of the broken dorito chips. Top with ½ of the ground turkey.
- Next, add ½ of the corn, ½ of the tomatoes with green chilies, and ½ of the cheese.
- Repeat adding remaining halves of doritos, ground turkey, corn, and tomatoes.
- Crush the second ziplock bag of doritos into fine crumbs. Sprinkle over the top of the casserole then add remaining cheese.
- Place into the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
- Top with red onion and jalapenos. Garnish with cilantro and serve with shredded lettuce and cabbage.
Nutrition
Not only is cool ranch ground turkey taco casserole an easy taco bake dinner idea, but it’s one of my favourite Mexican inspired meal ideas. Rustle up this simple Dorito casserole for dinner tonight and enjoy the wonderful south of the border flavours it offers. This is one of those casserole recipes that the whole family will love. This great recipe using crunchy Doritos will be one that you make on repeat.
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Bella Bucchiotti
Bella Bucchiotti is a Canadian-based syndicated food, travel, and lifestyle writer, photographer, and creator at xoxoBella. She founded xoxoBella in 2015, where she shares her love for food, dogs, sustainability, fitness, crafts, outdoor adventures, travel, and philanthropy to encourage others to run the extra mile, try new recipes, visit unfamiliar places, and stand for a cause. Bella creates stress-free and family-friendly recipes for weeknight dinners and festive feasts.
This cool ranch turkey taco casserole is a flavor bomb! Perfect for spicing up taco night!
I love this taco recipe! We enjoyed this a lot yesterday!
Made this for dinner last weekend and the whole family loved it. They’re asking me to make it again this weekend. Thank you for this!
Love the look of this, and it tastes even better!
Whipped up this recipe and it was a total success with the family. Will be making regularly!
nom nom! looks so good!