Taco Salad

Omgoodness, we ate too much of this! First of all, we browned the the beef with onion and used homemade taco seasoning (Taco Seasoning I) from this site. We omitted the beans. We did add water to simmer the meat. Then we had chopped green onions, chopped tomatoes, shredded cheese, bagged, shredded lettuce, salsa and sour cream to build our taco salad. We had fritos instead of tortilla chips. I sat out the Catalina dressing so that everyone could control the amount. We used fat free sour cream, cheese and catalina dressing. We tried to make this as healthy as possible. This was delicious!

I make this same recipe but I don't cook the dressing in the hamburger mixture and I omit the chili beans. I mix everything up (hamburger cooled) and pour the dressing over the salad fixings and combine - I also use crushed nacho cheese Dorito's instead of tortilla chips.

We have made this recipe for years but the way to make it really tasty is to use Doritos instead of plain tortilla chips. It adds another dimension of flavor.

This was so good, I would suggest adding the meat mixture to the lettuce as it is served to each individual person. I couldn't save it for another meal because the lettuce wilted and the chips went soft.

Great fill-in dinner when my original plan didn't work out. I made my own taco seasoning and my own French dressing. I did not water down the dressing. My kids and husband ate their taco salad with the tortilla chips but I had mine with just lettuce, tomatoes, a tablespoon of reduced fat sour cream and homemade salsa. This was enjoyed by all.

This recipe went over really well with ALL the family. The dressing and taco mix gave it the zip it needed!! In anticipation of a big appetite, I doubled this recipe, It was so much food! Unless your feeding an army, dont double. Out of 12 in our family, only 1 did not like this. Again as some of the other reviews, I didn't add near the amount of water it called for (only about 1/2), and it made it nice and perfect!!

I didnt like the combined flavor of the taco seasoning and the french dressing. I ended up throwing most of it out. Probably wont make again.

My husband made this (amazing all by itself) for a party one summer. It was fantastic. He left out the chopped tomatoes (because I don't like them) and used nacho flavor tortilla chips and it was great. The tangy sweetness of the French dressing was a welcomed surprise. Just a delicious recipe!

everyone enjoyed the meal i made. i did not add the 2/3 water into the mix and used only 1/2 the french dressing. unfortunatly i was too drunk to eat and passed out while everyone was eating it. i had it the next day and it was amazing!!

Now this is delicious Denise. I absolutely love "Taco" anything and this was just great. I did not mix the dressing into the meat mixture..(I'm thinking it would have made it too sweet), but rather poured a little over each serving and left our the sour cream since I'm not a fan. I have made this many times and have also used corn chips versus tortilla chips and it's just as yummy. Thanks for sharing.

A personal favorite at our house! We do each salad individually - I also add hot sauce and some ranch to mine!

Yumm-o.....one suggestions, let meat/dressing mixture simmer for a while (I did about 30 min), then turn off heat and let cool a bit before adding to the salad....will thicken up as it cools and won't lilt the lettuce

I'm 18 and have recently started cooking actual meals. I LOVE taco salad and wanted to make it and I came up on this recipe. I actually just finished eating it and it's DELICIOUS! I was a bit iffy about the French dressing, but I could barely even taste it. I followed the recipe to a T, the only addition was a handful of chopped onion and green onion each. I'd definitely recommend.

I used Catalina dressing in lieu of French dressing. I used black beans instead of chili beans. I also added a can of corn, drained, to the mixture. Recipe is a keeper as the whole family enjoyed. Thanks.

Simple and tasty! I used ground turkey in place of the lean ground beef. I omitted the refried beans, per my family's request. For the taco seasoning, I used, "Restaurant-Style Taco Meat Seasoning," from this website. I did not have too much fat to drain from the cooked meat and only added a little liquid to the taco seasoning. I made, "French Salad Dressing," from this site for the bottle French dressing. I also did not cook the dressing in the meat as I drizzled it over the salad. Instead of purchasing a package of tortilla chips, I took a slightly different route and fried up some yellow corn tortillas in vegetable oil using, "Hard Taco Shells," from this site. Once I fried up the tortillas, I broke it up and used that in place of the tortilla chips. I thinly sliced the ice berg lettuce and tossed it with the meat, chopped roma tomatoes, chips and shredded cheddar cheese. I put some of that mixture on the plate and added some sliced black olives. I drizzled a little french dressing and pace picante salsa over the salad. I topped that with a dollop of sour cream and garnished it with thin sliced avocados on top. The french dressing gives this a nice twist. It is a slightly sweet flavor and does not compete with the mild flavored salsa. It is a nice departure from the usual taco salads we normally eat. Tasty, hearty and fulfilling salad. Great for a summer dinner!

Great recipe all though, I would cut down the amount of french dressing as it made the ground beef just a tad sweet. Otherwise they were a hit with my family!

After years of watching my mom make this, I moved out and made it on my own--and forgot to buy any sort of dressing for it. Thus I discovered that you can just mix a jar of taco *sauce* into the meat mixture and it provides enough tasty moisture to be perfect for all your veggies. I'm also fairly certain that taco sauce is better for you than French dressing (or Catalina or Russian or whatever you're using--they all work actually), at least the low-sodium kinds. This recipe is also good with homemade tortilla chips made from bought soft tortillas that you spray with Pam spray & heat in the oven til crispy--something else I discovered due to not remembering to buy everything I need at once :-)

I enjoyed this taco salad and took others' recommendations to use nacho flavored Doritos. I left the chips and dressing out of the salad and instead had each person use whatever amount of chips and dressing they wanted. That way the chips wouldn't get too soggy and the dressing wouldn't made the salad mix too liquidy.

Instead of french dressing, I added 2 small packs of dry ranch dressing mis.

One word - DELISH.

This recipe is delicious. I have made it for years. Instead of French dressing, I use 1/2 taco sauce and 1/2 Catalina dressing (whisked together) and poured over the salad at the end. Let each person pour their own. Some people don't like as much dressing. I even pour a little of the Catalina/Taco sauce mixture into the ground beef mixture. Fritos or tortilla chips...both are delicious!! You can get totally creative and add what you like (i.e. green chilis, black olives, avacados, etc.) It is so good!!

The salad was okay. I only added 3/4 of the bottle of dressing. To me it was too sweet. There are better taco salads out there.

This was very good! My kids won't eat beans, so I used my food processory and pureed' them, they didn't even know they were in there. Very yummy, I did substitued Taco flavored Doritos (at my husband's request) and my family ate the whole thing.

The dressing and the chili beans ruined it--not a good recipe at all!

So easy! My mom used to make this when we were kids. I took the lazy way out: browned the meat, drained it, then added the taco seasoning + 3/4 cup water, and simmered 10 minutes (per the instructions on the packet). After that, I added the beans (I used 'Ranch Style' beans), and heated through. Next, I put chopped lettuce in bowls (bought a bag of romaine to save time), topped with the meat mixture, then chopped tomatoes, then drizzled the French dressing in a big circle, working my way in (ended up looking like a spider web), and added crushed chips on top of that. Pretty presentation for such a simple meal! Thanks for the recipe!

Took it to a party everybody loved it. The hose kept the leftovers and ate it for the next three days and said it was still awesome!

i liked this a lot bet it be even better with doritos cheese tortilla chips followed it to a t except i used kidney beans instead and used french dressing

I love this salad. I did make a few adjustments. I used Catalina dressing instead of French and I used Dorritos instead of Tortia chips.

Love this recipe! I add a couple more items to the party though and that is chopped cucumber and thinly sliced radishes for extra crunch. This is one of my family's faves.

This is similar to my favorite combination of ingredients for taco salad... I would try and reduce the calorie count by using Catalina Free French dressing, cutting the amount of shredded Cheddar and tortilla chips in half and subbing avocado for sour cream! Still yummy!

Very good! Many of the reviews suggest not adding the chips until serving. I disagree. I crush the chips into small pieces and I think the softened chips add a great flavor and help to thicken the hamburger mixture. I do reserve chips to top with when serving to give it that extra crunch. I also prefer catalina dressing, but the french dressing works fine. I do NOT mix the lettuce into the ground beef mixture. I prefer it served on top of crisp, cool, shredded iceburg.

I have made this recipe before, ecxept I brown the ground beef and add it to the rest of the ingredients (more of a cold salad). My recipe calls for Italian dressing but I use the Hidden Valley Ranch "Spicy Ranch"

For this as is, it is not for us. I had to change a lot of things around. Changes: *Ground Chicken *no chili beans * light ranch dressing *fat free greek yogurt as sour cream sub *bag of salad with romaine and iceberg *added in fresh cilantro Changes to the makings: I mixed the meat with the dressing after it was cooked before serving. So if we needed to we could eat this later with no problems reheating. Since I had to make so many changes I had to lower the star rating. This did help give me a great idea though for a taco salad.

i doctored it up with black olives, green onions, red bellpeppers but i cut the dressing down to 3/4s. I wish I had cut it down to half. It was still good. :)

I have not tried this exact recipe, but I have had a similar one. As a suggestion to those who didn't like the looks of the salad try layering it and adding the dressing last. It gives a beautiful presentation. I have also had it with 1000 island dressing.

Great recipe, I made it as directed but would recommend a few changes for a better result. First the meat mixture was way too watery with a full bottle of dressing plus all the water. I had to cook down the mixture for about 30 minutes to get the water out. That separated the oil from the dressing so I had to keep draining it off. Instead add 3/4 cup water to the taco seasoning, mix it well then pour over browned and drained meat. Bring to boil then simmer the water out until just moist. Add the dressing and beans and let cool before adding to salad or you will get wilted lettuce. Mix in the chips last (I use nacho cheese chips), so they don't get soaked. The family said this was the best taco salad ever!

This salad is excellent. It took a lot longer than the recipe said to cook the meat but was still delicious

This was such a great recipe. I used an 8 oz. bottle of lt. French dressing, sauteed a few onions with the meat,and left out the chili beans. I also added some black olives to the lettuce mixture. To keep from getting soggy, I mixed the lettuce, tomatoes and cheese in a separate bowl. Then, I lined individual bowls with Dorito taco-flavored chips, filled the bowls with the lettuce mixture, then added the meat on top when ready to serve. Everyone added their own salsa/sour cream.

As far as Taco salads go it was just that Taco salad nothing spectacular but it sure hit the craving.

I haven't made this in awhile but do love it. My only suggestion is that unless you know it will be consumed in one sitting, only add the chips to each individual serving as they will get soggy. This is not a dish worthy of leftovers. I have only used Catalina but might try the French dressing next time.

Very good and different! Will be using this one again.

This was amazing!!! I read other reviews and I was worried about it being too liquidity, so I only used a half bottle of french dressing. I added some olives and used Fritos, and it came out perfect! I didn't know what to think about using french dressing, but I did it anyways. Thank you!! This is going in the recipe book.

I made this dish for my friends and family and they loved it. The only thing I modified was I only added half the french dressing.

Everyone loved this at my in-laws, even kids and picky eaters! Excellent and easy!

Everyone loved this recipe except 1 person in our family. The french dressing gives the meat a sweet flavor that 1 out of our family of 4 didn't care for. All the rest gobbled it up and had seconds. Personally, I am looking forward to using the leftover meat-mixture wrapped in tortillas for dinner tonight. I followed the recipe to a T but I used fat-free dressing. It seemed a bit too watery after simmering for 15 minutes. Next time I will not add so much water to my empty dressing bottle because fat free dressing prob has more water in it to start with.

This is very easy...

I used 3/4 pound HB and 1 1/2 cans beans (this would probably be good with no meat and maybe 2 1/2 cans of beans). I used Catalina instead of French dressing. I use Romaine or green leaf lettuce instead of iceberg. Nacho cheese Doritos are crucial to the recipe. You'll have to have this salad at least once a week! It's addictive. I didn't bother with salsa or sour cream so I don't know how the recipe tastes with them. I can't imagine they could make it taste any better, though.

I had my Bunko group over (11 women) and they all wanted the recipe. Was verrrrrry good.

I made a few changes to this recipe. Because my husband and I don't like French dressing, I substituted a 16 oz. jar of cilantro picante sauce, added a little less water and corn chips instead of tortilla chips. I also simmered it a little longer while I cut up the tomatoes and lettuce because the picante sauce is a little watery compared to the dressing. But in the end, it was sooo delicious!!

This is excellent. The only thing I would suggest doing differently is leaving the lettuce and tortilla chips out until serving. They get soggy by the time your ready to eat. Yummy

I think you stole this recipe from me. I've been making this for years. Add some chopped onion and a little sliced advocado and it's perfect. Oh, and use Nacho Cheese Doritos. Delicious!!

Very good! The only thing I would do next time is maybe not use the whole can of beans... I added 1.5lbs of ground beef instead of 1lb and it worked perfectly with the amount of sauce. I will definitely make this again!

My kids LOVE this taco salad. I only use 1/4 cup of french dressing, pinto & black beans, add red onion and don't crush the chips.

OMG Seriously. I never would have thought in a million years that French dressing and tacos should ever be mentioned in conjunction together, much less combined, but this was AMAZING!! My family was raving with every bite. Only made 2 changes to the recipe: simmered for 30 minutes as another reviewer had suggested, and added some sliced avocado ('cuz avocado rocks with tacos). Absolutely delicious, this will definitely be a regular favorite with us!

You can cut calories significantly by doing canned lowfat chicken (or shred yourself) a few black beans, fat free sour cream, salsa, and lots of lemon juice. It is very good this way and you don't even miss the dressing/chips. Every now and then I add rice like Chiptole.

I make this type of taco salad but use ground turkey instead of beef, taco flavored Doritos instead of tortilla chips, add black beans and kidney beans and instead of french dressing use Ortega taco sauce! It's awesome that way!

I agree with some of the other reviewers, when making this use CATALINA Dresing and use Dorito chips, this taste so much better.

This is really the best taco salad. I used less water and cooked the meat mixture longer. I highly recommend putting the salad together on indiviual plates (or bowls); otherwise the chips get very soggy plus you are able to add the amount of sour cream and salsa you want. I used corn chips crushed and it was great.

This was delicious! I also used Catalina dressing and doritos. Everyone loved it and wants the recipe!

this was good for the first 10 minutes! after that the tortilla chips were soggy and i ended up throwing most of it away. i would suggest keeping the chips separate. probably wont make it again.

I just made this for dinner tonight- it turned out really good. Like everyone suggested, I didn't mix everything together. I left it all in seperate bowls- buffet style. I have 6 kids & they were able to "personalize" their own. However I used 2 lbs of meat- & I didn't put the whole bottle of the French in their like others suggested either. I only used about 1/4 c. in there for flavor- & then gave everyone some afterwards.

This was a great salad. I made it for our Canada day picnic at my church,It was a big hit all the ladies wanted the recipe.I did what others had said and used less water I also cut out the chilli beans and added half a pound more of the ground beef. I also saved some cheddar cheese and put it on top then added extra sour cream on top of that.I made the beef mixture up the night before and cut up the vegies the night before and mixed everything up just before serving.TRY THIS RECIPE YOU'LL LOVE IT!

Very good and simple to make.

Too much French dressing, and prefer this salad cold, not warm.

We loved this recipe. I read many of the reviews and then made a few changes. I used black beans instead of chili beans. I also added corn. I used romaine lettuce instead of iceberg – much tastier and more nutritious. I couldn’t find a French or Catalina dressing without corn syrup (we have eliminated fructose/corn syrup from our house), so instead used Braswell’s Vidalia Onion & Summer Tomato dressing. It was wonderful! This has turned out to be our very favorite taco salad recipe. Also – we kept the meat ingredients separate and each person assembled their salad. We were able to have leftovers the next day without anything being soggy. My DH usually doesn’t care for leftovers, but he raved again about this the next day.

I thought this was a really good spin on taco salad. I did not use the whole bottle of french dressing (I only had about 3/4 of a bottle). But it definitely gave the salad a sweet flavor. My son, who is the pickiest of eaters at our house, really liked it a lot. I prefer a regular, more traditional, taco salad. But this definitely wasn't bad and I may use it for a church potluck coming up soon. We skipped the salsa and used ranch dip instead of the sour cream.

We preferred to mix in the French dressing at the end - just before serving and the kids didn't care for the chili beans. We also cut down on the water in the beef mixture so it wouldn't be so sloppy.

Everybody loves a good taco salad. This is good and easy. Kids and husbands can even handle this one! A great easy meal for a hot summer day or a perfect dish to pass for a family reunion or picnic. Serve it with fruit and an icy drink.

I thought that this was just "Ok". It was VERY sweet and a little bit runny... not sure I'll make it again.

Very good. I used less salad dressing and used Brianna's Poppy Seed dressing instead of French's dressing as they are both sweet and I didn't have the latter. I also used Morningstar Farms Veggie Crumbles instead of ground meat and it was delicious.

i didnt care for the french dressing in this. made it very sweet, almost like a sloppy joe flavor. i would suggest using salsa instead of the dressing for more of a southwest flavor

This recipe is great, I have been making it for years. The only thing different is I put the french dressing on the top like a salad. I am living in Australia now and they don't have french dressing and I so miss it.

Sorry,but we didn't find this very good. Kids thought it looked like throw up. Just way to heavy and you probably need to be a dressing lover to stomach this. It is very easy and quick to prepare.

I combined the beef, beans, and taco seasoning with some chopped onions and a little water and brown that up. I used1/2 catalina and 1/2 thousand island dressing. To keep it from wilting, I had the lettuce on the cutting board, shredded cheddar cheese on the side, chopped up tomatoes in another bowl, and broken up Doritos in another bowl. Then I have a "mix" bowl handy and keep all ingredients separate..my family makes up their own individual taco salad in the mix bowl and transfers it to their plates. That way, when the meal is over and if there are left-overs I can store everything in separate containers and the chips and lettuce don't get soft.

This was great for a change in dinners. BUT, the meat was too sweet with the salad dressing. Next time I'll just use a BIT of salad dressing when cooking the meat. My family loved it, but I am not into "sweet" meat.

TOO Heavy and Salty-this isn't a salad it's a stew!

This was a excellent recipe. I took it to a club meeting, and it was enjoyed by all. I will certainly be making this again. Edited to add..We keep making and loving this meal..one of our fav's.

I loved this meal and my husband finished it all! It was so quick and easy! We'll definitely make it again!

As is, this recipe is barely edible. It's a goopy, soggy mess and the French dressing makes it too sweet.

I made this yesterday for a baby shower, and it went very quickly! As others suggested, I reduced the water to about 1/8 of a bottle. This resulted in a thick sauce that coated the ingredients well. To save time I substituted a 16oz. bag of pre-washed iceberg lettuce. Lastly, I omitted the beans, and left the salsa and sour cream on the side for individuals to choose.

This was great! I kept the meat in a separate container so we could have leftovers and avoid making the salad mixture all mushy. Delicious! My friend who I served this to loved it.

I was not a huge fan of the French/Western dressing being cooked into the meat- my fiance wasn't either. I felt like I was eating sloppy joe salads... Otherwise, it was good.

It was great - I gave it 5 stars because it is yummy, but with 846 calories I made many modifications. I took the advise of others and used some catalina (not the whole bottle) and didn't mix it in with the meat. I omitted the sour cream and beans, increased the lettuce, used 1/4 of the chips but I used doritoes like others suggested, and I used turkey for the meat. And because I didn't read it till just now, I forgot to add salsa. Oops :) Anyway great!

I loved this recipe! I changed it a little as I didn't have the same ingredients on hand. I used ground turkey, red leaf lettuce, can of Bush's Texas Ranchero Beans (made it spicier) and a 16oz jar of salsa because I didn't have tomatoes. This recipe is awesome! Thanks Denise.

We loved this! It was easy to fix and a tasty twist to the old taco salad!

I think this is one the eases Recipes and tasteful Taco Salad ever. Everybody in the family loved it and ask me for the recipe lol!!! 5 stars on this one...

My DH liked this, but I didn't really care for it. I felt the french dressing was too sweet. (and I used a really good homemade french)

This was disgusting. Yes, it was edible and had flavor, but flavor wasn't good. There was a tangy off-putting flavor. Probably would be better if you don't use the salad dressing and make your own sauce from scratch. The video for this got me excited and i admit, I'm new to the site and didn't read any reviews before hand. This is a 2 star recipe plain and simple. I won't make it again. The salad dressing easiness made me question it for a moment but i went off the high rating and not the reviews- which was a mistake :( If you like fatty foods then I can see why you might like this, but it wasn't for me.(and not only should you drain the beef you should rinse it in hot water to get as much fat off as possible.)

I've made taco salad before but decided to try this one because it seemed a little different with the addition of french dressing. I gave it three stars because I did make some changes. As written I would probably only give it one star. I only used 1/2 a bottle of French dressing. If I had use the whole bottle it would have been WAYYYY too much. The french dressing gives the recipe an odd sweetness. I used mild salsa because it's what I had on hand. It would have been MUCH better with medium or hot salsa. Let's see, I used black beans instead of chili beans, torn spinach and bibb lettuce instead of iceberg. I never use iceberg lettuce on ANYTHING because there are better choices out there with higher nutritional values! I layered the salad versus tossing it all together (crumbled tortilla chips, torn lettuce, meat/bean mixture, shredded cheese, salsa, chopped tomatoes, sour cream). I will stick with my original taco recipe as my family likes it better.

Strange. Per other reviews, I used less dressing...somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 of the bottle. The taste of the mixture by itself was pretty bad (sweet) but when you add the chips, cheese, etc., the sweet taste disappeared and it was not bad. I doubt I would make it again.

Delicious! Added a can of corn and some black olives. I was worried that the meat mixture would be too runny because in the pan, it was still very liquidy, but it turned out wonderfully. It makes a ton in volume, so use a very big bowl to mix everything in. I used my huge silver bread mixing bowl to serve in. Thanks for the great recipe!

We love taco salad!.. I used refried bean in place of chili and saved the French dressing to top the lettuce; served with crushed Fritos corn chips, avacado, green onions, tomatoes, sour cream, cheese and put it in taco bowls I made! :)

I thought this recipe sounded great, however, it turned out to be just the opposite. It was horrible. My family and I did not enjoy this recipe. I will not be making this again.

I only give this a 3 because of a few different things. First I didn't like the French dressing at all. It made the whole thing taste off to me. Not only that, there is WAY too much dressing in this recipe. I'll go back to my trusty Catalina. I never cooked the dressing with the meat as we have always eaten this salad completely cold. I cook the meat, let it cool and then add dressing, onions, red peppers, lettuce and cheese to it. I crush corn chips and let people add as much or as little as they like to the salad. I use sour cream and salsa on the side as everyone is different in what they prefer. I never put beans in this salad either.

This was a quick and delicous meal! Start to seated at the table took no more than 30 minutes (OK, DH shredded my cheese and chopped the tomatoes, lol, so it might be a tad longer than that) My kids just LOVED this. DH was sceptical when he saw me dump in the entire bottle of Ken's Country French (neither of us are French dressing fans) but this was really good, and the entire family went back for seconds. Definately a good meal!

Very good salad,I didn't have any chili beans so I just omitted that part and I wasn't sure about the French dressing but I was loved it!

Good Taco Salad. The French dressing sort of threw me at first, but it was good. Liked the idea of individual servings instead of tossing all together - better for any left overs that way, which there wasn't many.

I am concerned about the calories and fat grams. It sounds soooo delicious, but 846 calories and 56.5 grams of fat for 1 meal is a little too much.

I used ground turkey and taco sauce instead of french dressing. So good! I chopped up some romaine and avacado and threw that in. I also used spicy chili doritos. Everyone loved it. Can't wait to make again!