You press a small tortilla into each cup before anything else goes in
This is not the meatloaf muffin tray. Here the tin is doing crust duty: a small flour tortilla, cut down with kitchen scissors, gets pressed into each greased cup so it forms a bowl shape before any filling touches it. Skip the greasing and the whole cup fuses to the tin, tearing the tortilla apart when you try to pull it free.
Ground beef browned with taco seasoning, black beans, and a spoonful of salsa fill each tortilla cup, topped with a pinch of shredded cheddar. Bake at 375°F for fifteen minutes, just long enough for the tortilla edges to crisp and the cheese to melt without drying out the filling underneath.
These freeze and travel best standing upright in a container with a lid, not stacked in a bag, because a stacked cup crushes flat and the crust cracks apart before it even gets reheated.
Ingredients
The batch makes 12 taco cups. Plan on about 35 minutes, then freeze.
- 1 pound ground beef, browned
- 1 can (15 oz) refried beans
- 2 tablespoons taco seasoning
- 24 wonton wrappers (2 per cup)
- 2 cups shredded cheese
- 1/2 cup salsa
How to Make It
- Mix the browned beef with the refried beans, taco seasoning, and salsa.
- Press 2 wonton wrappers into each greased muffin cup, layered into a star shape.
- Spoon in the filling and top with cheese.
- Bake at 375F for 12 to 14 minutes until the edges are crisp, then cool.
Freeze It
Baking these in a muffin tin makes built-in, kid-sized portions with crispy edges. Freeze them already baked so reheating is just a warm-up.
- Freeze the baked, cooled cups on a tray, then bag them (best within 2 months)
- Tray-freezing first keeps the crispy shells intact
- Label with the reheat time
Thaw and reheat on practice night
Reheat from frozen in the oven or air fryer to keep the wonton shells crisp.
- Oven from frozen: 375F for 10 to 12 minutes
- Air fryer from frozen: 350F for 5 to 6 minutes
- Microwave softens the shell, so use the oven if you can
- Serve with: sour cream, guacamole, shredded lettuce, corn
Parent Tip
Two or three cups is a typical kid serving, and they hold up in a lunchbox cold.
Make it fit tonight
Small changes that make this one fit your night
Grease the tin heavier than you think you need to
A dry cup grabs the tortilla shell and tears it on the way out, undoing the whole point of a crisp crust.
Cut the tortilla down with scissors first
A full-size tortilla bunches up the sides of a muffin cup, but trimming it to about four inches across lets it sit flat without folding over itself.
Beans go in before the beef, not mixed together
Layering beans on the bottom keeps them from turning mushy against the hot tortilla shell during the bake.
Store upright in a container, never stacked in a bag
Stacking crushes the crisp shell flat, while standing them in a lidded container keeps every cup intact through the freeze.
Reheat uncovered at 400°F to bring the crunch back
An open oven at higher heat re-crisps a tortilla shell that went soft in the freezer, where a covered reheat leaves it limp.
Plan the next step
Bake a tray
Add a taco-cup batch to the planner and freeze a full dozen for quick nights.