What is a Walking Taco? Brace Yourself: A Walking Taco is a Frito bag filled with flavorful chili and toppings! Tacos in a bag are perfect for any party and let’s face it, just so fun to eat. You have to try this easy Walking Taco recipe!
Walking Tacos
You are in for the perfect Game Day recipe with this easy Walking Taco recipe! Whether it’s for Super Bowl Sunday, or you’re feeding a crowd, walking tacos are the perfect party food.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Entertaining. These tacos are great for entertaining for about any occasion!
- Holidays and Game Days! We love making this recipe for Super Bowl and other fun game day occasions.
- Great Leftovers. The taco/chili makes delicious leftovers!
Be sure to try my Fire-Fly Frito Pie Recipe too! Follow Picky Palate on Instagram for daily recipe inspiration.
What Is a Walking Taco?
A walking taco is simply your favorite taco ingredients in a chip bag such as Fritos or Doritos. It’s such a brilliant way to enjoy tacos, especially when you’re entertaining a room full of guests. Such a fun party food!
What You’ll Need
Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make walking tacos at home. See the recipe card located at the bottom of the post for full instructions.
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil– You’ll use the olive oil to saute the vegetables.
- Onion– Finely chop the onion before sauteing.
- Bell Pepper– Bell pepper can be optional, if using finely chop.
- Garlic– Mince garlic before adding to hot skillet.
- Ground Geef– Use 80% lean or higher ground beef.
- Kosher Salt– Kosher salt is a coarse salt commonly used for cooking and baking.
- Black Pepper– For best tasting results use fresh cracked black pepper.
- Diced Tomatoes– I like to use Rotel, mild version.
- Prepared Salsa– Use your favorite mild salsa.
- Tomato Paste- Tomato paste thickens and adds flavor.
- Pinto Beans– Drain and rinse the beans before adding to the meat mixture.
- Black Beans– Rinse all beans before adding to meat mixture.
- Kidney Beans– Drain kidney beans and rinse before adding to meat.
- Black Olives– Black olives can be optional.
- Chili Powder– Chili powder adds that nice chili spice to the meat.
- Cumin– Ground cumin adds a touch of smoky flavor to the meat.
- Hot Sauce– Cholula works great here.
- Lime Juice– Fresh lime juice adds a touch of freshness.
- Cilantro– Fresh chopped cilantro is a great garnish on top of the walking tacos.
- Fritos– I ordered a large bag of snack size Fritos on Amazon.
- Shredded Cheese– Shredded mild cheese works great.
- Sour Cream– Use full-fat sour cream.
- Jalapeno– Sliced jalapeno can be optional, but also delicious on top of the walking tacos.
How to Make Tacos in a Bag
Saute Onions, Peppers and Garlic. Heat oil in a large dutch oven over medium heat. Saute onion and peppers for 5 minutes or until softened. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute.
Cook and Brown The Beef. Add ground beef, salt and pepper. Cook until browned. Drain if needed. I usually don’t need to for the lean beef.
Continue Adding Chili Ingredients. Pour in tomatoes, salsa, tomato paste then stir to combine. Add 1 Cup warm water to thin out slightly then add in beans, olives, chili powder, cumin, hot sauce, lime juice, salt, pepper and garlic salt. I start with just a pinch of salt then keep tasting until it’s to my liking. Add chopped cilantro and reduce heat to low to simmer until ready to serve.
Spoon Chili into Frito Bags. Open bags of fritos. Spoon in chili, cheese, sour cream and jalapenos. Stick a fork in it and eat!!
Can I Use Different Chips For Walking Tacos?
Yes, try Doritos, the Nacho Cheese and Cool Ranch varieties work great.
How to Assemble Your Walking Tacos
Assembling a walking taco is easy! Follow these step-by-step photos showing you how to make the best walking tacos ever.
Add shredded cheese, jalapenos, or green onions if you can’t take the heat 🙂
Here you have it, your perfect little bag of “Walking Tacos!”
How To Serve
Serve these convenient bags of tacos for your next party or game day get together. There’s minimal mess to clean up and your guests love them!
How To Store Leftovers
Store any chili and topping leftovers in separate airtight containers in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Reheat chili in a heat proof bowl, loosely covered for 60-90 seconds in the microwave until hot.
Tips For Making the Best Walking Tacos
- You can also use snack size bags of Doritos instead of Fritos if you’d like.
- Cut the tops off of your bags of Fritos before your guests arrive so it’s easy to fill them with your homemade chili.
Try More Taco Recipes
How To Make A Walking Taco
Equipment
- Dutch Oven
- chef knife
- cutting board
- measuring cups
- measuring spoons
- mixing spoon
Ingredients
Chili
- 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 6-8 little sweet peppers or 1 green and 1 red bell pepper chopped
- 4 cloves fresh garlic minced
- 1 lb lean ground beef
- Pinch of kosher salt and black pepper
- 2 cans diced tomatoes
- 1 Cup Herdez Salsa or your favorite salsa
- 1 small can tomato paste
- 1 Cup warm water
- 3 cans of beans drained (I used black, pinto and red kidney)
- 1 can black olives sliced
- 2 Tablespoons chili powder
- 1 Tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 Tablespoon hot sauce Tabasco
- 1 Tablespoon fresh lime juice
- Pinch of Kosher salt fresh cracked black pepper and Lawry’s Garlic Salt with Parsley (to taste)
- 1/2 Cup fresh chopped cilantro
- Bags of Fritos
Toppings
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup chopped Jalapenos or green onions
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large dutch oven over medium heat. Saute onion and peppers for 5 minutes or until softened. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add ground beef, salt and pepper. Cook until browned. Drain if needed. I usually don’t need to for the lean beef. Pour in tomatoes, salsa, tomato paste then stir to combine. Add 1 Cup warm water to thin out slightly then add in beans, olives, chili powder, cumin, hot sauce, lime juice, salt, pepper and garlic salt. I start with just a pinch of salt then keep tasting until it’s to my liking. Add chopped cilantro and reduce heat to low to simmer until ready to serve.
- Open bags of fritos. Spoon in chili, cheese, sour cream and jalapenos. Stick a fork in it and eat!!
The guy in the last picture is hot.
You are a genius. I will try this.
Delicious! I believe these are fairly new, but we’ve been selling them at our swim meets for a few years, actually.
Now to go convince my family to let me make it… *heehee*
love these! In texas we call them Frito pie and slit the bag down the side and hold it so it is a horizontal rectangle instead of vertical rectangle (makes a wider “bowl”).
Great tip! Next time, I will totally do that 🙂
I guess I should have read the other replies first. I just said the exact same thing! So much easier. 🙂
Cut your bag long ways and it works out great!
These are such fun! Try doritos for a different flavor. Here’s a little hint– when cutting your bag open, cut it from bottom to top, that way you have more room to get the ingredients in and out!!
Walking tacos are a staple in Northern Iowa where we used to live! They are our first & last day of school tradition. We just use regular doritos & regular taco fixin’s. But your recipe might actually be suitable to serve to outsiders!
Perfect for camping! My family always makes Walking Tacos when we go, it is a tradition 🙂
I just love this idea and blogged about it with a link back to you! I love your site ~ you have a new follower!
Never heard of these before. Love the idea. I can’t seem to get my kids to eat chili. Hopefully this one will work. Trying it tomorrow night. Thanks for all your awesome ideas. 😀
Today, I went to the store to get the stuff to make Walking Tacos before I stumbled onto this website. When I was in elementary school, I went to this camp with my church and the group made Walking Tacos for dinner one night but only with chili from a can, corn chips and cheese and put the ingredients into a bowl and ate them that way. I never thought about putting all of the ingredients into the corn chip bag. The only thing you would have to clean would be the spoon(s) and the knife (when cutting the jalapenos).
P.S. I’ve always known this recepie as Walking Tacos and nothing else.
How much chopped cilantro should I use? It’s mentioned in the directions, but not listed in the ingredients.
Thanks,
Cheryl
My daughter first saw these after she moved 2 states away from me. (darn son in law) HAHA, they are BIG where she lives. At every ball game, the art in the park festival, craft shows, garage sales. They are done differently there, but the concept is the same.
Very clever! I can’t wait to try them!
Ooo these are yummy. In Marching Band, we called them Marching Tacos!
We used to make these with Taco meat instead of the chili.
Found the little bags of fritos! Sweet! I cant wait to surprise my hubby with the walking taco! hahaha… how big are the cans of diced tomatoes?
Haha, so cute! And delicious, I’m sure!!
I am living in Mexico with my husband and they actually sell this type of thing in the restaurant. They use doritos, lettuce, salsa, peppers, tomatoes, onions and a type of pork. They taste really yummy. Your version looks tempting as well. And, what is great is I can find all the ingredients. It is hard to find some basic things down here. Although I am pretty sure they don’t have Fritos. I can substitute some other kind of bagged chips…like Doritos. Thanks for posting. Love your website. Since I can’t find a lot of the ingredients I just have to look, but that is fun in it’s own way.
You can also use the Doritos cheese chips and those are really good too.
My husband had these in elementary school. He recently introduced them to my kids, and they were a big hit.
they sold these at the softball fields when I was growing up. But we called them “Super Frito Muncharitos” they are YUMMY!
This looks awesome!! I haven’t heard of these before and I can’t wait to try them 🙂 Thanks!
What a fantastic idea! thanks for sharing!
This is one of my kids favorite school lunches! But yours look so much better. I am not a big fan of fritos and they are good with Doritos also!
What a wonderful idea…….I am gonna copy it for my Frito Chili Pie….love it…cute pics of your boys!!!!
Oh yeah! These are great for Girl’s Camp!! Yum!
Jenny-
YOU ARE A GENIUS! I was wondering what fun thing I could make for next weekend’s superbowl mania, and now I have it! Thank you!!!! What a awesome idea. Make my wheels spin on whatelse you could eat in a bag… maybe chicken casserols in a funions chip bag. well,,, maybe not 🙂
I’ve heard of them, but they were called “Traveling Tacos”, they are yummy!
These are a midwest staple! You can find them at every sporting event concession stand in these parts. We also make them for birthday parties, tailgating, you name it. They are so easy and delicious. We either use taco meat or chili or if you’re feeling really dangerous BOTH! Midwesterners cut the bags on the side seem to allow better access to the “goods”. The taco chili looks delish, will definitely have to try your variation!
I hadn’t heard of these before. What a fun idea!
These are big at the high school. You can gett hem at the games or their arts and crafts stuff. They typically don’t use homemade chili though!!!
This has to be the best idea ever! Sooo excited to make these 🙂
Oh my goodness- that is the coolest idea ever!! 🙂 And looks delicious! 😀
We call them Frito Boats. They’re also known as Chili Pie. Legendary, these things are 🙂
Our swapmeet use to sell them with regular chili and cheese and you would buy them and walk around the swapmeet eating them. I like your spiffed up version, will definately have to try it.