Doritos Taco Salad is a delectable combination of iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers, black beans, corn, black olives, seasoned ground beef, shredded cheddar jack cheese, and crunchy Doritos in a homemade tangy sweet Catalina dressing. This is one of my favorite salads for potlucks and family reunions.
What’s In This Post
Customizable Doritos Taco Salad
This amazing salad is one the whole family enjoys. It comes together quickly and can be changed easily! Maybe you would rather sub-fresh sliced avocados for the green peppers. Perhaps you don’t like black olives and would rather have red onions. As I always say, customize it to suit your taste.
The homemade Catalina salad dressing comes together in mere minutes with ingredients you may already have on hand. It tastes much better than store-bought, with plenty of fresh zing and no artificial colors or preservatives.
Ingredients Needed
For the Catalina dressing
- Vinegar: red wine is best
- Olive oil: extra virgin
- Ketchup
- Honey: for a little sweetness
- Seasonings: paprika, onion powder, and garlic powder
For the salad
- Ground beef: or ground turkey
- Taco seasoning: homemade is best
- Vegetables: Iceberg lettuce, green bell pepper, and corn
- Fruit: black olives and tomatoes
- Beans: canned black beans
- Cheese: cheddar or Monterey Jack
- Doritos: nacho cheese or cool ranch
Recipe Tips
- Let the taco meat cool a bit before adding it. You don’t want it to wilt your lettuce!
- For an added flavor, blacken your corn!
- This salad is equally delicious with French dressing or ranch dressing.
- You can substitute cool ranch Doritos for nacho cheese Doritos.
Favorite Toppings To Add
- Fresh avocado
- Pico de gallo
- Salsa
- Pinto Beans
- Guacamole
- Green onions
- Jalapeno
- Sour cream
- Hot sauce
- Fresh veggies
- Blackened chicken
- Red kidney beans
So, if you are hankering for a downright awesome salad, this Doritos Taco Salad is right up your alley. It comes together quickly, looks beautiful, and tastes oh-so-good. Your loved ones will sing your praises, and you can feel good about the nutritious food you are feeding them.
Frequently Asked Questions
The salad dressing can be mixed up to 2 days in advance. You can prepare the taco salad ahead of time, but don’t add the dressing or the chips until you are ready to toss and serve!
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a day. However, the chips and lettuce will begin to break down fairly quickly. For best results, enjoy the salad shortly after it is tossed.
More Tasty Salad Recipes
Easy Doritos Taco Salad
Ingredients
Catalina Salad Dressing
- 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 2-3 tablespoons honey
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
Doritos Taco Salad
- 1 pound ground beef or ground turkey
- 3 tablespoons taco seasoning or a packet of taco seasoning
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 large head of iceberg lettuce or romaine lettuce chopped
- 1/2 green bell pepper chopped
- 1/2 cup chopped black olives
- 1 cup halved grape or cherry tomatoes
- 1 can 15.25 ounce corn drained
- 1 can 15 ounce black beans drained and rinsed
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese or Monterey Jack cheese
- 2 cups crushed nacho cheese Doritos
Instructions
- In a mason jar, combine red wine vinegar, olive oil, ketchup, honey, Worcestershire Sauce, paprika, onion powder, and garlic powder. Shake well to combine. Cover and refrigerate.
- In a large skillet over medium-high heat, brown the ground beef. Drain any excess grease. Stir in the taco seasoning and water. Simmer the mixture for 5-7 minutes. Let the meat mixture cool for 10-15 minutes before adding it to the salad.
- In a large bowl, add iceberg lettuce. Top with green pepper, black olives, tomatoes, corn, black beans, cheddar jack cheese, and seasoned cooked beef.
- Right before serving, add crushed Doritos and desired amount of dressing. Toss to coat.
Notes
- Let the taco meat cool a bit before adding it. You don’t want it to wilt your lettuce!
- For an added flavor, blacken your corn!
- This salad is equally delicious with French dressing or ranch dressing.
- You can substitute cool ranch Doritos for nacho cheese Doritos.
Nutrition
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https://www.smalltownwoman.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Beth-1.pdf
Dannii
Now this is my kind of salad. Adding doritos to anything makes it instantly better, right?!
Amanda Wren-Grimwood
This is a great new salad to try. My family will love these flavours and they love Doritos too!
Anjali
Love the idea of adding doritos to taco salad!! Genius!! Made this recipe for dinner tonight – it was a super easy weeknight meal that everyone loved!
Lubna
This looks like a great salad. My friends will surely love it…will share this recipe with them…
Irina
This salad sounds amazingly delicious, and I just dream of making and serving it outside. We just need a few more warm days… I know that I can make and serve it indoors, but something tells me to serve it for our outside dinner or lunch. I love your recipe!
Crystal
Great recipe for those nights when everyone eats at a different time, or with picky eaters. I did notice though that the description on the recipe card says something about a four ingredient dressing starting with ranch and the recipe itself does not have ranch in it. The Catalina dressing is great, but did you originally have a different dressing? Just curious.
Beth Pierce
Thanks for the heads up. Yes I revamped that recipe to a Catalina Dressing and missed that part on the recipe card. Everyone seems to really love Catalina on that salad. It was a spicy ranch. Let me know if you want the recipe for that dressing.
Alex
I want the ranch please!
Beth Pierce
Here is the ranch dressing that I used to have up for that salad.
1/2 cup ranch dressing (I use Marzetti Simply Ranch)
1/4 cup salsa
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon adobo sauce
Lisalia
This is delicious! I LOVE a good taco salad. Doritos makes it even better.
Rachael Yerkes
this is so good! not your average taco salad. definitely fans of this
Toni
Packed full of amazing flavors! My family loved it!
Katie
This is such a great family recipe! My kids love it!
wilhelmina
This is a total winner! Everyone who tries it raves about it!
Lindsay Cotter
This was such a fun take for a taco salad! It will definitely be on dinner repeat!
Anonymous
This has been one of the most requested taco recipe at my house!
Cathy
I make this for my family all the time…they absolutely love it.
Lauren Kelly
I’ve eaten this the past few days for lunch and it’s delicious! I love the crunch!
Cathy
This is one of my family’s favorites!!