Learn how to make the best camping tacos for a simple and easy campfire dinner. You can make walking tacos right in a bag with taco meat and all your favorite toppings. The whole family, all ages, will absolutely love it!
Let me count the ways I love tacos. This walking tacos camping recipe is even better because they're so easy to make after a long day in the great outdoors.
If you've never had a walking taco, or some might call it taco in a bag, you are in for a treat. This recipe rates up there with our favorite loaded campfire nachos! It's a great addition to my list of favorite easy camping recipes, as well.
What Is a Walking Taco vs. a Regular Taco?
It's called by so many names… Walking tacos, walking nachos, taco in a bag or tacos in a bag, and walking taco salad to name a few.
Basically, instead of a taco shell, you add the meat, sour cream, and taco toppings to a small bag of chips. Then stir it all up and you have the makings of a really delicious taco.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
- The only thing you really have to cook for this recipe is the taco meat. Easy peasy in a cast iron skillet over the campfire or in a regular skillet on your camp stove.
- All you need are personal sized bags of Doritos or corn chips, taco meat, and your favorite taco toppings.
- Camping walking tacos are a great meal for any age; the whole family will love them.
- They're budget-friendly and don't cost a lot to make.
- If you don't have chips, you can easily make this recipe into a taco salad without the chips.
- This walking tacos recipe is versatile, and you can add any toppings you like.
- Tacos made in a bag are a lot less messy than traditional tacos. You can eat them with a fork.
Ingredients and Substitutions Notes:
There are 3-4 ingredients you absolutely need to make the meat mixture, but the toppings are totally up to you and whatever you like on tacos.
Taco Meat:
- Yellow Onion – I like to mince up a little onion and add to our taco meat to give it more delicious flavor.
- Ground Beef – We tend to go with a lean ground beef, usually 80/20 or 90/10.
- Taco Seasoning – Our favorite taco seasoning is Badia taco seasoning.
- Salsa – Now, here's where you can decide if you want a little more kick to your taco meat. You can use mild or medium salsa; or you can use basil salsa.
- Chips – I recommend using Fritos or Doritos, any flavor you want. I really love Nacho Cheese Doritos for camp tacos.
Toppings:
The list could really go on and on.
How to Make Camping Tacos
Before you can make anything, you’ll need to do a little prep work first.
Making sure you have a campfire going is imperative for cooking the meat. You can also cook on a camp stove or grill. I know a lot of the time when we’re out camping, we can’t have a campfire. So if a stove is all you’ve got, you can definitely still make this recipe.
Next you’ll need to prep all your veggies and toppings and actually cook the meat. You can cook the taco meat at the campsite, or you can cook it before you leave home and pack it in a plastic baggie in the cooler.
How to Make Taco Meat
Your fire should be down to coals at this point, with a little bit of flame here and there. We prefer to use our tripod grill right above the coals. You’ll want to watch it closely, though. You may need to adjust the height of the grill over the fire, so the pan doesn’t get so hot that it burns the meat.
- In a large cast iron skillet, sauté the chopped onion.
- Then add the ground beef and mix it up with the onion, stirring occasionally while cooking.
- Meanwhile, while waiting on the meat to cook, chop up the lettuce, tomatoes, and avocados. I recommend shredding cheese at home or buying already shredded cheese.
- When the meat is cooked through, go ahead and responsibly drain it. Then add the taco seasoning and salsa and stir into the meat. Allow the mixture to simmer for another 5-10 minutes.
How to Assemble Walking Tacos
Layering your Doritos walking taco is the BEST part about this whole recipe, besides eating it.
You'll need individual size chip bags. You can crush chips in the bag or just leave them as is and they'll kinda crush up on their own when you stir everything in.
- Open the bag, crushing chips up a little bit if you want.
- Then add in a nice sized helping of the ground beef mixture.
- Add in a dollop of sour cream and your favorite toppings. We usually add lettuce, tomatoes, and avocados.
- Then sprinkle in the shredded cheese.
- Give it all a good stir with a fork, mixing it all up really well.
And then it's ready to eat. Wasn't that easy? And so, so, so, so good! Just writing up this recipe makes me hungry for more.
You wanna know the best part about this easy dinner idea? No dishes! Besides the skillet and cutting board. Win win!
Expert Tips and Recipe FAQ's
Obviously, unopened bags of chips can just stay like they are. As for the meat mixture and toppings, we usually just combine things like meat, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, etc., and store it in either an airtight container or a plastic storage bag, then put it in the cooler where it will stay cold. It makes a great snack or lunch the next day, though more like a taco salad.
MORE TACO RECIPES AND TEX-MEX FAVORITES:
- Beef Tacos
- Shredded Chicken Tacos
- Easy Fish Tacos
- Grilled Taco Tuna Melt
- Camping Breakfast Burritos
- Taco Stuffed Peppers
- Taco Tater Tot Casserole
If you need to stock your camp kitchen, we've put together a list of camping cooking equipment you may find helpful.
If you try this recipe, why not leave a star rating in the recipe card right below and/or a review in the comment section further down the page? I always appreciate your feedback. You can also follow me on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. And subscribe to my email list too!
Walking Camping Tacos
Ingredients
Toppings:
- 1 cup lettuce chopped or shredded
- 1 cup tomatoes diced
- 1 cup black beans drained
- 1 cup cheddar cheese shredded
- 1 cup Monterey Jack cheese shredded
- 3/4 cup sour cream
- 1 cup salsa or Pico de Gallo
- 2 avocados peeled and chopped
- 1/2 cup jalapeños sliced
- 1/2 cup black olives sliced
- 1/2 cup green onions chopped
Instructions
- Choose whether you'll cook on a camp stove, grill, or over the campfire. We like to cook over the fire when possible.
- Your fire should be down to coals at this point, with a little bit of flame here and there. We prefer to use our tripod grill right above the coals. You may need to adjust the height of the grill over the fire, so the pan doesn’t get so hot that it burns the meat.
- In a large cast iron skillet, sauté the chopped onion in a little bit of olive oil.
- Then add the ground beef and mix it up with the onion, stirring the mixture occasionally while cooking.
- Meanwhile, while waiting on the meat to cook, chop up the lettuce, tomatoes, avocados, and other toppings that need chopping.
- When the meat is cooked through, go ahead and responsibly drain it.
- Add the taco seasoning and salsa into the meat, and allow the mixture to simmer for another 5-10 minutes.
- Then remove the taco meat from the skillet and allow to rest for 5-10 minutes while you finish putting together all the toppings.
How to Assemble Walking Tacos:
- Open the bags of chips, crushing chips up a little bit if you want.
- Add in a nice sized helping of the ground beef mixture.
- Then add in a dollop of sour cream and all your favorite toppings, including shredded cheese. We add lettuce, tomatoes, and avocados.
- Give it all a good stir with a fork, mixing it all up really well. And then it's ready to eat!
