Keto Taco Casserole

Busy nights call for easy casserole meals that everyone can dig into and leave the table full and satisfied. In just 30 minutes you can have a filling, low carb and veggie-packed dinner on the table ready to go for your whole family.

If you’ve been missing tortilla chips on your keto diet, you’ve got to try my low carb tortilla chips – crispy, crunchy, and so satisfying. Especially when they’re crumbled on top of seasoned ground beef, veggies, and cheese! If you have leftovers, this keto taco casserole recipe makes an delicious filling for my keto taco shells, too!

While I like to transfer the filling from the skillet to a casserole dish to drain out excess liquid, you can absolutely bake everything in an oven-safe skillet to avoid extra dishes and make clean-up even easier with making a one pot wonder like this skillet casserole.

Don’t forget to take an extra minute to make the sour cream sauce. Plain sour cream works, but you’ll be blown away by the extra burst of flavor that lime and salt add to this taco bake meal!

1. Cook ground beef in a skillet until browned.
2. Add onion, garlic and taco seasoning. Cook until onion has softened.
3. Stir in Rotel, diced zucchini, sliced olives and cauliflower rice. Cover and let simmer to soften veggies.
4. Drain liquid from the taco meat in the skillet or use a slotted spoon to transfer ground beef mixture to a casserole dish.
5. Top with shredded cheese and bake until cheese has melted.
6. Top casserole with crushed chips, sour cream sauce, cilantro and green onions.

Key ingredients & substitutions

• Ground beef – Use 80/20 ground beef for this recipe. You can also use ground turkey, ground chicken, or venison.
• Onion – White or yellow onion can be used; however, yellow onion has the lowest net carbs.
• Oil – I use avocado oil for this recipe, but another neutral oil like light olive oil or ghee will also work.
• Rotel – Use a can of rotel or a can of diced tomatoes along with a small can of diced green chilis. You can also use a can of diced tomatoes or tomato paste and diced fresh green chilis if that’s what you have– just add the fresh ones at the same time as the zucchini and cauliflower rice so that it can soften.
• Zucchini – Use a medium zucchini, diced. Don’t peel the zucchini as the peel will soften when cooked and adds extra fiber and nutrients to the dish.
• Black olives – Can omit if preferred.
• Riced cauliflower – Either rice a head of fresh cauliflower by pulsing florets in a food processor or use a bag of frozen riced cauliflower or fresh cauliflower rice found in the produce section.
• Cheese – Use shredded Colby jack cheese. Monterey jack, cheddar cheese, or a Mexican cheese blend will also work. You could also mix in cream cheese into the taco meat for a creamier option.
• Tortilla chips – Make your own low carb tortilla chips or use store-bought ones like Quest Chips or Mr. Tortilla Chips.
• Green onions – After dicing the green onions, use both the white and green parts.
• Sour cream – If you want to save on fat and calories, use plain greek yogurt.
• Seasoning – including chili powder, oregano, salt and garlic; however, taco seasoning is a quick an easy substitute that will add flavor.