Mexican Tortilla Casserole
This Mexican Tortilla Casserole is delicious layers of tender tortillas, seasoned ground turkey, a flavorful sauce and plenty of melted cheese. It’s an easy, family friendly dinner that’s ready in about 40 minutes!
When it comes to family friendly dinners, it doesn’t get much better than skillet lasagna with a meaty filling layered between noodles and topped with gooey cheese!
This Mexican Tortilla Casserole is a lasagna-inspired recipe with a south of the border spin. It has delicious layers of flavorful ground turkey filling and tender tortillas, and it’s baked to gooey, cheesy perfection.
It comes together so quickly and disappears just as fast, and I love that it’s completely customizable with your favorite tortillas, ground meat, etc.
This is a dinner that will have everyone running to the table. 🙂
Table of contents
Why you’ll love this recipe
- This Mexican lasagna is layers of tender tortillas and a hearty ground turkey filling that’s baked to cheesy perfection.
- It’s a hearty, family friendly dinner that’s on the table in about 40 minutes.
- It’s customizable with your favorite ground meat and pantry staples, and can be made gluten-free using corn tortillas.
- Most of the prep can be done ahead of time to make the recipe go even faster.
Recipe ingredients
This tortilla casserole recipe includes quite a few ingredients, but the good news is that they’re completely customizable with your favorite ingredients and pantry staples.
Ingredient notes
- Ground turkey. The ground turkey can be substituted with your favorite ground meat such as beef, chicken, pork or even plant based.
- Tortillas. Both flour and corn tortillas work well in this recipe. If using regular or whole wheat tortillas, I recommend using soft taco size and cut them in half and overlap them slightly. Corn tortillas generally run smaller, so keep them whole and overlap them slightly as well.
- Aromatics. Onion and garlic are essential to adding flavor to the ground turkey filling.
- Diced tomatoes. The tomatoes add moisture to the filling. I love using fire roasted diced tomatoes for added flavor, but use your favorite. You can also use a can of tomato sauce or red enchilada sauce if that’s what you have on hand.
- Beans. Use canned or Instant Pot black beans, or sub with your favorite variety.
- Corn. The corn adds texture and color. You can use fresh, frozen or canned, or omit it entirely if you don’t have any on hand.
- Taco seasoning. Use my homemade taco seasoning or your favorite store bought brand.
- Tomato paste. The tomato paste adds rich tomato flavor and also helps thicken the filling.
- Cheese. Use your favorite grated cheese such as cheddar, jack or Mexican.
- Lime. Fresh lime juice makes all of the flavors pop.
- Cilantro. Fresh cilantro adds color and flavor to the filling. It also adds freshness as a garnish.
How to make Mexican lasagna
This Mexican tortilla casserole, or otherwise known as Mexican lasagna, is layered with a hearty ground turkey filling, flour or corn tortillas, and plenty of cheese.
It comes together quickly and bakes up in about 20 minutes.
Pro tip: Prep your ingredients ahead of time, and even prepare the entire filling up to 1-2 days in advance to make this recipe go even faster.
See the recipe card below for full instructions.
- Cook the onion in a large pan for 4-5 minutes or until softened. Add the ground turkey and break up with a wooden spoon. Cook 5 minutes or until almost cooked through, then add the garlic and taco seasoning, and cook 30 seconds more.
- Add the tomatoes and scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Stir in the tomato paste, corn and beans and cook for 5 minutes longer. Remove from heat and add salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste, and stir in the lime juice and half of the chopped cilantro.
- Spread 1/3 of the ground turkey filling in the bottom of a baking dish.
- Layer the filling with half of the tortillas, overlapping them slightly.
- Top the tortillas with another 1/3 of the ground turkey mixture.
- Sprinkle 3/4 cup of cheese over the ground turkey mixture.
- Repeat with another layer of the tortillas, the remaining 1/3 of the turkey mixture, followed by the remaining cheese.
- Bake the tortilla casserole for 20 minutes, or until bubbly and heated through.
FAQs
You can prepare the filling for this Mexican lasagna up to 2 days in advance, but I don’t recommend assembling it in advance as the tortillas can become soggy. Simply assemble the casserole right before baking.
Flour (regular or whole wheat) and corn tortillas all work well for this tortilla casserole recipe. If you are gluten-intolerant, be sure to use corn tortillas or your favorite gluten-free tortillas.
Soft taco sized tortillas work great, simply cut them in half and overlap them slightly. If using smaller 6″ corn tortillas, there’s no need to cut them in half. Simply overlap them slightly.
Yes! Simply swap out the ground turkey with your favorite plant based ground “meat” or omit it and add more beans or veggies.
Serving suggestions
This tortilla casserole recipe is hearty enough on it’s own, or you can create a fiesta with by adding even more toppings or sides!
- Top with homemade guacamole, pico de gallo or sour cream to take it over the top.
- Serve with Mexican sweet corn cake or Mexican rice for an even heartier meal.
- Balance things out with a fresh side of Mexican caesar salad or spring mix salad.
Recipe notes
- Pro tip: Prep your ingredients ahead of time, and even prepare the entire filling up to 1-2 days in advance to make this recipe go even faster.
- Both flour and corn tortillas work well in this recipe. If using regular or whole wheat tortillas, I recommend using soft taco size and cut them in half and overlap them slightly. Corn tortillas generally run smaller, so keep them whole and overlap them slightly as well.
- This tortilla casserole recipe is customizable! Sub the ground turkey with your favorite ground meat such as chicken, pork or beef. Omit the ground turkey and add an extra can of beans for a heart vegetarian dinner.
- Store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.
More Mexican recipes you’ll love
- Chicken enchiladas
- Chicken posole by What’s Gaby Cooking
- Grilled fish tacos
- Ground turkey tacos
- Mexican quinoa
- Mexican rice casserole
- Sweet potato enchiladas
Did you try this recipe? If so, be sure to leave a review below and tag me @flavorthemoments on Facebook and Instagram
Mexican Tortilla Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion chopped
- 1 lb. lean ground turkey
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1.5 tablespoons taco seasoning
- 15 ounces fire roasted diced tomatoes
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 cup corn fresh, frozen or canned
- 15 ounces black beans rinsed and drained
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1 lime juiced, plus more lime for serving
- 1/4 cup freshly chopped cilantro
- 6 flour tortillas soft taco sized, halved; regular or whole wheat; or use corn tortillas for gluten-free
- 1 1/2 cups grated cheese
- Cilantro leaves, sour cream and sliced jalapeños for serving (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook 5 minutes or until softened. Add the ground turkey and break up with a wooden spoon. Cook 5 minutes or until almost cooked through. Add the garlic and taco seasoning and cook 30 seconds more.1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, 1 medium yellow onion, 1 lb. lean ground turkey, 3 cloves garlic, 1.5 tablespoons taco seasoning
- Add the tomatoes and scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Stir in the tomato paste, corn and beans and cook for 5 minutes longer. Remove from heat and add salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste, then stir in the lime juice and chopped cilantro.15 ounces fire roasted diced tomatoes, 3 tablespoons tomato paste, 1 cup corn, 15 ounces black beans, Salt and freshly ground black pepper, 1 lime, 1/4 cup freshly chopped cilantro
- Grease a 9×13" baking dish with cooking spray. Spread 1/3 of the turkey mixture over the bottom of the baking dish. Layer with half of the tortillas, then top with another 1/3 of the turkey mixture followed by 3/4 cup of the grated cheese. Repeat with the remaining tortillas, ground turkey mixture and cheese. Bake for 20 minutes or until bubbly and heated through.6 flour tortillas, 1 1/2 cups grated cheese
- Remove from heat and let stand 10 minutes before serving. Serve with additional cilantro, sour cream and sliced jalapeños if desired. Enjoy!Cilantro leaves, sour cream and sliced jalapeños
Notes
- Pro tip: Prep your ingredients ahead of time, and even prepare the entire filling up to 1-2 days in advance to make this recipe go even faster.
- Both flour and corn tortillas work well in this recipe. If using regular or whole wheat tortillas, I recommend using soft taco size and cut them in half and overlap them slightly. Corn tortillas generally run smaller, so keep them whole and overlap them slightly as well.
- This tortilla casserole recipe is customizable! Sub the ground turkey with your favorite ground meat such as chicken, pork or beef. Omit the ground turkey and add an extra can of beans for a heart vegetarian dinner.
- Store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.
Nutrition
Nutrition is estimated using a food database and is only intended to be used as a guideline for informational purposes.
**This post was originally published in February 2017. The photos have been updated and the text has been modified to include more recipe information.
37 Comments on “Mexican Tortilla Casserole”
We made this recipe a few days ago. It was wonderful. We ate it for dinner that night, then had an unexpectedly long workday the next day. So we had it again, the next day. It was just as good, if not better, the next day. It was sooooo good. We only did two things differently from the recipe. We fried the tortillas beforehand. I feel this helped them not get soggy. And we omitted the sliced jalapenos as they are a little spicy for us. That was a mistake because there was not any heat in the recipe. I might recommend a bit of crushed red pepper in there if you don’t like raw jalapeno. Overall, I loved this recipe both for its flavor and for the leftovers. Thanks, Marcie!!!!
I appreciate your feedback and your review Kevin — thanks so much and I’m glad you enjoyed this recipe!
Making this tomorrow!
Enjoy it!
Can I use corn tortilla instead?
Yes — corn tortillas work!
Can you leave out the cilantro?
Absolutely! That won’t affect the recipe at all.