Homemade Baked Tortilla Bowls for Taco Salad
These easy homemade baked tortilla bowls are irresistibly crispy—perfect for taco salad! Making homemade taco salad bowls is as simple as pressing a tortilla into an oven safe bowl and baking it. An equally tasty yet healthier alternative to the typical deep fried bowls! Learn how to make taco bowls in the oven in 20 minutes or less, using whole wheat tortillas or flour tortillas.
How to Make Baked Taco Bowls with Wheat or Flour Tortillas
Seriously, you don’t need a deep fryer to make a crave-ably crunchy taco bowl. Your tortillas will bake to perfection, and they’re so easy to make. Plus, with homemade baked tortilla bowls, you can choose atortilla that works for your lifestyle. Regular flour tortillas, 100% whole wheat or whole grain, or even gluten-free and grain-free options can all work in this recipe.
Best of all, baked tostada bowls are the perfect vessel for a healthy taco salad at home. Once you learn how to make tortilla bowls in the oven, you can fill them with any ingredients you like. Build your own Mexican salad, a DIY burrito bowl, or check out my vegan & vegetarian taco salad recipe! A fun, fuss-free option to spice up your homemade meal routine.
What is a taco salad bowl made of?
Typically, restaurant taco salad bowls are made with large flour tortillas that are deep fried in a special bowl-shaped frying basket. Deep frying gives the taco salad shell a crispy, puffy, bubbly texture—as well as added calories, trans fats, and harmful byproducts. Instead, these baked taco bowls offer a satisfying crunch without the hassle and health concerns of deep frying!
Homemade Tortilla Bowls Ingredients
- Tortillas of choice, burrito size (8-10 inch). Personally, I like to use regular flour tortillas or whole wheat tortillas for my taco salad bowls. But, you can also experiment with your favorite gluten-free or grain-free tortilla shells if they’re large enough and relatively sturdy! However, I don’t recommend using corn tortillas as they tend to tear easily.
- Cooking spray
- Oven safe bowl (or tortilla bowl molds)
What do I bake my taco salad bowl in?
First, you’ll need at least one oven safe bowl that you can prepare your homemade baked tortilla bowls in. Look on the bottom of the bowl or on the packaging to be sure it says ‘oven safe’ somewhere. Also, I recommend choosing a bowl that’s fairly deeper than average—about 1-quart to 1½-quarts in size. This is crucial to shaping your taco salad bowl for best results!
How do you use tortilla bowl molds?
Alternatively, some people make homemade taco bowls in designated tortilla bowl molds. If you have these at home, go ahead and use them! They’re a neat tool you can use to create different taco salad bowl shapes. I personally don’t own any of these molds, so I just fold my tortilla into a deep oven safe glass bowl.
How to Make Tortilla Bowls in the Oven
- First, make sure to choose a tortilla that’s sturdy and large enough to fit your bowl—at least 8-10 inches cross. (This is often labeled as “burrito size.”)
- Next, lightly spray tortilla with cooking spray on both sides.
- Press tortilla into your oven safe bowl, so it reaches the bottom. Then, gently fold creases along the edges to fit the shape of the bowl. Be patient as you get the hang of folding the tortilla—it may tear a bit on the first few attempts!
- Once your taco salad shell is ready in the bowl, place the bowl on a baking sheet.
- Bake in a preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, until browned and crispy to your liking.
- Allow to cool to room temperature before filling with homemade taco salad or a burrito bowl!
What temperature do I bake tortillas for taco bowls?
In my experience, baked tortilla bowls turn out best when baked at 375°F (190°C). I have tried them at 350°F (180°C) and they don’t crisp up enough, and at 400° (200°C) they cooked too fast and burned. Of course, your oven may be slightly different than mine, so don’t be afraid to adjust the temperature for your baked tostada bowls if needed!
How long does it take for tortillas to get crispy?
Baked at 375°F (190°), my homemade tortilla bowls became crispy after 17-18 minutes on average. However, I recommend starting with 15 minutes and checking on them as they cook! The bake time can vary based on the type of tortilla you use, as well as the shape of your bowl. You know your baked taco bowls are ready when the edges are browned and starting to crisp.
For more taco & taco salad recipes:
- Vegan & Vegetarian Taco Salad
- Vegan Jackfruit Tacos
- Air Fryer Fish Tacos
- Low Carb Breakfast Tacos
- BBQ Pulled Pork Tacos
- Spaghetti Tacos
- Vegan Chili Tacos
See how to make these baked tortilla bowls in my Vegan Jackfruit Tacos + Taco Salad video!
Homemade Baked Tortilla Bowls for Taco Salad
Ingredients
- 4 tortillas of choice*, 8-10 inch size
- cooking spray
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C).
- Spray both sides of tortilla with cooking spray. Press tortilla into a 1-quart oven-safe bowl to make taco salad shell shape. Pinch edges of tortilla and create folds, following the rim of your bowl.
- Place bowl on baking sheet. Bake on the middle or lower rack of the oven for 15-20 minutes, until edges are browned. (Bake on a lower rack in the oven so the edges don’t brown too quickly.)
- Allow to cool to room temperature before filling with taco salad. (It will crisp up more as it cools.)
- Serve and enjoy!
- Yields 4 homemade baked tortilla bowls.
34 Comments on “Homemade Baked Tortilla Bowls for Taco Salad”
Made it, loved it – my oven runs hot, so baking at 355 degrees (F) was perfect.
Making this again this evening, but in smaller scale, using regular & mini-cupcake tins, for individual-serving size appetizers. Experimenting.
I measured sizes using paper towels mashed into the cupcake tins, then matched dimensions with my cups/jars/cookie cutters, which I then cut out of large flour tortilla shells.
Lower oven temp 300 – and shorter baking time (won’t know how long until I burn the first batch)
Will keep you posted.
This is so easy and so good. A family favorite.
Excellent and very easy to make! Thank you for sharing!
Yay! Thanks for trying our baked taco salad bowls, Karen 🙂 So glad to hear they were easy to make and turned out well for you. We appreciate your kind comment!
Tinfoil will work
I really want to make this, but I am having a hard time finding an oven safe bowl. Do you have a link or recommendation on where I can source one? I would normally chech BB&B but now that they are defunct not sure I’m not sure where to look.
Hi Craig, great question! In the recipe post, I linked to a set of oven-safe bowls that we used to make our tortilla bowls. We found them online through Amazon, but the brand is Anchor Hocking – which you might be able to find in stores like Bed Bath & Beyond or Walmart. I’ve included the link below if you want to check out the bowls we used 🙂
https://amzn.to/2LBvFUv
Okay. I guess I missed the link. I saw that you said a 1qt or 1.5qt bowl, I but also that the depth is important. I noticed that link is to a set. Is the depth the same for the 1 and 1.5 qt bowls?
Hi Craig, the link to the bowls we used is for a set of bowls, yes. The bowl we used was around 4-inches deep, anywhere from 3.5-5-inches deep should work! It all just depends on what you have or what size you want your taco salad bowls to be.
Aluminum foil wrapped into a ball works
I make a lot of home made recipes. I am so happy to find the tortillo sheets can be used for taco bowls. I have bought a lot of the pre pkg kits for taco and i am so glad touse the tortillo sheets, Have you recipes for tortillo chips to use for chili etc ? I
don”t do much deep fry recipes.
Hi Martha, we’re glad you found this tortilla bowl recipe so you can make your own at home! And yes, we also have a recipe for tortilla chips which I’ll link below.
https://mindovermunch.com/recipes/meals/air-fryer/air-fryer-tortilla-chips/
Our recipe is for air fryer tortilla chips, but you can use the same method to make baked tortilla chips in the oven! Just bake the chips on a wire baking rack at 350F for around 15 minutes. (If you don’t have a wire baking rack, flip them halfway.) I hope this helps 🙂
Can freeze taco bowl shapes that are cooked to save for future time. .?Both corn whole wheat, and white or whole wheat? How To Thaw… on counter or short time oven.?
Hi Pat, good question. We’ve never tried freezing our baked taco salad bowls, so I can’t speak to whether that would work. I worry the cooked taco bowls might break apart or turn out soggy after freezing & thawing. I would say this is a recipe that’s best served fresh, or you could prep them 2-3 days ahead of time and keep them stored in a sealed bag at room temperature. I hope this helps! 🙂
Can I make these without the cooking spray?
Hi Lulu – to make these baked taco salad bowls, the cooking spray is necessary to get them to crisp up properly, and so they’ll hold their shape once they’ve baked. We haven’t found much success making them without cooking spray unfortunately!
So easy to make these tortilla bowls. Worked perfectly on first try. Will be making more taco salads in the future! Thank you.
Yay! So glad to hear these baked tortilla bowls were easy & turned out well for you, Bobbi! We appreciate you trying out the recipe 🙂
These were great! I used an air fryer and they still nice and crispy! I did have to use a smaller bowl on the inside so my tortilla wouldn’t fold over. How long would these bowls last if I had leftovers and any idea how I could store them so they don’t get soft? I’d like to try and meal prep with them.
Hi Adriana, we’re so excited to hear these homemade tortilla bowls worked in your air fryer!! Thank you for trying it out and sharing your process with us – I’m sure your instructions will be helpful to others who want to try making air fryer taco bowls 🙂 Great idea to place a smaller bowl inside to keep the tortilla in place.
Generally, we prefer to bake our tortilla bowls on the same day we plan to eat them. But you can absolutely try prepping them ahead of time and storing them! Similar to tortilla chips, you’d want to store your baked taco bowls in an airtight container at room temperature. I’d recommend letting them cool completely, then store in zip-top plastic bags (possibly with a paper towel inside, to help soak up excess moisture and/or oil). As with any tortilla chip, it’s likely these will start to get softer after a few days, but they might stay crispy for 2-3 days! We’d love to hear how it works out if you try meal prepping them 🙂
Tried them tonight turned out perfect! I also do have the mold for it, so happy I finally found your awesome recipe! Ty!
Hi Penny, that’s wonderful you were able to use your taco salad bowl mold for this homemade tortilla bowls recipe! We’re glad to hear that they turned out well for you 🙂 thank you for trying the recipe!
Perfect the first time! One of my kids made them after I taught her.
Hi Andy, thank you for trying out our homemade baked tortilla bowls and sharing the recipe with your family! We’re thrilled to hear that they turned out well for you and that the recipe is easy to prepare 🙂
Thank you for this recipe, making it tonight! You rock, will forward to our Facebook recipe club! Please join if you’re able 🙂
Hi Michael, we’re so glad that you enjoyed these homemade baked tortilla bowls! Thank you so much for sharing the recipe with your recipe club, and for inviting us 🙂
Wow I did NOT know that you could do this but I’m so glad I found this recipe!! It’s so freaking easy and the tortilla bowl seriously turns out soooo good. I will be making DIY taco salads for life now. Thank you!
Hi Alena, we’re so glad to know you’re loving these homemade baked tortilla bowls as much as we do! So nice when they’re crunchy and warm, and so much more satisfying than ordering a take-out taco salad and receiving a soggy taco bowl… Thanks so much for trying the recipe!
Thank you for having the recipe for the baked Tortilla bowls I definitely will make these, if serving pizza & wings are these bowls too large for a regular side salad if so do you have a recipe or suggestions to make smaller bowls thank you.
Hi Libby, so glad to hear these baked tortilla bowls appeal to you 🙂 Really, you could make baked tortilla bowls using any size of tortillas or taco shells that you want – large or small! Whatever size you choose, you’d just need an appropriate-sized oven-safe bowl that you can bake the tortilla in, and you may want to adjust the bake time & temperature.
This recipe for baked taco bowls is designed for full-sized taco salads. You can absolutely serve a side salad in one of these bowls, it just depends on your serving size preference.
If you wanted to make a smaller baked tortilla bowl, you could try repeating this recipe using 6-inch fajita size tortillas. You’d need a smaller oven-safe bowl, and you’d likely want to bake it at 350F for 8-10 minutes to start. You’d have to do a bit of experimenting, some guessing and checking, to see what works best. I hope this helps 🙂 We’d love to hear how it turns out if you do give it a try!
Thank you for doing what you do you
So glad that you enjoy the channel & the site, thank you 🙂
Thank you. This recipe was great. Everyone was pleased with how the tortillas came out. Baked them the night before. Still stayed crispy the next day.
Yay! So good to hear everyone enjoyed the tortillas and that they stayed crispy through to the next day. We appreciate you letting us & others here know how they turned out 🙂