This easy, cheesy taco-stuffed shells recipe turns taco night into a fiesta!
Jumbo shells are stuffed with seasoned ground beef and veggies in a creamy sauce with melted cheese.
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Holly’s Recipe Highlights
- Flavor: Cheesy, savory, and zesty with a hint of spice.
- Budget Tip: Add black beans or extra vegetables to stretch the meat mixture further.
- Prep Tip: Cook a couple of extra shells as they sometimes break when filling.
- Time-Saving Tip: Use store-bought taco seasoning and pre-shredded cheese for quick prep.
- Freezing: Stuffed taco shells can be assembled and frozen. Just thaw, add cheese, and bake.
Ingredient Tips For Taco Stuffed Shells
- Pasta: Jumbo pasta shells (AKA conchiglie) are in the pasta section at the supermarket or available here on Amazon.
- Meat: I use lean ground beef. You can replace it with ground turkey or chicken.
- Seasoning: A packet of taco seasoning makes prep quick—you can also use homemade taco seasoning.
- Vegetables: You can replace the diced tomatoes with Rotel to add a little heat. I love bell peppers and corn in this recipe—sneaking in extra veggies is a great way to stretch the meal.
- Cheese: Cream cheese makes the filling rich and creamy, while cheddar or a Mexican cheese blend is added on top.
Serving & Leftovers
Dress these taco stuffed shells with your favorite taco toppings for serving.
- Sliced olives, jalapenos, fresh cilantro, or sliced green onions.
- Set out bowls of sour cream, salsa, chopped cilantro, or tortilla chips so people can do their own topping.
- Store leftover taco stuffed shells in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Reheat them in the microwave, the air fryer, or the oven with a sprinkle of fresh cheese. Leftover taco meat filling can be used in taco lasagna or in taco soup.
- Freeze cooled leftovers for up to 4 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and reheat.
Did your family love these Taco Stuffed Shells? Leave us a rating and a comment below.
Ingredients
Filling
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 small onion diced
- 14.5 ounces canned petite diced tomatoes with juices, low sodium, 1 can
- 1 medium bell pepper diced, red, yellow, or green
- ½ cup corn kernels thawed if frozen
- ½ cup water
- 1 ounce taco seasoning 1 packet
- 8 ounces cream cheese cubed
Other
- 24 jumbo shells uncooked
- 1½ cups salsa
- 1½ cups shredded cheddar cheese and/or Monterey jack cheese
- sour cream for serving
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Cook pasta shells al dente according to package directions. Drain and rinse under cold water. Set aside.
- In a large skillet, brown the ground beef and onion over medium-high heat until no pink remains. Drain any fat.
- Add tomatoes with juices, diced peppers, corn, ½ cup of water, and taco seasoning mix. Cook uncovered for 5 minutes or until the mixture is thickened and most of the liquid has evaporated. Add the cream cheese and stir until melted.
- Fill each pasta shell with 2 to 3 tablespoons of the ground beef mixture. Place into a 9×13-inch casserole dish.
- Top with salsa. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle cheese on top. Bake an additional 10 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.
Notes
To Make Ahead: Prepare up to step 5. Refrigerate or freeze overnight.
To Cook Frozen Shells: Defrost in the refrigerator overnight and proceed with baking as directed.
Leftovers: Store in the refrigerator for up to three days, or in the freezer for up to one month.
Nutrition Information
Calories: 621 | Carbohydrates: 42g | Protein: 28g | Fat: 39g | Saturated Fat: 19g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 12g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 120mg | Sodium: 1292mg | Potassium: 741mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 10g | Vitamin A: 2410IU | Vitamin C: 43mg | Calcium: 303mg | Iron: 3mg
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Beef, Casserole, Dinner, Pasta
Cuisine American© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
More Tasty Taco Takes
This dish looks amazing! Im making it tonight for the first time!!! I can’t wait to see how this comes out! So excited lol :)
Fantastic recipe, thanks! I made this today, and it was both tasty and inexpensive. Made 1 tp eat and froze two for later. The only changes I made was to use veggie crumbles in place of beef, and mixed in some crockpot refried beans. It’s a real winner!
So glad you enjoyed it!
I made this with ground beef taco seasoning, onions, green pepper, cans of cheddar cheese and cans of cheedar cheese fiesta blend for the soup isle, omg good, topped with the fresh tomatoes and black olives, I saved some of the mixture back to put on tortilla chips and the family loved it,
So glad your family loved this Michelle!
OMG! Thanks for the wonderful recipe! These were AHH-Mazing! Will definitely serve these again!
Just made these and they are GREAT!!!!
Yay! Enjoy,Tommy!
I would suggest less water. It took awhile too cook out
Made these!! My family loved them! I wasn’t sure about the cream cheese though,what does it do?
Glad your family loved it! The cream gives a bit of creamy texture and flavour, but sounds like it worked great for you without it!
To me it made them so creamy and good.
I love the flavors in this recipe (ive made it twice) but im having some issues with the consistency. I am not a fan of tomatoes wheb they are chunky so i used tomato sauce instead and because of that, the mixture is coming out soupy. Any ideas on how i can still use tomato sauce but get the right consistency? Should i leave out the water or use lesss tomato sauce? ( ive been using 15oz) thank you!
You might like to either leave the water out, cook the tomato sauce down until it thickens with the beef or just replace it with a bit of tomato paste for the flavor.
Hi all! I made this recipe in my large electric skillet. Dinner was running late, so I skipped the oven part and just cooked it all up in the electric skillet. When it was done cooking, I smoothed it all out and covered it in cheese and put the lid on for 10 minutes until the cheese was melted. I serve it with salsa, hot sauce and guacamole on the side
Great idea, thanks for sharing!
Must try
sounds great, will try in near future
I will be making this soon….there is one thing I will change and that is the cream cheese….not fond of it melted into some things….I will use pepper jack cheese and melt it in…..to kick it up a notch ….can’t wait to try this….
That would be great too!!
I made it with more pizza seasonings. Really liked it.
tried these this weekend- complete success! we loved them…definitely will become a go to meal
So glad you enjoyed them! :)
Your recipe is awesome and thank you so much for sharing it with Full Plate Thursday. Have a great week and come back soon!
Miz Helen
My favorite kind of dinner! Thanks for linking up with What’s Cookin’ Wednesday!
YUM!
I saw your thumbnail on the All Things Thursday link party and had to check it out. I love finding new recipes for freezer meals, and I pinned this to make soon.
Happy Thursday,
Ang, Juggling Act Mama
This sounds so good :) I’d like to invite you to link up at my party
This is such a good idea! I would love for you to share this at the what i am eating link up
Love these tacos!!!