My taco fiesta bubble-up casserole dish is one of my most popular recipes, it is packed with so much deliciousness, a meal the whole family can enjoy.
Looking for a tasty casserole dish, try my popular taco fiesta bubble-up casserole. I’m so excited fall is on the way and I can spend some time playing around in the kitchen and creating new casseroles. This layered taco bubble-up is simply put…delicious!! 🙂 A bubble-up dish is a term given to the biscuit dough that bakes up and “bubbles” into the dish so to speak.
This recipe makes 6 generous servings at 254 calories per serving, 8 points if you are following WW. This is sure to be a family favorite, it is at my house. Leftovers are equally delicious if not better haha.
Weight Watchers Friendly Ingredients:
- Extra-lean ground beef 12 points
- Pillsbury biscuits or equivalent 18 points
- Taco seasoning 2 points
- Salsa 0 points
- Peppers 0 points
- Onion 0 points
- Shredded cheese 14 points
- Green onion 0 points
- Sour cream *optional
How to make Taco Fiesta Bubble Up Casserole (step by step):
- Cook the ground beef in a pan on the stove, add the taco seasoning, and simmer for a few minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350F, spray a 9×13 casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
- Mix the ground beef and salsa together in a bowl.
- Cut up the peppers and onion, and then cut the biscuits into 6 pieces each.
- Place half of the biscuit pieces in the bottom of the casserole dish, top with half of the meat mixture, half of the peppers and onions, and half of the cheese. Repeat layers and finish with the chopped green onion on top.
- Loosely cover with foil and bake in the oven for 35 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking for 15 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes then cut into 6 servings. Top with a spoon of fat free sour cream (optional)
What kind of biscuits do you use for this casserole?
I first created this recipe when I would cross the border into the U.S. for groceries and buy the great value biscuits at Walmart. They used to sell a 4-pack bundle of small biscuit tubes, 10 biscuits, 7.5oz per package. These have since become hard to find. I think Aldi might sell their own brand as I have seen others post them. If you are in Canada like me you can buy the Pillsbury country tea biscuits. These are larger biscuits though so what I do is weigh out 7.5oz, I think it is 6-7 biscuits. Then you need to ensure you have enough small pieces to spread through the dish. I cut each biscuit open so I have two halves, then each half into 6 pieces. This should give you enough pieces of dough for the recipe.
Some people mention that some of the biscuits don’t bake all the way through. I never struggle with this so I wonder if it comes down to different oven temperatures. If this happens then you can prebake the dough pieces for 5 minutes.
I love using a 3 cheese blend in this recipe, however, any cheese will work and be just as delicious. Be sure to spread the cheese evenly so you can enjoy it in every bite.
Can I use something other than ground beef in this dish?
If you are looking to lighten up the recipe a little you can swap out the ground beef for ground chicken or turkey. This will lower the overall calories and if you follow WW then it will lower the points per serving. I have a lot of followers telling me they use ground turkey in this dish and love it.
Another ingredient people have shared with me that they added was beans, you can bulk up the dish by adding some black beans.
I have had others share that they made the dish without the biscuits, to keep the carbs low and it can be a keto-friendly recipe. You could also replace the biscuits with rice, granted it won’t be a low-carb meal but I am sure it will be delicious.
Taco fiesta bubble up casserole
Ingredients
- 1 lb cooked extra lean ground beef
- 1 7.5 oz package pillsbury biscuits, (10 biscuits to the pack, the ones In the 4 value pack, if you can't find that size you can buy the bigger size and weigh it out)
- 1 package Taco seasoning, 30g
- 1 1/3 cup salsa
- 2 cup diced peppers, I used red, orange and yellow
- 1 cup diced onion, I used red onion
- 1 cup reduced fat shredded cheese, I use a 3 cheese blend
- Green onion
- Fat free sour cream for topping, optional
Instructions
- Cook the ground beef in a pan on the stove, add the taco seasoning and simmer for a few minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350F, spray a 9x13 casserole dish and set aside.
- Mix the ground beef and salsa together in a bowl.
- Cut up the peppers & onion, and then cut the biscuits into 6 pieces each.
- Place half of the biscuit pieces in the bottom of the casserole dish, top with half of the meat mixture, half of the peppers and onions and half of the cheese. Repeat layers and finish with the chopped green onion on top.
- Loosely cover with foil and bake in oven for 35 minutes, remove foil and continue baking for 15 minutes.Let cool for 5 minutes then cut into 6 servings. 8 personal points per serving, 7sp or 6 points plus. Top with a spoon of fat free sour cream (optional)
Notes
Storing and re-heating…
I cut it into 6 equal-sized servings. Optional to top it will a little dollop of sour cream. I like adding a little franks hot sauce as I am all for the spice.
Leftovers can be stored in an air-tight container in the fridge for 1-2 days, you can also freeze this dish either before or after baking. If you like to prep meals to add to the freezer and then bake when ready this dish will work for that.
Please feel free to share your reviews in the comments below, I love to hear from everyone. I hope you and your family enjoy this dish as much as we do.
Looking for some similar recipes? Try my Easy taco pie, or my Sloppy joe bubble up
Okay, this looked gorgeous, but my biscuits in the middle turned to goo (looked like melted cheese), and were still raw! Can’t figure what i did wrong, followed recipe exactly. Only the biscuits on the bottom were cooked through. We really wanted to like this! Any suggestions?
Oh no I am sorry to hear that.. I think maybe some ovens vary.. I have had one or two others say that but most have no problems at all.. You could pre bake just the biscuits pieces for 5 minutes to help.. then maybe leave it on another 5 min longer once its all together..
Do you know how many sp this would be if I changed the meat from ground beef to ground turkey?
I never cook with ground turkey, and on my WW App I get the same points roughly for 1lb cooked extra lean ground beef as I do for 1lb cooked lean ground turkey, so i am not sure if there would be a huge difference, I think maybe in the U.S you have the 99% lean turkey? In which case it may knock off some points ..
Yes, I had the same problem. Delicious but all the biscuits were raw. I did put it together the morning of and refrigerated several hours before baking. Maybe that was the problem!
Hi Barbara, sorry I am not too sure why some have this issue, I never do and I have tons of followers that never do, maybe because ovens vary?? Maybe leave in longer or bake at a higher temp?
I just joined WW a month ago. I came across your site and decided to try this recipe. It was delicious and hard to believe it’s only 7 sp. My two boys, ages 13 and 7, gobbled it up. I added diced tomatoes to mine and put no fat sour cream and guacamole on top for an additional 2 sp. I will definitely have this again and I’m looking forward to trying more of your recipes! I love how you add pictures so we can see how it should look every step of the recipe. Thank you for such a great site!
Hi Cheryl. welcome to WW I hope your enjoying the program 🙂 That is so awesome you all enjoyed it, I know how picky kids can be (I have a 13yr old daughter myself) I hope you continue to enjoy more recipes 🙂 have a great weekend!
Made this for the first time tonight and it was AMAZING!! I just have a question – we found it spicy (which we like, but the kids wouldn’t eat it) – I think from the taco seasoning. Any recommendations for other seasoning to use that wouldn’t be spicy? Thanks!
Hi Karen, glad you enjoyed it.. Hmm that’s tricky cause taco seasoning itself is not really spicy, I would just suggest maybe using a little less so they don’t pick up on it as much.. Hope that helps 🙂
Thanks! I think I also used a salsa that was a bit spicy. Had it again tonight and was perfect. Next one to try is the buffalo chicken bubble up!
I’ve made this a few times and absolutely love it! This time I used Paul Newman’s pineapple salsa, 1 cup of Trader Joe’s frozen pineapple and a 4oz. jar of mild green chili’s. I can’t even describe how wonderful my kitchen smells right now! Thank you so much for all of your great recipes
Hi Pam, wow that does sounds wonderful!! And you are very welcome… Enjoy the bubble up!
Wow! I loved it so much, I may be making this once a week. I’ll try mango salsa and Trader Joes frozen mango next time. I didn’t even thaw the pineapple first…so easy!
So glad you enjoyed it Pam 🙂 Thanks for sharing..
I’m planning on trying this recipe this week, I can’t wait. Have you ever prepped and assembled it the night before, and baked it the following day? I work late most nights and like to be able to make it easy for my hubby to just throw it in the oven. 🙂
Hi there, no I haven’t but I think it will be ok, If anything I would say maybe the biscuits will need an extra few minutes in the oven but all in all I think it should bake up fine.. Hope you enjoy it 🙂
Hi, this looks really good and I may try it, but I am iffy on the biscuits. Could you just layer corn tortillas on the bottom instead of the biscuits? Not sure how much it would affect the points values, though.
Hi there, I am not sure and would honestly just say play around with it and see if it works, also you could sub the biscuits for some pasta or rice maybe?
I joined WW last week, and this is my first time making a recipe from your site. I just made this for brunch, and OMG! DELICIOUS! Am I really on a diet?
I did make a couple of changes–I used ground turkey, lower sodium taco seasoning, and the biscuits I could find to best fit the description. With those changes, I calculated it to be 8 pts/serving. I will be making again! Thanks for sharing!
Hi Holly, welcome to WW 🙂 I am so glad you enjoyed the taco bubble up.. Hope you enjoy the other recipes you might try.. Good luck on your journey!
Hi- neither me nor my husband like bell peppers ( I know- weird!). Any suggestions for replacements? Thank. I know the peppers make it look beautiful!
Hi, you can add in tomatoes, celery, any veggie really would work.. 🙂
In Australia what could we use instead of the biscuits
Hi, you could try pizza dough, just I would make them very small pieces and the dough might be heavier than the biscuit
I think biscuits are like our scones but we can’t buy them like that.
Have just found a recipe for copy cat Pillsbury biscuits. Pretty much Aussie scones. Might try that.