Why choose between tacos and spaghetti when you can have both!
Zesty taco meat and peppers are cooked with spaghetti in a zesty sauce in just one pot!
Serve casserole-style with sides of sliced black olives, extra shredded cheese, sliced green onions, green chiles, and some sour cream or salsa!
An Easy One Pot Meal
- This easy casserole style recipe needs just one pot – less mess and less effort.
- It’s versatile – perfect for adding extra veggies, mix-ins, and toppings.
Ingredients for Taco Spaghetti
- Meat – I use lean ground beef (80/20) in this recipe but ground turkey can be used in place.
- Pasta – This recipe uses spaghetti noodles – if you change the pasta, you may need to add a little more or less broth.
- Sauce – Choose your favorite flavor of salsa (hot or mild) or use a can of Rotel tomatoes. Chicken broth (or beef broth) adds flavor and salt while the starch from the spaghetti thickens the sauce.
- Variations – Besides bell peppers, this recipe is perfect for sneaking in healthy veggies like shredded zucchini or carrots, corn, chopped kale, or chopped mushrooms.
How to Make Taco Spaghetti
This one-pot dish goes from the stovetop to the table in minutes!
- Cook ground beef and onion. Drain any fat.
- Add bell pepper, broth, milk, and salsa.
- Bring sauce to a boil and add spaghetti. Cover and cook (per recipe below).
- Stir in cheese. Season if desired and serve.
Feeling Fancy?
A packet of taco seasoning makes this quick and easy, but if time allows, you can make your own homemade taco seasoning.
Topping Inspiration
- Creamy: guacamole, sour cream, extra shredded cheddar cheese
- Flavor Boosters: sliced black olives, sliced green onion
- Spicy: salsa, hot sauce, salsa verde, sliced jalapenos
- Fresh: fresh tomatoes, fresh cilantro
Leftovers
Keep leftover taco spaghetti in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days and reheat on the stovetop or in the microwave with a little milk, if needed.
More Perfect Pasta Recipes
Did you enjoy this taco spaghetti recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Taco Spaghetti
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 small yellow onion diced
- 1 packet taco seasoning 1 oz
- 2 ½ cups chicken broth beef broth or water
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup salsa any flavor, more as desired
- 1 small green bell pepper diced
- 8 ounces spaghetti
- 1 cup Mexican cheese blend shredded
- toppings as desired
Instructions
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In a 12-inch skillet, cook the ground beef and onion over medium-high heat until no pink remains while breaking up with a spoon. Drain any fat. Add the taco seasoning and cook for 1 minute more.
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Add the broth, milk, salsa, and bell pepper.
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Bring to a boil, add the spaghetti and cover. Reduce the heat to medium low and let simmer covered, stirring occasionally, for 12-15 minutes or until the spaghetti is tender.
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Remove from the heat and let rest uncovered for 5 minutes.
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Add the cheese and stir until melted. Taste and season with additional salt and pepper or salsa if desired.
Notes
- Remove from the heat before adding cheese.
- The sauce will thicken as it rests.
- Salsa can be replaced with 1 can of original Rotel tomatoes, drained.
- Leftovers will keep in the refrigerator for 4 days.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Beef, Main Course, Pasta
Cuisine American
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Made this tonight exactly as it was written and we both absolutely loved it! The dish turned out just like it was shown in the video and will provide leftovers. Can’t say enough good things about Spend With Pennies!
So glad you enjoyed it, Susan!
Delicious comfort food that is also great with family or friends! Wonderful dish! ♥️☀️
Do you think that it would be good with oat milk? If not, I can buy regular milk the next time, and just hold off on making it till then.
I think it would taste fine with oat milk, Kathy! Just make sure it’s plain oat milk and not flavored. I would love to hear how it turns out for you!
Absolutely delicious! And so easy to make!! I’ve tried a similar recipe.. fajita pasta but this is so much tastier!
Omg I could eat this every day for the rest of my life. It mixed the best of both worlds and is just soooo good!!!
I’ve been looking at different taco pasta recipes and I became very apprehensive but I finally came across your recipe and I said oh my God that sounds and looks so good. the next day, today I came home with the ingredients I didn’t have on hand through it together and it is the bomb diggity! I ended up using more broth but I used Chipotle salsa and it came out so yummy! I just love the recipes from you, thank you so much.
A yummy twist on spaghetti.
Thanks for sharing!
This is a great twist to add to taco night. I am always up for a one pan meal and this one is super easy and tasty!
Recipes like this one are among my favorites! Making Taco Spaghetti was easy, quick, healthy and delicious! I used lean ground turkey, beef broth and whole grain spaghetti to keep it on the healthier side, along with reduced fat cheese. Having only one pan to clean after serving is an extra bonus! We will enjoy this tasty dish often! Thanks!
This was a fun recipe to try and very good!
This was fantastic!!! So flavorful and delicious and best of all – it was so quick and easy!!! Definitely adding this to my rotation.
I made this Taco Spaghetti for dinner last night. I was a little concerned about mixing the two flavors, but there was nothing to worry about. This was a very delicious meal that the family loved. Will definitely repeat a lot. Thank you for sharing your recipe.
So glad you enjoyed it, Leatha!
Huge Hit!
Thank you Holly for a very tasty and unique dish!
This is a great recipe! It was a very delicious pasta dish with only a few ingredients.
I made it a one pot meal by browning the hamburger and onions in my big spaghetti pot and drained what fat there was from that easily. I have had requests now for either a double or triple batch because the 6 servings were not enough!
Thank you Holly for another unique dish!
So glad you enjoyed it, Jeanne!
Taco spaghetti is cheesy, saucy comfort food at its very best! We enjoyed it for dinner tonight and topped it with chopped tomatoes, pickled onions, sour cream and extra cheese. So yummy, we both returned to the kitchen for a second helping!
Made this for the first time last week. I did use a store brand of “Rotel” Medium flavor and a Mild flavor of taco seasoning. The finished dish had just enough kick of heat, but would like to try the Hot taco seasoning next time. This recipe was delicious and we both loved it. It’s a keeper!
I entered this month’s cooking challenge and happy that I did. Mine doesn’t look as good, but it sure was delicious!
Thanks, Holly!