Taco Pizza

Tacos meet pizza in this delicious Taco Pizza Recipe! Made with refried beans, salsa, taco meat, cheese, and topped with all your favorite taco toppings, this Taco Pizza is a delicious and easy spin on pizza night.

Most everyone I know loves tacos and pizza. So it just makes sense that Taco Pizza is a good thing. A really good thing.

Inspired by Papa Murphy's Taco Pizza, this recipe for Taco Pizza combines everything you love about tacos in pizza form.

Soft pizza dough is topped with refried beans, salsa, taco meat, and sharp cheddar cheese and baked until bubbly and browned. While you can stop right there and your taco pizza will be downright delicious, I love topping my taco pizza with shredded lettuce, olives, tomatoes, sour cream--any and everything you like on tacos.

Taco pizza is a family-favorite recipe. And my absolute favorite way to transform leftovers from taco night into a delicious, hearty, new meal.

Notes on Ingredients

One of the BEST things about Taco Pizza is that you can adapt it to suit any dietary need/preference. You can also use leftovers or begin this recipe entirely from scratch. I will walk you through both options!

• Pizza Dough: For this recipe, you need 1-pound of pizza dough. I opt for homemade pizza dough, but store-bought works in a pinch.
• Refried Beans: Use either homemade refried beans or canned refried beans. I do suggest using vegetarian refried beans to avoid added lard.
• Salsa: Instead of pizza sauce, use jarred salsa to top this taco pizza. This is one instance where fresh salsa is NOT best, as it has a lot of excess moisture that may cause your pizza to become soggy.
• Taco Meat: For a Copycat Taco Murphy's Pizza, seasoned taco meat is best. While I show you how to make homemade taco meat for this pizza, this is a great time to use leftover taco meat, or for a meatless taco pizza, use leftover sofritas. 
• Cheese: Use sharp cheddar cheese or a Mexican blend cheese, as it pairs best with the Tex Mex flavor.
• Toppings: Just like tacos, taco pizza is even more delicious when served with your favorite toppings like shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, avocados, guacamole sour cream, olives, etc. Use whatever you like!

How to Make Homemade Taco Pizza

Taco pizza comes together quickly using premade pizza dough, canned refried beans, and leftover taco meat. Or you can prepare the pizza dough and taco meat starting from scratch. It is not hard to do, just a bit more time-consuming.

Step One: Prepare Pizza Dough

• Combine the water and yeast and let sit to proof for about 5 minutes until foamy.
• In a large bowl combine the proofed yeast with the honey and oil in a large mixing bowl or stand mixer.
• Add in the flour and salt, a small amount at a time, mixing to incorporate.
• Knead the dough until shiny and smooth and then place the dough ball into a greased bowl and cover with a clean kitchen towel.
• Let the dough rise until it doubles in size.

Step Two: Prepare Taco Meat

• Brown the ground meat in a medium skillet over medium-high heat, breaking it into small chunks as it cooks.
• Once browned, drain off excess grease if needed, and then return the meat to the skillet.
• Add in tomato sauce, water, and taco seasoning.
• Simmer over medium heat for 5-10 minutes until thickened, stirring occasionally.

Step Three: Prepare Taco Pizza

• Roll the pizza dough out onto a greased 12-inch pizza pan.

• Spread an even layer of refried beans over the pizza dough.
• Spread the salsa over the refried beans to cover.
• Sprinkle the taco meat over the salsa and then top with the shredded cheese.

• Bake the pizza until golden brown and bubbly.

• Once you remove the pizza from the oven, let it rest for 10 minutes to rest.
• Top the pizza with your favorite taco toppings OR slice the pizza and let each person top as desired.

Variations on Taco Pizza

• Vegetarian Taco Pizza: Be sure your refried beans are vegetarian and skip the taco meat. In place of the taco meat you can use sofritas, lentil taco meat, or just keep it simple and skip "meat" altogether.
• Vegan Taco Pizza: For the pizza dough, replace the honey with maple syrup for a vegan option. Use vegetarian refried beans, skip the meat or use sofritas or lentil taco meat, and leave the cheese off the pizza. You can certainly use a vegan cheese replacement, but I find the pizza plenty flavorful without the need for it.
• Taco Pizza with Chicken: Replace the taco meat with leftover Instant Pot Chicken Taco Meat, or use ground chicken in place of the ground beef to prepare taco meat. You can also use 1 to 2 cups of leftover rotisserie chicken tossed with 2 teaspoons of taco seasoning.

More Pizza Recipes

• English Muffin Pizzas
• Buffalo Chicken Pizza
• Pita Pizza
• Easy Pull-Apart Pizza Bread
• Tomato Pizza
• Spinach Pizza

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If you gave this recipe for Taco Pizza a try, I would love for you to leave a comment and review below.

This recipe was originally published in 2017 but updated in 2022 with new photos and video.