I really love a taco kit taco. If I ever do a big crime and wind up on death row, I would request a last meal of three hard-shell tacos made with ground beef and topped with iceberg lettuce, shredded cheese, grape tomatoes, and sour cream. Full-fat sour cream. I’m being snuffed by the state. Who cares? Anyway, I suppose it behooves me to find the best taco kit so I can make sure the COs treat me right.
How we picked the taco kits for our taste tests
Yes, taste tests, plural. In our first taco dinner kit taste test, we tried all the standards: crunchy and soft taco kits from the big boys (Old El Paso, Ortega, and Taco Bell). In our second taco dinner kit taste test, we included some more interesting variations. Some double-decker guys with queso you smush between two different shells, and even a breakfast taco dinner kit. We were looking for fresh tasting shells, whether they were soft or crunchy. We took the flavor of the taco seasoning into account as well as the flavor of the packets of sauce that come in the box.
How we prepared the taco kits
For these taste tests, I browned ground beef in separate pans by brand, added the seasoning, and cooked according to the package instructions. We tasted all of the elements on their own, and then tasted them together, along with some iceberg lettuce, diced grape tomatoes, and fat free yogurt in place of sour cream. I’m not being executed (yet), so I’m still watching my weight. Here are the best taco kits we’ve found so far.
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- Taco Bell Soft or Crunchy Taco Dinner Kit
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Taco Bell’s standard soft and crunchy dinner kits are good, although I can’t say the same for the Cheesy Double Decker Taco Kit, which I deeply disliked. Does the seasoning packet for the beef really channel the flavor of the beef you get from the drive-thru? No, but my husband and I both agreed that we liked the flavor of Taco Bell’s taco seasoning and sauce better than we liked Old El Paso’s. (That said, Old El Paso does pretty much everything else better.) Truly, the sauce that comes in this taco kit is spot-on. If you’re in the mood for Taco Bell, this won’t totally scratch the itch, but in the event you don’t already have 400 Taco Bell sauce packets in the door of your fridge like I do, this Taco Bell dinner kit is a good thing to have in the pantry.
Credit: Liv Averett / Amazon
- Old El Paso Hard & Soft Taco Dinner Kit
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Unless we were dealing with homemade flour tortillas from a taqueria or really good local market, I’d be hard pressed to pick a soft shell over a crunchy shell for ground beef tacos. That said, I know lots of people prefer flour and they should be able to enjoy at-home taco night, too. This Old El Paso taco kit has both, so mixed-shell-preference families can all get along. In general, we preferred the quality of Old El Paso’s shells to the others we tried, and that went for the flour tortillas as well. They both have a fresh flavor, and the crunchy shells don’t taste of the oil they were cooked in. They also don’t have the slight staleness we detected in Ortega’s taco shells.
Credit: Liv Averett / Target
- Old El Paso Stacked Queso Crunch Kit
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In our most recent taco dinner kit taste test, I tried two very similar taco kits: Old El Paso Stacked Queso Crunch Kit (a mouthful in more ways than one) and Taco Bell’s Cheesy Double Decker Taco Kit. Old El Paso’s version is so. much. better. The queso—which you smear on a nice, thin flour tortilla—is seasoned and flavorful, whereas the Taco Bell version just comes with a packet of straight-up Velveeta. And the crunchy shell you wrap with the cheese-slathered flour tortilla is coated in nacho cheese dust. When it all comes together, it’s unbelievably fun and flavorful. And, unlike the Taco Bell version, the flour tortillas are actually the right size for the crunchy shells so you don’t have dry, floppy edges. This is the best taco dinner kit if you want to make taco night extra fun.
Credit: Liv Averett / Target
- Old El Paso Stand ‘n Stuff Taco Dinner Kit
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Stand ‘n Stuff taco shells are a revelation. Truly one of the best inventions of the past 200 years (give or take). Not only do these flat-bottomed beauts keep your tacos from tipping over, they’re also wide as the day is long and you can really load them up with meat and fixins. Sheer shell size aside (say that five times fast), this taco dinner kit had the crispiest, best-tasting shells. An all-around winner. Taco tip from my kitchen: Instead of heating the shells in the oven on their own, load them up with meat and cheese, and then pop them in the oven to heat up. Melty cheese makes everything better.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
Best Sauce and Seasoning
Best Crowd Pleaser
Best Double Decker
Best of the Best
Other taco kits we tried: Taco Bell Cheesy Double Decker Taco Craving Kit, Old El Paso Breakfast Taco Kit, Ortega Grande Taco Kit
