5 Copycat Taco Bell Burritos to Make at Home

A Taco Bell burrito is cheap and quick at the drive-thru, but the soft beans, the red sauce and the grilled finish are easy to beat at home. I went through the copycat videos on YouTube, read the comments under each one, and cooked the ones that looked worth the effort. These are the burritos I keep making. Each has its own trick that gets it close to the real thing without leaving the kitchen.

Each recipe below comes with the full ingredient list and the video to cook from, so you can pick one and get started. I also noted what makes each one different, how long it takes, and a swap that still works.

Burrito Supreme

The Burrito Supreme is the loaded one: seasoned beef, refried beans, red sauce, diced tomatoes and onions, lettuce, sour cream and cheddar in a flour tortilla. One comment under the video on YouTube stands out. The person said they worked at Taco Bell in the 1980s and that this version beats the original.

This burrito takes about 30 minutes on the stovetop, and three things make it taste right. The beef stays loose and saucy instead of dry. Canned enchilada sauce, simmered with a few spices, stands in for Taco Bell’s thin red sauce. And the refried beans get thinned with chicken stock so they spread smooth like the store’s. Once it is rolled, the burrito goes back on the griddle to crisp and seal shut.

Two tips from the comments help a lot: a splash of milk in the beans, and a small hole poked in the top of the tub of crema so you can squeeze it on like the store does.

Ingredients

• ground beef
• taco seasoning
• a little tomato sauce
• about 1 cup water
• enchilada sauce
• cumin
• oregano
• smoked paprika
• black pepper
• a pinch of salt
• refried beans
• chicken stock
• salt
• black pepper
• garlic powder
• tomatoes, small dice
• onion, chopped
• lettuce, shredded
• shredded cheese
• Mexican crema (sour cream)
• burrito-size flour tortillas

Chili Cheese Burrito

The Chili Cheese Burrito is a warm flour tortilla wrapped around thick beef chili and melted cheddar. Old fans still call it the chilito, the name it had when it started at Zantigo, a chain Taco Bell bought. It is worth making at home because not every Taco Bell sells it, and it comes and goes.

Taco Bell’s own is just beef chili and cheddar, no beans. The recipe here is a little heartier. A whole can of refried beans melts into the chili to thicken it, and the cheese gets stirred in a bit at a time until the filling turns smooth and cheesy. It all cooks in one pot and makes a big batch that feeds a crowd for very little, and the filling freezes well, so you can roll a burrito whenever you want one.

Some people add Fire sauce or a few Fritos before rolling. One cook swapped in ground turkey with extra cayenne and green pepper and liked it.

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 diced onion
• 4 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups water
• 2 tablespoons water and 2 tablespoons cornstarch (slurry)
• 6 ounces tomato paste
• 1 can refried beans (16 ounces)
• 1 bag cheese (8 ounces)
• large tortillas
• add-ons: sour cream, chopped onions, Fritos

Bean Burrito

The Bean Burrito is Taco Bell at its simplest: refried beans, red sauce, diced onions and shredded cheddar in a flour tortilla. It needs little more than a can of beans, cheese, an onion and a can of enchilada sauce, and it makes 3 to 4 burritos in about 20 minutes.

The beans are the whole trick. They cook in a little pork lard with smoked paprika and get thinned with water until they are loose and spoonable. Saucy beans are what make it taste like Taco Bell’s, and the comments under the video say so too. Rinsing the diced onion takes off the sharp bite, and warm enchilada sauce stands in for Taco Bell’s red sauce. Go light on the filling and the burrito rolls neater than a stuffed one.

The burritos freeze well for lunches and reheat in the microwave. If you have time, pinto beans cooked from dry and mashed are even better, and pepper jack or colby jack works in place of the cheddar.

Ingredients

• 1 16oz can of refried beans
• 1 Tbsp pork lard
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/4 cup water, or more
• 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1/3 cup diced onions
• 1 cup enchilada sauce
• 3-4 flour tortillas

High Protein Beefy 5 Layer Burrito

The High Protein Beefy 5 Layer Burrito is a lighter take on Taco Bell’s Beefy 5-Layer, which is seasoned beef, refried beans, sour cream and cheddar with a layer of warm nacho cheese sauce. Going by the recipe, about two of these have the calories of one from the drive-thru, and they still taste like the real thing.

This burrito takes some care and a kitchen scale. Very lean 96/4 beef is crumbled by hand into the pan and cooked low and slow with a spice mix you weigh out. Fat free Greek yogurt stands in for the sour cream, and fat free refried beans keep the calories down. You layer it like Taco Bell does: cheese sauce on a big tortilla and beans on a small one, then the beef, yogurt and cheddar. It all gets folded, rolled in parchment paper and warmed quickly.

The beef makes enough for eight, so the rest keeps for later in the week. A splash of lemon juice or vinegar in the yogurt makes it spread and taste more like sour cream. The comments under the video say one of these keeps you full all evening.

Ingredients

• 3g chili powder
• 1g garlic powder
• 1g onion powder
• 1g paprika (1/2 teaspoon)
• 3g ground cumin
• 1g crushed red pepper
• 0.3g (1/4 teaspoon) dried oregano
• 6g kosher or sea salt
• 2.5g (1 teaspoon) black pepper
• 1 pound 96/4 lean ground beef (4oz per two burritos)
• 2 burrito tortillas
• 2 taco tortillas
• 62g cheddar cheese sauce
• 65g fat free refried beans
• 60g fat free Greek yogurt
• 14g shredded sharp cheddar
• Fire sauce (optional)

Grilled Cheese Burrito

The Grilled Cheese Burrito is the crunchy one: seasoned beef, seasoned rice, nacho cheese, chipotle sauce and sour cream rolled in a flour tortilla, then seared on melted cheese until the outside turns crisp. Taco Bell’s has fiesta strips inside. This recipe uses Fritos for the crunch. Even though it is on Taco Bell’s menu, that crust is the reason to make it at home.

A homemade taco seasoning goes into both the beef and a quick tomato and garlic rice finished with lemon juice. To finish, the burrito sits seam down on shredded cheese in a dry, hot skillet until the cheese turns into a crisp shell. The whole burrito takes about 40 minutes start to finish.

Some of the comments are from people who missed it when their local Taco Bell dropped it for a while. Flaming hot Fritos are the swap people look for.

Ingredients

• 8 inch tortillas
• 1 pound beef
• 1 cup rice
• 1/2 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon garlic paste
• butter
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• nacho cheese
• chipotle sauce
• sour cream
• Fritos
• 1 cup shredded cheese
• taco seasoning: 1 tablespoon cajun, 1/2 tablespoon cumin, 2 teaspoons paprika, 1/2 tablespoon chili powder, 2 teaspoons onion powder, 1/2 teaspoon oregano, 1/2 teaspoon thyme, 2 tablespoons salt

These are the common questions about making these burritos at home.

What Can I Use for Taco Bell Red Sauce?

Taco Bell’s red sauce is a thin red sauce, and canned enchilada sauce is the closest thing at the store. Canned sauce is what the Burrito Supreme and Bean Burrito recipes use. Some grocery stores also sell bottled Taco Bell sauce, so grab it if you see it.

How Do I Freeze and Reheat Homemade Burritos?

Roll the burritos, wrap each one in foil and freeze them. To reheat, take off the foil first, set the burrito on a microwave-safe plate, cover it and microwave it. The Bean Burrito and the Chili Cheese Burrito filling both freeze well. For the Grilled Cheese Burrito, freeze it before the cheese crust goes on and add the crisp cheese after it thaws.

Can I Make the Chili Cheese Burrito Without Beans?

Yes, and that is closer to Taco Bell’s own, which is just beef chili and cheese. All you need is 1 pound of beef, 3/4 cup water, a chili seasoning packet (not taco seasoning), a little cornstarch to thicken it, and finely shredded cheddar in a warm large tortilla. The cornstarch does the job the can of refried beans does in the recipe above.

How Do I Get That Soft, Steamed Taco Bell Tortilla?

A short time in the microwave gives you that soft tortilla. Roll the burrito, set it on a microwave-safe plate, cover it and microwave it briefly, so the cheese melts and the tortilla steams soft, much like the steamer at Taco Bell. Never put foil in the microwave. For the grilled look, press the rolled burrito in a nonstick skillet under a heavy pan, then flip it and press the other side.

The Bean Burrito is the fast one, and the Grilled Cheese Burrito is the one for a crisp edge. Whichever one you pick, go light on the filling and heavy on the sauce, so it rolls tight and stays saucy. Then open its video and start cooking.