Walking Tacos

5 from 8 votes

Nacho Cheese Chips or Corn Chips topped with taco meat and your favorite taco toppings!

Prep Time10

Cook Time10

Total Time20

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American, Mexican

Servings:

Calories: 310kcal

1 lb ground beef
1 oz envelope taco seasoning
¼ c. water
6 individual size bags of chips Fritos or Nacho Cheese Doritos
Toppings: Shredded lettuce, diced tomato, shredded cheddar cheese, sliced black olives, diced avocado or guacamole, chopped onion, salsa or pico de gallo, sour cream etc.

Prepare your taco meat by browning the hamburger in a large skillet until cooked through. Drain off any grease. Mix in taco seasoning and ¼ c. water. Stir until combined and simmer for 5 minutes.
Prep toppings and place in individual bowls.
You can serve on a large “board” arranging all the toppings on the board for a fun display.
Each person will take a bag of chips, crush them, cut the top off the bag and then pile in their favorite toppings, mix it in the bag and eat!

How to Assemble Walking Taco Board

PREP

Have a variety of bowls/containers to use for different size items.
Line your surface if you are afraid items might stain or “sweat” onto your board.
Set out all of your items in the containers you are using so you can see your options.
Have some fresh garnish and cheese that can be used to fill in gaps/holes in your board.
Have a good variety of colors in your ingredients, I like to use red onion instead of white or yellow, a bright red salsa and bright red chopped tomatoes, yellow cheese, all kinds of green vegetables in varying shades of green, black olives, etc. This makes the board more visually interesting.
You can use all kinds of things for a board if you don’t have a large cutting board or marble/stone slab. Other options are parchment paper, a baking sheet or muffin tins.
No board? Just arrange everything on a counter or table (I would suggest putting down parchment paper for this though).

ARRANGING THE BOARD

Place your largest items first, your taco meat will probably be the biggest bowl you use. You can place it in the center, or in a corner. By placing these items in straight lines or slight curves makes it more visually appealing because the eye likes to travel in a Z pattern or in triangles. Also, odd numbers are more pleasing to the eye and brain to process.
After you arrange the large items place your medium sized items on the board.
Next, place your smallest items on the board.
Now it’s time to fill in any remaining space with loose or garnish items like cilantro bunches, piles of shredded cheese, sliced and whole limes. These items may or may not get eaten as is, but they add to the visual esthetic of your board and keep the eye moving. You can pick up items already placed and put some of these fillers under them to keep the board flow and make sure each surface is covered.

TIPS FOR GROUPING AND ARRANGING BOARD!

One option is in circles surrounding your main bowl of taco meat, if you have lots of containers of the same size this works nicely.
Another option is in lines to add visual appeal.
Or you could group them by cold or warm ingredient groupings i.e. cheese, sour cream, guacamole together/hot meat, melted cheeses, etc together; room temp items like garnish and chips in the middle.
By color, so like colors are together creating color blocking patterns.
If you are using a round board you can arrange ingredients as wedges, like pie pieces fanning out from the middle of your board.

Don’t forget to put your serving spoons, scoops, tongs, etc in each container too.