Instant Pot Forgot to Defrost Doritos Taco Salad–this fun spin on taco salad is made quickly even with frozen meat straight from your freezer. Use your Instant Pot to cook the seasoned meat quickly. Layer everything on a sheet pan and dig in for a delicious, healthy, family-friendly dinner.
Get the SLOW COOKER version of the recipe here
Instant Pot Forgot to Defrost Doritos Taco Salad
When you’re about to make dinner do you ever think, “Shoot! All my meat is in the freezer and I forgot to defrost!” I do this all the time. I love the Instant Pot for the reason that you can put frozen meat in there and still get dinner on the table in a timely fashion. It makes things so convenient.
This recipe for Doritos taco salad is super yummy! I love regular taco salad but the Doritos took this recipe to the next level.
I decided that I don’t like a big salad in a bowl. It’s easy for all the chopped up vegetables to fall to the bottom of the bowl and things aren’t evenly distributed.
Enter into the picture…a sheet pan. When you layer all the ingredients thinly on a cookie sheet everybody can get a bite of everything in a perfect proportion. This is going to be the new thing…I can see it.
More recipes you’ll love…
What Pressure Cooker Did You Use?
To make Instant Pot Forgot to Defrost Doritos Taco Salad I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*. I love this Instant Pot because it has the yogurt making function which I use almost weekly. It has two pressure settings (high and low), and there are also little slots in the handles so that you can rest the lid there instead of putting it down on your counter-top.
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Instant Pot (Forgot to defrost) Doritos Taco Salad
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 9 minutes
- Total Time: 24 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Description
This fun spin on taco salad is made quickly even with frozen meat straight from your freezer. Use your Instant Pot to cook the seasoned meat quickly. Layer everything on a sheet pan and dig in for a delicious, healthy, family-friendly dinner.
Ingredients
For the meat:
- 1/2 cup water or broth
- 1 pound ground beef or turkey (frozen)
- 1 package taco seasoning OR the following spices
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 1 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp dried oregano
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1 (10 oz) can Rotel (diced tomatoes with green chiles)
- 1 (14.5 oz) can black, pinto or kidney beans, rinsed and drained
For the salad:
- 1 large head of romaine lettuce, washed and dried and cut into small pieces
- 1 red bell pepper, cored and diced
- 1 (2.25 oz) can sliced olives
- 1 or 2 large roma tomatoes, diced
- 1 cup grated medium cheddar cheese
- 1/3 cup diced green onions
- 6 Tbsp sour cream
- 6 Tbsp salsa
- 1 (10 oz bag) nacho cheese Doritos
Instructions
- Add meat ingredients to the pot: Add broth to the Instant Pot. Toss in the frozen meat. Sprinkle the meat with the taco seasoning/seasonings. Dump the Rotel and beans on top of the meat.
- Cook the meat: Cover the pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to “sealing.” Set the manual/pressure cook button to 9 minutes on high pressure. While the meat is cooking, prepare your salad ingredients. When the 9 minutes is up and the timer beeps you can perform a quick release by moving the valve to venting. Remove the lid.
- Brown up the meat: Turn your Instant Pot to the saute setting. Break up the meat with a wooden spoon. The middle of the meat will probably still be a little raw. Cook the meat for a few minutes until it is done all the way through. Let the liquid cook off of the meat.
- Make your salad: On a sheet pan layer your salad ingredients. Start with the romaine lettuce and then sprinkle evenly with bell pepper, olives, tomatoes, cheese, green onions. Use a spoon to evenly dollop the sour cream and salsa on top of the salad. Sprinkle with the meat mixture and the doritos.
- Serve. Use tongs to serve your salad. If there are leftovers you can store them in an airtight container in the fridge, although the Doritos will be soggy.
- Category: Salads
- Method: Instant Pot
- Cuisine: Mexican
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/6 of recipe (93% lean beef)
- Calories: 447
- Sugar: 5 g
- Sodium: 612 mg
- Fat: 19 g
- Carbohydrates: 35 g
- Protein: 25 g
Keywords: tacos
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*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
As with every recipe I have tried from you, Karen, this one knocks it out of the park! Thanks for keeping us well fed.
★★★★★
Nice! I’m glad you liked it Heather! Thank you for the 5 stars.
You did not clarify but am I correct in assuming that you mean sliced ripe black olives? I just got my InstaPot for Christmas and I absolutely love it. Actually my daughter got me the three quart because it is just me, but I love my InstaPot leftovers so much that I had to get myself a six quart one. I make Cold Start Greek Yogurt and in my opinion it is absolutely delicious.
Yes that’s what I meant Gloria! Glad you got an IP. They really are so fun 😊
You’ve mentioned the yogart a couple of times, would you mind sending us the recipe(s) I’m intrigued. Also would the recipe work with Almond or Silk milk?
Thank you for these back to school recipes, starting on them this week, did not rate just got them.
Peggy Hall
Here is the recipe that I use Peggy: https://www.365daysofcrockpot.com/instant-pot-greek-yogurt/
I have made a crockpot version of this for several years but always let people put the lettuce and the Doritos on their plate first. Then they spoon this on top. That way if there are leftovers the next day, you still have crunchy Doritos to use 🙂
This was very good. I used ground turkey with 1/2 tsp. beef base and the listed spices (used Mexican oregano in place of regular oregano). The turkey was still fairly frozen after 9 minutes, so will increase the time to 10 or 11 minutes next time. Layered the lettuce on a platter with the toppings indicated, and also added an avocado that needed to be used. It was good with multi-grain chips. Will try the nacho cheese Doritos next time.
★★★★★
I love those multi-grain chips! Thanks for sharing your experience.