Taco Pizza Appetizer
This taco pizza appetizer starts with a crescent roll crust. Topped with a zesty cream cheese sauce and all your favorite taco toppings including ground beef and cheese. Makes a delicious and easy party appetizer!
Taco Pizza Appetizer Recipe
Everybody loves tacos. And not just regular tacos but taco everything!
Taco Pasta Salad, Taco Bean Dip, Taco Hand Pies…I love tacos in any way shape or form!
This cream cheese taco pizza appetizer is easy to make and you can eat it for dinner as well.
First, unroll the crescent dough and place on a baking sheet. I like to use the sheets of dough so I don't have a lot of seams to pinch together, but you can use the crescent roll dough just as well.
You can use any kind of dough for the crust to be honest. Canned biscuits flattened into a crust or pizza dough work just as well.
Bake the dough until golden, then cool it completely. While the crust is baking and cooling, you can get started on the taco meat.
Cook according to the instructions on the taco seasoning packet, or using your favorite taco meat recipe.
I like to make triple batches of taco meat at a time (or more) since it's something we eat so often. I freeze the extras and pull them out to thaw when I have a recipe such as this.
Next, mix together the cream cheese and sour cream. Make sure the cream cheese is at room temperature or warmer so it blends easily.
If you or your guests are not fans of spice, leave the mixture as is. However, for extra flavor I like to mix in a little picante sauce.
My husband is a big Cholula fan, but he's currently hooked on The Pepper Plant Original California Style Hot Sauce. He bought a half gallon of it!
If you use salsa, make sure you use a thick hot sauce or the cream cheese mixture will get watery.
Feel free to use homemade like my smoky Guajillo Chile Salsa and control the thickness yourself.
You can mix the cream cheese and salsa first, then add the sour cream a little at a time until a spreadable, but not drippy consistency is achieved.
Spread it all over the crust (make sure it's cooled all the way!). Then start adding the toppings: taco meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato and done!
Feel free to get creative and add your own favorite taco toppings.
Some ideas: black or pinto beans (drained and rinsed), corn, olives, pickled jalapeno slices, diced green chiles, cilantro, chopped onion.
Cut into squares and serve. If you're not going to serve immediately, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
We've eaten leftovers the next day, but the crust starts to get soft and the lettuce wilted at that point. So, best to enjoy this taco pizza within four hours!
Taco Pizza Appetizer
Ingredients
- 2 cans crescent rolls 8 oz each
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 packet taco seasoning
- 8 ounces cream cheese well softened
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1-3 tablespoons salsa or hot sauce optional
- 1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese 6 oz
- 1 cup shredded lettuce
- 1 cup diced tomatoes
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- Unroll crescent roll dough and place on a large ungreased baking sheet.
- Pinch the seams together to make one sheet of dough.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes or until light golden brown; let cool.
- Meanwhile, in a large skillet, brown ground beef until no pink is remaining. Drain any excess grease.
- Stir in taco seasoning and cook according to package instructions; let cool.
- In a small bowl, whisk together cream cheese, sour cream and hot sauce (if using); spread in an even layer over cooled crust.
- Top with cooled taco meat followed by cheese, lettuce and tomato.
- Cut into squares before serving. Serve immediately.
Really liked this taco pizza. I really liked the cream cheese and sour cream bace. I think I will make more pizzas with crescent rolls crust. My husband really liked it. I added refried beans and a little salsa to the meat.
Ooh that sounds delicious.
I can not stand the taste of cream cheese or sour cream….what can I use instead of these two ingredients?
Some mayonnaise? Or refried beans? The cream layer is to add flavor and keep all the toppings from sliding off, otherwise you can also put them straight on the crust like a taco.
Can you eat this cold?
Yes, you can. I usually serve it room temperature as I think it tastes best that way.
@Rebekah,
I got two thumbs up from my grandson. I mixed a can of spicy retried beans with the cream cheese/sour cream, and used Pillsbury pizza crust. Yum. We will add this to our menu plans.
I like the beans idea! Thanks!
This was delicious!!! I added kidney beans because I didn’t have any black beans. I added taco sauce all over and added 3 dollops of sour cream on the top because I LOVE sour cream! Thanks for this recipe! My family loves it! It’s our afternoon football snack.
Does it taste ok if it’s served cold?
I don't mind it cold or room temp.
@Renae,
Tastes great either way!!!
I tried this and made it per the instructions. We really like it and we will make it again
Thanks, Joanne!