Copycat Casey’s Taco Pizza
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This Copycat Casey’s Taco Pizza is the best you’ll find! I’ve got the secret to the pizza “sauce” they use for this tasty treat! Mix up your Taco Tuesday by making the best darned taco pizza loaded with refried beans, salsa, ground beef, cheese, taco chips, lettuce, tomatoes and sour cream!
Casey’s General Store is a Midwestern gas station chain that started in my home state of Iowa. It was one of my first jobs too – I worked as a cashier selling donuts and coffee. (Ah the humble beginnings of the Food Hussy!) Casey’s is famous for their breakfast pizza, their taco pizza and their donuts & cookies.
Casey’s Taco Pizza Ingredients
Casey’s taco pizza is one of their specialty pizzas and has been my favorite for as long as I can remember and it’s all about the toppings! You’ve got cheese, chips, tomatoes and lettuce – it’s all my favorite taco toppings combined with pizza – how can you go wrong?
I like to add a couple extras that Casey’s pizza doesn’t – let’s dig in:
- Pizza crust – you can make your own crust or just buy ready-made dough – this time I got ready made (so easy!)
- 1/2 cup Pace Picante salsa – I don’t often specify name brands but the former Casey’s employee said it’s gotta be Pace!
- 1/2 cup Refried beans
- 1/2 lb Ground beef, browned
- 1 cup Mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 cup Cheddar cheese
- 1 cup Taco chips – I went for Doritos official “Taco Chip” variety this time but normally I’m a Cool Ranch girl
- 1 Tomato, diced
- 1 cup shredded Lettuce
- OPTIONAL INGREDIENTS:
- Taco seasoning – you can definitely add in taco seasoning when you’re cooking your ground beef or just give a sprinkle of it over the sauce
- Sour cream – to me – this is a MUST!!! I always serve with a drizzle of sour cream! (The other Iowa favorite – Happy Joe’s serves sour cream with their taco pizza!)
- Onions – most folks love diced onion with tacos & pizza so feel freee to add it
- Taco sauce – you could also drizzle taco sauce on your finished pizza – I love the Ortega brand of taco sauce – or add more Pace salsa!
How to make a Copycat Casey’s Taco Pizza
Taco Pizza isn’t difficult – the key to Casey’s version is the sauce – and then load those toppings (after you bake). Here’s how to make this taco pizza recipe:
- Preheat oven to 375 (follow pizza dough instructions)
- On pizza pan or pizza stone, spray lightly with non-stick spray – or you can sprinkle cornmeal to prevent sticking and make a crispy crust. My pizza pan has holes in it – so the cornmeal wouldn’t do much good!
- Press out crust into a circle
- Par cook at 375 for 5 min
- Over medium heat, brown ground beef and drain (add taco seasoning if you like)
- In a bowl, mix together pizza sauce by combining salsa & refried beans
- Grate cheeses and lightly crush chips
- Spread bean mixture as sauce on pizza crust
- Top with browned ground beef, mozzarella cheese, cheddar cheese and a few crushed chips
- Bake for 5-7 minutes at 375ºF
- Broil on low for 2-3 min to brown the top of the crust and the cheese
- Remove from oven and top with more chips, diced tomatoes, shredded lettuce and sour cream
Tips & Tricks for Casey’s Pizza
According to Casey’s: “Our Taco Pizza starts with refried beans and salsa, beef or chicken, mozzarella cheese, and is finished with lettuce, tomatoes, taco chips and cheddar cheese.”
Ground beef or chicken
Cuz it’s awesome!! They make all the pizza in-house and you can tell. It’s delicious!
Yes!!! It started with a store in Boone, IA in 1967 – now they have over 2000 stores across 16 states.
Remove the lettuce and taco chips from any leftover pieces of pizza. Store leftover slices in ziploc bags. Reheat at 370º in your air fryer for 4 minutes.
More Copycat Pizza Recipes
More Iowa Favorite Recipes
Copycat Casey’s Taco Pizza
Ingredients
- 1 pizza crust
- 1/2 cup Pace Picante sauce
- 1/2 cup refried beans
- 1/2 lb ground beef browned and drained
- 1 cup Mozzarella cheese shredded
- 1/2 cup cheddar cheese shredded
- 1 cup Taco chips
- 1 small tomato diced
- 1 cup iceberg lettuce shredded
- 3 tbsp sour cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375º (follow instructions for your dough)
- Spray pizza pan lightly with nonstick cooking spray
- Press crust out on pizza pan in a circle1 pizza crust
- Place crust in oven and par cook at 375º for 5 minutes
- Brown ground beef and drain1/2 lb ground beef
- In a bowl, mix salsa & refried beans and set aside1/2 cup Pace Picante sauce, 1/2 cup refried beans
- Grate cheeses, lightly crush chips, dice tomato and shred lettuce1 cup Mozzarella cheese, 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, 1 cup Taco chips, 1 small tomato, 1 cup iceberg lettuce
- Remove crust from oven and top with bean mixture for your pizza sauce1/2 cup Pace Picante sauce, 1/2 cup refried beans
- Top with ground beef, mozzarella, cheddar cheese and a few crushed chips1/2 lb ground beef, 1 cup Mozzarella cheese, 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, 1 cup Taco chips
- Bake at 375º for 5-7 minutes
- Turn oven to Low Broil and broil for 2-3 minutes until crust and cheese turns golden brown
- Remove pizza from oven and top with more chips, diced tomato, shredded lettuce and drizzle with sour cream.1 cup Taco chips, 1 small tomato, 3 tbsp sour cream, 1 cup iceberg lettuce
Down right yummy!!!!
I made my own pizza dough!
One of our favorites.
Thank you
When I worked at Casey’s in 89-90, we did not put salsa or the chips on the pizza before it was cooked. We added the chips after it was cooked on top of the lettuce and tomato. The salsa was given to the customers in packets. We never measure the amount of tomatoes or lettuce that was put on the pizza either we used half a head of lettuce and a lot of tomatoes chopped up. I don’t remember the exact temperature but I know we only cooked the pizzas for about 5 minutes but it was at a temperature over 500°.
***Another thing that can be added extra are black olives. I remember a lot of customers requested it. personally I don’t like olives so I never had it with them.
Thanks for the notes!
Over 35 years ago when my store first brought in the pizzas the original recipe you added taco season to the refried beans spread that on first and then the salsa, meat and mozzarella cheese. After cooking you blotted the cheese and put your shredded cheddar and lettuce, tomato and crushed Doritos. And everything was exact measurements and weight.
wanna share the crust recipe? 😉
when they first brought pizza to our Casey’s we made our own dough and we added taco seasoning to the refried beans then it was layered refried beans, salsa, beef that was seasoned and came from Burke in Nevada, then we put mozzarella on and baked it. when it came out we blotted it and added shredded cheddar and cut it slid it in the box added lettuce and tomatoes and put taco sauce packets in the corners of the box. this was mid 1980’s.