This taco pizza is topped with refried beans, cheese, romaine, crumbled tortilla chips, and of course — ranch. In a word: WOW.
Are you a taco pizza fan? Here at A Couple Cooks, Alex and I have spent years honing our best Italian-style pizza dough and the tastiest pizza sauce. We’ve even traveled to Italy for research. But our new best pizza recipe is not Italian at all. Yes, it’s taco pizza! That’s artisan style Italian crust on bottom, straight up delivery-style taco pizza on the top. It’s insanely good. And oh yeah: it’s topped with crunchy tortilla chips and drizzled with creamy homemade ranch. Here’s how to make it!
How to make taco pizza
Most of our pizza recipes teach you how the Italians do it. But now we’re going rogue! Here’s our take on American-style taco pizza. Alex had a taco pizza like this one growing up, ordered from a well-known pizza delivery franchise (that we won’t name here). Surprisingly, this pizza has a healthy spin: it’s filled with good for you veggies and not too much cheese. Here are our tricks to how to make the BEST EVER taco pizza!
Go with refried beans instead of tomato sauce.
The best thing about a taco pizza is that instead of a red pizza sauce, it’s got a thin layer of refried beans. If you’ve never tried it, it’s so good! Use your favorite can of refried beans. Some of them are even already flavored and ready to go. Taste them and if they’re bland, add a pinch of salt and cumin. Or, make your own! Try our Homemade Refried Beans or Instant Pot Refried Beans.
Load up with the veggies.
This taco pizza is vegetarian, so we’ve loaded on the veggies! Outside of the refried beans, it’s got black olives, green onions, and tomatoes. Chopped romaine adds the perfect crunch.
The key: top with tortilla chips and ranch!
The keys to a perfect taco pizza, according to Alex? Tortilla chips and ranch. This Homemade Ranch Dressing is a perfect fit: it’s made with Greek yogurt for a healthy spin. It tastes literally divine on this taco pizza! You’ve got to try this. Stat.
No meat on this taco pizza? Add it if you’d like!
You might argue that taco meat should also be present on a taco pizza. And you should feel free to add some! Alex and I eat a mostly plant based diet. We do eat meat on occasion, but we love that this pizza does not need meat to be irresistibly delicious. In fact, we think it’s one of the best vegetarian recipes for meat eaters. Try it and let us know: what do you think?
Use our best pizza dough (or thin crust).
All our best homemade pizza recipes all use our best pizza dough recipe, honed over 10 years to perfection. It’s got that perfectly fluffy texture and complex flavor. If you’d like, use our thin crust pizza dough. Thin crust is even easier to make and a tiny bit healthier than the basic crust (less dough, less calories overall).
The tools you need: pizza stone and pizza peel.
The best way to bake pizza? On a pizza stone. It gets the pizza very very hot, making the crust crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Then you’ll need a pizza peel to pop the dough right onto the hot stone. You can use a baking sheet if you don’t have one, but it’s totally worth it to invest in one for the ease! Here are the ones we use:
- Best pizza stone $36
- Aluminum pizza peel $20
Video: How to make pizza dough! (1:45 minutes)
Here’s one last resource: a step-by-step tutorial on how to make pizza dough! The hardest part of homemade pizza is making and stretching the dough. Since we can’t come to your kitchen to show you, the next best solution is virtually! Here’s a video of Alex showing you how to make and shape dough. It’s very helpful, so we recommend watching it before you start.
This taco pizza recipe is…
Vegetarian. For vegan, plant-based, and dairy-free, omit the cheese and use our Vegan Ranch.
Best Ever Taco Pizza
(20 votes, average: 4.25 out of 5)
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 7 minutes
- Yield: 8 slices 1x
Description
This taco pizza is topped with refried beans, cheese, romaine, crumbled tortilla chips, and of course — ranch. In a word: WOW.
Ingredients
- 1 ball Best Pizza Dough (or Food Processor Dough or Thin Crust Dough)
- 1/3 cup refried pinto beans, canned (or Homemade Refried Beans)
- 3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 2 green onions
- 1 handful canned sliced black olives
- 1/2 romaine heart
- 1/2 tomato or 3 cherry tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons Homemade Ranch Dressing
- 3 organic corn tortilla chips
- Hot sauce, for the garnish
- Kosher salt
- Semolina flour or cornmeal, for dusting the pizza peel
Instructions
- Make the pizza dough: Follow the Best Pizza Dough recipe to prepare the dough. (This takes about 15 minutes to make and 45 minutes to rest.)
- Place a pizza stone in the oven and preheat to 500°F. OR preheat your pizza oven (here’s the pizza oven we use).
- Prepare the toppings: Taste the refried beans: if needed, mix in a pinch or two of cumin and a pinch of kosher salt. (Ours were already well seasoned.) Thinly slice the green onion. Chop the romaine lettuce. Chop the tomatoes.
- Bake the pizza: When the oven is ready, dust a pizza peel with cornmeal or semolina flour. (If you don’t have a pizza peel, you can use a rimless baking sheet or the back of a rimmed baking sheet. But a pizza peel is well worth the investment!) Stretch the dough into a circle; see How to Stretch Pizza Dough for instructions. Then gently place the dough onto the pizza peel.
- Spread the refried beans over the dough using a spatula to create a thin layer. Add the cheddar cheese, then top with black olives and half of the green onions. Top with a pinch of kosher salt.
- Use the pizza peel to carefully transfer the pizza onto the preheated pizza stone. Bake the pizza until the cheese and crust are nicely browned, about 5 to 7 minutes in the oven (or 1 minute in a pizza oven).
- Top with the reserved green onions, chopped tomatoes and romaine, and crumbled tortilla chips. Drizzle with ranch dressing and if desired, sprinkle with hot sauce. Slice into pieces and serve immediately.
You can read Full Here: https://www.acouplecooks.com/taco-pizza/