Make this quick and easy Taco Bell Nachos Bell Grande Recipe at home. This copycat recipe is easy to make and tastes so much better thanks to the fresh ingredients. Made with seasoned ground beef, beans, cheese, and your favorite toppings, these nachos are the perfect appetizer for game day!

Loaded Ground Beef Nachos are the ultimate game day food. There’s just something about loading crispy tortilla chips with your favorite toppings and then putting them in the oven to bake. The flavor of the seasoned ground beef and melty cheese come together for something special — the ultimate party appetizer!

One of the best things about nachos, aside from the obvious, is that they are very flexible when it comes to ingredients, and they are a great way to use up leftovers. This post explains Taco Bell’s Nachos Bell Grande recipe, but also gives lots of variations. There’s really no way to make them wrong.

If you’re not up-to-speed on T-Bell’s latest menu items, you should know that Nachos BellGrande are the largest serving of nachos found on the regular menu at Taco Bell. Nachos BellGrande contains a heaping portion of crispy tortilla chips topped with ground beef, diced tomatoes, refried beans, and a dollop of sour cream. The Nachos Bell Grande is like Nachos Supreme, but larger. Over the years, the Taco Bell Nachos Bell Grande Recipe has changed. In this post, we share the basic T-Bell recipe, but we also give lots of variations so you can customize your own loaded nachos.

Best Chips for Nachos

Chips can make or break your nachos. Look for the thickest, sturdiest chips you can find. These are the base of your nachos and you will layer all other ingredients on top of the chips. Thin chips get soggy and limp, and can break when you lift them.

As a side note, Taco Bell usually uses traditional tortilla chips for their recipes and that’s our favorite, too. But, if you want to try something different you could use Fritos or Doritos

Best Ground Beef for Nachos

The best ground beef for nachos is 85-90% lean. The reason for this is because the fat gives the ground beef juicy flavor, without all the grease.

If you’re purchasing the beef from your local market, it will say 85/15 or 90/10. This ratio is the lean-to-fat ratio. The top number of the ratio indicates the leanness and the bottom number is the fat. For example, beef with a label that says 85/15 is 85% lean beef and 15% fat in the package.

Best Taco Seasoning for Nachos

To season the ground beef, you’ll make a homemade taco seasoning with a mixture of chili powder, cumin, paprika, garlic powder and salt. If you’re in a time crunch, you could also use store-bought taco seasoning, but it’s not the same flavor and you will notice a difference in the taco meat.

Mix all spices in a small bowl and set aside. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, cook ground beef and break apart with wooden spoon until browned. Cook for approximately 5-7 minutes, until cooked through. Drain grease, if needed. Next, add taco seasoning mixture to the ground beef and stir well. If the spice mixture doesn’t seem to be mixing with the ground beef evenly, you can add a little water to the pan (approx. 2 Tbsp), and continue stirring until the meat is coated with the seasoning.

If you’re trying to prep these nachos in advance, the meat mixture can be made up to 3-days ahead of time and stored in an airtight containers in the fridge.

Best Cheese for Nachos

Typically, nachos either have grated cheese or a homemade cheese sauce on them. Rather than a nacho cheese recipe or nacho cheese from the grocery store, we prefer grated cheese where we take 2-3 different types of cheese and shred it from a block of cheese. You can use any flavor combination of shredded cheese that you like. Some of our favorites are Sharp Cheddar, Monterey Jack, Pepper Jack, and Colby Cheese.

Ingredients

If you want this recipe to be exactly like Taco Bell’s Nacho Bell Grande, the ingredient list is minimal. However, since you’re making it at home, you can take it up a notch with some of your favorite ingredients. We typically add a few more ingredients that we think make the nachos better. You can customize it however you think is best!

Ground Beef seasoned with taco meat seasoning (see recipe)
Tortilla Chips
Nacho Cheese
Refried Beans
Sour Cream
Diced Fresh Tomatoes

Optional Ingredient Toppings

Over the years, the Taco Bell Nachos Bell Grande Recipe has changed. For example, it used to have green onions, and it no longer does. That brings us to this list of optional ingredients. Since you’re making these at home, you can load your nachos however you’d like.

Green Onions
Peppers (mini peppers for mild, jalapeno for hot)
Corn
Cilantro
Black Olives
Diced Avocado
Black Beans
Pinto Beans
Shredded Cheese instead of Nacho Cheese. Pick your favorite: cheddar cheese, Monterey jack, pepper jack cheese, etc.
Queso Dip
Guacamole
Pico de gallo
Chips: Typically, Taco Bell uses traditional tortilla chips, but if you want to try something different you could use Fritos or Doritos
Fries: You can turn this recipe into T-Bell’s Nacho Fries Bellgrande by adding French fries to the base layer, instead of chips. We’ve never tried this variation, but we’ve been told it’s good.

Step-by-Step Instructions

The full recipe and detailed instructions are listed below, but here’s a quick overview of the steps:

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
Step 2: Brown ground beef in a large skillet over medium heat, and drain any excess fat. Once cooked through, make the seasoned ground beef by stirring in all the seasonings (see recipe). Set aside
Step 3: Layer a large amount of tortilla chips on top of the baking sheet’s parchment paper.
Step 4: Sprinkle shredded cheese over the chips
Step 5: Spoon refried beans over the chips
Step 6: Sprinkle ground beef on top of the refried beans
Step 7: Top the ground beef mixture with more shredded cheese
Step 8: Bake for about 7-8 minutes at 350 until you have wonderful, ooey-gooey, melty cheese on top. Remove from oven.
Step 9: Add your favorite fresh toppings – sour cream, tomatoes, black olives, green onions, peppers, diced avocado, guacamole, any sauces, etc. Serve immediately!

How to Avoid Soggy Nachos

Soggy nachos are so disappointing! To avoid having this happen to you, here are a few tips:

1. Use sturdy chips. Get the thickest, sturdiest chips you can buy. We’ve had great success with the Simply Nature gluten free corn tortilla chips from Aldi. If you’re concerned about your chips holding up, you can toast them in the oven for a few minutes in advance. Simply spread the nachos on two large baking sheets and bake at 350 degrees for 5 minutes. Keep an eye on them while they’re in the oven so they only crisp up more and don’t burn.

2. Prepare all your toppings in advance. When you pull the chips out of the oven, you want to garnish the homemade nachos quickly so that you’re eating them when they’re hot.

Can Nachos be Made in Advance?

Yes and no. You can prepare portions of the ingredients for the nachos in advance and then assemble them on game day when you’re ready to serve.

For example, the seasoned ground beef can be fully prepared, and once cooled store it in an airtight container in the fridge for several days. The toppings can also be prepared several days in advance.

Storing and Leftovers

Nachos are best served fresh, and this nacho supreme recipe is so good you probably won’t have leftovers. If you have any toppings or leftover beef, you can store it in an airtight container.