Homemade Cheesy Gordita Crunch

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This homemade Cheesy Gordita Crunch recipe tastes just like the real thing; only better because we use fresh ingredients for the best flavor.

I’ve never been big on fast food, but there’s one spot that holds a special place in my heart: Taco Bell. As an avid lover of tacos, nachos, and melty cheese, I used to spend as much time as possible at that place, savoring every last bite until it was time to go home. Alex, on the other hand, does not love Taco Bell. He likes the idea of it (meaning their fun, creative twists on Mexican food), but he’s always been pretty disgusted by the quality of ingredients. That means I can never convince him to actually go to Taco Bell with me. So we compromised with a homemade recipe for one of my favorite tacos: the Cheesy Gordita Crunch.

If you aren’t familiar with the cheesy gordita crunch, Taco Bell describes it as “a warm flatbread layered with three-cheese blend and wrapped around a crunchy taco filled with seasoned beef, spicy ranch sauce, crispy lettuce and shredded cheddar cheese.” It’s a deliciously decadent taco with a soft, gooey outside and a crispy crunch on the inside. Basically two tacos in one! What could be better than that?

Key Ingredients

• Ground beef – While we generally like to buy leaner ground beef, we always use 80/20 for this recipe because it adds in a little extra grease. It wouldn’t be Taco Bell without it!
• Taco seasoning – While we always use our homemade taco seasoning, you can use Old El Paso taco seasoning. Our taco seasoning was inspired by Old El Paso, so they’ll yield similar results – plus it tastes just like Taco Bell’s signature taco beef! We swear they’re just using Old El Paso behind that fast food counter…
• Spicy ranch sauce – While we’ve amped up the spice a little, our spicy ranch sauce tastes just like the real thing. We found that this was the most critical part to making a homemade gordita crunch and what makes our recipe stand out from other homemade versions. 
• Toppings – Shredded cheddar and shredded romaine lettuce are the classic toppings and we’re not gonna stray from that.
• Cheesy gordita crunch shell – A corn taco shell wrapped up in a flour tortilla and glued together with melted cheddar cheese is exactly what makes the cheesy gordia crunch so iconic.

See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.

How To Make A Cheesy Gordita Crunch At Home

1. Spicy ranch sauce – Char the jalapeno on the stove, then blend all your ingredients until smooth and store in the fridge until you need it.
2. Shredded lettuce and cheddar cheese – If you’re shredding your own lettuce and cheese, you can prepare this now or while the ground beef cooks. Store in the fridge until you need it.
3. Taco beef – Brown the ground beef in a skillet, then drain excess grease and stir in taco seasoning and water. Bring to a boil then simmer for a few minutes to thicken and set aside.
4. Cheesy gordita crunch shells – Melt shredded cheese over flour tortillas in the oven, then wrap the flour tortillas around the corn taco shells, gently pressing to seal the tortillas together with the melty cheese.
5. Assemble your tacos – Fill each shell with ground beef, a generous layer of spicy ranch sauce, shredded lettuce, and finally shredded cheddar. Serve with Taco Bell hot sauce!

Serving Suggestion

Chips and nacho cheese are such a classic Taco Bell side. We like to make a better-for-us version of this at home and enjoy chips and cottage cheese queso with our cheesy gordita crunch!

Why Make This Recipe

There are so many reasons why we love this homemade cheesy gordita crunch! 

For starters, a homemade version of this fast food favorite means you control the quality of ingredients – which directly impacts flavor. Fast food joints don’t often have the freshest ingredients available, so the food mostly tastes salty and greasy (which isn’t always a bad thing!). But when you make this recipe at home, you can use high quality, fresh ingredients to pack so much more flavor into your cheesy gordita crunch.

Second, making your own tacos at home allows you to customize ingredients to your tastes. For instance, our version of the spicy ranch sauce on this cheesy gordita crunch has a little extra kick compared to Taco Bell’s sauce (since we love spicy food so much). In Alex’s opinion, this made our homemade cheesy gordita crunch way better than the original. So if you’re a Taco Bell lover trying to convince your friends and family to hop on the bandwagon, this recipe is perfect for customizing to their tastes! And maybe, just maybe, they’ll actually go to Taco Bell with you one day.

Finally, it’s pretty rewarding to replicate your favorite restaurant meals at home. Sure, the bar may be low when it comes to recreating fast food dishes in your own kitchen. But that just means there’s more room for you to improve upon a meal you already love! And with a recipe like this signature cheesy gordita crunch, you can shake up taco night with minimal effort. As soon as you take a bite of your homemade cheesy gordita crunch, you’ll be wondering why you never tried making it yourself before!