Mexican Lasagna

This Mexican Lasagna is a fun twist on a classic! It's packed with zesty taco flavor and layered with beef and loads of shredded cheese, making it perfect for the whole family!!

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I'm SO excited to (finally) share this recipe with you all!! It's one of my husbands all-time faves - Mexican Lasagna.

The first time Zach brought me to his itty bitty hometown to meet his family, Casey's taco pizza was on the menu. Of course, I was nervous walking in the door meeting the family, but the familiarity of Casey's taco pizza made me feel right at home! (And the fact that his parents have the same first names - Kevin and Linda - as mine! ha!)

Then the second time I was in town, it was Mexican Lasagna. I'd never heard of this before, but thought it sounded pretty good. Zach was super excited for supper that night, so I was looking forward to trying one of his childhood favorites.

I was blown away by the Mexican Lasagna. It was flavorful, cheesy, meaty and the noodles were done perfectly. Luckily, Linda was kind enough to share the recipe with me. So now, any time Zach gets a little crabby, I know this recipe is a surefire way to brighten his day! (Not that he ever gets crabby ;))

In fact, this recipe was SO tasty and memorable that it made a spot in our wedding party favors! We put together 8 of our favorite recipes to share with our wedding guests and this one was an easy choice. I'm sure more of these recipes will be posted to the blog in the future, but this is a good one to start with! 🙂

How do you make Mexican Lasagna?

It's really not complicated....at all. If you've made any type of lasagna before, I can tell you that this one is just as easy and probably easier.

Start by preheating the oven. Then, get the ground beef cooking. Once the beef is cooked, stir in the beans, seasoning and a little salsa. Then, get your ingredients ready for assembly: Noodles, beef mixture and the shredded cheese.

Grease a 9x13 baking dish and get to layering! You'll have three layers total - noodles, beef, cheese....noodles, beef, cheese....noodles, beef, cheese. It doesn't have to be perfect, so don't worry about measuring how much beef and/or cheese goes on each layer.

Next, stir together the salsa and water in a large liquid measuring cup and pour it over the top of the lasagna. Cover with aluminum foil and toss the pan in the oven. It'll cook for about an hour like this.

Then, you'll remove the foil, top with sour cream, olives and the remaining cheese and continue to bake for a few more minutes.

Once the lasagna is done, you can serve with tomatoes, cilantro, green onions, extra salsa, hot sauce, or whatever other Tex-Mex additions you'd like!

What kind of noodles should I buy?

Regular lasagna noodles. Not the "precooked" or "no boil" variety....just the good 'ol lasagna noodles!

There are numerous things I like about this recipe, but I especially love that you don't have to pre-cook the noodles for the lasagna. (Who's got that patience to wait for water to boil?! Not me!) I'll be honest, I was a little leery of not cooking the noodles the first time I made this, worrying that they'd still be crunchy when coming out of the oven. But, that was definitely not the case. They were perfect-o!!

Can I make this recipe gluten free?

With a couple minor modifications, you certainly can! Just swap the lasagna noodles out for gluten free lasagna noodles and be sure that the taco seasoning you plan to use doesn't have any gluten either. Otherwise, you should be good to go!

What should I serve Mexican Lasagna with?

Margaritas, duh. Hahaha ok, so that's one option. I'd recommend serving with some fresh fruit or a little chips and guac! But back to the margaritas, my friend Lauren from the Zestful Kitchen has some fantastic recipes, including this Rhubarb Margarita - YUM! And for dessert, this Fried Ice Cream Pie or these Churro Bites would pair beautifully!

Recipe added to the Weekend Potluck and Meal Plan Monday.