This Dorito taco salad with Catalina Dressing is an old family favorite. This is the original taco salad recipe from the 70’s. Everyone loves a good Mexican salad and this recipe is most certainly a crowd favorite. Ground Beef, fresh lettuce, chili beans and Fritos or Doritos mixed with a sweet and zingy dressing and you’ve got a winner.
This recipe was first published November of 2010 and updated October 2021 with new step by step photos.
The last time I made this Dorito taco salad with Doritos and Catalina Dressing, I was wearing bell bottom jeans which had been split at the hem to insert a flowered cloth panel to make them even more bell bottomed, a tie-dyed t-shirt that I dyed myself and Cat Stevens was playing in the background “Ooo baby baby it’s a wild world”.
Between this recipe and boxed Kraft Macaroni and Cheese is what I lived on while receiving my higher education.
I’m assuming this recipe was on a Kraft Catalina Dressing bottle, but however we found it, it was a staple.
It’s an absolutely wonderful combo of sweet and salty, combined with a creamy and crunchy texture.
I made this taco salad recipe with Doritos enough in college that I really don’t need a recipe to follow, but for those of you are are of a younger persuasion, I’d like to share the official recipe with you.
We love anything taco inspired a our house and this salad fits that bill. It’s one of our favorite taco dishes.
Let’s take a look.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Catalina Dressing, homemade or store purchased
- Canned beans in Chili Sauce
- 1 Pound Lean Ground Beef
- Fresh Chopped Tomatoes
- Shredded Cheddar Cheese
- Chopped Yellow Onion
- Sliced black olives
- Taco Seasoniong
- Chopped Lettuce, a mix of Romaine and Iceberg is good here.
Chef Tip: I like to purchase Cherub brand tomatoes. Cherubs are a variety of grape tomatoes which have a stronger outer skin and meatier, less watery flesh. They are easier to slice for salads, hold up better during cooking or roasting and are reliable year round with their mild, sweet flavor.
You can use either Doritos or Fritos brand chips for this recipe. I’ve used both when I make this and I simply couldn’t tell which I prefer. Either are good here.
Ingredient Swaps and Substitutions
- Catalina Dressing: I like to make homemade my Catalina Dressing Recipe. You can also purchase bottled Kraft brand at the grocery store. A good substitute is bottled dressing labeled Western Dressing. I have also used French dressing.
- Canned Beans: Please look for canned beans labeled “beans in chili sauce”, or “ranch style beans” If you can’t find those, a can of pinto beans or red kidney beans, drained, will work.
- Ground Beef: If you’re opposed to eating beef, ground chicken or turkey will work great in this recipe.
- Cheese: I like shredded cheddar for this recipe, but a mix of Monterey Jack or Pepper Jack and cheddar would be good here.
- Taco Seasoning: Again, I like to make Homemade Taco Seasoning, but simply use a packet of your favorite brand from the grocery store to season this taco meat.
Dorito Taco Salad With Catalina Dressing, Step by Step Instructions
- Step 1: Brown the ground beef: In a large skillet over medium heat. Add the ground beef and the chopped onion and cook until beef is no longer pink. I snuck some chopped green chile peppers into the mix. The recipe doesn’t call for this, but I just couldn’t help myself. Set aside.
- Step 2: Add taco seasoning and ½ cup of water. Stir well and cook for about 15 minutes.
- Step 3: Add the beans in chile sauce (undrained and not rinsed) and stir until the beans have blended with the ground beef mixture. Continue cooking until the beans are heated through.
- Step 4: Build that salad: Start by placing the chopped lettuce in your favorite large salad bowl.
- Step 5: Load up those greens with the ingredients. Browned ground beef meat and bean mix, sliced olives, chopped tomatoes and the taco chips. We like Nacho Cheese flavored Doritos for this recipe.
- Step 6: Add the Catalina Dressing and with salad tongs, mix well until the ingredients are well coated.
- Step 7: Add Cheese: Top the salad with grated cheese and serve immediately.
Common Questions About Taco Salad With Catalina Dressing
It can. Just place the salad in a large bowl and add the cooked ground beef and bean mixture, olives, tomatoes. Refrigerate. Right before serving, add the tortilla chips and the dressing and mix well. Sprinkle on the cheese and serve.
Unfortunately not. Once you dress the salad, trying to save leftovers for the next day just doesn’t work well. The vinegar in the dressing will wilt the salad leaves and the tortilla chips will also become soggy.
The classic Nacho Cheese is preferred. But use your favorite.
Catalina dressing is a tomato based dressing that is similar to French dressing but a little darker in color, tangier and a little sweeter. It also get a little kick from a dash of hot sauce or chile powder.
You’ll be very disappointed if you do. Canned tomatoes are cooked and using them will compromise the fresh texture of this salad.
Tips For Success
- Let the beef and bean mixture cool down a bit before adding it with the lettuce. You don’t want it so hot that it will wilt the lettuce.
- Use a salad spinner or paper towels to dry those salad greens. Removing as much moisture as you can will help keep the lettuce crisp once it’s dressed.
- If you’re looking to embellish this Dorito Salad, try topping it with a dollop of sour cream, guacamole or even fresh cubed avocado.
- This recipe can easily be double to make a Taco Salad to feed a crowd.
Taco Salad With Doritos and Catalina Dressing
This Taco Salad can be prepared with Doritos or Fritos. And you can still find bottled Catalina Dressing on the salad dressing aisle at your market. But if you can’t find it, I urge you to make Homemade Catalina Dressing. It’s easy.
More Southwest Salad Recipes
And if you’re looking for more salad recipes, don’t miss my salad category. You’ll find lots of fresh recipes, including the most popular on my site for Louisiana Sunburst Salad.
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Original Taco Salad With Doritos and Catalina Dressing
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef lean
- 1 cup Sweet onion chopped
- 1 package taco seasoning mix or two tablespoons homemade taco seasoning
- ½ cup water
- 1 cup fresh tomato diced
- 2 cups Catalina dressing
- 15 ounce beans in chili sauce drained but not rinsed
- 1 ½ cups cheddar cheese grated. We like sharp cheddar here.
- 9.25 ounce bag Dorito Corn Chips Nacho cheese flavor, or Fritos
- ½ cup black olives sliced
- 1 head romaine lettuce rinsed and torn into bite sized pieces. I like to combine romaine and iceberg lettuce here.
Instructions
- Brown hamburger and onion in fry pan. Add taco seasoning, and water. Simmer until thick (about 15 ). Stir occasionally so it doesn't stick.
- Add beans in chili sauce and stir into the meat mixture after it's thickened. If using red navy beans or pinto beans without the sauce, drain before adding to the meat mixture.
- Place lettuce in a large bowl and add cooled beef and bean mixture. You don't want the beef to be so hot that it will wilt the lettuce.
- Add taco chips, chopped tomatoes and olives. Mix in enough Catalina Dressing to generously coat the ingredients. Top with grated cheddar cheese.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
Dorito Taco Salad With Catalina Dressing …It’s What’s For Dinner.
Why Trust These Recipes? Lea Ann Brown has lived, worked and played in Colorado for 45 years. She has immersed herself in the Colorado Culinary space, is a Culinary School Graduate and publishes her Colorado food Blog, Cooking On The Ranch.
Things were a little different when I was in college. Donuts, pizza and beer were the staples back then. It’s a wonder we weren’t all balloons! But we weren’t. And music? Would you believe Splish Splash by Bobby Darin??? 🙂
Barbara I do believe Splish Splash! And you know what, thanks to you I’ll be singing that darn song in my head all day long now. 🙂
Hurray for students who prepared such delicious cuisine! 🙂
Congratulations on winning Sam’s price!
I read about Chimayo chile peppers in one of your recent posts. The variety of chile peppers available in the States is among the things I miss most since moving to V. – I have search long and far, always the same tired chiles! 🙁
Oh, do I remember that recipe! It was inexpensive and we loved it. I have to say, I like your grown up version better. 🙂
I have to say, my grown up version was really quite tasty.
LOL – are you sure this was your first flashback? 😉
I loved taco salad and yes, there was soggy old iceberg lettuce in a salad with hamburger. Funny memory. You know, my daughter went through the flowered fabric panel sewn into bell-bottoms in her ultra hippy phase. It’s how she taught herself to sew.
Lastly, I couldn’t remember where I used to drink Annie Green Springs (the soda pop of wine) but now I’m pretty sure you introduced me to that pleasure. Fun post, LA!
LOL, yes I’m sure this was my first flashback! Remember the big scare…”you’ll have flashbacks in your 50’s!!!” Oh no, I just hate being the Annie Green Springs pusher.
brought me back to my early years in the States; I was discovering taco salad then, wow, time sure flies!
I gained 15 pounds my freshman year of college – I blame the school cafeteria. Lost it by my sophomore year – I learned to eat salads and soup. When I moved into my own place, I was B R O K E – so I ate a lot of burritos.
I recall making a lot of casseroles; I could eat the same thing every night and it didn’t bother me then; heck I still love leftovers today!
I do recall Annie Green Springs, Mad Dog 20/20 and more but I wasn’t much of a drinker. I admit I enjoyed smoking something that made me much more crave sunflower seeds and M&M’s along with The Moody Blues. Long blonde hair, bell bottoms…yes I was a bit of a ‘flower child’ then!
I think I always went for potato chips and dip! 😉
Oh, I love it!! Ummm…I still like to make bell bottoms w/ panels stuck in…can’t help myself…I’m stuck in flower child -style 😉 This sounds like a fun flashback…and mighty tasty, too 😀
Taking a pair of Jeans and embellishing the heck out of them as always been fun. Too bad I don’t have a sewing maching, I might just join you.
Great looking taco’s! You ate much better in college than I did. but do I remember lots and lots of Kraft mac n cheese 🙂 Granola and yogurt! and I definitely remember Cat Stevens!
I don’t think granola and yogurt were on my radar in the middle of Kansas. I sure learned to love them later. Thanks Carol.
Thanks for stopping by Claudia and the comment. I thought it ended up being rather pretty. 😉
we love this style food this is a quick dinner to make for my clan, love the colorful and presented way you put this together…very nice!
I loved the flashback. This recipe looks great!
Thanks Beth
What a fun post Lea Ann. I love taco salads and learned to make them from one of my roommates when I lived in Texas and was starting my career. Love Tex-Mex food. I’ve always used a Dorito style triangle chip and it would have had to have been iceberg lettuce because there weren’t many other lettuces available then. Lots of good memories in this salad.
I didn’t know how to cook until I married, so as an ole southern girl I got through college on cheese toast and pimento cheese sandwiches.
I swore I never wore bell bottoms, but my father-in-law has a picture of me in some very similar jeans, curly hair and looking a bit like a hippie.
You’ve made your taco salad look very glamorous with the fancy salad mix and the organic tostado.
Ole.
Sam
I’m sure I used Doritos too. Cooking was an adventure when I first got married. I can’t imagine what my first husband had to endure during the learning process. 🙂
I thrive on recipes from a simpler time and love watching my college age daughter discovering those of her own. As for Annie Greensprings, I was a Boone’s Farm girl myself, Country Quencher to be exact. Maybe that’s why I have such a love of hard cider, kinda reminds me of those days.
Boone’s Farm Strawberry was my drink of choice…can you believe it? Then there was Cold Duck for special occasions, and an occasional Meteuse so we could save the bottle and put those drippy candles in it. Those were the days.
What great memories! I think some variation of this salad was one of the first dishes I learned to make. I haven’t had it in years. Hmmmm… might just have to make a trip down memory lane myself!
Like I said Liz, I may not have described the original just the way it used to be. I have to admit it tasted pretty good on the tostada version.
Are you sure you weren’t wearing a jean skirt made from an old pair of jeans?
Pam, I most certainly was wearing a jean skirt made from an old pair of jeans. 🙂
Eating: Was just moving from having my mom’s cooking to learning to cook on my own so it was a hodge podge of boxed foods to my own omelets and burgers.
Drinking: 7&7, vodka & coke, rum and coke (funny, I haven’t had much liquor after turning 21)
Listening: The Police, U2, REM, Let’s Active, Guadalcanal Diary
I might have been smoking something back then too 🙂
Oh that’s right, I too could make a mean pan fried hamburger. Too early to afford my own grill. Smoking something??? whatever are you talking about? 😉
Hi, you can still enjoy this taco salad and listen to Cat Stevens. Maybe we should have a 70s food get together? I remember bright green shoes, I was a little to young to make my own outfits yet (but I was around). We could dress up and bring one of our favorite “old” food favorites. Maybe at one of our next local food blogger meetings?
How fun would that be. I do have some of my 70’s clothes…but could I fit into them???? 🙂
I’d forgotten all about those jeans. Did you make the matching halter top? I ate this salad more times than I care to remember. As for the Annie Green Springs, had a wee bit of that too, but just the thought of it now makes me gag! What the hell was I thinking?
I did indeed make a matching halter top..LOL forgot all about those. They were easy to make. I agree, the thought of Annie Green Springs indeed makes me gag. Good lord, I can’t believe we drank that.
How about a pic – not the food but you in the flowerdy bell bottoms. 🙂
ok Mr. wise guy! Only if I can see one of you in those plaid polyester leisure suits from the 70’s. 🙂
I had a lime green polyester leisure suit and my son had one to match. There are pictures around, but I wouldn’t know where to find one – but I’d post it if i could find it – I liked that era.