Taco Skillet (TikTok - My Way)

A cozy, one‑pan Taco Skillet inspired by the viral TikTok trend - but made the sensible, real‑kitchen way. Seasoned beef, peppers, tomatoes, green chilies, corn, and tender rice all simmer together and finish under a blanket of melty cheese.

If you love a one‑pan dinner that’s comforting, budget‑friendly, and big on flavor, this Taco Skillet is going to be a regular in your rotation. It's another one of those recipes inspired by TikTok.

TikTok is full of fun videos, including this one‑pan taco rice, and I’ll admit, they do very often catch my eye. The idea is solid, but the execution can sometimes seem a bit, well... chaotic.

So, I took the inspiration, kept the flavors, and made it my way!

Viral Mexican-Style Tuna Salad - My Way

A bright and flavorful Mexican Tuna Salad made with lime, jalapeño brine, cilantro, sweet onion, and creamy mayo, with a touch of soy sauce for depth. Fresh, zesty, and perfect with crackers, tostadas, or stuffed into a tomato.

How to Make the Viral Mexican-Style Tuna Salad, My Way

Life lately has been a little slower around here. I’ve been down with a virus for a few days, which put me behind more than I expected, but I’m finally easing back into the kitchen and catching up where I can. If you’ve ever had one of those weeks where everything feels a step behind, you’re in good company. Today’s recipe was exactly the kind of bright, simple bowl I needed to get back into the swing of things.

Some recipes go viral because they’re flashy on camera… and some go viral because they’re actually really good.

This Mexican Tuna Salad was one of those TikTok darlings that sounded incredible, but when I made it at home, it landed a little flat. Not that it was bad, not at all, but it just seemed to be missing that spark that makes you want to go back for another bite.

So, I did what I do when a recipe needs a little love: I made it "My Way!"

 

This Chicken Burrito Bowl is packed with seasoned chicken, Mexican rice, black beans, corn, pico, avocado, jalapenos, shredded cheese and topped with fresh cilantro, lime wedges and a creamy homemade dressing. It's a quick, customizable weeknight dinner everyone will love.

Chicken Burrito Bowl

There’s something so satisfying about a good burrito bowl. It has all the flavors you love, layered up in one big, beautiful dish you can customize to your heart’s content. This Chicken Burrito Bowl is one of those recipes that checks every box: easy to make ahead, quick to prep and full of color and texture.

The base starts with fluffy Mexican yellow rice, which brings instant flavor without any extra work. Make your own from scratch or pick up a mix.

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips, get a simple but bold seasoning from a packet of taco seasonings or your own homemade version and a quick sear in a hot skillet. It’s the kind of easy weeknight technique that still gives you those caramelized, flavorful edges.

Easy Mexican-style rice starts with toasted medium grain rice, then simmered with tomato sauce, aromatic spices, and a duo of bouillons for rich depth. A wedge of onion infuses subtle sweetness, while fresh cilantro offers a bright finish.

Easy Mexican-Style Rice

This vibrant, flavor-packed rice dish is a comforting staple inspired by classic Mexican home cooking and pairs beautifully with any Mexican or Tex-Mex main dish. 

I've made quite a few variations of this side dish based on the old school Spanish rice dish I've shared here on the website before, and this version is what I've settled on. It's not a heavily seasoned dish, so the flavor is subtle enough that it's really a great side dish for pretty much any meal.

A Tex-Mex meal made in a casserole dish, starting with a layer of flour tortillas, topped with shredded cheese, Rotel tomatoes, sour cream, tostada shells, cheese sauce, taco-seasoned ground beef and more cheese, folded, brushed with butter and baked.

Crunchwrap Casserole

Okay, confession.

While I can recall having had a Crunchwrap from Taco Bell only once before and, in fact, while I also recall it being pretty tasty, it didn't drive me to have a constant craving so I didn't have much of a memory about how I felt about it!

Now don't get me wrong.

If I have a taste for a taco or three in a hurry, Taco Bell is gonna be my quick run y'all. They get a lot of ribbing, but I've always had a good experience with their food.

Strips of chicken breast, tossed with fajita seasonings and combined with sauteed peppers and onions, served on warmed corn or flour tortillas.

Skillet Chicken Fajitas

I love when you're sitting in a Mexican restaurant and a server passes by with a sizzling cast iron fajita plate filled with veggies and meat. It leaves behind it such a fragrant trail doesn't it?

Apparently,  it's a bit addictive too, that aroma, because you will often see tray after tray after tray delivered after that first one passed through!

Even my veggie adverse hubby aka The Cajun, fell into that fragrant allure once, and ordered some, despite my warning that they were more vegetable than they were protein.

An appetizer of poached shrimp, marinated in a tangy cocktail sauce based on a combination of V8 and ketchup with lime and a mix of vegetables.

Mexican Shrimp Cocktail - Cóctel de Camarones

This is such a great appetizer anytime really, but will certainly go very nicely as a starter for your Taco Tuesday, any cocktail party, football gathering or tailgate and those cookouts too. Heck, just a movie night even - just bust up some saltines or tortilla chips!

A tad bit different from what you're used to seeing with our classic American-style shrimp cocktail, it's sort of a cross between that, a ceviche and a gazpacho, all in a Bloody Mary-like base!

A Southwestern style pasta salad featuring rotini pasta with taco seasonings, salsa, veggies and beans. Drizzle with your favorite salad dressing and garnish as desired.

Taco Pasta Salad   

Pasta salads are such a welcome addition to the summertime menu, aren't they?

Some days it's just so hot that the thought of putting a lot of effort into a full out meal can be daunting and overwhelming, nevermind the fact that I may not even have an appetite for that!

What happens with me during those times is that I end up snacking on a whole bunch of junk, instead of having a "meal."

Not great.

Poached chicken breasts, highly seasoned, shredded and stuffed into warmed soft tortillas and dressed with red onion, pico de gallo, cilantro and avocado, or your favorite classic toppings, finished with a squeeze of lime.

Shredded Chicken Soft Tacos - Tacos de Pollo

My husband, aka The Cajun, is pretty set in his taco consumption and not very willing to branch out.

Seasoned ground beef on crunchy taco shells and dressed with a little bit of tomato and lettuce and lots of cheese. That's it.

Me, I'm open to pretty much any variation out there. Shredded beef. Ground turkey. Ground chicken. Shredded chicken. Shrimp. Fish. Steak. Pork. Even potatoes and eggs. I love them all!

American-style tacos made with slow braised, seasoned ground beef or turkey.

Tex-Mex American-Style Taco Meat

I love American style Mexican food, and I'm certainly not opposed at all to using seasoning packets to season them.

They are 100% convenient and I usually keep a few on hand, but sometimes I also like to change up the ingredient amounts for different kinds of dishes.

I've tried a few different ones, including generics, and the brand that I like the most personally is Taco Bell Original (#affiliate) because it seems to have the best combination of flavors for me, but hey... I also enjoy their tacos on occasion when I'm hungry and I just want a quick snack!

Known as Mulitas in Mexican culture, highly seasoned chicken is sandwiched between homemade corn tortillas with shredded cheese and finished with guacamole or avocado, sour cream, pico de gallo or salsa, or whatever your favorite toppings are.

Chicken Tortilla Sandwiches (Mulitas)

I don't remember where I first heard about mulitas, and, in fact, when I first did, I mistakenly assumed it was just another name for a quesadilla!

The reason for that is that I usually make my quesadillas the same way as these mulitas.

Although both can have very similar fillings, some of the differences I've seen between quesadillas and mulitas include:

Mexican-style sandwiches of refried beans and cheese, served on sturdy rolls and toasted, then topped with pico de gallo, make for a nice snack, though they are often served at breakfast, lunch or dinner as well. Add your own favorite toppings!

Molletes - Mexican-Style Bean and Cheese Sandwiches

I am an animal lover. Most of y'all who have been hanging with us know that because you've heard me talk about the TNR program I have participated in the past 7 years since moving and discovering a neighborhood filled with strays and discards that needed to all be fixed. 
 
My dog Boo has been with me since he was found as a puppy, left behind in a box, inside a buggy in a Walmart parking lot in 2008. Hurricane Katrina had already changed the course of my life and I was just entertaining the idea of Deep South Dish. Boo and I have literally been together 24/7 ever since, so we became best buds.

We're both aging and it shows, but it's the natural course of life isn't it? You don't think about that much when you're younger.

A skillet meal of yellow squash and zucchini, corn, onion and tomatoes with garlic, that can be used as a side dish or served stuffed into warmed corn tortillas for a vegetable taco.

Skillet Squash and Zucchini with Corn - Calabacitas con Elote

I think it may have been when I shared the recipe for my Southern-Style Skillet Ratatouille on the Facebook page recently when a reader, Austin, mentioned calabacitas, a Southwest/Mexican-style dish that also uses some of the summer bounty of fresh vegetables that many of us love.

Summer is coming to an end soon so let's get them in while we can y'all!

Highly seasoned grilled shrimp served on grilled fresh corn tortillas with salsa fresca, onion, cilantro and fresh lime.

Tex-Mex Grilled Shrimp Tacos

I love any kind of Mexican or Tex-Mex food, though outside of the usual standards of tacos, burritos and quesadillas - we pretty much go out more often than making it at home. The main reason is that I have an adventurous palate and almost never order the same thing.

The Cajun, well he's the total opposite and almost never steers away from the crunchy beef tacos. It's kinda funny really, because he'll study the menu for awhile, but then when the server arrives, it's always crunchy tacos!

Corn tortillas, stuffed with a seasoned, cooked shredded chicken or beef, rolled, fried to crisp and garnished with lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream and fresh cilantro.

Mexican-Style Rolled Chicken Tacos

Depending on who you're talking to, these are sometimes known as taquitos, Spanish for small tacos, flautas, which is Spanish for flute, or simply rolled tacos.

I have read that taquitos are generally smaller than flautas and usually made with corn tortillas, and flautas are longer and usually made with flour tortillas, though both are prepared much the same and sometimes one or the other of them are made with the other kind of tortilla!

A hot corn dish, Veracruz Corn may be served as either a side dish, great alongside your barbecue, or as a hot corn appetizer with crisp tortilla chips. Filled with goodness of fresh, off the cob corn, marinated in a fiery blend of Southwestern seasonings, tossed with veggies and then dressed with a chipotle aïoli and cheese, and passed under the broiler.

Veracruz Hot Corn Dip

I based this corn dish off of one that I saw in Eva Longoria's cookbook, Eva's Kitchen: Cooking with Love for Family and Friends. It sounded a little like maque choux, but with some spicy flair, which it most certainly has!

Veracruz corn was a popular dish on the menu at the now shuttered Beso Steakhouse in Hollywood, owned by Longoria, and though I believe it was considered a side dish on the menu, I really enjoyed it best as an appetizer, served hot with some crisp tortilla chips.

Chile Cheese Tex-Mex Cornbread

Easy to make, this tender and moist Mexican Cornbread brings a sweet heat to those Tex-Mex and Mexican meals, soups, stews and chili dishes. 

Mexican Cornbread

I know for a southerner it's likely to sound a little sacrilegious, but we aren't super huge on cornbread down here along the Gulf Coast. 

Sure, we eat it and we enjoy it, but French bread and yeast rolls are much more prevalent down here. Because of that, we don't necessarily subscribe to the idea that there is only one way to make cornbread, and, we don't even mind, if occasionally, it's got a little sweetness to it.

I know. I can hear the gasps.

Boneless chicken breasts, soaked in a southwestern seasoned, brown sugar brine, tossed in fajita seasonings, grilled over indirect heat and served with a southwestern seasoned rice.

Grilled Fajita Chicken and Rice

This is a main dish take on those well loved chicken fajitas, putting that bold fajita flavor on those ever popular, full-sized boneless, skinless chicken breast and using the classic peppers and onions to flavor a side dish of rice. Just something with familiar flavors. but a little different!

As always, the full recipe with instructions are further down the page, past the step by step photographs. Scroll or swipe down to the bottom of this post to go straight to the recipe.

A Tex-Mex casserole made from seasoned shredded pork, chicken or beef and beans, layered with corn tortillas, cheese and taco sauce and finished with chopped onion, tomato and shredded lettuce.

Tex-Mex Chalupa Casserole

I have struggled from day one over what to call this casserole.

The recipe I patterned this after was called Chalupa Casserole. Okay. Except "chalupas" apparently is the Spanish word for canoe or small boat, or something to that effect, so an authentic Mexican chalupa is so named because the tortilla dough is formed in the same manner, to make a corn canoe if you will, then stuffed with a variety of fillings.

On the other hand, I have gone to a Mexican restaurant before, ordered a chalupa plate expecting that, and received what really was a tostada to me - a flat, fried tortilla, topped with refried beans and meat and dressed like a taco, with lettuce, onion and tomatoes. Nothing concave or boat shaped about it!

Favorite Southwestern, Mexican and Tex-Mex Recipes

A collection of my favorite Southwestern, Mexican and Tex-Mex recipes, from my website, DeepSouthDish.com.

If you make any of these recipes, I'd love to see your results! Just snap a photo and hashtag it #DeepSouthDish on social media or tag me @deepsouthdish on Instagram!

Yum

I love Mexican food, or I guess more appropriately, what we in the United States know as Tex-Mex, a more Americanized version of anything remotely resembling authentic Mexican cuisine.

I confess though, I'm a pretty simple girl when it comes to it. Give me some chips and salsa or that fabulous cheese dip to start, or maybe even some nachos and a margarita and I'm pretty good with tacos, burritos, or the occasional tostada. Love those!