If you love Chalupas from Taco Bell, you will love this Homemade Mexican Chalupas recipe!

Chalupas are one of the best things on Taco Bell’s menu! Now you can have them on your dinner menu.
When I was younger I worked at a few fast food places. The first place I worked was at McDonald’s. I remember when I aced the interview and was hired on the spot! To me, that was one step closer to financial freedom. I also worked for Subway and Taco Bell. Although there are a lot of negative feelings associated with working in fast food, when you are a teenager the one perk you look forward to when working at a fast food restaurant is the free meal you get during your shift. When working at all three of those restaurants, I tried just about everything on the menus that I could.
I had my favorites at all three, but at Taco Bell I loved Chalupas!


All you need is
-
Flour
-
Milk
-
Salt
-
Shortening
-
Baking powder
Mix all of those ingredients into a ball of dough and you have the basis for the chalupa bread. Of course, you divide the dough and fry it as you normally would. You will then fill the chalupa bread with your favorite taco fillings such as ground beef, chicken, or steak and lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, and sour cream! You can fill the chalupas with whatever you want. This Homemade Mexican Chalupas recipe allows you to be as versatile as you want. You can fry the chalupa bread and set out different toppings and let everyone serve themselves.

I watched this video to learn how to make chalupa bread and this one. They both were helpful.

This Homemade Mexican Chalupas recipe one copycat recipe that is my personal favorite. I don’t have a lot of copycat recipes on my blog but between this Copycat Taco Bell Chalupa recipe and the ones I have, which are Copycat Chocolate Hostess Cupcakes and Copycat White Castle Burgers, this chalupas recipe comes close to being as identical to the true version. I hope you like this recipe as much as I did eating them.
- 2 ¼ c. flour
- 1 tbsp. Baking powder
- ½ tsp. Salt
- 1 oz. shortening
- 1 c. milk
- Canola oil, for frying
- 1 lb. ground beef, cooked
- Sharp cheddar cheese
- Lettuce
- Diced tomatoes
- Sour cream
- Taco sauce
- Heat the oil in a heavy duty shallow skillet such as a cast iron skillet.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, baking powder, salt, and shortening. Use a fork to mix the ingredients together. Pour the milk into the dry ingredients. Use a wooden spoon to mix ingredients in with the milk to form a ball of dough.
- Turn dough onto a floured surface and roll until smooth. Mold the dough into a loaf about 8 inches. Divide the dough in half, then into fourths. See the picture above. Roll each individual section into a ball and roll out the small ball of dough into a round circle about 4-5 inches wide.
- Use tong and carefully dip half of the chalupa dough into the hot oil. Once that half of the dough has begun to fry up but not quite brown, flip the chalupa bread with the other half of the dough frying in the oil. This is if you want to try to have the chalupas have the dip on the bottom for your fillings. If it doesn’t matter to you, just fry on both sides for 2 minutes until golden brown and remove from oil onto cooling rack lined with paper towels.
- Fill your chalupas with beef, lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, and a dollop of sour cream. Top with taco sauce if desired.
OMG you just made taco night so much better! I have to make these next Tuesday!
I love Mexican food but I normally stick to Fajitas, looking at the pics and the recipe I think ill have to give these chalupas a go. The step by step pictures are a great help, thank you!
No prob!
Yum! Looks like I have another recipe to add to my dinner plans for the week 🙂
This is one of my faves when I crave fast food! Love that I can make them at home now! The rolling pin trick is genius!
My latest crush is Tacos. I somehow feel like trying new flavors and just trying new textures with it. Saw your post and i really like the simple flavors and quick preparation. Will surely try this next.
Gotta love those first few jobs that inspire your later work. Love fry bread tacos and these look fantastic!
Jenni LeBaron recently posted…Weasleys’ Dragon Roasted Nuts
We love Mexican food but this is something new to me . Sounds interesting and looks delicious. Can’t wait to try this recipe.
Yumm .. This looks simply yumm …
I’m so excited to try it out. And I love the detailed explanation and images you’ve shared
Thank you !!
These look just like what I need to make to spice up taco Tuesdays! Best of all I have everything already in my pantry and refrigerator to make them.
These look delicious! And I love the fact that you made everything from scratch! I’m definitely going to be trying these.
I’ve never thought of making my own chalupas. These look AMAZING! I will definitely have to give this a try.
Awesome!
Yummy! looks as if i’ve some other recipe to add to my dinner plans for this day.
I don’t have a scale in my kitchen to figure out a one ounce size for the shortening. How many Tablespoons of shortening would be equivalent to one ounce?
I believe that is 2 tablespoons.
I’m really looking forward to trying this but nothing was said about the meat. How you fix it, what kind of seasoning you use, or if you use seasoning on it. Could you let me know if you use any seasoning and if so what would be good?
I would use taco seasoning.
Do you heat the milk for the dough?
No.
I have one word for this recipe… amazing! It was super easy to make and so delicious. It was soft and flaky and did no disappoint.
I tried to give the recipe 5 stars but it would only let me choose 4 stars. I would have given it 10 stars if that was an option.
Awww YAAAAAY!!! This makes me happy to hear Camille
one of my best friends mother taught me how to make that chalupa looking shell a little easier. just get a flour tortilla put a skillet on your stove with a little bit of oil in it make sure your oil is hot place your meat mixture in the tortilla use a toothpick up top to keep it closed and Fry one side then flip it over and Fry the other side I stand mine up to get the bottom of it your tortilla will swell up just like a chalupa
Thanks Susie for the tip!
These were sooooo good! My 15yr old nephew and I made dinner last night. I let him roll them out while I fried them.
I am super happy to hear that!