How to Make Air Fryer Tacos

Air fryer tacos with shredded pork, ground beef, chicken, shrimp or air fryer fish tacos are here. Healthy dinner or make with leftover meat for a cheap meal.

Ninja Foodi Tacos

You can use any brand you might have at home. I have a few because I’m a little nutty, and I like to ensure all types cook the same. They do so no worries.

Biggest difference is the size and shape of the basket. Larger and square will of course cook more at the same time which will save you, well time.

If you don’t have leftovers you can easily cook up some air fryer ground beef or even frozen fish in air fryer works really great. Then divide up into your “blanket” with all your other goodies and crisp away my friends. It’s just that simple. Kinda’ like those fried Jack and the Box tacos you love, but way healthier.

Air Fryer Shrimp Tacos

Pick your protein my friends. We have tried them all and there isn’t one that isn’t delicious. My family prefers seafood whenever we can get it so often times I will air fry bang bang shrimp with some diced onions and use those babies first. I have even cooked up frozen air fryer shrimp in a pinch.

Ninja Foodi Chicken Tacos

You could easily buy a rotisserie at the store and dice that up. Use fresh and throw in like our air fryer teriyaki chicken. Skip the sauce if you want but use the same timing and temp to get it cooked thru. If you batch cook a bunch of shredded chicken this is a great way to use that up after it’s defrosted and warmed.

Ground beef of course is a given and easy to brown up real quick. It’s the first thing I think about when I’m coming up with a leftover taco meat recipe.

Tacos in Air Fryer

Of course the filling is up to you but this is what was used for this go around;

1. You could make a batch of air fryer taco shells ahead of time if you wanted to go all out.
2. Use a can of drained and rinsed black beans
3. We love a lot a lot a cheese for sure
4. Add some texture and flavor with corn kernels
5. Any sort of salsa or taco seasoning adds flavor
6. Shredded chicken was used here but alternatives would be:
   1. using leftover chicken breasts after pressure cooking the night before works great
   2. if you made slow cooker taco meat the night before you could use that
   3. leave protein out if you wanted air fryer vegetarian tacos of course
   4. I love using pressure cooker Hawaiian pulled pork for a bit of sweetness

Questions you might have in mind right about now:

The filling is really up to you as you can see but we will share what a great combo in the recipe card below.

Mini Tacos in Air Fryer

You can use any size tortillas you want, soft taco size at the store is best. They offer corn and flour almost always. The biggest difference in the two is that corn is harder to fold over and will want to fly open so you may need to fasten down in a way with a toothpick if you use those.

If you could find a smaller variety, or wanted to make very large ones with burrito size tortillas go for it. Larger means it will likely only fit one where smaller varieties will fit 3-4 at a time. It is best to cook to order in a sense so they stay nice and crispy on the outside when you’re ready to enjoy them.

Frozen Mini Tacos in Air Fryer

We are talking here about homemade soft tacos but if you wanted to cook the already made frozen variety we have instructions for those here too;

• Preheat air fryer to 400 F degrees
• Place frozen tacos in basket in a single layer without overlapping
• Cook for a total of 7-8 minutes flipping over halfway thru the timing.

Air Fryer Soft Tacos

What I mean is they start out soft and you can get them crunchy this way. Cook time varies depending on how crisp and golden brown you want them to become.

• In a large bowl mix together your cooked and shredded chicken, corn, black beans, 8 oz of your shredded cheese and BBQ sauce.
• Once combined add the taco filling among the 12 small flour tortillas. Press the filling onto half of each flour or corn tortilla. Fold the flat side over. Place as many tacos fit in your air fryer basket without overlapping.
• Spray tops with a little olive oil cooking spray.
  • Bake in the air fryer at 350 for 6 minutes and check, until golden brown on top.
  • Every air fryer differs a bit so begin checking at 6 minutes.
  • Add chopped cilantro, more cheese, sour cream and red onion inside if desired.

I personally prefer to dip them into the cold toppings at the end and only include warm ingredients I want to get hot inside but that is totally up to you.