Skip to Content

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.

Air Fryer Tacos

Is your mouth drooling thinking of all the ways you could make air fryer tacos y’all?? I know mine did when the idea popped into my head. Best way to use leftovers from the night before, or make fresh with any protein you want. One of our easy air fryer recipes you must try like tonight. (affiliate links present, originally published 6/22)

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.

FIRST – You should sign up for my free newsletter so you get new posts emailed to you twice a week and never miss out on anything! If you love air fryer recipes too, here are some resources to start with:

cosori review

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

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 shells in the 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:

How Long Does it Take to Cook Tacos in Air Fryer?

Not long. Since the insides are already precooked you are just warming everything together, melting the cheese and crisping the tortilla or taco shells.
About 6 minutes usually does the trick. We have the full recipe instructions below in this post.

Can you put soft tacos in an air fryer?

Yep, this would then transform them from soft into crunchy of course. If you love Del Taco soft chicken tacos those are incredible air fried for a few minutes.

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

Ninja Foodi Tacos

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 chicken Tacos

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.

air fryer taco

Want to see a few of my favorite things that I am totally obsessed with?? Take a peek and see how many you might already have…twinsies!

Looking for more easy family recipes and tips? LIKE The Typical Mom Facebook page?

Then sign up for my free newsletter, and follow me on Pinterest! 😉

***** If you LOVED this recipe give it 5 Stars below and let everyone know what you thought about it. 😉

the typical mom
air fryer taco
Print Pin
5 from 1 vote

Air Fryer Tacos

Air fryer tacos with shredded pork, ground beef, chicken or shrimp are here. Healthy dinner or make with leftover meat for a cheap meal.
Course Entree, Main Course
Cuisine Mexican
Keyword air fryer, beef, chicken, ninja foodi, shrimp, soft tacos, tacos
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 6 minutes
Servings 12
Calories 305kcal
Author The Typical Mom

Equipment

Ingredients

Instructions

  • 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 divide the chicken filling among the 12 tortillas. Press the filling onto half of each tortilla. Fold the flat side over. Place as many tacos fit in your air fryer basket without overlapping.
  • Spray the tops of the tacos with a little spray olive oil. Bake in the air fryer at 350 for 6 minutes and check, until golden brown on top. Every air fryer differs so begin checking at 6 minutes. Add chopped cilantro, more cheese, sour cream and red onion inside if desired.Serve

Video

Nutrition Facts
Air Fryer Tacos
Amount Per Serving (1 oz)
Calories 305 Calories from Fat 135
% Daily Value*
Fat 15g23%
Saturated Fat 7g44%
Trans Fat 1g
Polyunsaturated Fat 2g
Monounsaturated Fat 4g
Cholesterol 42mg14%
Sodium 665mg29%
Potassium 190mg5%
Carbohydrates 28g9%
Fiber 2g8%
Sugar 9g10%
Protein 14g28%
Vitamin A 381IU8%
Vitamin C 1mg1%
Calcium 256mg26%
Iron 2mg11%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
air-fryer-taco
Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.