Crunchy Queso Wrap

By Alexa Weibel

Published June 20, 2025

Crunchy Queso Wrap
Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Brett Regot.
Total Time
45 minutes
Prep Time
15 minutes
Cook Time
30 minutes
Rating
5(818)
Comments
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A wildly popular novelty snack from Taco Bell, the Crunchwrap Supreme combines elements of a burrito with the tidier portability of a sandwich, in a stacked, layered and wrapped tortilla package. It delights for two practical reasons (low cost and convenience) and two culinary ones (crunch and cheesiness). An at-home version is a fun party trick — and it is endlessly customizable. Once you cook up the assertively spiced ground beef, the rest of this recipe is basically assembly: Start with the largest flour tortillas you can find, then layer on the meat (or crispy tofu, or refried beans), cloak it in queso, stack a tostada on top, pile on some chipotle sour cream, lettuce and pico de gallo, then fold and sear. Would you spend less buying just one at a Taco Bell? Yes, but your ratio of filling to tortilla will be paltry compared to this homemade version, which cheaply and happily feeds a crowd.

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Ingredients

Yield:4 servings

    For the Filling

    • 1tablespoon canola or vegetable oil
    • 1pound ground beef
    • ¼cup coarsely grated yellow onion
    • Salt and pepper
    • 2tablespoons tomato paste
    • 1teaspoon ground cumin
    • 1teaspoon smoked paprika
    • 1teaspoon ancho chile powder (or ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper)
    • ½teaspoon garlic powder

    For Assembly

    • ⅔cup sour cream
    • 4teaspoons adobo sauce (from 1 small can chipotles in adobo), or your favorite hot sauce, to taste
    • 4extra-large, burrito-size (10-inch) flour tortillas (see Tip)
    • ¾cup jarred or homemade queso
    • 1heaping cup very thinly sliced iceberg lettuce (cut into short, wispy strands)
    • ¾cup homemade or storebought pico de gallo, drained
    • 4tostada shells
    • Canola or vegetable oil, for frying
    • Hot sauce, for serving
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)

1171 calories; 98 grams fat; 23 grams saturated fat; 2 grams trans fat; 51 grams monounsaturated fat; 18 grams polyunsaturated fat; 44 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams dietary fiber; 9 grams sugars; 32 grams protein; 1289 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Prepare your filling: In a large nonstick skillet, heat the oil over medium-high. Add the beef and onion, season aggressively with salt and pepper, and cook, breaking into tiny pieces, until the beef starts to brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste, then the cumin, paprika, ancho chile powder and garlic powder, and cook, stirring occasionally, until fragrant and any excess liquid evaporates, about 3 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl. Using a paper towel, wipe out the skillet.

  2. Step 2

    Prepare the spicy sour cream: In a small bowl, mix together the sour cream and adobo sauce; season to taste with salt and pepper.

  3. Step 3

    Prepare the assembly line: On a large flat surface, set out the flour tortillas. (You’ll need your tortillas to be pliable without tearing, so if need be, you can warm them directly in the skillet over medium heat to soften just until soft and pliable.) Add ½ cup filling to the center of one tortilla, flattening the filling into an even, 4-inch circle just a bit smaller than the width of your tostadas. Spread with 3 tablespoons queso over the filling. Top the mixture with a tostada, pressing it slightly to make sure the meat mixture is evenly distributed. Evenly spread 2 scant tablespoons of the spicy sour cream on top of the tostada. Top evenly with a heaping ¼ cup shredded lettuce, then 3 tablespoons drained pico de gallo.

  4. Step 4

    Enclose the filling by folding over one flap of the tortilla “border” to cover the filling, repeating the pleat every inch or two. The tortilla should fully enclose your filling, but an opening smaller than 1 inch at the center is just fine. (You can also use slightly less filling, or add a piece of tortilla to cover the gap; see Tip.)

  5. Step 5

    Heat 1 tablespoon oil in the skillet over medium, then carefully add the wrap, setting it seam side down. Cook until golden and crisp, 2 to 3 minutes per side.

  6. Step 6

    Serve immediately, with hot sauce and the remaining spicy sour cream, for dipping or slathering as you eat, dousing the wrap bite by bite. Repeat with remaining wraps, adding oil as needed to the pan before searing.

Tip
  • If you can’t find 10-inch tortillas, opt for the very largest ones you can find. Ideally, you want the tortilla to fully cover the fillings. If you’re having trouble cut (or tear!) 2- or 3-inch pieces from another tortilla and set it on top of your salsa, in the center, before folding over the tortilla to fully enclose.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
818 user ratings
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Comments

Pat M

Oh dear oh dear oh dear, this is upside down. Do the cold stuff first (lettuce/pico/sour cream/guacamole etc), THEN the tostada, then the hot queso/protein. Get your little gap piece of flour tortilla (about the size of a pint glass opening, you can cut it from a flour soft taco tortilla), then fold the edges over. Sear seam-sized down with the hot ingredients closest to the hot pan. This way the cold ingredients stay cold!

Chris in Redlands

For this recipe or any recipe that calls for making a ground beef taco filling, do yourself a favor and replace the ground beef with finely diced or shredded slow-roasted pork shoulder. Ups your game considerably. Use your favorite slow roasted pork shoulder method for dinner some night and freeze the leftovers in one-pound portions and you'll always have some on hand for a recipe like this. Magical!

Arif

@Vol it’ll crisp up and hold its shape. That’s why you put it seam side down first. It’ll essentially seal the parts that could fall apart and leak…

Does anyone know if these can be frozen?

Has anyone tried freezing this without the queso/lettuce or fresh ingredients?

Sarah

Fun! I’m going to double up on the tostadas next time because the second half of my wrap was soggy by the time I got to it. Otherwise it’s great as written — one tiny variation, I threw some pinto beans into the Impossible beef because I love beans. Recommended!

Suri

If you're trying to get that "authentic Taco Bell taste," you'll need to add a little flour and water (1/4 cup each) to the ground beef as it cooks. Otherwise you'll enjoy the flavor but the meat texture will be different from a real crunch wrap's. Probably not as big of a deal for most of the readers here as it is to me, but I grew up poor and ate a lot of Taco Bell and like getting as close to their recipe as I can for nostaglia's sake.

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