Crescent Roll Tacos

These Easy Crescent Roll Tacos are full of flavor and make the perfect appetizer, snack, party food or easy meal!

Taco meat and pepper jack cheese wrapped in crescent dough can be made in 20 minutes with only 5 ingredients.  Our family relies on quick recipes like this to get us through busy weeks.

Add lettuce and tomato and eat along with a salad. Or dip in sour cream and sprinkle cilantro on top of the cream. 

Taco Crescent Roll Recipe

Also known as Taco Sticks this is a versatile recipe. Using crescent dough makes them a little easier to hold and eat for our toddler than traditional tacos.

Not like a hard taco or a soft taco, it’s like a taco in a fluffy container known as a crescent roll. 

We love these Easy BBQ Pulled Pork Crescents and tacos, so we wanted to combine the two ideas. 

Begin with crescent dough and then add a little flavor with taco sauce, salsa or another sauce that you have on hand.  Sprinkle on cooked taco meat or this homemade Ground Pork Taco Meat.  Add your favorite flavor of cheese.  

Pepper jack cheese sticks are a great way to add a little kick to your taco.  If pepper jack cheese isn’t your favorite flavor, any cheese stick will work.

If you like this recipe you may also enjoy our Taco Ring with similar ingredients and flavors!

Why This Crescent Roll Tacos Recipe Works

• Great way to use leftover taco meat and mix up the mealtime routine a little bit.
• Delicious grab and go food for busy nights when kids need food between school and practice.
• I’m not a person that enjoys spicy food and I enjoy this easy meal. There is just enough kick in our crescent roll tacos to add excitement!

Ingredients Needed

• Taco Meat – Cooked and seasoned beef or pork with a generous amount of taco seasoning can be made ahead of time.
• Crescent Rolls – A tube of refrigerated crescent roll dough.
• Taco Sauce – Choose your preferred level of heat.
• Pepper Jack Cheese Sticks – The sticks are more convenient, but you can get a block and cut your own pieces to save some money.

20 Minute Handheld Meal Ideas

Handheld meals that can be eaten on the run to soccer practice or the farm field is a winning meal for our family!  Even better is a meal like this that you can open the refrigerator and likely have enough of the ingredients on hand to make this meal happen.

The recipe only takes 4 ingredients and then we like to garnish with sour cream.  Sometimes we’ll toss in cilantro or lettuce if we have it.

When the weather is good in the fall we are always on the go to help harvest corn and soybeans.  While my work and the kids keep me busy these days, the people working in the farm fields always need something.  They need a ride from one field to another when moving tractors.  A parts run to the shop or hardware store in town seems to pop up more often than we’d like.  And keeping up with the kids keeps us running.

The bottom line is we might not have more than 20 minutes to make dinner some nights!

Another handheld meal using refrigerated dough that we enjoy is our Pizza On A Stick. Our Chicken Fajita Pizza starts with refrigerated pizza dough to make another super easy Mexican-inspired meal.

How to Make Taco Crescent Rolls

1. Unroll crescent dough on a baking sheet and separate into triangles.
2. Spread a thin layer of taco sauce on each crescent
3. Add 2 tablespoons of warm taco meat to each crescent
4. Cut pepper jack cheese sticks in half and lay cheese stick on the wide end of each crescent
5. Roll up crescent around cheese stick
6. Bake 10 minutes until golden brown in a 350ºF oven

Step By Step Instructions

Brown ground beef and drain fat. Add taco seasoning and cook according to the directions on the package.

Unroll crescent dough and separate into triangles on a lightly greased baking sheet.

Spread a thin layer of taco sauce on each crescent roll. Leave a little 1/4” to 1/2” gap around the edges.

Sprinkle or spoon 1 to 2 tablespoons of cooked taco mixture on top of the sauce.

Again leave a little bit of an edge to allow filling to move as it’s rolled without falling out. 

Unwrap cheese sticks and cut in half.

Place half of the cheese stick on the wide end of the triangle.

Roll up the crescent dough beginning with the cheese stick side.

Once you’ve wrapped one full rotation around the cheese stick fold the corners in towards the cheese stick. This step is optional and typically helps prevent the meat and sauce mixture from falling out while the crescent bakes. 

They can also be rolled to look more like taco sticks or crescents filled with taco flavors. They will taste same however they are rolled!

We tested several options and did not find a lot of benefit to tucking in the sides or leaving them more open. If you want a taco stick then keep two triangles together to form a rectangle, lay the cheese stick in the center and pinch the sides shut.

Tips for Making Easy Taco Crescents

• Greasing the baking sheet may make handling easier, but I’ve made these on an ungreased sheet without any trouble too
• To make this meal quickly we use prepared taco meat
• If taco meat is frozen defrost and warm up before using
• Salsa can be substituted for taco sauce
• Any variety of cheese stick can be used
• Garnish crescent roll tacos with sour cream and cilantro if desired
• Chilled dough is much easier to work with than warm dough.
• Warm dough will stick to the tray when trying to roll up.

Other Easy Family Meal Ideas

• BBQ Chip Fried Chicken
• Chicken Crescent Swirls
• Roast Beef Sliders on Hawaiian Rolls
• Chicken Bacon Ranch Mac and Cheese
• Cheeseburger Hand Pies

Recipe originally shared October 4, 2019 with updates made on September 7, 2023.