The Tex-Mex dish served in a fried tortilla shell shaped like a bowl is taco salad.
Taco salad combines salad ingredients with flavors associated with tacos. A typical version includes lettuce, tomatoes, beans, cheese, seasoned ground beef, sour cream, and salsa, although recipes vary widely. The shell is usually a large flour or corn tortilla fried into a bowl or a similarly shaped crisp tortilla vessel.
The dish developed in Mexican-American restaurant culture and became especially popular in the United States during the 20th century. It is not simply a conventional Mexican salad; its defining combination of salad greens, taco toppings, and a fried tortilla shell reflects Tex-Mex adaptation.
Taco salad is sometimes confused with a burrito bowl. A burrito bowl contains similar ingredients without the edible fried shell, while nachos use chips as the base rather than a bowl-shaped tortilla.