Cheesy Fiesta Potatoes Recipe (Taco Bell Copycat)

Taco Bell had these delicious crispy potatoes that they used for a lot of their Fiesta bowls, spicy potato tacos, and their iconic Loaded Potato Griller. These were some of the best fast food dishes from Taco Bell that I loved ordering, but a lot of these well-known Taco Bell potatoes were discontinued. That’s why I decided to make my own Taco Bell cheesy fiesta potatoes to enjoy at home.

These cheesy Taco Bell fiesta potatoes that I made are basically the base for their other potato dishes that you can also eat on its own. Or, you can also recreate their other dishes like the Spicy Potato Soft Taco or Loaded Potato Griller that are both filled with lots of cheesy potato bites.

For my cheesy fiesta potatoes Taco Bell copycat recipe, I focused on just making the fried potato base with cheese and sour cream toppings. I used Russet potatoes since they’re bigger than the regular brown and golden potatoes. I washed and sliced the potatoes first then prepared the seasoned flour. If you have extra time, you can also parboil the potatoes before seasoning them so that it’s partly cooked and won’t dry out the flesh of the potatoes. It’s an optional step you can do, but it’s not entirely necessary.

After preparing the potatoes, each potato was dredged in the seasoned flour made of onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, and cayenne pepper. This seasoning is the secret to making these copycat Taco Bell cheesy fiesta potatoes rich and flavorful, and also extra crispy after frying. I recommend using a deep fryer so that the potatoes are evenly fried. It’s also much easier and faster to cook the potatoes this way. I deep-fried my potatoes for about 10 to 12 minutes until they’re golden brown.

I transferred to a wire rack first to drain the excess oil, then prepared the cheese sauce and sour cream toppings. For the cheese, you can use canned cheese sauce or make your own homemade Nacho cheese sauce so it’s extra flavorful. In a medium bowl, I placed the potatoes and then added the sauces. Add more to make it extra tasty! I also included other optional toppings, such as bacon and chives, for an added subtle crunch. If you’re looking for a vegetarian side though, you can replace the bacon meat with crispy fried onions. It will give the same aromatic crunch as fried bacon bits.