The taco salad is a Mexican inspired dish, with many variations, which first appeared in America in the 1960s.
The salad is often served as a fried flour tortilla shell stuffed with shredded iceberg lettuce and topped with diced tomatoes, shredded Cheddar cheese, sour cream, guacamole, and salsa. The salad is topped with taco meat (ground beef) or seasoned shredded chicken. The salad may also have a base of refried beans on the shell before the lettuce is added.
Variations include a similar salad served without the tortilla base and a "bowl" of Spanish rice and refried beans dressed out with similar ingredients.
The taco salad also takes a twist in many American homes. Instead of using a tortilla or a bowl of Spanish rice as a base, the meal is based on top of crushed tortilla chips, making the dish very similar to the Mexican dish of nachos, just with added lettuce.
The taco salad was mocked in a Anheuser-Busch Real Men of Genius radio advertisement due to the perceived irony of referring to a very high-calorie dish as a salad.