The Hands-Down Best New Taco Bell Items Of 2026 (So Far)

It's been a big year for new menu items at Taco Bell. Arguably, every year is a big year for new menu items at Taco Bell. (And returning menu items too, if we're going to be pedantic.) But in 2026, the Bell announced over 20 upcoming menu items at its now-annual Live Mas event and then just kind of ... kept having more ideas. 

From a new chicken-topped, cantina-style take on the Mexican pizza and collaborations with brands like Doritos and Milky Bar to the introduction of nuggets and the return of Nacho Fries, the brand went into the year swinging. And yet most of the hands-down best new items at Taco Bell in 2026 either weren't conceived of until later in the year or weren't deemed exciting enough for a full bells and whistles on-stage announcement. 

The latter seems likely, as many of the best new items from the last year are twists on classic Taco Bell items or new uses of classic ingredients, although the brand's collab with Tajin does sneak into this top four. The enduring pull of Nacho Fries and the Cheesy Gordita Crunch isn't exactly proof that the brand's constant and wild innovation is all for nothing — these are new takes on old ideas after all — but it is a reminder that Taco Bell does the classics just as well as it does mind-bending, Tex-Mex-adjacent improv. Who knows what next year will bring? The next Live Mas event might change everything.

Nacho Fries have returned to Taco Bell once again, allegedly as a permanent menu item, but then this loaded, chicken-topped spin came out. I don't want to speak too soon, but is it possible the flip-flopping experimenters at Taco Bell's head offices have finally realized the people will always want fries with stuff on them? Currently, the Chicken Enchilada Nacho Fries are a limited-time item, but as they're pretty much perfect, I'm crossing my fingers for regular returns.  

The fries are topped with the sauce from the rather literally named Enchirito, an enchilada and burrito mashup that recently popped up again on Taco Bell's menu after three years in the cold. This red sauce is complemented by a shredded three-cheese blend and surprisingly good slow-roasted chicken. The enchilada-themed dirty fries are finished with pico de gallo (which adds a much-needed hit of freshness), sour cream, and Fiesta Strips. 

The tortilla chip strips are a classic Taco Bell twist, and they're kind of a genius move. I don't know what the Taco Bell kitchen does to make them hold up so well when muddled with sauce and sour cream but they seem near indestructible and the crunch they add means it doesn't matter if some of the loaded fries get a little soft as the sauce soaks into them. Has Taco Bell solved the age-old soggy fries dilemma? Tortilla strips probably wouldn't be acceptable in a classic Canadian poutine, but the brand has definitely taken a step forward in loaded-potato engineering. 

For me, these chalupas were a surprise hit. Usually, I'm not a fan of Taco Bell's hard, fried flatbread-style chalupa shell; but with this new twist, I'm a convert. As many reviewers (including our own intrepid reporter) have noted, the chicken version is the better of the two, but both are 2026 highlights.

Perhaps it's the smaller "street" size (similar to the Cheesy Street Chalupas that were on the menu last year), perhaps it's the surprisingly fresh and flavorful fajita-style onions and peppers, but the texture of these chalupas is extremely balanced and the flavor extremely bold. That boldness comes partly from a cheesy jalapeno sauce, but the raw diced onions and cilantro which the chalupas are topped with do some heavy lifting when it comes to freshness.

The white onion and cilantro mixture also lends the chalupas the look of real Mexican street food. This is odd given that traditional chalupas don't use hard-shell flatbreads and fajitas (which are decidedly not a street food) were invented in Texas. But if Taco Bell can't school us on the porous nature of culinary boundaries and the mutability of "authentic" dishes, who can?

Beyond the iconic, vaguely tropical-flavored Baja Blast, Taco Bell's drink menu doesn't usually excite fast food fans as much as its ever-evolving food menu does. But over the last year, the brand's drink releases have been kind of wild. There were cold foams, a strawberry horchata, and a bright pink (and weirdly good?) special edition pink lemonade blast that Olivia Rodrigo put her name on. Then came Taco Bell's recent collaboration with Tajin. The mashup seems like a match made in corporate heaven and has been in the works since at least 2024. The collab also brought us the Tajin Strawberry Pineapple Freeze, truly making 2026 a banner year for bevs at Taco Bell.

The slushy is the highlight of the Tajin menu, which is otherwise pretty mixed. That makes sense as Tajin belongs with sweet and fruity flavors. It's how the distinctly blended seasoning is used in Mexico, where sweet, salty, and spicy flavors give drinks, chopped fruit, and candy an addictive kick. While I don't expect authenticity to be high on the Bell's list of priorities, the sour and slightly spicy flavoring is perfectly at home in this slushy. The fruity freeze is a bit too sweet without the Tajin flavor, so give it a stir before you drink it and ask for an extra shake of the seasoning if you need some more spice. Then try not to drink it so fast you get a brain freeze, particularly if you're driving. 

These Gordita Crunch Duos are a miniaturized version of the iconic Cheesy Gordita Crunch, and they've arrived as part of a wave of teeny tiny options at Taco Bell. This push for snackification comes on the heels of a 7% uptick in snack sales at the chain (according to NRN), which executives have put down to an insatiable love of snacking on the part of Gen Z.

Despite the slightly strange logic behind this invention, the Duos really work (and as the name suggests, they come in twos, making them reasonably substantial). In fact, size aside, there are a few updates to the Gordita Crunch concept here that might make them even better than the original. Firstly, the protein. The Duos come with either steak or slow-cooked chicken, both of which have the seasoned ground beef of the original squarely beat. The creamy chipotle sauce they're drizzled with is also a step up from spicy ranch, while the pico de gallo (which works particularly well with the chicken filling) offers a whole lot more flavor than cubed tomatoes.

Don't get me wrong, there will always be a place in our hearts for the Cheesy Gordita Crunch, but it may well have walked so the Duos could run. For now, though, they're a limited time item. We'll have to keep bumping those snacking numbers up if we want to enjoy these little guys long term, so call your Gen Z friends and get the low-down on the "eating something smaller than a full meal" trend.