Ground beef as a taco filler is not at the top of my taco-filling list. But sometimes ya just gotta use it. When I was a kid we ate ground beef tacos, so they’re a touchstone. Jack In The Box’s bizarre puréed-beef tacos are addictive snacks. And sometimes you just don’t want to go to the trouble of cooking a hunk o’ beef and shredding it with a fork.
So I was at the taco truck last week. Got a shredded-beef torta, but I couldn’t resist a ground beef taco as well. (Two small, soft corn tortillas with beef filling.) Here’s the thing: When I make ground beef tacos at home I use a ‘taco seasoning’ packet, or else use cumin, chili powder, garlic, onions, salt, pepper, Tapatio, and whatever else strikes my fancy. The taco truck’s tacos were just ground beef with minced onions and salt and pepper. Tasty, but I like the spices.
Totally need spices. I struggle with ground beef tacos, I get bored with the taco seasoning we use and my experiments vary pretty drastically.
I mostly stay away from cumin, light on the chili powder. I try to get most of my flavor from green pepper and onions, maybe a little jalapeno. Usually a dab of garlic salt, some Lowery’s, and half the time I break down and throw in a little of the taco seasoning too.
I’ve had good luck changing it up by throwing the refried beans in with the meat or cooking the meat with beer.
I’d love to hear other folks’ ground taco recipes.
Yeah, needs the spices. I actually think that ground beef tacos made with a boxed taco kit, lettuce, tomato, and shredded cheese is one of the most delicious meals in the world.
Absolutely need seasonings: cumin, chili powder, crushed red pepper, paprika; this is minimal, in addition, of course, to onion and garlic.
I personally like the ground beef for my tacos or tortillas kind of ‘pulverized’, so I’ll cook it all up, add a little beef stock, and hit it quick with an immersion blender. Makes for a nice ‘smooth’ meat. Balances nicely with the salsa, shredded lettuce and finely diced tomatoes (not to mention the shredded cheddar; you never have too much cheese!)
Put a little sour cream on top, and, NOM.
We switched to ground turkey for tacos a few years ago, and once it’s seasoned and spiced, I really can’t tell the difference. And I don’t usually feel that way about that kind of substitution.
Whenver we do GB tacos, I don’t use the seasoning packets anymore. Just salt and pepper, onion. But we use adobo sauce for the spice, a little water, and a pinch of sugar. Then we chop up a couple of the chipotle’s and throw them in right before we serve 'em. Side of cilantro and some sour cream, maybe a pinch of cheese, and we’re done.
Oh, and soft corn tortillas. Gotta be corn tortillas.
ETA: Also, I find that if you start with frozen hamburger, and put about a half inch of water in the pan, essentially steaming the meat to thaw, it breaks it up into a nice fine-grain consistency.
I now use their Chili 9000, which I’ve pimped here before. I make taco filling (and nacho meat) like I make chili: heavily spiced, and with onions and peppers.
I love spices (ie, hot), but my family doesn’t like anything spicier than salt. We use the Old El Paso type seasoning, but nothing else, sadly. Oh, we put cheese and sour cream, and maybe mild salsa, but I jazz it up with hot sauce and other junk. And we use ground beef just because it’s easier and quicker that way than shredding the beef, although sometimes we do it that way too.
It also depends on what is in the fridge. If we have left-over steak or roast, the tacos will be shredded beef. If not, then a chub of hamburger from the freezer will do.
As for hot sauce, I tend towards La Victoria Salsa Brava, while the wife prefers Taco Bell’s hot taco sauce. But there is also a soft spot in my heart for Lindy’s, which is what I grew up with.
Old El Paso used to have tubs of prepared ground beef or shredded chicken that I used to buy and eat all the time; they took all of the work out of having tacos, you just heated it up and plopped it in a shell with some lettuce and cheese. I know, total bachelor chow but it tasted better than Taco Bell and could be made and eaten in a span of just a few minutes. Haven’t had tacos at home since they stopped selling it.
Is that the paste stuff in the jar? That stuff rocks!
Honestly, I don’t have a problem with cheapo taco seasoning if it’s doctored up a little. Do this:
Chop up half an onion. Brown your ground meat in your pan, drain off fat.
Mix in McCormick’s taco seasoning (or whatever type you like), along with the onions, and add about a cup or more water than the recipe calls for along with the onions.
Cook down the resulting goop until it’s at the right consistency for tacos. You can doctor it with more spices and veggies, or eat as-is. Beats the regular recipe by a mile!
You can avoid the arduous seasoning step by using chorizo. Cut up some onions and put them with the meat that last few minutes of cooking and you’re done.
Well, here’s the thing for me: Hard corn tortillas–sometimes even fried? What the hell is that? Yes, I’ve had the Jack-in-the-Box things, and not only is the filling nebulous, but the grease factor makes dragging my stomach home extremely arduous. I will say, though, that they’re really cheap.
As for ground beef? I don’t know–it’s not bad, but I just can’t get into it. That’s not a taco for me. It’s like something my aunt from the Bronx would make.
Nothing wrong with Old El Paso stuff as long as you add plenty of salsa and ground black pepper and then slow cook the bastard in a frying pan for a few hours ( adding water, as necessary).
I’d say that if you can get it from a taco truck that has a Mexican operating it, then that’s not really fair.
Except.
Except the last truck near the office, run by a Mexican guy, used American cheese. Or maybe American-process cheese food. Nothing wrong with American cheese (I don’t like the ‘cheese food’), but it belongs nowhere near Mexican-style food.
Oh, really? Well if that’s the case, then surely this famous Mexican guy operating a lonchera can cook better than my ex (a chilanga), who makes enchiladas with hotdogs.
