I like to BAKE my tacos to crisp the shells and melt the cheese before piling on the fresh toppings. Because melted cheese wins over unmelted cheese every day!
Totally un-authentic Beef Taco Recipe!
You will never find ground beef / mince tacos in Mexico. Authentic beef tacos are either sliced seared steaks (like Carne Asada), or marinated beef chopped into thin strips that are pan fried to get golden crispy edges (taqueria style), or slow-cooked and shredded into sauce like this Shredded Beef Mexican Beef and Beef Barbacoa. So beef mince tacos, the single most popular type of taco meat made in million and millions of households the world over, is totally un-authentic. And that’s absolutely ok. We love them anyway – and we will always love them!
Bake them!
This is how I make my old school beef tacos – BAKING them to melt the cheese and crisp the tacos shells. I don’t know if that’s “normal”, but I’ll take any opportunity to melt cheese when appropriate. Let me put it this way – if I had a choice of a cold slice of cheese slapped on bread, or a grilled cheese sandwich with gooey cheese oozing out the sides, I know which one I’d choose. And you?? 😇
Homemade taco seasoning
Skip the packet seasoning! It truly is quite incredible how simple it is to make homemade taco seasoning. Garlic, onion, cumin, paprika, oregano plus optional cayenne pepper for a touch of heat. Just pure, normal spices and herbs – no scary sounding ingredients you can’t pronounce like maltodextrin, silicon dioxide and ethoxyquin that you’ll find in packets of store bought!! (Yes really, just Google “Old El Paso taco seasoning ingredients”) This taco seasoning mix is a terrific staple to add to your arsenal for all things Tex Mex, from Quesadillas to Burritos, Enchiladas to Taco Soup (don’t knock it until you’ve tried it, it’s amazing!). While stores sell different seasonings for each of these, essentially they have the same flavour base which is the Taco Seasoning mix used in this recipe.
The taco meat
The taco meat recipe as written is my base recipe made with just beef and onion, and it will stuff 10 tacos generously or 12 normal size tacos.
Old school taco toppings
There’s a plethora of taco topping options, but today I’m sticking with the old school way: shredded cheese, taco sauce (optional), iceberg lettuce, tomato, onion and even sour cream. That’s right folks. We’re going Tex-Mex all the way. No fancy salsas, no authentic chilli sauces, no Mexican pickles. Pile on that shredded cheese and sour cream! 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
Just to be clear – baking the tacos with the filling and cheese is totally optional. If you’re not a Melted-Cheese-Monster, by all means feel free to serve it the normal way – bake the empty taco shells then lay it all out for people to stuff themselves. – Nagi x
More taco topping options
Guacamole, Avocado Sauce or avocado slices/diced Pico de Gallo (chunky tomato salsa) or a smooth Salsa Sauce Taco Sauce or hot sauce / chilli sauce of choice
And more tacos
Quick Chicken Tacos – 2 in 1 recipe, shredded taco seasoned chicken AND taco sauce Beef Tacos – the old school way Marinated Grilled Chicken Tacos Slow Cooked Shredded Mexican Chicken for Tacos Fish Tacos – marinated and grilled, healthy and delicious! Pork Carnitas Tacos – the iconic Mexican pulled pork tacos Shredded Beef Tacos – tender slow cooked shredded beef in a deep flavoured Mexican sauce Beef Barbacoa – another braised, shredded beef, but tangier and punching through with chipotle chill flavours
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Sometimes it helps to have a visual, so watch me make this Beef Taco recipe – the old school way!
LIFE OF DOZER
SO overdue for lawn mowing……
