CookingBites Dish of the Month (May): Tortilla-based dishes

foodie67me said:
I am happy that May is tortilla month.

Has anyone of you ever made homemade Mexican tacos with gorund beef and tortillas (hard shell or soft)? I know there are lots of recipes online but can you please break down your recipe? In particular I have two questions:

1. When the ground beef is cooking, what sauce do I need to add to this?

2. When I am building my taco, what sauce do I add to this?

I am asking this question because there is Taco Sauce as per the below picture and I don't know exactly if I need to put this sauce on the ground beef when it is cooking on the stove or do I need to put that Taco Sauce as a topping when I am building my taco similar to the act of putting ketchup on a hotdog?

Also, if the Taco sauce is applied to the Taco as a topping, do I need to dilute the Taco sauce with water first? How much sauce should I use, alot like ketchup? How much do you use?

https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/bf....jpeg?odnHeight=450&odnWidth=450&odnBg=FFFFFF

Thanks!
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Welcome to CookingBites @foodie67me :welcome:. I'm probably not the best person to answer your questions as I'm not someone who has ever made a taco like you describe (believe it or not!). I'm sure another regular member in the US, such as @CraigC, @medtran49, @detroitdad or @The Late Night Gourmet may be able to answer better than I can.

If you get a chance please head over to New Member Introductions a tell us a bit more about yourself and your interests in cooking. We love new members!
 
Welcome @foodie67me ! Craig makes our taco filling so he will have to hopefully answer.

I meant to make this burger for the cookalong, but it never made it to our menu plan this month. I had forgotten I had posted the recipe previously, but since I did am going to add it to the thread.

https://www.cookingbites.com/thread...ustard-relish-and-fresh-sage-tortillas.13066/
full.jpg
 
foodie67me said:
I am happy that May is tortilla month.

Has anyone of you ever made homemade Mexican tacos with gorund beef and tortillas (hard shell or soft)? I know there are lots of recipes online but can you please break down your recipe? In particular I have two questions:

1. When the ground beef is cooking, what sauce do I need to add to this?

2. When I am building my taco, what sauce do I add to this?

I am asking this question because there is Taco Sauce as per the below picture and I don't know exactly if I need to put this sauce on the ground beef when it is cooking on the stove or do I need to put that Taco Sauce as a topping when I am building my taco similar to the act of putting ketchup on a hotdog?

Also, if the Taco sauce is applied to the Taco as a topping, do I need to dilute the Taco sauce with water first? How much sauce should I use, alot like ketchup? How much do you use?

https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/bf....jpeg?odnHeight=450&odnWidth=450&odnBg=FFFFFF

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I can't remember the last time we made taco meat with ground beef and I've never made it with a pre-made sauce.We do however make a Mexican style ground beef for nachos, but it is made from scratch being heavily influenced by ground dried chilis and freshly toasted and ground cumin. I might consider that sauce for enchiladas or wet burritos. I'm sure that sauce is meant as a condiment to put in a taco or over something. I'm sure it really has no "heat" to it, so I'd use it straight up and as much as you like. You might be able to use it for huevos rancheros.

Yesterday we had Carna Asada tacos (flour tortillas), homemade guacamole, pico de gallo and pickled red onions (salt and lime juice). Carna Asada is either flank or skirt steak, marinated and grilled. I did some of the tortillas as chips as well I much prefer grilled meat, seafood or chicken for tacos or Carnitas or Texican shredded pork.
 
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Well, guess not as far as Craig is concerned. From what I can remember as it's been a really long time, Craig sauteed chopped onions and garlic, added the ground beef and browned, drained/blotted excess grease (leaving some as fat is flavor), ground cumin, Mexican oregano (Italian oregano is fine if you don't have), chili powder (the regular red lid brand), a good bit of all 3, some salt and pepper of course, and he added some kind of canned tomato product, whether it was sauce (probably) or diced (I'd start with maybe 1/2 can of the small can of tomato sauce and add in as necessary, it will obviously depend on how much ground beef you are using), maybe some water or chicken stock, then let that cook down slowly for 20-30 minutes into a thick mixture, stirring once in a while, tasting and making adjustments as necessary. Sorry, I don't have amounts, it's been so long I couldn't even guess and he obviously doesn't remember making this as he was telling me to add stuff in that I know for a fact he didn't. You didn't need to add a sauce as the mixture was saucy enough. We added shredded lettuce, shredded cheese, sour cream, and pico de gallo. The meat mixture he made was an upscaled version and way better tasting of Taco Bell's.

The Old El Paso that was linked is a sauce you would drizzle on top, just like the little packets you get at Taco Bell. You don't really need something like that, unless you like things extra saucy, with the above method of cooking the meat.

BTW, there are packages that have everything you need, other than the fresh items, that you can purchase. They have the shells or tortillas, seasoning mix, etc. If you aren't sure of how things should taste, you might want to try those for a couple of times and then start making your own meat mixture.
 
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foodie67me said:
In particular I have two questions:

1. When the ground beef is cooking, what sauce do I need to add to this?
Click to expand...
Excellent questions @foodie67me
For simplicity sake, I suggest buying a taco seasoning at the store. Add the package mix and some water. However, if you want to make your own taco seasoning mix, I have a recipe here. Fun how-to video included.

foodie67me said:
2. When I am building my taco, what sauce do I add to this?
Click to expand...

The pictured sauce is fine when building the taco. It will add to the traditional taco taste. However, there are some alternatives. It depends on how spicy you want the tacos to be and how willing you are to stray from traditional recipes. I love spicy so I use sriracha sauce instead of taco sauce. :pepper:

foodie67me said:
I am asking this question because there is Taco Sauce as per the below picture and I don't know exactly if I need to put this sauce on the ground beef when it is cooking on the stove or do I need to put that Taco Sauce as a topping when I am building my taco similar to the act of putting ketchup on a hotdog?
Click to expand...

The pictured taco sauce belongs on the finished taco, not in the meat. Taco sauce is mainly tomatoes and onions, so consider adding fresh tomatoes and onions to your meat mixture instead.

foodie67me said:
Also, if the Taco sauce is applied to the Taco as a topping, do I need to dilute the Taco sauce with water first? How much sauce should I use, alot like ketchup? How much do you use?
Click to expand...

In my opinion, diluting taco sauce is not advised. If you are trying to save money, consider sriracha sauce. In terms of price per ounce, it is one of the best values on the market. Word of warning: Sriracha sauce does NOT come in a mild variety.

Hopefully this breaks down all your questions. Never be shy about asking questions. :unsure:
 
foodie67me said:
TodayInTheKitchen, thanks so much for your answers. Thanks to everyone else above for your points too. I hope to be more active here; it seems like a cool forum.
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We love new members! We aim to be a friendly forum and you can be sure that any posts you make on this forum will get read and usually responded to.
 
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