Tacos
Difficulty 2/5 Ingredients 15 Steps 12
A taco is a traditional Mexican food consisting of a small hand-sized corn- or wheat-based tortilla topped with a filling.
Ingredients
Base ingredients
- Ground, finely sliced, or chopped beef
- Corn tortillas or ready-made taco shells
- 1–4 tsp per pound (450 g) of beef of cumin
- Chili powder, to taste
Optional ingredients
- Black olives
- Shredded mild cheddar cheese, if desired
- Fresh tomatoes
- Chopped cilantro
- Fresh spinach, shredded or diced
- Mushrooms
- Salsa, or hot sauce, as hot as you would like
- Sour cream
- Chopped lettuce or shredded cabbage
- Chopped tomato
- Chopped onion
Steps
- For build-your-own tacos, dice the optional ingredients. Place in separate bowls.
- Place the beef in a wide pan on a large burner. Break up ground beef as it cooks. Stir-fry chopped or sliced beef, with oil if needed.
- For high-fat ground beef, drain and lightly rinse in a colander. Or add water to float the fat, cool to solidify, remove the fat, drain the water and reheat.
- Add lots of cumin to the beef. Optional: a bit of salt, chili powder and/or diced onion.
- Prepare the shells. Reheat pre-made shells in the microwave per package directions.
- For soft tacos, use a double layer of corn tortillas or a single flour tortilla. Microwave covered in 15+ second stages, flipping between, until warm. Keep covered and warm.
- To make hard shells from corn tortillas, deep-fry one at a time, forming a U shape with a large spoon. Or pan fry in ¼ inch to ½ inch oil. Bend into the U before the tortilla stiffens.
- Place hot beef in a hard shell or down the middle of a warm soft tortilla (two for corn).
- Add finely diced onion and cilantro. Fold a soft tortilla over. Serve with lime quarters.
- Optional: add cheese on the beef. Microwave the taco briefly if the cheese is cold or low-fat.
- Add other toppings as desired.
- Serve with pico de gallo or hot sauce, or an assortment of toppings.
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Tacos” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2025-06-21, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photo. BeefBarbTacos.JPG by Thelmadatter, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia. Resized; otherwise unchanged.