"Crispy Chewy Double Taco"

Soft tacos or hard tacos?  How about both - but how about both combined to make one crazy insane super chewy crispy taco?  I know, it sounds like an excessive amount of carbs, and you're probably right, but it's Sunday - do it if it feels good! 

it's hard to take a picture of a taco!!

We actually spend a good chunk of the afternoon at the Red Deer Public Library, chilling in the Quiet Zone - Nick lasted for about an hour and a half, not all active "reading" time, but delightfully "silent" for almost all of it!  Todd got to read his book, Nick got some new ones and I checked out a couple of cookbooks, and one of them is where tonight's dinner idea came from!  East-coaster Chef Michael Smith's Kitchen - I enjoy his tv show and dig his vibe on cooking, I think this is actually a book I would pay for because it's full of great ideas!! 

The other book I got was David Rocco's Dolce Vita - another Canadian Food TV celeb - another book I would totally buy!  Can't wait to bust out some of his super simple recipes!!

For tonight's dinner, the flavour of the beef filling is amazing - I don't think I will ever need to buy the Old El Paso taco dinner kit again - this has awesome flavour and has like 1% of the sodium that the other stuff would have!!  If you're turned off by taco inside of tortilla, at least give this taco filling a shot - it's great!  Dinner came together pretty quick - definitely something you could bust out on a weeknight!

Crispy Chewy Double Taco (from Chef Michael Smith's Kitchen)
Filling Ingredients:
2 tbsp canola oil
1 lb lean ground beef
1 white onion finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp dried oregano
2 large ripe roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped
2 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp hot sauce
sea salt & fresh ground pepper to taste

Tacos:
8 crisp corn taco shells
1 cup Tex-Mex blend grated cheese
8 small soft flour tortillas
sour cream
salsa
shredded lettuce
handful of fresh cilantro

Method:
Preheat the oven to 450degrees.  Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan over medium high heat.  Cook the ground beef, using a wooden spoon or spatula to break up as you go.  When the meat is cooked through, but NOT browned, chuck in your onions, garlic and spices and continue cooking until fragrant - about 5 minutes.

Add tomatoes, ketchup and hot sauce and simmer until heat through.  Season with salt & pepper.

Line a baking dish with parchment paper (I did not do this step and was super annoyed at having to clean the cooked on cheese!  ugh pet peeve!!)  Divide the beef filling evenly into the hard taco shells and top with some of the cheese.  Chuck into the oven and bake for 2-3 minutes - remember your oven is at 450degrees - i.e. HOT - so the cheese will melt quick - don't forget about it!

I really enjoyed cleaning up this pan afterwards!!

Meanwhile and if you're fast, lay out the tortillas and coat with a decent layer of sour cream, even add some salsa and lettuce at this point.

Remove the tacos out of the oven and position on the top half of a prepared tortilla.  Fold over and yep - crispy chewy double tacos are served!   Does anyone remember these commercials?  Drop the chalupa. 

My tortillas were more "medium" in size, so needed to be wrapped around the taco!!