How to make great tacos

Mrs. Molina's Guadalupe Tacos

These are "spicy" tacos but not overly so.  If you like them fiery, use El Pato jalapeno sauce (green can) instead of the milder tomato sauce (yellow can), and you can buy the spicy Rotel tomatoes instead of the original milder ones. That oughta be sufficient to heat things up. These tacos are not “crunchy.”   If you like them that way, you can buy the crunchy shells instead and warm them in the oven or microwave.  Nothing wrong with that.

Ingredients needed:

Ground beef, chuck is good.  About 1 lb.

Corn tortillas

Shredded iceberg lettuce

Shredded cheese (your favorite, I usually use M Jack)

1 can “Duck” sauce (El Pato Tomato Sauce, from the Mexican section)

1 can Rotel tomatoes

Taco Seasoning

First, put the beef in a skillet and brown it.  Heat a griddle on low for the tortillas (I use a cast iron pancake griddle).  I don’t usually buy pre-shredded lettuce, simply because a head of iceberg is much cheaper.  But you can cheat iffen you want.  Same with the cheese.  It’s pretty quick to chop up the lettuce with a good knife, and grate some cheese.

After the beef is browned and broken up well, drain off the fat, and then mix the beef back in the skillet with a couple TB of the taco seasoning, and the Duck sauce.  Cook this down until the sauce is mostly cooked away or absorbed.

When the meat is ready, turn the heat up on the griddle to medium, and add a bit of corn oil. Fry the tortillas one at a time.  Fry the tortilla on the first side for a few seconds (just enough to soften it), then turn it and as you turn it, fold it in half.  I just do this with my fingers and a fork.  Once folded, fry it on both sides until it starts to brown nicely, then set aside on paper towel while you do the rest (add a bit more oil for each tortilla).  I usually spoon some cheese inside as I take them off the griddle, so they are still hot and the cheese will melt.

To serve, spoon the desired amount of meat into the folded tortilla, and top with the cheese, a spoon of the Rotel tomatoes (drain them against the inside of the can as you dip them out), and plenty of shredded lettuce.  You can top with taco sauce if you wish, but they are good just as they are because of the duck sauce in the meat mixture.

These are authentic Arizona/Sonoran tacos – I got the method from an Apache-Mexican friend whose Mom (Mrs. Molina) used to make them this way.*  I like them so much I don’t always take them to the table – I just eat them right over the skillet. (Well, you know, I live by myself...)

*Except she didn’t add the duck sauce to the meat as it cooked.  Instead, she poured it over the finished taco like taco sauce.  I misunderstood when my friend told me the recipe.  However, they’re great MY wrong way also, so I never changed it.