Hey dudes! I'm Hilah and today on
Hilah Cooking I making a fried tacos.
These are the kind that you fill the tortilla before you fry it.
You can make them ahead of time and they're kind of like
Jack in the Box tacos but better.
Yeah, I went there.
They are better.
(upbeat music)
There is a very special trick to making the
ground beef filling that I'll get to in just a second.
So I've got about 1/2 a pound of ground beef here, gonna add my
flavorings and I basically went on to the Jack in the Box
website and looked at their ingredients
and then substituted
actual food
for the Jack in the Box ingredients.
No offense Jack in the Box.
I know that your three tacos for a dollar have gotten many a
college kid through a long drunken night.
Especially my friend Emily.
And adding a little pinch of oregano.
Not too much.
Okay, a little Worcestershire sauce.
A little tomato paste and if you haven't tried this little tomato
paste in a tube it's pretty cool.
It's quite a bit more expensive the little can but it's so
helpful when you only ever need like a tablespoon at a time.
Gonna add salt.
Okay, did I put in everything?
Okay I'm gonna grate in my onion, so obviously
you know a chain restaurant
would use some onion powder but I'm gonna use some
grated fresh onion.
If you could mince it up too.
But this gives it that really nice like it's extremely smooth
texture for the filling.
So get this all mixed together.
Okay once that's pretty uniform,
we're gonna add the real secret
to making a smooth ground beef filling and that's some water
and pretty soon right before your eyes this is gonna turn
like super gross looking but bear with me.
Just trust me.
Okay, we're gonna cook our meat.
I'm just gonna put it (giggles) over medium heat in a warm
skillet and just plop this delicious mixture right on in
there and you want to just start moving it around, breaking it up
the water like I said is gonna help us achieve that really like
crumbly, fine texture but
you still need to make sure you're moving it.
I did a healthier version of crispy tacos a few years ago
that was like with baked tortilla shells that you fill
afterwards but and that's always how we would get them in Texas.
It was always like a fried shell that was filled after was fried
or baked whatever but then out here in LA almost every
restaurant serves this kind of fried taco where it's like the
tortilla is folded over and filled and
then the whole thing is fried.
And it's so different you wouldn't think it would be such
a difference but it really is and it's such a nice you know
kinda special thing and then
also Jack in the Box makes 'em like that.
Okay so the meat you can see is like less pink.
It's kinda hard to tell because the chili powder's in there but
you can think once you actually cooking you can tell but you can
see there's a lot of liquid coming out from the water so I'm
gonna add a couple tablespoons of masa and this is masa harina
and this is what corn tortillas are made out of.
It's got a really nice earthy corny flavor and it thickens it
up really well and kinda gives it a creaminess.
If you don't have masa, you can use a little bit of flour.
You won't need 2 tablespoons I would say maybe like start
with 2 teaspoons and then see if
you need to add a little bit more.
But make sure that you really cook it if you're using flour.
And see how it like thickened up.
Perfect.
Okay it smells great,
looks a little bit like diarrhea but
don't look over here.
I'm using some corn tortillas.
So I'm gonna heat them up on the comal with I was about to say a
little bit of oil but it's actually not a little bit.
I mean we're frying these later yes but you want to make sure
that there really nice and pliable so they don't break when
you fold 'em, so just go ahead and like lube that shit up.
Just gob it on there.
I mean, whatever, these are not healthy tacos.
I do believe that tacos can be healthy but these are not they.
Just get both sides lightly moistened
with oil over medium low heat.
Don't burn yourself.
I know you want to, don't do it.
You also could use tongs but I like to live on the edge, man.
Once they're nice squishy, throw them in there.
Now we're gonna start folding some tacos.
This is a multistep recipe.
You've seen this before on TV, right?
Just like a couple tablespoons of filling.
Don't want to overfill 'em.
And fold it over, give it a little press
and scooch it over there.
These are also, if your vegetarian, these are also
really good with refried beans on the inside so keep that trick
in your back pocket.
Not the beans.
I mean you could but like remember to take them out before
your wash your pants, right?
We've all been there.
Okay, so now for the other step.
I don't know.
Anyway, we need to cover these with plastic wrap and put them
in the fridge up for like 20 minutes or longer.
You can also freeze them and then you have fried crispy tacos
ready to go into the hot oil whenever you want some crispy
tacos and you're like super drunk and you shouldn't be
cooking or deep frying things.
Am heating up about an inch of vegetable oil here.
Whenever you're frying stuff you want to be really careful that
you don't fill up your pan more than about third of the way full
to make sure you leave plenty of room for bubbling over so you
don't start fire and you also
don't want to wear long, flowy clothes.
Make sure you wear pants, your dick doesn't accidentally fall
in there, you know, regular safety tips.
So I've got my chilled tacos,
you can see they've really firmed up.
The oil's about 350.
You can kinda hold it closed for a few seconds.
And we're gonna fry these for about two minutes,
and then give them a flip, another two minutes.
Okay.
Once your tacos are nice and crispy on both sides pick it up,
let the oil drain out the ends like that and then we're gonna
drain it on a little paper towel over here.
Let's go eat these tacos.
Okay, now I'm gonna fill these delicious fried crispy tacos
with some organic romaine lettuce.
It's so stupid.
You can fill yours with whatever you want.
So you just kind of pull it open a little bit.
Don't worry about if it makes
little cracking sound, it'll be fine.
One half slice of American cheese if you want to be like
American but grated cheddar is fine too.
I really love the Velvetta and American cheese because I grew
up in Texas and queso is the gravy of Texas besides gravy of
course 'cause we also have that but I know a lot of people have
an aversion to it.
I don't care in this case I'm like eating a fuckin'
fried taco, I'm gonna put American cheese in it.
I made this green salsa last week, that would be good.
I think I'm actually going to go
for my homemade top-secret hot sauce recipe.
If you haven't subscribed already please do because
I'm gonna be putting this recipe out soon.
Gotten a ton of requests for it and I think it's time to share
it with the world because it's
super good on all things Mexican and Tex-Mex.
Also check out my crispy tacos video.
I'll put a card up there.
You can watch to see how to make healthier version of this with a
baked shell and I'll also put a link to this green salsa if you
want to try that.
Okay, I really just want to try this.
Oh shit.
Glorious is the only word for this.
So good, I don't even care that I have like salsa and grease
all over my face.
I really hope you try this.
It'd be so awesome for game day or something 'cause you can make
them ahead of time, and then fry them up as you need them.
Recipe is always available at HilahCooking.com, thanks so much
for watching and I will see you next week.
Bye.
(groans)
Mmm.
Sound like Frankenstein.
(groans)
Hmm.