Could your Taco Bell taco wind up in the trash if it’s packing too much meat? What all can
you do with a Doritos Locos taco shell? Stay tuned for answers to these questions and more!
When it comes to assembling your order, there is both an art and a science to working the line at
Taco Bell. New employees train prepping food with the aid of a digital scale
and must compose all items within a precise weight range. As a Taco Bell manager told Thrillist,
any item that is off by more than three-tenths of an ounce gets thrown out, so employees
get pretty good at knowing exactly how much shredded cheese to sprinkle on your Chalupa.
"Sir, don't be silly, drop the chalupa."
"I said drop the chalupa."
"Put it down man."
So if you've never admired the uniformity of your food, take a moment to appreciate the skill
involved in making the portions so consistent. And if you swear the Taco Bell 10 miles down the
road gives you more sour cream than the one five miles closer, you're probably just imagining it.
Taco Bell is fast food, so no, the employees aren't cooking every ingredient from scratch — but
they do have a direct hand in finishing the preparation of everything you order,
down to the dehydrated bean pellets that end up as your favorite refried side.
According to one Taco Bell employee AMA on Reddit, the pellets look like
"wood chips" before they're reconstituted and turned into what they called "mush."
But isn't it kind of nice to know that said mush was semi-homemade in the actual kitchen of the
restaurant you're ordering from? Ditto that the pre-cooked ground beef was poured out of a bag
and finished there? And that the cinnamon twists were fried in-store? Of course, every tortilla is
rolled or folded and wrapped by a hard-working human on the line — in fact, by several. One
Taco Bell worker revealed how the food prep team "works like a factory assembly line" with
different people heating tortillas, doling out the fillings, and finishing and bagging items.
As the name suggests, speed is a key factor in fast food.
As common sense decrees, the more you order, the longer it'll take to prepare.
But keep that in mind the next time you offer to hit the drive-thru for a party of five,
who all want multiple items. A Taco Bell employee on Reddit confessed,
"I always feel bad for people who order like 1 item or just a drink
and have to sit behind 3 cars with 70+ items between them."
Also, they made a good point when adding that you wouldn't normally
roll up to the drive-thru window "and order 30 burgers." If you do have a large order,
consider going inside to place it. Conversely, if you're in one of the cars languishing behind
those big spenders backing up the drive-thru line, practice patience
and have some sympathy with the employees hustling to get all those items in the bag.
In the pantheon of discontinued Taco Bell items, the Enchirito inspires fervent
devotion. To fill its void, you can try your hand at a copycat Enchirito recipe at home.
Or, if you're feeling lucky, you can simply stroll into your local franchise and ask for one.
"Wait a minute. What's that?"
"Oh, that is an enchirito. Now that's got pinto beans… cheese on top."
In 2017, a Taco Bell manager told Thrillist that some locations
still have the Enchirito in their point of sale systems. Even if they don't,
many employees will know just what you mean when you say that magic word. If you still strike out,
however, try invoking the power of the Taco Bell secret menu and hack an Enchirito
by ordering the necessary components separately, then combining them yourself. You'll need a
Supreme Beef burrito loaded with extra meat and cheese, even more shredded cheese on the side,
and a trio of condiments: red sauce, sour cream, and nacho cheese.
A common quesadilla seems like one of the very simplest things you could possibly order, right?
It's just cheese, tortillas, sauce, and maybe some meat. Taco Bell's own menu calls it, quote,
"purist" with "absolutely zero bells and whistles."
And yet, according to a Taco Bell manager for Thrillist, there's more
steps to the process that make even a basic quesadilla fairly time-consuming to create.
First, the component parts are assembled. Then the whole thing is steamed. Next, the quesadilla
is grilled for a little crunch, and finally, it's cut and swaddled in its paper wrapping. You can
see how folding up a taco takes less time — and in a fast food situation, every second counts.
While this may seem self-evident, sometimes you need a nudge toward the obvious,
especially if hanger is clouding your judgment. According to a kind Taco Bell employee on Reddit,
combining one customer's order of several a la carte items into various combos
shaved $5 off the total price. If you want a drink, which would run you at least $2 by itself,
going for a combo is always worth it — and if you really don't want that extra Doritos Locos taco,
share it with someone else. Who doesn't like free food?
The same thoughtful employee offered some other quick tips on shaving off a few dollars and cents,
like: don't order a Supreme taco if you don't want the sour cream. Instead, just order a regular and
add tomatoes since it's cheaper. Paying attention to small details can really pay off in the end.
New Taco Bell menu items often debut only to retire within a fairly short time frame,
but in an all-too-familiar fast food cycle, they just as frequently reappear — at least
for a limited time. The Naked Chicken Chalupa is one such item.
It made a recent comeback and is already gone again, which may be for the best where
your wallet is concerned. A Taco Bell manager put it bluntly to Thrillist:
"You are really just getting a chicken sandwich without a shell, and it's more expensive."
Is it any coincidence that the chain has since introduced an actual chicken sandwich, which,
let's be honest, is just a soft taco with a thicker tortilla? Probably, yes.
And yet, for the lovers of wacky stunt food and fried chicken obsessives among
us, the Naked Chicken Chalupa's crispy fried chicken patty masquerading as a
shell was a brilliant innovation that we can only hope will return someday.
Taco Bell's vegetarian options are pretty great, but you don't have to stick with just what's on
the menu. If you're not feeling carnivorous on any given occasion, you can swap black beans
for meat in any menu item. Ditto refried beans — and potatoes, now that they're back, although
the beans will give you a better protein boost. However, strict vegans should be aware that, per
Taco Bell's blog, there's the possibility those beans could be tainted with meat ingredients:
"[At] some restaurants we use the same frying oil to prepare menu items that may or may not contain
animal ingredients. Also, we cannot guarantee that cross-contact with meat products will not occur."
If beans are your jam, by all means, bean it up with your next Taco Bell order.
The Doritos Locos taco has been a major hit from day one, and while the Cool Ranch iteration is no
longer on the menu, the Nacho Cheese version continues to grace us with its lip-smacking,
finger-staining presence. What you may not know is that you can swap one of these
extra-flavorful babies in for a regular hard taco shell anywhere one pops up on the menu.
What this most importantly means is that you can increase the cheese quotient of
the Cheesy Gordita Crunch by asking for a Doritos Locos shell in place of the naked
corn kind that comes by default. Yes, you will have probably surpassed your recommended daily
sodium intake in one go, but this isn't meant to be an everyday treat in the first place.
"Have it your way" may be the slogan of another famous chain,
but you can live that dream at Taco Bell, too. As one Taco Bell employee told Refinery29,
"You can be very creative when you order."
That even extends to the drinks. For proof, check out this Taco Bell employee's TikTok,
in which they demonstrate their own secret menu item, which they've dubbed the Cloudy
Skies. It's a mixture of half Baja Blast and half pink lemonade. Taco Bell's website
claims inventive customers can make almost 1 million unique vegetarian combinations alone.
Expand your horizons to include the whole menu and the options are mind-boggling.
The more tweaks you request, though, the more tolerant you should be of potential slip-ups.
And if you come up with a brilliant creation of your own, be sure to share it with the internet.
Working food service jobs can be incredibly stressful, to say the least.
They can also be thankless, which is why simply acting like a decent human being can go
such a long way in making your order taker or server's day suck significantly less. Every
fast food employee has their horror stories, but one Taco Bell worker on Reddit claimed to only
truly dislike people who were rude and, quote, "incredibly picky/impatient." Another employee
positively called out customers who were, quote, "polite" and "appreciative."
Sure, you may be crunched for time during the lunch rush, but so are they.
And they may occasionally make a minor mistake, but have you never done the same?
Just remember, the people taking your orders and making and serving your food are only human.
So keep your cool and be kind and it will be appreciated.
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