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Crisp and Meaty Tacos or Tostadas (from How to Cook Everything Kids)

Photo: Ghazalle Badiozamani

BY Mark Bittman

PUBLISHED September 25, 2024

Frying in oil is an important cooking skill, and tortillas are an easy food for practicing. You’ll still want an adult working with you. If you don’t feel like the extra work, make the Soft Tacos idea that follows or use store-bought crisp shells and skip to Step 3. To host taco night for family or friends with you at the stove, just double or triple the recipe. I bet someone will be happy to come help in the kitchen.

 

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Crisp and Meaty Tacos or Tostadas (from How to Cook Everything Kids)

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Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil, plus more as needed
  • 4 (6-inch) corn tortillas
  • 8 ounces ground meat (beef, pork, chicken, or turkey)
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 small onion, chopped (if you like)
  • 1 or 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 2 teaspoons chili powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 tablespoon tomato paste
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • 1 lime, quartered, for serving

Instructions

  1. Put a wire rack on a rimmed baking sheet by the stove. Pour the oil into a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat. When it’s hot and shimmering, use tongs to put a tortilla in the pan and count to 10. It should start blistering and the oil should be bubbling. (If not, count to an additional 5 or 10 until it does.) Carefully grab an edge with the tongs and turn it over. For tacos, keep holding on with the tongs and fold the tortilla in half to form a taco shell. (For tostadas, let go of the tongs and leave the tortilla flat.)
  2. Keep cooking, either holding the taco shell with tongs to keep its shape or letting the tortilla lay flat for tostadas. Either way, turn the tortilla over once or twice, until it turns golden. This takes less than 1 minute. Lift it out of the oil and set it on the wire rack. Repeat with the other three tortillas, adjusting the heat so you have sizzling without burning. Add more oil if the pan starts to look dry.
  3. Remove the pan from the heat and carefully spoon all but 1 tablespoon of the oil into a small heatproof bowl. Keep the reserved oil near the stove. Return the skillet to medium heat and add the meat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook, stirring every couple minutes with a stiff spatula and breaking the chunks up until the meat starts to brown, 5 to 10 minutes.
  4. Add the onion and garlic and some or all of the reserved oil if the pan looks dry. Cook, stirring every minute or so, until the vegetables soften and the meat looks pretty brown all over, 1 to 3 minutes. Add the chili powder, cumin, and tomato paste and stir all the time to mix everything into the meat and warm the spices, less than 1 minute. Stir in the water and scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. When the water bubbles away a few seconds later, remove the skillet from the heat.
  5. Use the spatula or a large spoon to slip the taco filling carefully into the shells. Top with whatever you like and eat right away.

Recipe variations

How to Warm Tortillas

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