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Sunday, August 3, 2014

Vern's Taco Meat

Got up this morning at 7 and it is a beautiful August day in Minnesota, so decided to do some cooking this morning and maybe have a chance to get outside and work on my landscaping later today.  (The volunteer cottonwoods are taking over everything again).  About a month ago, when my sister was here from Florida, she was talking to her husband and he was making his giant batch of taco meat to freeze for meals later on, so I asked for the recipe, which he emailed right away..now I finally am getting around to making it.  I did a few adjustments to my taste, but it is awesome!  It will be so nice to have some in the freezer for nights I am feeling not in the mood to do much of anything, much less cook and do dishes.  Here is the recipe with my adjustments in parentheses..

VERN'S TACO MEAT:

4 pounds ground beef
3 Tablespoons chopped onion..(next time I will add more because I like onion)
1 can -8 oz- tomato sauce
1/4 cup chili powder
2 Tablespoons paprika
1 Tablespoon beef bouillon granules-I used 3 beef bouillon cubes because it's what I had
1 Tablespoon ground cumin (I used 1/2 Tablespoon-I like it, but that sounded like too much for me)
1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules (I used 2 cubes of chicken bouillion)
1 tsp each of garlic powder, cayenne pepper (if you like these I would add a little more of each)
1/2 tsp each black pepper and lime juice.  (I used a whole lime and juiced it, like the lime kick)
1/4 tsp each salt and garlic salt
1/4 tsp each of onion powder and sugar..(I added a little more sugar and would leave out the onion powder if I added more onion)

and my extra ingredient was a little baking powdered unsweetened cocoa..maybe a tsp because I like dark cocoa in Mexican food, learned that from my nephew years ago.

In a large kettle, cook the beef and onion until meat is no longer pink, if needed drain.  Stir in the rest of the ingredients..bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.  (He didn't say to add water, but it was very dry, so I added water, about 1-1/2 cups so it wouldn't be that dry and it was nice and moist then).  Use as desired..freeze any unused portions for later. 

2 comments:

  1. this does sound good. Much better than using the packaged taco seasoning from the store. With a little variation you could thaw out some meat and use it to make tortilla soup. I eat a lot of soup.

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  2. I like taco soup too. A lady at work used to make it (she's retired now) and would bring stuff to have on the side that you could add to it like taco chips, sour cream, tomatoes, onions, cheese and it was a big hit at pot lucks..now I am craving taco soup..LOL

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