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.