Recipe: Dawn & Don’s Meat and Potato Taco Meat

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Virtually everybody loves taco night! I’m definitely no exception. It’s one of my favorite types of cuisine.

Do I ever have a fantastic recipe for you to try!  We have a great family friend that is EXTRAORDINARILY good at preparing Mexican food.  When I got married to my husband Joel and we started going up to the Osland cabin I heard all the time about Dawn’s Tacos (Don is Dawn’s husband). They all raved about it. Once I had them for myself, I knew.  Dawn puts something in them that I had never thought to add – finely diced potatoes. She also only uses about 1/2 a packet of taco seasoning. The combination is brilliant with ground beef. I also add in a few other ingredients I’m not sure she adds, but the foundation of her recipe still stands. It’s so good!

Also enjoy some of my other Mexican recipes: MEXICAN RECIPES

This recipe brings tacos to a whole new level. I hope you give Dawn & Don’s Meat & Potato Taco Meat a try! Let me show you step by step how to make this *new* taco meat.

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Here are the ingredients: ground beef, potatoes, onion, taco seasoning, green chilies, and refried beans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Start out by placing your ground beef (you can use ground turkey or ground chicken too) in a pan. I used 1 1/2 pounds of ground beef. Start to break up the meat with the back of a wooden spoon or spatula.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add about 1/2 cup or so of tap water to your pan with the ground beef.  This helps it crumble more instead of having the larger chunks of meat.  This is a great tip I learned from an authentic Mexican cook many years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add the taco seasoning – just half a packet. Brown the ground beef over medium heat – this may take about 5 minutes or so. Just stir occasionally and meanwhile you can dice the potatoes and onion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Slice the potatoes into matchsticks and then cut perpendicular to get the fine dice. In hindsight should have cut these a bit smaller, but they worked fine. Cut yours smaller if you can. I was in a hurry. We were starving! (PS…my potatoes were tiny. We got them in our CSA bin and probably would have been better roasted, but I needed to use them up!)

Get the potatoes in the pan as your dicing them so they start cooking (and don’t turn brown on you). I added about 1 cup diced potatoes. You can add more or less to taste.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stir to combine and cover the pan to allow the potatoes to begin to steam.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, add the diced onion (1 medium onion or about a cup) and a small can of green chilies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next add in about 3/4 – 1 cup refried beans (try my easy recipe for SLOW-COOKER RE-FRIED BEANS). Keep heat to medium and stir to combine. Add lid and continue to cook, stirring periodically.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As it thickens it is getting closer. You can see the image on the right is thicker than the one on the left. Just keep the lid on and stir every couple minutes…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…until you get something that looks like this. It’s thick and steamy hot. The wait is over. Thank goodness!!

I used soft corn tortillas, but use flour tortillas, hard shell tacos, tostadas, tortilla chips, or just as a taco salad. It’s so sticking good! You will most certainly love this recipe as much as me. I will never make tacos according to the ‘package’ directions again. Ever!

Top with lettuce, more refried beans, shredded cheese, jalapenos, sliced black olives, tomato, salsa (try my fast & easy recipe for FRESH SPICY TOMATO SALSA), and sour cream – really whatever strikes your fancy. I heart taco night!

If you give this recipe a try, please COMMENT below. I’d love to know how it turned out.

Disfrutar de la comodidad de los alimentos! (Translation: Enjoy the comfort of food!)

For more Cinco de Mayo Recipes, click HERE .

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PS: If you see mistakes (i.e., spelling errors or inconsistencies in the recipe), please tell me right away. I appreciate any help I can get!