Oven Baked Ground Beef Tacos
This brings back childhood memories of throwing frozen mini tacos in the oven. These have more protein in them- win! And you can sneak in diced bell peppers.
Ingredients:
3 lbs lean Ground Beef
1 medium Yellow Onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced (I’ve also used the mini sweet peppers for different colors!)
8 cloves Garlic, minced
6 tsp Paprika
1 tsp Kosher Salt
1 tsp Black Pepper
1 1/2 tsp Cumin
1 1/2 tsp Crushed Chipotle Pepper
1 cup Enchilada Sauce
Large package Corn Tortillas (I make 24 in one batch. This amount of meat can make 2-3 batches)
Mexican blend cheese to sprinkle on the inside of each taco
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 400F. Prepare a baking sheet with foil.
Dice the onion and mince the garlic to add to the meat in a large skillet. Cook until no pink remains in the beef.
While it cooks, mix the dry spices for the taco meat. Add them towards the end of cooking. Stir well.
Reduce the heat and add the enchilada sauce, stirring until the sauce thickens. Remove from the heat.
Wrap the tortillas in a slightly damp paper towel and microwave for 60-90 seconds. This will make the tortillas easier to fold. They are not warm enough if they break or don’t want to stay folded when making the tacos.
Place the warmed tortillas on the sprayed baking sheet.
Place a generous pinch of cheese on one-half of each tortilla. Follow the cheese with the beef I squeeze in as much as I can here!) and another pinch of cheese. Fold the tortillas in half, pressing down gently to seal.
Spray the tops of the tacos with a bit of cooking spray and place another baking sheet on top of them to prevent them from opening during baking.
Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the tacos are golden brown and crisp. If this is your first time baking corn tortillas, peek in on them to ensure they aren’t burning. If you have trouble getting the tacos crispy, you can remove the top baking sheet after a few minutes once the tacos have been sealed to speed up the process.
I save the extra meat and make a new, fresh batch when we need more instead of making the 2-3 batches from the start. They are much better fresh!
Serve with a veggie. Enjoy!
