Beef Taco Bake

I pinned this recipe from Thirty Handmade Days a while ago, thinking it be a nice change of pace from my usual Mexican routine: rice and bean burritos, refried bean nachos, and turkey tacos. I love one-dish meals but I'm usually cooking for one or two, so I am loathe to make a big pan of something that might not change my life.

But then a few things happened. One, it was a 90+ degree day where I had nothing better to do than cook all the things I'd been saving up all week while I sat in class. Two, my brother was going to be by for dinner, eventually. Three, I found some ground beef in the freezer. Four, I was sick to death of burritos.

So I popped open this recipe and that's when things got weird. I love the idea of the shredded tortillas and ground beef all mixed up in a tomatoey, cheesy sauce, and I love the sour cream sitting on top to cool it all off. But I am not a huge fan of tomato soup in recipes, and I wanted to use vegetables to give it a bit more texture, color, nutrition and flavor.

Anyway, here's what I used:


4 burrito sized tortillas, torn into 2" pieces
3/4 lb of ground beef
1 onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
1/4 of a large jalapeno, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1 can red enchilada sauce
1 cup chunky salsa
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup of frozen corn kernels
4 scallions, chopped
sour cream, for serving

Then I did this:

1. Sautee a chopped onion, green pepper, 2 cloves of garlic and a quarter of a jalapeno in bacon fat. (Oh, because another thing that happened is I already had the cast iron skillet out to cook bacon and onion for some baked beans).

2. Remove the veggies and brown the ground beef. I tossed in some chili powder and ground cumin, because who was going to stop me?
3. Toss the veggies back in the skillet, add a can of red enchilada sauce, salsa, 1 cup of shredded cheese and torn tortillas into a casserole.

4. Add a couple handfuls of frozen corn kernels.
5. Put the whole delicious disaster in an 8x8 13x9 baking dish
6. Bake, covered, at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Uncover for 5 minutes or so to make the cheese crispy and bubbly and try not to dance around the kitchen.
7. Top with remaining shredded cheese and chopped scallions.
8. Completely forget to take a finished picture of the dish and serve with sour cream and beer.

I ended up making a larger pan than the recipe called for, because with the added vegetables, it would have overflowed the 8x8 pan. The four of us ate 80% of it. There was about one good-sized scoop left. I put it in a bowl in the fridge and put it in a burrito for brunch a couple days later. Still. So. Good.