Taco Burgers

One of my favorite little fast food places to eat at before going gluten-free was a local place called Bob’s Burgers. Bob’s Burgers is famous for their taco burgers which are simply a hamburger patty in a taco shell! With a bit of hot green chile of course 🙂

I do not know why this never occurred to me before to make at home but my brilliant dad decided to do this last week at a family gathering. They were a HUGE hit, even the little ones loved them because they were much easier to handle than a hamburger on a bun!

All you do is take your favorite burger: beef, turkey, or veggie burger and slide it into a crispy corn taco shell. I am a cheeseburger girl and I like to make my own beef patties. I only use super lean beef, with 4% fat. I add a few ingredients to make the hamburger moist. This is especially helpful for lean beef since it has a tendency to dry out. My dad always made burgers this way when I was growing up and nothing else compares!

For the burgers:

1 lb. Ground Beef

1 Egg, beaten

splash of Milk (maybe 1/4 cup, but don’t over do it or the burgers will fall apart)

Garlic Salt to taste

Cheese (I use Kraft’s 2% American Cheese slices)

Mix all the ingredients together and shape beef into patties. I learned a cool tip from my great aunt Donna who was in town from Iowa: before cooking the hamburger patties, use your thumb to make a depression in the center of the burger. This will prevent the burger from “puffing” up in the middle while cooking and you will have a perfectly flat burger.

While the burgers are cooking, heat the taco shells in the oven to crisp them up. Follow the directions on the package.

Assembly:

Cut your hamburger patty in half, then slide into a taco shell. We topped our taco burgers with 505 Green Chile Sauce. You can buy 505 chile online (click on the link). If you like authentic Southwestern food (not to be confused with Mexican food), you must try it…it is the best! 505 uses rice flour instead of wheat flour to thicken the sauce so it is GF.

A little factoid: Chile is the proper spelling for the spicy peppers, not chili. Chili is the spelling for chili con carne.

Shredded lettuce and diced tomatoes add a cooling effect for the spicy chile.

Yummy!

Oh, in case you are wondering why I am posting a burger recipe in November…it was 75° and sunny in Albuquerque yesterday, so we have an extended outdoor grilling season 😉 You can always cook the burgers indoors too.