American Taco Pie

Ingredients:

3/4 lb 93% lean ground beef*
1 1/2-2 tablespoons taco seasoning*
1/2 onion, chopped*
15 oz canned diced tomatoes with green chiles, drained
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/2 cup shredded quesadilla cheese
1/4 cup grated cotija cheese

Steps
Heat oven to 400. Grease 9-inch pie plate. Set aside.

Cook ground beef and onion in large skillet, stirring occasionally and breaking up any large pieces until beef is cooked through. Drain off fat if needed. Stir in seasoning mix and canned tomatoes.

Spoon into the prepared pie plate and smooth to cover the entire bottom of the pie plate.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, flour, baking power, milk and canola oil until smooth. Pour over the beef mixture.

Bake about 25-35 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Sprinkle with cheese.

Return to the oven and bake an additional 10 minutes. Cool 5 minutes prior to serving.

*I actually just used leftover, cooked and seasoned taco meat vs making it fresh. Either works!

My thoughts:

Last year I was into making international-fusion taco recipes for some reason. I made Takoraisu (Okinawan Taco Rice) and Tacopaj (Swedish taco pie), both of which combine American style ground beef tacos with their own traditional cuisine. Somehow, I never made the very American version of this, Impossible Taco Pie, a popular ’70s era Betty Crocker recipe using Bisquick. Basically. it’s “impossible” because you creates the crust by just pouring it over the meat and it “magically” forms a cohesive, sliceable pie.

It’s a little silly but it’s fun. I don’t keep Bisquick on hand so I made my own batter and jazzed the filling up with some spicy tomatoes and some quesadilla and cotija cheese instead of the cheddar normally used in the pie. The result is an interesting mashup of tacos and almost quiche if quiche wasn’t quite so eggy. It’s easy to make, very flavorful and a neat change for a weekday dinner.

 photo coconut-sig_zpsb2fb208a.jpg

Comments are closed.