A friend called late morning on a recent Wednesday to discuss a new tagline she wanted me to write to go with a new website domain name she is establishing with her partner. My friend is a Realtor in Marin County, and actually was my agent when I bought an old bungalow in San Anselmo in June, 2000. There’s been a lot of water under the bridge since then!
Anyway, she asked what I was doing, and I replied: “Making taco meat, what else?” My friend is probably the best cook I know, and we never talk without talking about food, and more specifically, what we’ve put together in the kitchen lately. Naturally she asked me what’s in my taco meat recipe. So here it is. This is a “wet” taco meat, btw, and hardly needs salsa to make a perfect breakfast burrito, tacos however you like them or tostadas. Yet as we all know, when it comes to tacos, well first, the variations are infinite, we all like them the way we like them, so doctor yours up to your pleasure.
Turkey Taco Meat
Ingredients
- Ground, dark-meat turkey, 1 lb.
- Roasted Chile Virgin Olive Oil
- Half yellow onion, chopped
- 2 green onions, cut into small pieces
- Salt and Black Pepper
- Garlic powder
- Cumin
- Ground red pepper (just a dash or two)
- Dried oregano
- Chipotle peppers (canned, 2 small ones cut up with scissors)
- One small can diced green chiles
- 2/3 cup Green Enchilada Sauce
In a skillet, put the olive oil, meat and chopped yellow onions and start cooking on fairly high heat, so the meat browns and chars a bit.
Season the top of the meat with the garlic powder and black pepper. After a few minutes, turn the meat over and season the top of that side with the cumin, salt and ground red pepper. Stir the onions.
3-4 minutes later, break up the meat and turn the pink meat down on the skillet so it begins to cook and brown evenly. After 2-3 minutes add the canned chiles, green onions, cut up chipotles and green enchilada sauce.
TURN the heat OFF.
Total cook time is only 8-9 minutes.
Stir the wet ingredients well and mixed with the meat and yellow onions. Cut up some of the larger chunks of meat (a plastic spoon should do) and let the meat mixture rest for about 10 minutes.
Remove the taco meat from the stove top and on a counter, use a spook to spatula to “chop up” the meat so there are no big chunks of meat, and the meat mixture is rather even. Store in fridge uncovered until cold, then cover and reheat when ready!