How To Make Taco Salad

This taco salad is featured frequently in our every other day salad rotation. We season shredded chicken, turkey or ground beef with a variety of things ranging from pre-packaged taco seasonings to homemade molé. Kelly whips up a great salad dressing we really enjoy and you will too. Start with some lettuce, add tomatoes, olives, tortilla chips and cheese and top with the meat and dressing and you have a great, tasty meal. Add some chile oil or salsa for a little extra kick.

This recipe is naturally gluten free.

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Ingredients For Taco Salad

For the Dressing:

• 1/2 Cup Mayonnaise
• 1/4 Cup Sour Cream
• 1/4 Cup Cilantro, chopped
• Juice of 1 lime (more if you prefer)
• 1/4 tsp Sugar
• 1 Tbls Taco Seasoning
• 1/4 Cup Salsa

The Meat

• 2 Cups Shredded Turkey, Shredded Chicken or Ground Beef
• 2 Tablespoons Taco Seasoning and 1/2 cup of Water or 1/2 Cup Molé or other Mexican Sauce

For the Salad

• Lettuce
• Chopped Tomatoes
• Sliced Olives
• Crumbled Tortilla Chips
• Shredded Cheese

Make The Dressing

We’ll start by whipping up this super easy taco salad dressing. With just a few ingredients we’ll elevate this salad with a lot of flavor. We put the mayonnaise and sour cream in a small mixing bowl. You can make this with Mexican Crema in place of the sour cream or even Greek Yogurt.

Cilantro

We’ll chop up some fresh cilantro for this. Sometimes we grow cilantro in our garden but it bolts so quickly that it’s often not worth the effort. When you buy cilantro at the store you get a whole bunch and recipes like this only call for a little bit. Then you have the rest of the cilantro to store somehow. We have found that if you wash it then put the bunch in a glass with water, cover it loosely with a produce bag and keep it in the refrigerator it will last for a long time. We’ve kept it more than a week before it starts to turn bad.

Lime Juice

After the cilantro, we want to add our lime juice. You can add more if you like it more tangy or less if you want the creamy flavors to be more predominant.

Sugar

We’ll add just a small amount of sugar to offset the lime a little and bring out some of the flavors. We are only using 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon.

Taco Seasoning

Next we will add a tablespoon or so of taco seasoning. You could use other spices here such as cumin, chile powder, garlic granules, oregano and paprika. Usually we like the ease of the taco seasoning we get already made. We get the Aromatica Organics brand and it’s good for seasoning all kinds of taco meats as well as things like this salad dressing. We are working on making our own seasoning blend in the near future.

Salsa

We really like salsa in this dressing to round out the flavors. You can use whatever salsa you have around but the better the salsa the better the dressing. We have access to a locally made Casa Lindra Salsa that is great in this recipe. You can also use a pico de gallo for this.

Mix Well

Now we just mix this all together and we have our dressing.

Make the Meat

Now we come to the meat of the matter. We will cook a turkey a couple times a year and shred a bunch of the breast. We’ll freeze that in 2 cup portions so we can take one out for taco salad or other things. Another way to get some shredded meat is to buy a rotisserie chicken and shred that. You can also use ground beefor pork for this. No matter what meat you choose getting the taco flavoring into it will be the same.

Taco Meat Method 1

An easy way we prepare the taco meat is to put 2 tablespoons of taco seasoning and 1/2 cup of water in a saucepan. Then we will get that fully dissolved, add the meat and then cook until the excess liquid has cooked out of it.

Taco Meat Method 2

When we make molé or Mexican sauces we make a lot and freeze it in 1 cup and 1/2 cup Souper Cubes. Then we can just take a cube out of the freezer, thaw it out and cook the taco meat in it until the excess moisture is cooked out. This is really delicious and an easy way you can elevate your taco meat.

Taco Meat Method 3

We really like this method even though it is a bit more involved. We’ll take four dried chiles, 2 anchos and 2 guajillos or pasillas, add a morita and a couple arbols for heat and put them in a pan with 1/2 cup of water or chicken broth. Then we will add a tomato that has been quartered and a couple garlic cloves, 1/2 tsp cumin and 1 tsp Mexican Oregano. We will boil that for 10 minutes and then put everything in the blender and blend until smooth. Then we put that in a saucepan with the meat and cook until the excess liquid is cooked off.

Make The Taco Salad

Now that we have our meat and our dressing we are ready to put together our taco salad. We are making a meal size salad so we start with a large bowl, fill it with lettuce and then add some chopped tomatoes.

Black Olives

We really like black olives on our taco salad. They add that little bit of briny saltiness.

Crumbled Tortilla Chips

To get that corn tortilla flavor into our taco salad we will crumble some tortilla chips over the top of it.

Optional Chile Oil

If you want your salad a little spicier you can add chile oil, salsa or chopped serrano. We like it with the chile oil.

Add Cheese

Next we put some shredded cheese on top. You can use shredded cheddar, jack, Mexican cheese or a combination.

Taco Salad Dressing

Next we put on the dressing. You can use a little or a lot, It’s up to you. You can also add some salt at this point.

The Taco Meat

Last we put on the taco meat. Now our salad is ready to serve. You can garnish with a few edible flowers to make it look pretty.

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Here are some Molé and sauce recipes for the taco meat:

• Molé Colorado
• Molé Verde
• Molé Amarillo
• Classic Molé Rojo
• Easy Molé Rojo
• Molé Coloradito
• Molé Chuchilo Negro
• Molé Manchamanteles
• Molé Poblano
• Oaxacan Molé Negro
• Quick and Easy 30 Minute Molé

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