CopyKat's Taco Bell Tacos

Adapted: Stephanie Manley (CopyKat Recipes)

I swear, as I get older, I am disliking the taste of salt more and more. One of my favorite "recipiers" is Stephanie Manley with CopyKat Recipes. When I came across her recipe for Taco Bell Tacos that didn't use the standard high salt taco mix, I knew I wanted to give it a taste.

Now, I will tell you that my family didn't think these tacos tasted like Taco Bell tacos. I will tell you that we loved the seasoning of these tacos. They were definitely less salty which allowed the other flavors to really come out. As the "dampness" of the meat is very important, I intentionally didn't photograph these filled so that you could see how the meat turned out.

So, here we go!:

Meat Mixture:

1 1/3 pounds lean ground beef
1 1/2 tablespoons masa corn flour
4 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon instant minced onion
1/2 teaspoon beef bouillon

1 Package Taco Shells
Taco fixins of preference: tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, sour cream, salsa

Directions: 

1) Mix together all SPICE ingredients and blend well. 

2) Crumble ground beef and brown stirring well. Remove from heat, rinse with hot water and drain water and grease from beef. 

3)  Return beef to the pan and add spice mix. Add 3/4 - 1 cup water to ground beef and seasoning and simmer on medium low temperature for 20 minutes. 

4) VERY IMPORTANT!!!!! Simmer until most of moisture has cooked away. Remove from heat when moisture in meat as dissipated but meat is not dry. The meat should be "damp".

5) Garnish as desired