Crispy Cheese Tacos Recipe

By
Joshua Bousel
a photo of Joshua Bousel, a Contributing Writer at Serious Eats
Joshua Bousel
Joshua Bousel is a Serious Eats old-timer, having started sharing his passion for grilling and barbecue recipes on the site back in 2008. He continues to develop grilling and barbecue recipes on his own site, The Meatwave, out of his home base of Durham, North Carolina.
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Updated Mar. 21, 2019
20150422-crispy-cheese-tacos-manchego-assembled-joshua-bousel.jpg
Tacos with crispy cheese overflowing the tortilla. Joshua Bousel

Why It Works

  • Using gentle heat helps ensure even cooking and avoids burning the cheese.
  • Placing the tortilla on the cheese after it has melted ensures the cheese adheres without overcooking the tortilla.
  • Letting the cheese cool in the skillet makes it easier to remove with a spatula.

Grated cheese is a common taco topping, but it's also a boring one, failing to take advantage of the cheese's best assets: its melting and crisping abilities. The solution is the here with these crispy cheese tacos, in which we fuse melted, crisped cheese to a tortilla, which can then be stuffed with all sorts of fillings.

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Recipe Facts

5

(1)

Active: 15 mins
Total: 15 mins
Makes: 8 Cheese-Crisp Tortillas

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Ingredients

  • 4 ounces grated parmesan, Manchego, Cheddar, or other hard or semi-hard cheese
  • 8 corn tortillas

Directions

  1. Arrange 1/2 ounce of cheese on one side of a non-stick skillet in a 5- by 2-inch rectangle. Turn heat to medium-low. When cheese begins to melt, place 1 tortilla on top of cheese so that roughly half the cheese is covered by the tortilla.

  2. Let cheese cook until it turns an even golden brown color. Remove pan from heat and let stand until cheese cools and firms up slightly.

  3. Carefully slide a thin spatula under cheese and remove tortilla from pan. Fill as desired (see note) and serve immediately. Repeat with remaining cheese and tortillas.

Special equipment

Non-stick skillet

Notes

Crispy Cheese Tacos can be filled with all sorts of fillings. Some ideas include carnitas; chile verde; chicken tinga; seasoned ground beef; beef barbacoa; or making a breakfast taco with scrambled eggs and either pico de gallo or salsa verde.

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