- 2 days ago
Craving Taco Bell but don't want to leave the house? In this video, Nicole recreates five of the fast-food chain's most iconic menu items, showing you how to make all your drive-thru favorites right at home. From perfectly seasoned taco meat to a crispy Crunchwrap Supreme and a refreshing homemade Baja Blast, these copycat recipes are packed with all the flavors you love.
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00:00Skip the drive-through because these Taco Bell favorites
00:02are cheaper, bigger, better, and just as nostalgic.
00:05We are gonna recreate some of the most popular
00:07and my favorite items on the menu.
00:09First things first, you gotta know how to make the taco meat.
00:13The difference is when we make it at home,
00:16there's nothing mysterious about it.
00:17We know exactly what's in it.
00:19Yes, you can buy this seasoning,
00:20but I'm not convinced that this is all there is
00:23to know about the Taco Bell taco meat.
00:26I've got a few tricks up my sleeve
00:28to get it just like they have it.
00:29It starts with chili powder, onion powder,
00:32and garlic powder, cumin, and paprika.
00:35Paprika gives it that dark red color.
00:37Now we need a little bit of cayenne
00:38and a little bit of sugar.
00:40Those two are gonna balance each other out.
00:42See, when you look on the back of the ingredients,
00:45it's pretty vague.
00:46Salt, maltodextrin, spice, onions, paprika, sugar.
00:51The number one ingredient is wheat flour,
00:53which means there's more of that
00:55than anything else in this packet.
00:57We are gonna put a little flour.
00:58That is what helps it get a little bit thick and saucy
01:02when you add water to it.
01:03Another thing in our recipe is beef bouillon granules.
01:06This is going to elevate the flavor, the beefiness of the beef.
01:11You gotta have some salt.
01:12And then the flour.
01:13And if you want taco seasoning that is gluten-free,
01:15you can just leave the flour out altogether,
01:17or you can sub in oat flour or something like that.
01:20Taco seasoning made.
01:21Now let's make the famous taco meat.
01:24Be prepared.
01:25The cooking of this meat is about to trigger some people,
01:28but let's talk about it.
01:30So you know, Taco Bell meat is super finely ground.
01:35I'm gonna show you what I learned as the easiest way to get that.
01:38Start by getting your skillet hot.
01:40Give it a little head start.
01:41Potato mashers, the way to go here.
01:43And in goes the water.
01:44Yes, you have to boil the meat first.
01:48I know, it feels so wrong.
01:50This is going to help break it up,
01:52and then it's just going to cook,
01:54and we're gonna let some of that water evaporate out.
01:56But there's still nothing to be scared of.
01:58The only ingredient right here is beef.
02:00You might want to look away.
02:02See? See how we're doing?
02:04Those little finely ground pieces of beef.
02:08This is gonna be some good taco meat.
02:09Now I didn't use a super fatty beef to start with.
02:13If you do, you might want to drain some of that off.
02:15I used a sirloin and a lean,
02:18so that's why you don't see a ton of fat in here.
02:21Now the liquid has reduced,
02:22so you would normally add some water anyway
02:25when you cook your taco meat,
02:26so all that's in there.
02:27This is gonna thicken it up and make it really saucy.
02:29I've done all my research for this.
02:31Not that I really don't know
02:32what some of the things taste like.
02:34Some of the things I'm recreating today,
02:36I really just had for the first time yesterday.
02:38Because I'm a creature of habit.
02:40I just get my same things.
02:41But I had to create some of the fan favorites.
02:43Making a lot of the taco meat
02:45because we're gonna use it
02:46in just about all of our recipes.
02:48It's gonna simmer for a few more minutes
02:49and get a little thicker,
02:51but I mean, come on.
02:51It's looking pretty good.
02:54I'd say we nailed it.
02:55Now I'm gonna serve it up on my go-to order
02:57I get every single time.
02:59I mean, I know it's not the most attractive thing,
03:00but if we are trying to create copycats,
03:03you know I go all in.
03:04That's a pretty good copy.
03:0610 out of 10 times if I go to Taco Bell,
03:08there is a crunchy taco in my order.
03:10I don't know what it is,
03:11but Taco Bell has gotten a little bit stingy
03:15with their fillings.
03:16The good thing about making them at home
03:17is you can control it.
03:19And I mean, like the prices have gone way up,
03:22but the portions have gotten smaller.
03:24Cannot be having that.
03:25Contrary to what I'd normally do,
03:27they put the cheese on last.
03:29Order up, two tacos, one crunchy, one soft.
03:32You want to make it supreme,
03:33you add on sour cream and tomatoes.
03:37Don't fight me on the best sauce at Taco Bell.
03:39It's just the simple hot sauce.
03:41And this is the appropriate amount for two tacos.
03:47Maybe not this many,
03:48but you want at least three packs per taco.
03:51And when I say, hey, can I get a lot of hot sauce?
03:54And they go,
03:57it's not a lot.
03:58Good thing they make it in a bottle now.
04:05I know you're like, oh, it's just a taco.
04:07It's not just a taco.
04:09That is a perfect copycat.
04:11Taco Bell seasoning, meat, and taco.
04:15And right off the bat, this is a three-for-one special.
04:19Ready to move on to the item
04:21that I've never had until yesterday.
04:24This menu item made a comeback recently, the Enchirito.
04:27Why have I never had an Enchirito?
04:30Tasted it yesterday.
04:31It was delicious.
04:32It's like a bean and beef burrito meets an enchilada.
04:37That might've been one of the better things I have.
04:39So let's recreate it,
04:40because I hear it is just a fan favorite.
04:43And now I see why.
04:44The key ingredient,
04:45and an ingredient that is on a lot of things,
04:49it's on the Mexican pizza,
04:51it's on the Pintos and cheese,
04:53it's the red sauce, okay?
04:55The red sauce is not the same thing as taco sauce.
04:59And because my research is so thorough,
05:01I brought a little red sauce home.
05:03You can also order a side of red sauce for 30 cents, okay?
05:07It is basically like an enchilada sauce.
05:12Don't know the ingredients in here,
05:13but I did see some other little copycat recipes,
05:16and I think I know the trick,
05:18because all the ingredients ironically have the same thing
05:23as the taco seasoning.
05:25Starts with a can of tomato sauce.
05:27It's a pretty thin sauce,
05:29but you can tell it's been thickened to kind of gloss.
05:31And then I've got some water,
05:32because you want it to be like a really pourable sauce here.
05:36We can adjust the consistency as we cook.
05:39Also has vinegar in it.
05:41What I'll figure out is I need to get to that deep red color.
05:44If this doesn't do that,
05:45then I might have to add more chili powder.
05:46Our flavor is really good on this red sauce.
05:49I am gonna deepen it just a little bit.
05:51I feel like the Taco Bell one
05:52has a little more of a chili flavor.
05:54So I'm just gonna add in a little more chili powder,
05:56and I think we have this one in the bag.
05:58The other ingredient that goes in the Enchirito,
06:01besides the taco meat, are the pintos,
06:04the refried beans, which they call pintos and cheese.
06:08For a while, this was my daughter's
06:09self-proclaimed favorite food.
06:12Like, about eight years old.
06:14Hey, what's your favorite food?
06:15She said, pintos and cheese from Taco Bell.
06:17Listen, raise them right, that's all I can say.
06:20I think it just starts with refried beans.
06:22I don't know that they're sitting there
06:23making them from scratch.
06:24The thing is, they're very loose.
06:27What I learned is I think that they just add water
06:30and heat them up until they're runny.
06:32So that's what we're gonna do.
06:33Not the most attractive thing I know.
06:35I think, actually, what I learned in my research
06:37was that their pintos come in dried,
06:40and they just reconstitute it with water.
06:43Time to build the masterpiece.
06:45There's not much to this one.
06:47I think we could take this simple idea
06:49and turn it into a whole casserole.
06:51It is just refried beans, plus some of our famous taco meat,
06:56and a little bit of onion that I'm here for.
06:59I'm here for that right there.
07:00Kinda made it for me.
07:02Then you just roll them up, down into a dish.
07:05Salsa over the top, and then cheese.
07:08You know, we can't be too generous to Taco Bell.
07:10And then they put it under whatever the thing is
07:13that makes the cheese melt.
07:14We're gonna pop it in the oven for a few minutes.
07:17I'm gonna make a couple more of these
07:18because I think everybody's gonna want one.
07:21This is an easy dinner, guys.
07:22Like, you could make an Enchirito casserole all the time.
07:26Another thing they don't do,
07:29now the Enchirito used to come
07:30with a few sliced black olives on top.
07:33My first Enchirito at home.
07:39It's all the same ingredients,
07:40served up in a different package,
07:41but the red sauce, I mean, the red sauce makes it.
07:44And those little, just those little bits of crunchy onion.
07:48Sort of feel like you don't even need
07:49this sauce on it afterwards, but I'll try a bite with it.
07:53Skip the drive-through on this one.
07:54I don't remember how much the Enchirito was,
07:56but you can make a whole bunch for not a lot of money.
07:59A plus.
08:01This menu item, to me, I think stands out definitely
08:04in the top five Taco Bell items.
08:08Happens to be my brother's favorite, the Mexican pizza.
08:11They took this away for a while, and that was a mistake.
08:14Or it was very smart of them,
08:15because then it just made people demand it more.
08:18Two crispy tortillas, with beans and meat in the middle,
08:23cheese on top, some tomatoes, some of the red sauce.
08:26So you do need to deep fry these.
08:28This one, you know, was one of the harder ones to develop,
08:32to make sure you got that same texture that you do
08:35in the Mexican pizza, because that is what makes it so special.
08:38It's like crispy, but not crunchy.
08:41And then creamy also, yeah, that's a good one.
08:46I mean, like, I loved a Mexican pizza,
08:49and I would order a Mexican pizza when I felt like
08:52I was being extra indulgent, okay?
08:55What I got the other day is not what I remember.
08:59It didn't taste the same.
09:00It wasn't nearly as good as the way I remember it.
09:03So I need to bring back what I remember.
09:07I think the trick is you want your oil to be pretty hot
09:10so that this happens fast.
09:12The eight-inch size is what you want.
09:13It shrinks up a little bit when you fry it,
09:15and then it's gonna be the perfect Mexican pizza size.
09:19It's the sound you want.
09:21It's gonna be really toasty,
09:22but a little bit soft on the inside,
09:24not like a tostada shell.
09:26Now we build the perfect Mexican pizza, like they used to.
09:30I did pop them in the oven for a couple minutes.
09:33I think that was a pro move right there.
09:35One tortilla down, our beans on top of that.
09:38I don't think any of my kids have had
09:40a Mexican pizza before, but they would be down for this.
09:44Okay, and then your other tortilla on top.
09:47Then our famous red sauce,
09:49because that's your pizza sauce.
09:51This one has the Mexican cheese blend on it, both cheeses.
09:56Back in the day, it used to have olives on it too.
10:00I feel like they had green onions on them at some point.
10:02Today's only has tomatoes.
10:04Now it just goes in here until that cheese melts.
10:08I mean, he's a good looking Mexican pizza though.
10:10Now it just gets tomatoes.
10:13Then you gotta cut it in quadrants.
10:16I feel like they're pretty aggressive when they do this.
10:18This is definitely gonna be better than Taco Bell's.
10:22And I don't say that lightly.
10:23How'd we do?
10:25My Mexican pizza versus Taco Bell's.
10:28Feels like the Mexican pizza.
10:30Oh, hold on.
10:31If I'm gonna eat it, I'm gonna eat it like I would,
10:34with some of this.
10:39I mean, it is better than Taco Bell's.
10:41If they take this off the menu again, need not worry.
10:46I mean, listen to this.
10:48I might have overstuffed it a little bit.
10:50I think you can make them even smaller
10:51because this is definitely bigger and more indulgent
10:55than what you get at Taco Bell.
10:56This is another one where I'm like,
10:57why haven't I made this before?
10:59And definitely why haven't my kids had this?
11:01They are going to die over these.
11:02A plus, plus, plus.
11:05All right, how do you feel about a Crunchwrap?
11:07I happen to only like a Crunchwrap at home versus Taco Bell.
11:12I was uberly, is that a word?
11:15I was extremely unimpressed with the Crunchwrap
11:18that I got yesterday.
11:20It had the smallest, almost no meat in it.
11:24I mean, come on, Taco Bell, do better.
11:27You start with a large tortilla and you go in with your meat.
11:32And I'm gonna be generous about the size of your tostada.
11:34This one has nacho cheese sauce.
11:37So, of course, I got the Taco Bell kind.
11:40Now, really, when I do these at home,
11:41I just put shredded cheese on this part,
11:43but we're gonna keep it authentic.
11:46You've heard me talk about tostadas before,
11:47but I love them because you don't have to heat them up.
11:49They stay crunchy.
11:50They make for great little snacks.
11:52Like, buy what you want.
11:55You want your Crunchwrap to be crunchy.
11:57So down it goes.
11:58Then on this layer, sour cream.
12:00The sour cream is the glue for the next two ingredients.
12:03One of which I do not agree with.
12:06The shredded lettuce.
12:08I have a problem with this
12:09because the lettuce doesn't also stay crunchy.
12:12I prefer to put the lettuce on the top at the end.
12:14So just pro tip.
12:16But we're gonna make it like Taco Bell.
12:18And some tomato.
12:20Okay, now at this point,
12:20you have to top it with a little bit of a tortilla
12:24to cover that because this won't fully wrap and cover.
12:28You can just tear a bit of a larger tortilla
12:31so you don't have to buy a separate kind.
12:32But we've always got tortillas at my house.
12:35So you can put a smaller size tortilla on top.
12:38And then you just start folding, folding.
12:42Now you've got it made.
12:44And you're gonna place this folded side down first
12:47in your skillet.
12:48If you really wanna serve this family style,
12:50I know you've seen at least three or four times
12:54me make a casserole version of this.
12:57I've got the crunch wrap casserole.
12:59I've got a crunch wrap breakfast casserole.
13:02I have a chicken one.
13:03As long as you don't cook that first side too much,
13:06hopefully some of the lettuce stays cool and crunchy.
13:09I might get you a skillet hot.
13:11Remember, everything's cooked and even warmed in here.
13:14So you don't wanna go too long
13:15so those veggies don't get soggy
13:17and your tostada doesn't get soggy.
13:19I'm just going in with a little avocado oil spray here.
13:22So it only takes about 30 seconds
13:23to a minute on each side.
13:25Let's see how he did compared to the TV.
13:28Is it crunchy?
13:33Look at that.
13:34I mean, this does not even compare to what we got yesterday.
13:42Mmm.
13:43I would order these if it tasted like this.
13:46I give you my money back guarantee
13:48that the crunch wrap is 10 times better to make at home
13:52versus going through the drive-through.
13:54I think I forget about them
13:55because I don't ever order them, but mmm, mmm, mmm.
14:01Baja Blast time.
14:02You know I cannot do a Taco Bell episode
14:04without doing the Baja Blast.
14:06I feel like somebody's gonna say something.
14:07I can also say I've never ordered this.
14:09I know, I know, I know.
14:11I did die laughing when my daughter asked if we could door dash some Baja Blast.
14:15Oh, Louise, who do you think you are in this economy?
14:18We'll be making our own, and here's how you do it.
14:21It starts with Blue Powerade, Mountain Dew, and then a little splash of Sprite.
14:28Or so they say.
14:29Or so they say.
14:31Cheers to Taco Bell.
14:37And it's pretty refreshing.
14:39But you know what I want to do.
14:44That's what I like.
14:45Baja Blast, boozy or not, this is another reason why it's better to make your Taco Bell at home.
14:51Our job here is done.
14:54And yo quiero Taco Bell.
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