Seasoning meat for tacos, taco salad, enchiladas, etc.

INGREDIENTS:

- 1 lb. ground meat (I use turkey)
- 1 large bell pepper (or 2 small ones fresh from the garden)
- 1/2 of a large onion (or 1 small one fresh from the garden)
- Fresh garlic (I used 3 cloves – you can use less)
- 2 large ancho peppers (dried poblano peppers – find them in the Latin foods aisle or in the produce section)
- Salt, Pepper, and Cumin
- Optional: 1 can light red kidney beans (I add these to meat for taco salads) (not pictured because I forgot)

DIRECTIONS:

Prepare the ancho peppers to be rehydrated and cooked. Pull the stems up and out the top of the peppers, like this (see photo above for reference):
With a very sharp knife, cut off the tops:
Slice the pepper down the side and pick out all the seeds (and the veins, if you choose):

Roll the de-seeded peppers together and slice into thin slices:
Give them another rough chop until you have pieces about 1-inch square, then add to a small saucepan and cover with water:
Put them on the stovetop on high heat and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer while you chop the rest of the veggies. Dice your bell pepper and onion and add to a large saucepan or skillet (don’t turn the heat on underneath yet):
Mince your garlic. I slice mine in half lengthwise and smash with the flat of my knife, and then mince it very finely:

Add the ground meat to the pan and turn heat on high. Cook and stir, chopping the meat to break it up (especially if using turkey). I add my salt and pepper at this point. When the meat is mostly cooked and you can see very little pink, add the garlic (see how the ancho peppers are bubbling?):
Cook and stir for a few minutes to cook the garlic, then add your cumin to the top. I don’t measure – I just make sure there’s a good layer on top, like this (feel free to sprinkle it all over the stovetop, like I did):
Cook and stir until the meat is done, then turn the heat off while you finish the ancho peppers. Your ancho peppers should be good and soft by now, and most of the liquid may have evaporated. If it hasn’t, that’s okay. Turn the heat off and let cool for a few minutes, then pour into a blender. You may need to add water to just reach the top of the peppers:
Puree until you can’t see any pepper pieces swirling around in there. It should turn a nice dark red (sorry, I couldn’t get a good photo without steam):
Add to the meat and stir well. It will look way too soupy, but that’s what you want, because now, we’re going to simmer it. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer:

If you’re using this meat for taco salad, you can drain and rinse the beans while it simmers. Here’s my method – open the can of beans, dump the whole thing in a wire mesh strainer, run hot water into the can and keep dumping cans of hot water over the beans until they’re good and rinsed. Then set the can in the sink and rest the strainer on top so the beans can drain well:
Your meat will have been simmering this whole time, so check it to see if the liquid has cooked off. Run a spatula from the edge of the pan and see if you get liquid seep back into the empty space. This is still a little too saucy:
Four minutes later, it looked like this, which is perfect:
And it’s done! If you’re doing taco salad, you can add the beans to the meat and refrigerate it until it’s time to eat. Just microwave for about 2 minutes to reheat. You can also let this cool, then put in a large Ziploc freezer bag and it will keep in the freezer until you’re ready to use it. I like to make several pounds of meat at a time and freeze 1 pound in each freezer bag.
We’re not big fans of the taco seasoning packets, so this is how we like to season meat for tacos, taco salad, enchiladas, and even for chili (brown about 1 or 2 pounds of chili meat in a stew pot, add the ancho pepper puree with a large can of stewed tomatoes, and let simmer for several hours, adding water as necessary). I hope you all like it, too! Let me know if you try it!