Puffy tacos, a San Antonio specialty, are made from fresh masa that puffs and crisps in hot oil. The result is crisp outside and soft within, and way more fun that your standard hard taco shell. They can be stuffed with your favorite variety of taco-night fillings—this recipe uses a flavorful ground beef mixture that's earthy, spicy, and slightly smoky.
San Antonio-style puffy tacos shells with a well-seasoned ground beef filling. [Photographs: Joshua Bousel]. Those might just be two of the finest words that can be uttered when discussing dinner.It's a regular event at my house, and it has always meant one thing: hard shell tacos with a highly seasoned ground beef filling. I grew up eating this dish, and yes, the taco shells invariably came from a box and the filling was seasoned with powder from a packet.
To make the shells, I broke off approximately two tablespoons of masa and pressed it in my tortilla press between two pieces of a plastic bag to prevent sticking—they can also be rolled out using a rolling pin if you don't have a tortilla press. Once the masa crisped enough to hold its shape—about ten seconds—I used the spatula to gently submerge one side of the shell into the oil and waited until it turned a golden yellow, then repeated with the other side.
If you have a local tortilleria or other source for fresh masa, it's definitely worth grabbing some for this application. Still, masa harina will work ok for those who don't have the option of the fresh stuff.In San Antonio, you're more likely to find taco stuffings in shredded-meat form, but at my home there'd be all-out mayhem if I strayed from the ground-beef standard.
Once the smell of the spices fill my kitchen, I add a couple pounds of ground chuck and cook it, breaking it apart with a wooden spoon or potato masher, until it's consistently browned.
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