We eat a lot of Mexican and Tex Mex type food in our house. Tacos are a favorite. We like soft taco shells, but we also enjoy hard taco shells once in awhile.
Yes, I could fry my own corn tortillas, and make crispy tacos myself, but tacos are usually a quick and easy meal for me, so I buy them. However, I did not buy them often because I found them to be a bit stale most of the time.
Well, I learned from a friend that I was skipping a very important step when serving my store bought hard tacos.
See on the back of the box where it says to heat the taco shells. Well, it turns out that it is an important step. Yes, heating the tacos does make them crisp. It takes away that stale taste and texture that I did not like.
I thought this was a needless step. I thought it was only to heat the shells. I did not care if they shells were hot, so I skipped that step. Well, lesson learned. It pays to follow directions.
Am I the only one that skipped that step?
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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
I NEVER knew!!!
I still like making mine though …
You can take a corn tortilla and use an empty tin can to create a “boat” taco. Put the torille in the grease, take tin can with protective tongs and hold the can down the center of the torilla. The part of the torilla outside the can will flow upwards. These are fun …
S
Yes, corn tortillas taste a LOT better heated in the oven before serving. And they really don’t taste the same if you try to heat them in the microwave.
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@flora, I may know about using cocoa on a cake pan,
but somehow I missed this tip. I guess it just proves that there is always something to learn when it comes to cooking.
I always skip the heating myself and wondered why mine always tasted stale.
Another reason to read the directions! lol! We’ve been heating them in the toaster oven since I was old enough to eat a taco – and they stay in the toaster oven until we are ready for another “round”.
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I am cracking up because we do tacos and nachos at least once a week around here (and not by my choice). Lately the kids have wanted the hard taco shells vs soft, and I opened a new package last week to use. I also thought the heating was optional – if I thought of it in time, I would throw them on the cookie sheet at the end of the nacho cooking time to use one pan, but it was hit/miss and last week was a miss. One of my kids told me the shells were stale and I knew that couldn’t be true – it was a brand new package, the dates looked fine. hmmm perhaps I should have heated it up! live and learn!! this week, somehow I have escaped the taco rotation thankfully…
LMAO! That is sooo funny! I am a FREAK about making sure the hard taco shells are baked! My hubby made taco’s twice, the first time he skipped the heating, then the second time, he totally burned them!
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how fresh and crispy they taste fresh out of the oven!
Hahaha, I love this!!! I do this type of stuff all of the time. But please…don’t make my mistake by leaving them in the oven for to long. I got distracted once and ignored the timer on my oven (bad Idea) and came back like oh I don’t know 8 minutes later and my tacos had shrunk in size. Not just a little bit…but by a lot!! Dinner was served on tortillas that night
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I can honestly say that I’ve never even looked at the back of a taco shell box–and we do eat taco shells once in awhile. I’m gonna try this next time.
I never knew that! That’s why my husband won’t eat hard tacos at home, even though he loves them at restaurants.
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OMG – I never knew – thanks so much for sharing!!
I’ve been heating them as long as I can remember…so much so that I never even knew there were directions for it on the box. Just thought it a given. Never realized how many people might skip this step.
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Oh wow! Thank you! I was getting really frustrated at all of the stale taco shells I have bought! LOL I will make sure to read the box next time.
I’ve always heated my shells but thats not my question. Sometimes I have 4 or 5 shells left over that I didn’t heat up, and would like to keep them for the next time, but I can’t figure out a way to keep them fresh!!! Anyone have any tips???
I always put my leftover taco shell in an airtight container. I myself use a tupperware container and it keeps my shells fresh forever!!
Yep, I learned this one the hard way. I had my husband’s brother over for dinner to impress him with my mad cooking skills and tacos are his FAVE. I totally didn’t know you had to heat them up… he pointed that out to me after he took the first bite. Eeek!