The Simple Step To Prevent Your Tacos From Falling Apart

Tacos may very well be the perfect food. Handheld for ease of chowing down, they are stuffed with ingredients like meats, cheeses, and vegetables; there are traditional Mexican tacos, Asian-inspired tacos, fish tacos, and so on. And let's not forget the garnishes like guacamole, hot sauce, and sour cream. Every texture and flavor on the spectrum is hit when biting into a taco. There is even a day of the week fully devoted to the culinary masterpiece: Taco Tuesday. The South Florida Reporter reports that Americans eat over 4.5 billion tacos every year. That's a lot of tortillas.

Considering the hundreds of tacos you've probably eaten during your lifetime, you likely had a few mishaps along the way. Perhaps it was cold asada, wilted lettuce, a stale tortilla shell, or the worst: The bottom of your tortilla bursts open to let the entirety of the fillings collapse onto your plate (hopefully not your lap). Suddenly, you're shamefully eating your taco with a fork, crying into your pico de gallo. This is less likely to happen when eating soft tacos made with flour tortillas as they are a bit more pliable and durable against the moisture of the fillings. With traditional corn tortillas, it's a risk taco-eaters take. Many restaurants and food trucks attempt to battle this fiasco by doubling up their corn tortillas, and it is a fine solution to do at home. But it's certainly not the only way to win the fight of man versus tortilla.

Store-bought and fast food taco shells tend to be very crunchy, folded, and molded corn shells, which inevitably break quite easily and often. If traditional is more your style and it's corn tortillas you want, then your solution might just lie in a little bit of oil. Eat This, Not That suggests frying your corn tortilla in a shallow pan of hot oil for no more than 30 seconds per side. This hardens up the shell a bit without the tortilla becoming crispy and breakable like a chip. Immediately after taking the tortilla out of the oil, put your fillings in and fold them into the traditional "u" taco shape. If making several shells, be sure to fold the fried shell in half as soon as it's out of the oil to help hold its shape. The shell is now stronger and you don't have to worry about it crumbling into pieces in your hands.

The best news is that with this extra bit of durability, you don't need to skimp on the fillings (but, really, did you ever?). The shell can be positively stuffed with your favorite toppings. You may believe that the best tacos will still come from a great Mexican restaurant, but with this tip, you'll be plenty satisfied when the hankering for Mexico's most famous street food hits when you'd rather stay at home.