So, YEH, I know that it is Monday, but, you gotta prepare for Taco Tuesday, and the thing is, this taco casserole comes together fast enough that you can make it after getting home from work and still have time to enjoy a Corona with your dinner before it gets to be too late.
The original recipe, from the nice folk at delish.com, called for shredded cooked chicken (think rotisserie), but the night I decided to make it, ground turkey was all I could find, so, here we go…
INGREDIENTS
Taco Filling:
•1 tbsp olive oil
•1 lb ground turkey
•2 cups diced sweet onion
•1 tbsp Sherry Peppers Sauce*
•1 tsp Cajun Power Spicy Garlic Pepper Sauce – or your fave hot sauce, to taste
•1/2 tsp ground cumin
•1/2 tsp Cajun seasoning
•1/2 tsp Seasoned Salt
•1/2 tsp black pepper
•1/2 tsp Mesquite liquid smoke
•1 (4.5 oz) can diced green chiles
•1 cup salsa
Refried Beans:
•1 (16 oz) can refried black beans
•1 tbsp Sherry Peppers Sauce*
•1 tsp Cajun Power Spicy Garlic Pepper Sauce – or your fave hot sauce, to taste
Tacos:
•12 taco shells
•Shredded Pepperjack cheese
Toppings:
•Shredded lettuce
•Chopped tomatoes
•Chopped cilantro or parsley
•Taco sauce
•Sour cream
*No Sherry Peppers Sauce? No Problem! Simply add a bit of decent sherry (none of that “cooking” stuff) and a dash or three of your fave hot sauce, to taste.
Preheat your oven to 375º and place a large skillet over medium heat.
Add the oil and ground turkey and cook, breaking up the turkey into small pieces, for a few minutes before adding the onion.
Continue to cook, stirring often, until the turkey is cooked through and the onion is tender, another ten minutes or so.
Note: if you’d like to bump up the veggie goodness for this casserole, add a cup or two of coleslaw mix along with the onion. No one notices it, but they still get all those extra vitamins and stuff.
Add the Sherry Peppers and remaining seasonings and continue to cook, stirring, until any pan liquids have cooked off.
Stir the Sherry Peppers and hot sauces into your refried beans and pop in the ‘wave for a minute or so, until they are warmed a bit and nicely loosened up.
Arrange your taco shells in a 13 x9 casserole so that they are holding each other up.
Note: I used a combination of hard corn and soft flour tacos for this batch; but next time, I plan to use the hard corn “easy fill” taco shells.
Divide your refried beans among the taco shells, then top with the turkey mixture and the cheese.
Pop into the hot oven and bake for ten minutes or so, until the cheese is all melty goodness and everything is heated though.
The nice folk at delish.com suggested serving these with cilantro, but we all know that there has got to be some chopped lettuce and tomato, mebbe a dab o’ sour cream, and some taco sauce, too.
Another nice topper, try French dressing.
Yeh. I know. French dressing turkey tacos.
It is a thing, though.