Macheesmo

This post is sponsored by Old El Paso. I was asked to be one of their Freshest Bloggers this year so you’ll see some fun Tex-Mex action occasionally. This post features their fun mini soft tortilla taco boats!

One of the first desserts I learned to really nail at home was the molten chocolate cake. If you’ve been lucky enough to have it, you’ll know that it’s essentially a perfectly undercooked mini chocolate cake so when you cut into it, it kind of oozes out into a delicious chocolate sauce. Good stuff.

I figured it might be fun to try something similar but in the land of savory. Tacos were an obvious choose because queso is molten and delicious. I couldn’t just toss it in a taco shell for obvious reasons though (no sides). That’s why the mini taco boat works so well. It keeps everything contained (and also hidden) so it’s kind of a surprise when you bite into them!

Also, I really do prefer the mini ones for this recipe. I tried it with the larger full-sized taco boats and I found them to be a bit much. These are really perfect as a 2-3 bite appetizer. Of course, if you’re me, you’ll just make a meal out of them by eating, like, eight!

Learn to love the Molten Queso Taco Boat!

Molten Taco Boats

by Nick

Serves:

24 mini taco boats

Prep Time:

30 mins

Total Time:

45 mins

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Mini taco boats with a hidden layer of homemade queso. Topped with any taco fillings you like. Such a fun appetizer!

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 packet mild Old El Paso taco seasoning

1/2 cup water

15 oz. black beans, drained and rinsed

24 Old El Paso mini taco boats

Molten Queso:

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 cup milk, warm

2 cups grated cheddar cheese

Salt and pepper

Taco Boat Toppings:

Chopped onions

Chopped tomatoes

Chopped avocados

Shredded lettuce

Pickled jalapenos

Fresh cilantro

Instructions

1) In a large skillet over medium heat, add olive oil and ground beef. Cook ground beef for 4-5 minutes until it’s browned, breaking it up as it cooks. Then add water, Old El Paso Taco seasoning and drained and rinsed black beans. Stir together and turn heat down to low. Keep mixture warm while making other fillings. If the skillet looks too dry at any point, add more water by the 1/4 cup.

2) For queso, add butter and flour to a small pot over low heat. Whisk together to form a roux. Once mixture turns a light tan color, slowly whisk in warmed milk until the mixture turns into a thick sauce. Then add grated cheese and stir into the sauce to thicken it even more. Season with salt and pepper.

3) Prepare other toppings ingredients.

4) Make a molten taco boat by spooning in queso into the bottom of a mini taco boat. Top with ground beef mixture and any toppings you like. Serve immediately!

Molten Taco Boats

If you can make tacos, you can make these. Do make sure to prep stuff in the right order though. Ideally, you would make the queso last so it’s nice and fresh while you are making the boats.

I cooked up some ground beef as a topping.

And added some black beans also. I kept this filling pretty simple. Nothing fancy here!

These are the little mini taco boats I used for mine. They are available in most supermarkets and come in packs of 12.

Toppings are various. I went with onion, tomato, avocado, lettuce, pickled jalapeños, and cilantro. Again, just make sure have everything ready!

When it’s time to make the queso, I do recommend making it yourself. The storebought queso would obviously be easier, but the nice thing about making it yourself is you can make it really thick. Most store-bought are pretty thin so you won’t have molten queso as much as you’ll end up with watery queso.

To start the queso, just whisk together the butter and flour in a small pot over low heat until it turns a light tan color.

Then slowly whisk in the warm milk until it’s nice and thick. Finally add all the cheese and you’ll have a really nice, thick queso. I recommend seasoning it with a little salt and pepper.

Making the boats is pretty straightforward at that point. Spoon in some queso, then top with beef and beans.

Then pile on any other toppings that  you like. I like all the toppings!

Can you say CHOMP?!