Now, I try to keep a finger on the pulse of the fan favorites – especially when it comes to mex/texmex food. You know this is accurate because of my duplicate TB Mexican Pizza post. It’s hard to judge, but the “cheesy gordita crunch” may have the “mexican pizza” beat regarding popularity. So that’s where we’re going today.
The Prep Table
I’m a mix up the typical ground beef and try to make it more soupy like I remember the traditional taco bell meat is. A couple of problems with that – my freezer ground beef is a bit old and a bit heavier in fat than I’d like for taco meat. We’ll overcome.
What makes the Cheesy Gordita Crunch exactly that? Two things really: It’s the pillowy exterior shell and the spicy ranch sauce. The pillowy shell we’ll craft from some leftover pita. The spicy ranch will take a little bit of work. We’re going to mix some sour cream, mayo, ranch packet and some hot sauce and see what that looks like:
Mix it up, throw it in the fridge and let it blend. The consistency was a little bit thick, the sauce a little bit spicy (shocker) – but it was pretty damn close to spot on. I used allegedly Lola’s hottest hot sauce – The Family Reserve – and it maintained the flavor I remember with a little more heat, which was more than welcome. I could’ve thrown it into a squirt bottle, I could’ve watered it down .. but we’re just going to ladle it on later. Flavor was there, that was most important.
The Process
A little bit different work with the beef. We’re throwing a little bit of flour, a little more water than usual. I normally brown the beef and then season – but we’re going to season and then brown for this one. The floury blend was mixed in bowl, then thrown in the pan to brown. I’ll say in hindsight: Not my favorite flavor. It could be due to the age of the beef in the freezer – because I’ve kept this same recipe for a reason, and it wasn’t because of the flavor I got today.
I was aiming for the consistency of taco bell beef – and I got that, I just missed a bit on the flavor. I’m typing this on day 3 of leftovers, so it’s still very much edible, just not my favorite.
So I had two leftover pocketless pitas from the halal cook and I couldn’t let it go to waste. That’s what spawned the gordita crunch venture. The problem was, I had a big ol’ pita (MrsForensicBBQ) and a smaller-ish corn hard shell taco. I totally went arts/crafts with it and cut it to form. You’ll see the edges aren’t instagram friendly, but the shape is on point. Still a little bit of artsy in me.
We’re going to warm up the pita in the microwave for a little, sprinkle a cheese blend and melt that down and hope that’ll stick to the corn shell. Spoiler: One worked great, one did not. Could be a couple things: Place it when it was hot, make sure the pita was very pliable and wouldn’t pull away. It wasn’t meant for it, so you just gotta make it work.
The Result
So this one – the shell/pita was nailed. I spoke earlier – I was going to ladle the sauce – and you can see it here. But the taco meat looks super bare, and it really wasn’t. I couldn’t make this my post.
So this was a little more iconic. Lots of sauce, lots of meat.. plus the comparison with some naked (only hard shell) tacos in comparison. The Cheesy Gordita Crunch is just lettuce, cheese, and spicy ranch. As soon as I bit into it, it was really that spicy ranch more than the gordita shell that said “Cheesy Gordita Crunch”. I’ll throw that recipe down here – you’re welcome – and I hope you enjoyed this copycat variation!
Spicy Ranch Recipe
Spicy Ranch – Cheesy Gordita Crunch style
Ingredients
Method
- MIX!