
Smash burger tacos
A thin layer of beef pressed right onto a tortilla and seared until crisp, then folded with cheese, pickles and burger sauce.
- 25 min total
- 25 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 2
- About $3.00 a serving
- 750 calories

Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 2 servings.
- 2 tbsp mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp ketchup
- 1 tsp yellow mustard
- 8 oz 85/15 ground beef
- 4 flour tortillas
- 4 slices American cheese slices
- 1 cup shredded lettuce
- ¼ cup dill pickles, chopped
From your pantry
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 750 calories, 35 g protein, 49 g carbs and 45 g fat, and costs about $3.00 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow mustard? Dijon mustard works.
- No 85/15 ground beef? 90/10 ground beef works.
- No flour tortillas? Whole wheat tortillas work.
- No shredded lettuce? Iceberg lettuce or romaine lettuce works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Stir the mayonnaise, ketchup and mustard together in a small bowl for the sauce.
Divide the beef into 4 equal balls.
Food safety: Wash your hands, the board and the knife with hot soapy water after touching raw meat, and don’t rinse raw chicken in the sink.
Press each ball onto a tortilla, spreading it into a thin, even layer that reaches almost to the edge.
Dolly’s tip: Wet your fingertips and the beef spreads instead of sticking to you.Sprinkle the beef side with the salt and pepper.
Heat a large over medium-high for 2 minutes. Lay 2 tortillas in beef side down and cook 3 to 4 minutes, until the beef has a deep crust.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Brown. Browning means cooking until the outside turns brown, which is where a lot of savory flavor comes from. Give food room and time without stirring, or it steams and stays gray.
How you’ll know: The food looks brown rather than gray, and the kitchen smells toasty and savory.
Medium-high heatTimer: 3 min 30 sec
Dolly’s tip: Don’t move them. The crust needs the time to form, and it’ll release when it’s ready.Flip, lay a slice of cheese on the beef, and cook 1 to 2 minutes, until the tortilla is , the cheese and the beef is 160°F in the middle.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Melt. Melting means gently heating something solid, like butter or cheese, until it turns liquid. Low or medium heat keeps it from browning or burning.
How you’ll know: It’s smooth and liquid, and butter may foam a little but hasn’t turned brown.
Medium-high heatTimer: 1 min 30 sec
Food safety: Ground beef, pork and lamb are done at 160°F. When it’s cooked through there’s no pink left anywhere in the pan.
Slide them onto a plate, top with lettuce, pickles and a of sauce, and fold like a taco.
Drizzle. Drizzling means pouring a thin, slow stream over the top of something. A thin stream spreads a little flavor a long way.
How you’ll know: You see thin lines across the food, not a puddle collecting underneath.
Repeat with the other 2 tortillas and serve right away.

Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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