Corn Chip Taco Salad

There are taco salads. And then there is this recipe for corn chip taco salad that has all the great taco salad ingredients and a corn chip crunch!

Okay, I love love love this taco salad, and here’s why. Not because it is ridiculously easy to make (and it is).

Not because it tastes ridiculously good (and it does). It’s because — unlike 99.9% of most taco salads — the crunchy part of the taco salad is actually worth eating.

And by that I mean this:  usually you order a taco salad and it comes in a giant tortilla “bowl.” You say to yourself, Self, I’m just going to eat the salad part, and you work through all that good stuff in the bowl.

The spicy taco meat, the avocado chunks, the chopped tomatoes, the cheese (ah! the cheese!!) and pretty soon your taco salad is gone and the only thing left standing is the tortilla bowl.

So you break off a piece of the side of it, and honestly? It’s not that good.

It’s okay….but it’s kind of bland and not that tasty…but it’s there on your plate, and pretty soon you have picked off most of the sides of it.

And so your awesome taco salad has ended with a whimper.

But in THIS taco salad, my friends, your favorite corn chips take the place of that tortilla bowl.  They are added to the salad at the very end and tossed right into the salad along with everything else.

So every other bite contains a hit of salty corn chip wonderfulness along with all the other taco salad taste sensations.

Now corn chips may not be the healthiest ingredient on the planet…but DANG! they are good. And all I have to say is, if you are going to eat the taco salad bowl — and you KNOW you are — let’s at least make sure it tastes pretty great going down.

That picture up there shows the ingredients before the tossing (and the lettuce is underneath all that other good stuff) just because it is more photogenic that way, but let me be clear — you should be toss, toss, tossing all those great ingredients together so that each bite is a mixture of all those rocking taste sensations.

Here’s how to make Corn Chip Taco Salad!

First we make the taco meat!  Cook a pound of ground beef with a packet of taco seasoning, according to taco seasoning mix directions…or even better, make your own taco seasoning – it takes 5 minutes and has zero ingredients that you can’t pronounce.

Combine the cooked meat, one head of chopped iceberg lettuce, 3 chopped tomatoes (or if you aren’t in tomato season, you might want to use a couple cups of halved cherry tomatoes – they taste good all year!) and 2 peeled and chopped avocados in large mixing bowl. The taco flavoring in the meat juices will serve as the “dressing” for the salad.

Add 2 cups of your favorite corn chips (the original sized Fritos work great for this) and toss again.

Throw caution to the wind and have seconds.

So for all of you who like to walk on the wild side with the corn chips, here is my favorite taco salad recipe.

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