The Art of Taco Bell: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Your Favorite Fast Food Items at Home

It's no secret that Taco Bell has become a staple in many people's lives, and for good reason. The restaurant's innovative approach to food, which combines traditional Mexican flavors with modern twists, has resulted in some truly iconic dishes. But have you ever wondered how these beloved items are made? In this article, we'll take you on a step-by-step journey of creating your favorite Taco Bell items at home.

Starting with the basics, let's begin with the hard shell taco. This simple yet delicious dish is a great place to start for any aspiring Taco Bell fan. The key to making a perfect hard shell taco lies in its simplicity. You'll need a few basic ingredients, including seasoned ground beef, lettuce, cheese, and of course, a hard shell. Now, it's true that you can't exactly replicate the exact same experience at home, but with a little creativity, you can come close.

For example, if you're unable to find hard shells, you can easily make your own by baking or frying tortillas until they're crispy. Simply place them in the oven for 10-15 minutes or fry them in a pan with some oil until golden brown. Then, fill them up with seasoned ground beef, lettuce, cheese, and a dollop of sour cream, and you'll be enjoying a Taco Bell-quality meal in no time.

But why settle for just one dish when you can try your hand at the soft shell taco? This variation is slightly more involved, but still relatively easy to make. The key here is to use refried beans as a base, which will help hold everything together. Simply spread a layer of refried beans on the bottom half of a tortilla, then add some seasoned ground beef, cheese, and finally, top it off with the other tortilla half.

Now, we come to one of my personal favorites: the Crunchy Taco Wrap. This dish is all about creativity and experimentation. To make it at home, you'll need two corn tortillas, refried beans, seasoned ground beef, pizza sauce, cheese, sour cream, lettuce, tomatoes, and a crispy shell (or a toasted tortilla). Simply assemble everything by layering the ingredients in sequence – starting with the tortillas, then the beans, beef, sauce, cheese, sour cream, lettuce, and finally, the crunchy topping.

Now that we've covered some of Taco Bell's most iconic items, let's talk about how they were created. According to my theory (and a dash of speculation), Taco Bell was either hiring genius food creators or straight-up stoners when it came up with these innovative dishes. Perhaps they went into the future and saw the trends and decided to bring them back. Whatever the reason, one thing is certain: these items have become an integral part of American fast food culture.

Moving on to the Mexican Pizza, this dish is a true masterpiece. To make it at home, you'll need two corn tortillas, refried beans, seasoned ground beef, pizza sauce, cheese, sour cream, and tomatoes. Simply start by frying the tortillas until crispy, then layer them with refried beans, beef, sauce, cheese, and finally, top off with a dollop of sour cream and some diced tomatoes.

As you can see, creating your own Taco Bell favorites at home is easier than you think. With a little creativity and experimentation, you can bring these beloved dishes into your own kitchen. So go ahead, get cooking, and who knows? You might just become the next big thing in fast food innovation!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI'll tell you what oh I think we're already we're going to show you guys how to make the entire Taco Bell classic menu you got the taco in the Bell you never tell where the me comes from I wonder but I never really B cuz I a pretty doll make at home I'll never be alone such delicious food elev sinking grab another drink and make Taco Bell Taco Bell we used to go to Taco Bell all the time and we would order so much food like they had the crunch trap Supreme the gordita the chalupa the grilled saporito and now Taco Bell's turned into like the the weirdest like burrito a lot of fast food places they you know everything is social now you're trying to be the coolest the trendiest so they come out with the craziest but it used Taco Bell was the original though they were the original but it used to be that like once a year you get some new creation now it's like once a week but what I wanted to do cuz I don't eat fast food anymore that will just like make me my out of my it's so bad it's just too much I can't I can't do the fast food but I like I love the flavors I love the experience and these guys they come up with some creative stuff they they truly thinking outside of the bun and if you can make any of these this is great for party food this is great just to make one thing the cool part is like if you have a couple of components you can make the Cheesy Gordita Crunch you can make the Mexican pizza cuz they're all just like Ricky Ricky Ricky a little bit of this a little bit of that number one Taco Bell's ground beef I used 8020 Chuck you can do less I like that little bit of fat you basically just take some oil in a pan throw in your beef just raw dog in it and just kind of start searing that up and mashing it up you want to break the pieces of beef up sprinkle some cumin over it dehydrated onions you can use onion powder too garlic powder a little cayenne powder some chili powder a little bit of brown sugar just stir that around kind of mix it up smell it smells so good salt and pepper and then just keep mixing up and it's going to release juices so then you add some flour like this idiot only had a whole wheat but you could use white flour whatever you want and that kind of helps like keep it together it takes the the liquid and sort of makes it into a little bit of a saucy experience going on and then you cook it taste it at this point you get to taste it if it needs salt add some salt if it needs cumin just make it flavorful keep adding a little bit of chili until it's Wasing boom you're done reff fried beans at Taco Bell probably seem weird there like how do you reffed beans are they already fried it never made any sense but then I realized refried beans are really just beans that have been cooked and then recooked and mashed up yeah so it's kind of like a mashed Bean all you do is you take your canned or you could use fresh but this case we took canned pinto beans and I put them in a pan with a little bit of oil added just a little bit of sugar brown sugar some dehydrated onion some fresh garlic a little bit of cumin salt and then I just kind of mix that that and mash it around you can add a little bit of water if you want it to like steam a little bit but the idea is to just mash it up Taco Bell that goes Super mashed I like mine a little bit chunky taste it once it tastes good it's done ready to go so next up with the sauces they have the medium and the mile just toss them out they don't even taste that good I go right to that fire sauce and I got a hold on got a call here hello hey it's JP What's Going On JP oh it's it's JP from Healthy Junk Food got some fire sauce for you that's cool man oh really damn all right cool thanks man so JP just made the fire sauce for us check this out sick hello everybody we all know that fire sauce is a staple at Taco Bell but these little tiny sauce packets are so annoying and you can't get the Fire Sauce in the bottles at the store you can only get mild and hot so we're going to show you how to make this at home in a blender add 1 6 oz can of tomato paste 3 cups of water 3 tbspoon of white vinegar half a cup of can jalapeno slices 1 tbsp of chili powder and dehydrated minced onions 2 tpoon of salt and corn starch and 1 teaspoon of cayen Pepper and Sugar finish it off with a dash of onion and garlic powder and blend while blending let's compare the actual Fire Sauce look how many packets we need just to get this tiny amount no wonder these things are free you're paying for in monotonous labor and just look at how much sauce this recipe makes after crunching some numbers it's equivalent to approximately 192 sauce packets all right Brothers green that's how you make fire sauce thank you for that JP that looks freaking fantastic but we are moving on last thing the nacho cheese sauce and this is so much easier you can buy the little caned thing but I say make it yourself all you're doing is you're making your little r here so you take about uh 2 tbsp of butter and 2 tbsp of flour again this assole only a whole week flour you could use any kind of flour who has ever heard of the whole wheat nachos sauce loser has heard of it whole wheat Ro so you take that and you melt down the butter and then you add in the flour and you just kind of mix them together let them cook for like 30 seconds to a minute just to cook out some of that flour then you start adding in milk if the milk's already hot it starts thickening faster if not it just takes longer but I just kind of slowly add milk and whisk and whisk and whisk and slowly that sauce which is called now a bashel fancy Taco Bell it's it's a Mexican it's not French Max they probably using lard instead of butter but Mex so what you do is you youl like we did it the mexl so then you you keep mixing that around until it gets nice and thick you're making this like thick creamy white sauce then you add in I'll you some cre some Thin creamy then you take a bunch of cheddar cheese we had like a whole container of it just dump that in start whisking it add some salt and just whisk it up until it's nice and thick but not too thick we added a little bit of milk milk in just to thin it out you want it to be in that consistency where it's not too like gooey gooey you want a little bit of like porridge in there like you know be able to pour it the hell is this going do so you want to be able to pour it and then boom you're done you got your nacho cheese sauce it will start to congeal a little bit uh as it sits just get it hot and it goes right back to being delicious so number one and number two are the absolute most basic things the hard shell and the soft shell taco and if you can't figure out how to make them then just get the hell out of here no I'm just kidding all you you got to start out with the simple ones yeah it's true so you get your hard shell tacos if you can't get them there's ways go online there's ways to make them you can like bake them in the oven or fry them but you basically just take your hard shell you put a little your filling your beef whatever some sour cream lettuce tomato a little bit of cheese and what's important which I used to not understand but now I get it is the cheese isn't melted on top it's just like raw dog in the cheese very distinct flavor and very distinct texture going on gives you the distinct flavor that you're and so the same thing with the soft shell taco build the exact same guy you know your beef your sour cream your lettuce your tomato your cheese wrap it don't wrap it see if I care and then just take a taste to me this was always like a side looking back it was a whole goddamn meal but I would always get one of these I feel like this is definitely what made T it took Taco Bell to another level you always see it on their advertising it's it's something special it's something different the crunch wraps supre you basically are taking a big tortilla and on the bottom you're taking some nacho cheese and beef then you add a crispy shell if you can't find they're like tostada shells if you can't find one just fry up a corn tortilla that's no problem or just add some freaking Doritos who cares then you add some sour cream some lettuce tomato and here's the only trick you need to know when you wrap it you just fold one piece in and then keep folding in in in just taking all the corners until it this five six sided thing mine was a little bit open it depends on the size of the tortilla no big deal heat up a pan with some oil fry it on that side down the close side down it will seal it up Fry on the other side so once you fry it on both sides you can e eat it whole I used to grab them hole I'd be driving home from work just chopping that bastard away or you cut into it and you do it the more fancy P way either way the cheesy beefiness it's delicious double de CH so we're starting with the very basic Taco the hard shell taco then it gets a little interesting you take a soft shell taco and you just spread on some of those refried beans that we made and you wrap that around hopefully it sticks a little bit or you just make it stick with your hands okay now we're on to something we got the crunch we got the soft you know what I liked about it you know why I hated the hard shot Taco cuz you take one bite and the whole guy thing falls apart this gives you the crispy while holding it I wonder if that was the reasoning behind it there like we we need some glue to this it's got to it's got to be we are moving on to the Mexican pizza of course they had to go Italian with it the Geniuses the Stoners were back in action with that we want Taco but I really want a pizza what well I kind of want a taco but we could get a pizza wait wait guys exactly so we are doing the Mexican pizza we're going to start out with two corn tortillas and we're going to get those extra crispy in a pan just fry them up with a little bit of oil then we're going to start assembling so we add some of those refried beans on that thing add some of that ground beef after that meat just add on that tortilla we're layering hit it with some pizza sauce we did not make the pizza sauce but we only needed it for one re so we bought it then of course Pizza is not pizza without a little bit of cheese sprinkle on some of that cheese we covered it we covered it just to get that nice and melty and then we just sprayed on some of that sour cream hit it with a a few Tomatoes we saw that in the picture you got to place those Tomatoes just like placing those Tomatoes tried to get the picture but this thing was pretty crazy we we sliced into that just like a pizza of course and we munched thank you guys for watching this video please like subscribe and share this for all those Taco Bell lovers that want to learn how to create it themselves now I'm wondering something now Taco Bell either was hiring the the most genius food Creator it was either like these guys yeah Josh from the future or just straight up Stoners what was it what do you think it was the same thing to me it's the same thing basically they're hiring me in the future to come up with these goddamn things they what if that was the truth they went into the future they saw the trends and they just did it so brother screen will help you outI'll tell you what oh I think we're already we're going to show you guys how to make the entire Taco Bell classic menu you got the taco in the Bell you never tell where the me comes from I wonder but I never really B cuz I a pretty doll make at home I'll never be alone such delicious food elev sinking grab another drink and make Taco Bell Taco Bell we used to go to Taco Bell all the time and we would order so much food like they had the crunch trap Supreme the gordita the chalupa the grilled saporito and now Taco Bell's turned into like the the weirdest like burrito a lot of fast food places they you know everything is social now you're trying to be the coolest the trendiest so they come out with the craziest but it used Taco Bell was the original though they were the original but it used to be that like once a year you get some new creation now it's like once a week but what I wanted to do cuz I don't eat fast food anymore that will just like make me my out of my it's so bad it's just too much I can't I can't do the fast food but I like I love the flavors I love the experience and these guys they come up with some creative stuff they they truly thinking outside of the bun and if you can make any of these this is great for party food this is great just to make one thing the cool part is like if you have a couple of components you can make the Cheesy Gordita Crunch you can make the Mexican pizza cuz they're all just like Ricky Ricky Ricky a little bit of this a little bit of that number one Taco Bell's ground beef I used 8020 Chuck you can do less I like that little bit of fat you basically just take some oil in a pan throw in your beef just raw dog in it and just kind of start searing that up and mashing it up you want to break the pieces of beef up sprinkle some cumin over it dehydrated onions you can use onion powder too garlic powder a little cayenne powder some chili powder a little bit of brown sugar just stir that around kind of mix it up smell it smells so good salt and pepper and then just keep mixing up and it's going to release juices so then you add some flour like this idiot only had a whole wheat but you could use white flour whatever you want and that kind of helps like keep it together it takes the the liquid and sort of makes it into a little bit of a saucy experience going on and then you cook it taste it at this point you get to taste it if it needs salt add some salt if it needs cumin just make it flavorful keep adding a little bit of chili until it's Wasing boom you're done reff fried beans at Taco Bell probably seem weird there like how do you reffed beans are they already fried it never made any sense but then I realized refried beans are really just beans that have been cooked and then recooked and mashed up yeah so it's kind of like a mashed Bean all you do is you take your canned or you could use fresh but this case we took canned pinto beans and I put them in a pan with a little bit of oil added just a little bit of sugar brown sugar some dehydrated onion some fresh garlic a little bit of cumin salt and then I just kind of mix that that and mash it around you can add a little bit of water if you want it to like steam a little bit but the idea is to just mash it up Taco Bell that goes Super mashed I like mine a little bit chunky taste it once it tastes good it's done ready to go so next up with the sauces they have the medium and the mile just toss them out they don't even taste that good I go right to that fire sauce and I got a hold on got a call here hello hey it's JP What's Going On JP oh it's it's JP from Healthy Junk Food got some fire sauce for you that's cool man oh really damn all right cool thanks man so JP just made the fire sauce for us check this out sick hello everybody we all know that fire sauce is a staple at Taco Bell but these little tiny sauce packets are so annoying and you can't get the Fire Sauce in the bottles at the store you can only get mild and hot so we're going to show you how to make this at home in a blender add 1 6 oz can of tomato paste 3 cups of water 3 tbspoon of white vinegar half a cup of can jalapeno slices 1 tbsp of chili powder and dehydrated minced onions 2 tpoon of salt and corn starch and 1 teaspoon of cayen Pepper and Sugar finish it off with a dash of onion and garlic powder and blend while blending let's compare the actual Fire Sauce look how many packets we need just to get this tiny amount no wonder these things are free you're paying for in monotonous labor and just look at how much sauce this recipe makes after crunching some numbers it's equivalent to approximately 192 sauce packets all right Brothers green that's how you make fire sauce thank you for that JP that looks freaking fantastic but we are moving on last thing the nacho cheese sauce and this is so much easier you can buy the little caned thing but I say make it yourself all you're doing is you're making your little r here so you take about uh 2 tbsp of butter and 2 tbsp of flour again this assole only a whole week flour you could use any kind of flour who has ever heard of the whole wheat nachos sauce loser has heard of it whole wheat Ro so you take that and you melt down the butter and then you add in the flour and you just kind of mix them together let them cook for like 30 seconds to a minute just to cook out some of that flour then you start adding in milk if the milk's already hot it starts thickening faster if not it just takes longer but I just kind of slowly add milk and whisk and whisk and whisk and slowly that sauce which is called now a bashel fancy Taco Bell it's it's a Mexican it's not French Max they probably using lard instead of butter but Mex so what you do is you youl like we did it the mexl so then you you keep mixing that around until it gets nice and thick you're making this like thick creamy white sauce then you add in I'll you some cre some Thin creamy then you take a bunch of cheddar cheese we had like a whole container of it just dump that in start whisking it add some salt and just whisk it up until it's nice and thick but not too thick we added a little bit of milk milk in just to thin it out you want it to be in that consistency where it's not too like gooey gooey you want a little bit of like porridge in there like you know be able to pour it the hell is this going do so you want to be able to pour it and then boom you're done you got your nacho cheese sauce it will start to congeal a little bit uh as it sits just get it hot and it goes right back to being delicious so number one and number two are the absolute most basic things the hard shell and the soft shell taco and if you can't figure out how to make them then just get the hell out of here no I'm just kidding all you you got to start out with the simple ones yeah it's true so you get your hard shell tacos if you can't get them there's ways go online there's ways to make them you can like bake them in the oven or fry them but you basically just take your hard shell you put a little your filling your beef whatever some sour cream lettuce tomato a little bit of cheese and what's important which I used to not understand but now I get it is the cheese isn't melted on top it's just like raw dog in the cheese very distinct flavor and very distinct texture going on gives you the distinct flavor that you're and so the same thing with the soft shell taco build the exact same guy you know your beef your sour cream your lettuce your tomato your cheese wrap it don't wrap it see if I care and then just take a taste to me this was always like a side looking back it was a whole goddamn meal but I would always get one of these I feel like this is definitely what made T it took Taco Bell to another level you always see it on their advertising it's it's something special it's something different the crunch wraps supre you basically are taking a big tortilla and on the bottom you're taking some nacho cheese and beef then you add a crispy shell if you can't find they're like tostada shells if you can't find one just fry up a corn tortilla that's no problem or just add some freaking Doritos who cares then you add some sour cream some lettuce tomato and here's the only trick you need to know when you wrap it you just fold one piece in and then keep folding in in in just taking all the corners until it this five six sided thing mine was a little bit open it depends on the size of the tortilla no big deal heat up a pan with some oil fry it on that side down the close side down it will seal it up Fry on the other side so once you fry it on both sides you can e eat it whole I used to grab them hole I'd be driving home from work just chopping that bastard away or you cut into it and you do it the more fancy P way either way the cheesy beefiness it's delicious double de CH so we're starting with the very basic Taco the hard shell taco then it gets a little interesting you take a soft shell taco and you just spread on some of those refried beans that we made and you wrap that around hopefully it sticks a little bit or you just make it stick with your hands okay now we're on to something we got the crunch we got the soft you know what I liked about it you know why I hated the hard shot Taco cuz you take one bite and the whole guy thing falls apart this gives you the crispy while holding it I wonder if that was the reasoning behind it there like we we need some glue to this it's got to it's got to be we are moving on to the Mexican pizza of course they had to go Italian with it the Geniuses the Stoners were back in action with that we want Taco but I really want a pizza what well I kind of want a taco but we could get a pizza wait wait guys exactly so we are doing the Mexican pizza we're going to start out with two corn tortillas and we're going to get those extra crispy in a pan just fry them up with a little bit of oil then we're going to start assembling so we add some of those refried beans on that thing add some of that ground beef after that meat just add on that tortilla we're layering hit it with some pizza sauce we did not make the pizza sauce but we only needed it for one re so we bought it then of course Pizza is not pizza without a little bit of cheese sprinkle on some of that cheese we covered it we covered it just to get that nice and melty and then we just sprayed on some of that sour cream hit it with a a few Tomatoes we saw that in the picture you got to place those Tomatoes just like placing those Tomatoes tried to get the picture but this thing was pretty crazy we we sliced into that just like a pizza of course and we munched thank you guys for watching this video please like subscribe and share this for all those Taco Bell lovers that want to learn how to create it themselves now I'm wondering something now Taco Bell either was hiring the the most genius food Creator it was either like these guys yeah Josh from the future or just straight up Stoners what was it what do you think it was the same thing to me it's the same thing basically they're hiring me in the future to come up with these goddamn things they what if that was the truth they went into the future they saw the trends and they just did it so brother screen will help you out\n"