Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon canola or vegetable oil
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1/4 cup coarsely grated yellow onion
- Salt and pepper
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon ancho chile powder (or 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper)
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2/3 cup sour cream
- 4 teaspoons adobo sauce (from 1 small can chipotles in adobo), or your favorite hot sauce, to taste
- 4 extra-large, burrito-size (10-inch) flour tortillas (see Tip)
- 3/4 cup jarred or homemade queso
- 1 heaping cup very thinly sliced iceberg lettuce (cut into short, wispy strands)
- 3/4 cup homemade or storebought pico de gallo, drained
- 4 tostada shells
- Canola or vegetable oil, for frying
- Hot sauce, for serving
Instructions
- Prepare your filling: In a large nonstick skillet, heat the oil over medium-high. Add the beef and onion, season aggressively with salt and pepper, and cook, breaking into tiny pieces, until the beef starts to brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste, then the cumin, paprika, ancho chile powder and garlic powder, and cook, stirring occasionally, until fragrant and any excess liquid evaporates, about 3 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl. Using a paper towel, wipe out the skillet.
- Prepare the spicy sour cream: In a small bowl, mix together the sour cream and adobo sauce; season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Prepare the assembly line: On a large flat surface, set out the flour tortillas. (You’ll need your tortillas to be pliable without tearing, so if need be, you can warm them directly in the skillet over medium heat to soften just until soft and pliable.) Add ½ cup filling to the center of one tortilla, flattening the filling into an even, 4-inch circle just a bit smaller than the width of your tostadas. Spread with 3 tablespoons queso over the filling. Top the mixture with a tostada, pressing it slightly to make sure the meat mixture is evenly distributed. Evenly spread 2 scant tablespoons of the spicy sour cream on top of the tostada. Top evenly with a heaping ¼ cup shredded lettuce, then 3 tablespoons drained pico de gallo.
- Enclose the filling by folding over one flap of the tortilla “border” to cover the filling, repeating the pleat every inch or two. The tortilla should fully enclose your filling, but an opening smaller than 1 inch at the center is just fine. (You can also use slightly less filling, or add a piece of tortilla to cover the gap; see Tip.)
- Heat 1 tablespoon oil in the skillet over medium, then carefully add the wrap, setting it seam side down. Cook until golden and crisp, 2 to 3 minutes per side.
- Serve immediately, with hot sauce and the remaining spicy sour cream, for dipping or slathering as you eat, dousing the wrap bite by bite. Repeat with remaining wraps, adding oil as needed to the pan before searing.
Full Article
Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Brett Regot.
A wildly popular novelty snack from Taco Bell, the Crunchwrap Supreme combines elements of a burrito with the tidier portability of a sandwich, in a stacked, layered and wrapped tortilla package. It delights for two practical reasons (low cost and convenience) and two culinary ones (crunch and cheesiness). An at-home version is a fun party trick — and it is endlessly customizable. Once you cook up the assertively spiced ground beef, the rest of this recipe is basically assembly: Start with the largest flour tortillas you can find, then layer on the meat (or crispy tofu, or refried beans), cloak it in queso, stack a tostada on top, pile on some chipotle sour cream, lettuce and pico de gallo, then fold and sear. Would you spend less buying just one at a Taco Bell? Yes, but your ratio of filling to tortilla will be paltry compared to this homemade version, which cheaply and happily feeds a crowd.