Turkey Picadillo Tacos

I enjoy trying new recipes and the blogs I read are mainly to do with easy meals made from scratch and meals on a budget. My folder of "to try" recipes keeps growing and there is not enough time to try them all. But I love having that folder as a resource. This particular recipe came out of the magazine Family Circle.



Turkey Picadillo Tacos

1 T. vegetable oil
1 med. onion, chopped
1 1/2 lbs. ground turkey
1/2 t. garlic salt
1/2 t. gr. Cinnamon
1/4 t. gr. cumin
1/4 t. ground allspice
1/4 t. pepper
1 can (8 oz.) tomato sauce
18 hard shell tacos (we use small corn tortillas)
1 can (11 oz.) Mexicorn or plain corn, drained (I use frozen corn)
Garnish: shredded cheese, cilantro, sour cream, & shredded lettuce

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees to heat hard shells or to cook your corn tortillas. You can cook them while doing your ground turkey and place in tin foil to keep warm until ready to eat or start them in step 3. It always depends on how much time I have till dinner needs to be on the table.

2. The original recipe says to Heat oil in skillet over med-high heat to cook your ground turkey in. I don't cook my ground turkey in oil. Ever. So eliminating the oil is easy for me and I go right to cooking the ground turkey with dried onion flakes. Whatever suits your fancy. So...Add onion and ground turkey; cook for 7-8 minutes until onion is tender and and turkey is no longer pink. Stir in garlic salt, cinnamon, cumin, allspice, pepper and tomato sauce. Simmer, uncovered for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Heat taco shells or corn tortillas. To do corn tortillas; place tin foil sheets down on middle rack. Lay corn tortillas out individually (I usually get 12 in my oven). Flip them every 3-4 minutes as this will help cook each side evenly. You kind of have to guess when they look and feel done. Too soon and they will not taste good, too long and they will get hard and not fold in half for your taco shape. (These are also delicious with a little butter & salt right out of the oven or off the grill which is what Doug likes to snack on while out grilling.)

4.Add corn to ground turkey mixture and heat about 2 minutes. Frozen corn may take a little bit longer.

5. To serve, spoon 1/3 c. mixture in shell and garnish with lettuce, sour cream, cilantro and cheese. Doug and I skip the lettuce (our kids don't like it) and pile high the cilantro! They say you either really like or really dislike cilantro...we really LIKE it around here.

You might think the ingredients sound strange but we can't get enough of them. Be sure to let me know what you think!