Beef Taco Skillet

Somewhere along the way, I cut a short, easy looking recipe from a newspaper. I can't for the life of me remembers which one or where I might have been living when I did so. I've narrowed it down to either my grad school days or since I moved out here but that's the best I can do. This Beef Taco Skillet used tomato soup for its base and I am a big fan of using Campbells for a starter - a recipe always seems fool-proof to me then.

This recipe is definitely one of the easiest I've ever put together and it cooked up quickly and easily. But then, what I ended up I wasn't quite sure what to do with. The skillet gives you a concoction of beef and tortillas cooked with salsa and tomato soup. It isn't quite thick enough to be a stew and not thick enough to be a soup. It's somewhere in the middle. I wasn't exactly sure how to serve it. I think for the leftovers I'll make rice to go with the dish, but for tonight I made do with tortilla chips and sour cream.

I liked this dish but the taste of tomato soup sort of overwhelms it. I also think if I were to make this again I would add a dash of taco seasoning to give a better kick to it. As it is, this is a very mild, bordering on bland dish but filling. I had only a small helping myself and I'm stuffed. I also, unlike what the recipe called for, didn't put cheese over the entire finished product, only my portion of it. As it will be eaten over the week, I figured I would prefer adding fresh cheese to each serving rather than putting it all on at once.

Honestly, I have a better Mexican skillet recipe in a cookbook I prefer to this one so it's one that is not getting a permanent place in my recipe box but I'm glad I tried it out. For a busy night when you aren't sure what to make and you know you have a pound of hamburger in the freezer, I could see this becoming an easy, go-to dish.

Beef Taco Skillet

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef
1 can tomato soup
1/2 cup salsa
1/2 water
4 flour tortillas (8" round, cut into 1" pieces)
1/2 cup taco blend shredded cheese

Directions:

1) Brown beef in 10" skillet until well-browned; drain fat
2) Stir in soup, salsa, water and tortillas.
3) Heat to a boil, reduce heat to low and cook for 5 minutes
4) Stir and serve; top each serving with cheese.

Makes 4 servings