Batch Cooking – Tacos and Taco Soup
Here is how I make a huge batch of tacos and taco soup in a couple of hours. This yielded about 12 pounds of taco meat and 11 quarts of taco soup. Each of the finished and separated meals described below will usually feed 3 of us for 2-3 meals with an occasional bit left over for a lunch for 1 or 2 of us. (DD doesn’t like ground meat so she typically opts for a cheese sandwich or a soft taco with pepper slices and cheese instead.)
Taco Meat Ingredients
- Just over 9 lbs of ground venison
- 6 lbs of 80/20 Hamburger (that’s 80% lean & 20% fat)
- Venison is a very lean meat and you need the fat from the hamburger to help it cook
- 5 1/3 cups of Ortega Original Taco seasoning (the only one I have found to not bother my onion sensitivity)
- 12 cups of water
Substitution Option
If you don’t wish to or can’t use ground venison, then you can use whatever split of hamburger you like but I would not recommend going any fattier than 80/20
Taco Soup Ingredients:
- 1/4 of the prepared Taco Meat
- 3x 15 oz cans of black beans – drained and rinsed
- 2x 15 oz cans of white beans – drained and rinsed
- I usually use Great Northern for this soup because they are a similar size to the black beans
- 3x 15 oz cans of corn – do not drain
- 4x 28oz cans of diced tomatoes – do not drain
- petite diced are better than normal diced but either will do
- 3x 28oz cans of Rotel Original tomatoes and chilis – do not drain
- 1/4 cup taco seasoning
- 3 bay leaves
Kitchen Supplies
To handle this massive cooking task you will need:
- A large stockpot – mine is about 12 quarts
- A large skillet for cooking the seasoned meat – mine is 12 inches
- If you don’t have anything that big, then use a large pot like a dutch oven or just use the stockpot again
- I prefer a skillet because my current stockpot isn’t lined on the bottom and tends to burn easily
- 2 9×13 pans or dishes lined with a double layer of paper towels
- These are for draining the meat
- I use 2 large pyrex lasagna pans
- Kitchen Scale
- Bag holder – I got some off of amazon and they make a huge difference
- Vacuum seal bag rolls – large and small
- I make the large rolls into 4 bags about 2 ft long
- I also double seal the bottom of the large bags, because I have had soup leak out of them before – it made a huge mess!
- I make the small rolls into 6 bags about 1 foot long
- Vacuum sealer – like a food saver
- A 1-quart measuring cup
- I use one of those twisty storage containers. The larger of the 2 sizes sold in most grocery stores is 1 quart.
- You could also use a measuring cup – 1 quart = 4 cups
Step 1: Cook the Taco Meat:
- Put 3 pounds of the hamburger into the stock pot
- Cook on Medium-Low (about 4 if your stoves has numbers) until the meat is cooked through, stirring/mashing regularly to break the meat up into small pieces
- Once the meat is cooked, use a slotted spoon to dish it into one of the 9×13 pans – leave all the fat and drippings in the stock pot
- Repeat with half of the ground venison
- Repeat with the other 3 pounds of ground beef – this time using the other 9×13 pan
- Repeat with the other half of the ground venison
- Remove stock pot from the heat – once it cools a little drain any excess liquid in it into a disposable container – We keep things like old yogurt tubs or spaghetti cheese containers around for this kind of thing
- Add approximately, 1/4 of the meat to the skillet
- Be sure to get a mix of both types. Don’t just scoop from the top
- Add 1 1/3 cups of taco seasoning and 3 cups of water
- Stir and cook on Medium-Low stirring occasionally until the sauce begins to thicken – about 5-10 min
- Repeat 3 times for the rest of the meat
If you are going to continue and make soup:
- Add 1/4 of the taco meat and all of the soup ingredients to the stock pot
- Cook on Medium-Low until it starts steaming, then reduce heat to Low (2 if your stove has numbers)
- Allow soup to cook for 3-4 hours, stirring occasionally to be sure nothing is sticking and burning to the bottom of the pot
- Remove bay leaves before eating or preparing for the freezer
Steps for freezing all these meals:
For the Taco Meat:
- Place bag holder on the kitchen scale
- I use to just eyeball but I have found that meal planning is easier when I have a better idea of how much meat is coming out of the freezer.
- Fold the sides of a small vacuum seal bag back about 1 1/2 inch so they stay clean – this makes a big difference in how well it seals
- Place the vacuum bag on the bag holder, adjusting the height as necessary
- Reset the kitchen scale to 0 lbs
- Place about 2lbs of taco meat in the bag
- Remove bag from the bag hold and unfold sides
- Seal and label the bag
- Repeat with the other 5 bags
- Freeze and enjoy within the next 6-12 months
For the Taco Soup:
- See my tips for vacuum sealing soups post for helpful hints
- Place bag holder on a very steady surface
- Fold the sides of a large vacuum seal bag back about 1 1/2 inch so they stay clean – this makes a big difference in how well it seals
- Place the vacuum bag on the bag holder, adjusting the height as necessary
- Place 2 1/2 -3 quarts of soup in the bag
- I typically get 2x 2 1/2 quart bags and 2x 3 quart bags of soup
- Carefully remove bag from the bag hold and unfold sides
- Seal and label the bag
- Repeat with the other 3 bags
- Freeze and enjoy within the next 6-12 months
When you want to pull these out of the freezer to eat on a busy day:
- Pull them out the night before and place in the fridge to start thawing.
- Place them in a slow cooker (crock pot) in the morning and set to low for about 8 hours.
- The taco meat fits fine in a 2 1/2 – 3 quart slow cooker but the soup tends to warm up better in a larger one.
- Dinner will be ready with little to no extra effort from you!
An additional note on the approximate cost of these meals:
- Ground venison – Free
- My father deer hunts, and my parents and I do all the venison butchering ourselves.
- Other than the time required to process the deer, this is a free source of meat.
- 6 lbs of hamburger ~ $12
- 5 cans of beans ~$2.50
- 3 cans of corn ~$1.35
- 4 large cans of diced tomatoes ~$3.15
- 3 large cans of tomatoes and chilis ~6.75
- Taco seasoning ~$11.50
- Bay leaves ~$0.20
- Total cost ~$37.45
- Cost per bag of taco meat ~$2.94
- Cost per bag of soup ~ 4.95
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