Hello and welcome, to my instructable on how to make tacos. This instructable is not for those who already know how to make tacos and want to impress Gordon Ramsay, this is for those who actually don't know how to make the meal. DISCLAIMER - This instructable doesn't teach you how to eat your meal, it just teaches you how to make the food. This meal can vary in time depending on how long it takes you to do certain steps, but generally it would take between 30-50 minutes. One thing to keep in mind while following these steps is to make sure that you put your focus on the meat before anything else because the other steps can be taken at any time, after the meat is fully cooked. One more important thing to mention is that this serves a family of 5, so do not use the food portions in the pictures to scale.

Supplies

You will start off your taco journey by gathering all the materials needed. These are the following and their purpose:

Soapy cloth: This is used to clean and clear a workspace for your meal.
A large frying pan: Holds/cooks the meat.
2 flippers: The first flipper is to chop up and move around the meat when it is in its raw state, the second flipper is for after your meat has started to brown and looks pretty well cooked. You do this so that the flipper that was touching raw meat, doesn’t contaminate the cooked meat with salmonella. (if you don't know what Salmonella is, click the link)
Two forks (frozen meat): These will be used to hold and scrape the gray off of a frozen block of meat.
Meat: A ground meat is used for tacos. For this recipe, ground beef was used.
Taco Powder: This will be applied to the meat. You put taco powder on the meat to give it a bit of spice which makes the tacos ten times better! There are different strengths and types of taco powder, but for my tacos I used mild.
A Glass of water: The glass of water is used to aid the meat and taco powder because the meat gets really dry and loses taste and as a result the taco powder also doesn't mix well.
Cheese and cheese grater and plate or pre-grated cheese: you will use the cheese grater to slice the cheese into little strings and the plate is to hold that cheese. If you have pre-grated cheese then you can just keep it in its bag.
Cutting board: this is what you will use to cut your vegetables. Its main convenience is to prevent damage to your countertop and make cleanup easier.
Small and Big knife: These will be used to cut up your vegetables, I used small and big knives because sometimes it is easier to use one or the other, you could just use one if you want.
Vegetables: You can use any vegetables of your choice but there are some that don’t fit well with the meal. What I used and what I suggest you use is; peppers, cucumbers, and onions (red or green)

Step 1: Clean the Workspace

First you want to start off by making an open and clean workspace so that you can more easily organize all of your items and so that you have enough room for all your materials.

Step 2: Turn on the Stove and Put Your Meat in the Pan

Next, turn on your burner to medium temp or in my case 5/10 on the dial. Take the meat - either frozen or raw - and put it in the pan

Step 3: Cutting the Cucumbers: Vegetables

Take a cucumber and cut it up any way you want. Some people like to keep it in sticks, some make them like toonies(coins), but in my case, I cut it into four sticks and from then on, made them into thinner pie shaped slices
After you have cut it the way you want, throw them into a bowl so that it's easier to pick up when you make your tacos.

Step 4: (optional) Scraping the Grey: Frozen Meat

Some people with frozen meat need to take this extra step so that the middle of the blocks don’t stay raw while the outside is cooked.

After putting your frozen block of meat in the frying pan, wait till a side is gray and scrape the gray meat off, then put it to the side of the rest of the block. (if the meat looks like it's drying up and/or getting a crusty brown look then you waited too long to scrape it.)
Flip the block and repeat the process until your block has turned into soft chunks.
Put the lid on so that no juices splatter out onto the stovetop or any other area that you might be cooking, this is also a way to keep the rest of your meal safe

*Note* You don’t need to constantly be flipping the meat after you're done one side, instead take some time in between so that it loosens up more of the block. Taking this time will also give you time to cut up some more vegetables. But you can if you want.

Step 5: Cutting the Peppers: Vegetables

The next step is to cut up the peppers. Like the cucumbers you can also have these in any way you want but I chose to put them into bite sized pieces.

I started off by cutting the peppers into thirds or quarters so it was easier to cut the core and seeds out. I suggest getting as much white off as possible as it does not taste well.
From then I made them into thinner slices so that the pieces are smaller.
Lastly I cut the thin slices into smaller pieces again making them bite sized pieces.

Now that your peppers are cut you can gather them up and put them in a bowl so that it's easier to pick up when you make your tacos.

Step 6: Splitting and Moving: Meat

The next step is to split the meat and move it around

You split the meat because if it was in chunks then the middles of the chunks would stay more raw than the outside.
Move the meat around so that all sides of the meat can get cooked.
Put the lid on so that no juices splatter out onto the stovetop or any other area that you might be cooking.

Repeat this process until the pink/redness is gone, let it sizzle and sit for a minute at a time while you go cut some vegetables, then come back and do it again.

Step 7: Cutting the Onions: Vegetables

Now to cut the onions-warning-you might cry!

I start off by slicing them into circles
From then you cut them into bite sized pieces and separate the layers so that they aren’t so chunky

To finish it off, take the pieces and throw them in a bowl.

Step 8: Adding Water and Taco Powder: Meat

You should start this step once the meat starts to look like it has a crusty dark brown like texture as it shows in the first picture. The meat usually has a lack of taste and ends up dry if you leave it as is, once it's fully cooked. This is a step that you should take to increase the quality of your meat drastically. *Note* The way the meat tastes is a bit biased but as someone that's been having tacos for 12 years this is what I have noticed tastes the best.

Start off by adding a decent amount of water to the pan, around a cup, because it's better to have more water than less when it comes to taste but your intuition will tell you if it's way to much
Then you take your taco powder and move it around evenly til it looks like it's fully mixed. If you notice that the powder is absorbing a lot of the water you could add a bit more water.

To finalize the meat, turn the stove off, and move the pan to the other side of the stove so that you don’t overcook the meat while the burner is cooling down. But, put the lid on so that you don't lose heat. If we're getting fancy, you could also put it in a big bowl with something on top to keep the heat from escaping.

Step 9: Cutting the Cheese

Now to grate the cheese. some people use pre-grated cheese, so they can skip this step.

Take your grater on a plate so that all the cheese stays in the same place.
Take the block of cheese in one hand and hold the grater down with the other and grate away until you feel you have enough.

Step 10: Gathering the Rest of the Materials

To top it all off, you're going to want to get the final materials to aid the meal.

The first and most important is to get shells: shells hold the rest of the meal and are one of the things that is required for it to be called a taco.

There are two different types of taco shells: Hard shells and soft shells. I chose soft shells because they contain the meal better but you should experiment yourself on what you prefer.

The next two are sour cream and salsa: these are two common sauces/toppings that people add to their tacos to add flavor

You can choose whether or not you add these to your meal but once again, experiment with how they taste.

Step 11: The Finished Product

The final step is to lay out the meal in an eating space where you can make your tacos.

Enjoy!

Introduction: How to Make Tacos