Beefy Cheesy Taquitos

About

Who doesn’t love a crunchy, Mexican taquito filled with meat and cheese? The only problem is those high-carb flour or corn tortillas that make it impossible to enjoy authentic Mexican cuisine on the Keto diet. These beef taquitos eliminate the tortilla and are 100% meat and cheese only. How? These Keto “tortillas” are made with whole slices of cheese that are melted down to a crisp in your oven. All you have to do is roll up your ground beef filling in the cheese, which is much easier than you may think. Make this Keto recipe to include taquitos as the main component of your meal prep and pair them with a nutritious low-carb side dish. You can also eat these taquitos alone or with the kids as a yummy snack along with Keto guacamole, salsa, or sour cream.

Make Your Taquitos Spicy!

There are no spicy ingredients or seasonings here in this recipe. If you want a little heat in your meal, there are many ways to achieve that while staying Keto. When making the beef filling, you can add cayenne pepper, crushed red pepper flakes, or swap out the paprika for hot paprika. You can even add chopped pickled jalapeno rings or fresh jalapeno, at your discretion, while cooking. For some spice on your crunchy Keto “tortilla”, swap the Colby Jack cheese slices for pepper jack! The little flakes of red pepper in the cheese will add the heat. To keep things simple, just eat your taquitos with your favorite Mexican hot sauce, or add a few dashes of hot sauce to your cheese sauce when you cook it.

Types Of Cheese For Tortillas

You can turn almost any type of pre-sliced cheese into a crispy mock-tortilla for Keto recipes. Cheddar cheese is a standard choice and bakes to dark golden orange in your oven. Other options are any type of jack cheese, mozzarella, parmesan, gouda, or muenster cheese. The most important part is to ensure you’re selecting 100% real cheese at your grocery store if buying pre-sliced cheese. If it’s not 100% cheese, it may not go through the proper baking process in your oven, and it can become rock hard very quickly.

Ingredients

10 ounce ground beef
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon cumin, ground
¼ teaspoon paprika
¼ teaspoon onion powder
⅛ teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
4 fl oz cream heavy whipping
¾ cup, shredded cheddar cheese
6 slice (from pre-sliced package) – each 3/4 ounce colby jack cheese

Instructions

Break up ground beef in a pan with a spoon as you heat it on high heat over your stovetop. No oil is needed here. Season the ground beef with salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, onion powder, and garlic powder. Continually stir and break up the beef until it cooks all the way through. The more crumbly and crisper the beef, the better it will be in this recipe.
Set the pan of beef aside to cool slightly. In a new pan, melt butter over low heat. Stir in the cream and heat the liquid until it starts bubbling. With the stove on the lowest heat setting, stir the cheddar cheese into the cream and butter. Once you have a thick cheddar sauce, stir it into the pan of ground beef. There shouldn’t be much extra sauce pooling up in the pan, and you should see a thick beef filling “glued” together with cheese.
Now, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a large sheet tray with parchment paper. Arrange individual slices of Colby Jack cheese on the sheet tray. Bake the cheese slices for 10-12 minutes. You’ll see the cheese melt, bubble, and settle into dark squares with small air bubbles throughout. Remove the tray immediately and set it on top of your stove. Have the pan of beef filling and a spoon ready to go.
One by one, spoon the cheesy beef filling on the left side of each cheese slice vertically. The cheese should already be cooling rapidly. Use your fingers to lift the left edge of each cheese slice up and fold it over the filling. Roll each slice of cheese all the way to the right to secure the filling in place and finish the taquitos. Enjoy while warm as is or with a Keto dip.