Homemade Chalupas

1 pound ground beef
1/4 onion, diced
taco seasoning
can of drained kidney beans

Chalupa Shell:
2 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1 1/2 Tablespoons butter
1 Cup milk
Oil for frying

Additional Toppings all optional
Grated cheese
Shredded lettuce
Diced tomatoes
Sour cream
avacado
hot sauce
salsa

1.Brown hamburger in a pan with onion until done. Add in the taco seasoning,kidney beans and water and let simmer while you make the dough.

2.To make the dough, just add all your dry ingredients to a bowl and stir them up. Then cut in your butter. I used my fingers to evenly incorporate the butter. Then add your milk and stir it together until the dough forms a ball.
Next, lightly roll out the ball with your hands and divide it into 6-8 even pieces. Roll each of those into thin squares so they are ready to be fried. You could also do circles but squares were just as easy lol

3.For the frying part, don’t use a really deep pot or pan. A deep skillet is perfect for frying these. The reason is that you only want your oil to be about 2 inches deep at the maximum that way you can easily tong your dough and shape it.
So get out your favorite skillet or pan and add enough frying oil (I used canola) to come a few inches up the side. You want your oil to be 350 degrees.

4.Next, when your oil is hot, gently slide the dough into the hot oil. It should float immediately and start to puff up

5.Each shell will only take about 2 minutes to cook.
this is what you have to do:
1) Let the dough fry for about 30 seconds on one side.
2) Use tongs to flip the dough over.
3) After you flip the dough, use the tongs to gently fold the dough in half. Hold the dough in that shell shape with the tongs for about 30-45 seconds on one side.
4) Roll the shell shape over to the other side to cook it evenly.
 It all goes down really fast. Don’t worry if you mess up one or two, eventually you’ll get the hang of it.

5. Keep these in a warm oven (200 degrees) while you fry off the rest of the shells

6.I ripped apart one of the chalupas so you could see the interior texture. They were nice and crunchy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside.

7.These are larger than normal taco shells so you can really pile them high and deep with fillings


* Ok so I know that this recipe might seem hard or intimidating but its really simple and these are AMAZING!! I want to eat them again just typing this up. I am telling you that you must go out to the store now and get the stuff to make these for dinner tonight lol. They are of course best served fresh and warm with the slight crisp outside and the chewy fluffy middles you will never want to use boring old tortillas and hard shell tacos again. YUMM lol try these out and let me know what you think. I of course give them a giant 5 on the scale.