Walking Tacos

[MrsCrazyPete]

So this isn't a request for a recipe, just an idea I heard today.

So to start making walking tacos, you get lots of single serving bags of Doritos, Fritos, or any kind of corn/tortilla chips. Then you lay out everything you need for tacos. Seasoned ground beef, cheese, tomatoes, beans, etc. Then each person makes their own taco in a bag & eats it with a fork. Hence, walking tacos!

I just thought this was a great idea and wanted to share it.

[Kaypeep]

Frankly, this idea sounds messy and quite yucky to me.  Who wants to mix hot and cold ingredients in a chip bag, then eat it?  How?  With a fork?  Use the chips?  Wouldn't your hands get covered with "stuff" when you dip your hand in the bag to get to the 'taco' ingredients?  This sounds like something a frat house (or other teen boy organization) would probably invent to avoid doing dishes.

[camlan]

This sounded a bit odd to me, too. But I googled "walking tacos" and there are a lot of pictures and recipes out there.

Most call for crushing the chips before opening the bag, then adding the taco ingredients and mixing everything together. Then you eat it with a fork.

I can definitely see the attraction, especially for little kids. It's all the taco mixings, but less of a chance of a taco shell breaking mid-bite and sending food everywhere. For a kid's party or a cook-out or football game-watching TV party, they'd probably be a hit.

And you don't have as many dishes to wash.

[mamakinz]

I have never made them, but they show up on just about every Girl Scout and Boy Scout camping website as a recipe.  You would eat it with a fork, more like a taco salad than a traditional taco. And the main purpose does seem to be cutting down on the dishes, and it's fun for kids.

[sweetonsno]

This sounds a bit like "Frito Pie," which is a bag of Fritos into which you spoon hot chili and shredded cheese. It definitely isn't the sort of thing that I would eat on a regular basis, but at a music festival or some other sort of festive summer occasion? Yes, I might indulge once in awhile.

[Luci45]

Health concerns aside, I couldn't stand that much salt taste.

Tacos are pretty salty anyway then putting them on salty chips would be just too much. When I get a taco salad at Wendy's, I don't take the chips as I won't eat them and don't know anyone who wants them for a snack later.

I'm not likely to be in a situation where these are served, but if I am, I'll politely pass.

I do see the appeal for some others, though. It is and interesting concept.

[jpcher]

Frankly, this idea sounds messy and quite yucky to me.  Who wants to mix hot and cold ingredients in a chip bag, then eat it?  How?  With a fork?  Use the chips?  Wouldn't your hands get covered with "stuff" when you dip your hand in the bag to get to the 'taco' ingredients?  This sounds like something a frat house (or other teen boy organization) would probably invent to avoid doing dishes.

I remember eating this at a rodeo once when I was a kid about 10yrs old. Except it was just fritos and chili served in the bag. I thought it was the coolest thing!

When I had them, the bag was cut open along the side (not opened at the top.) This way gives a wider opening and the bag turns more into a bowl. Eaten with a fork, not messy at all.


sweetonsno -- you posted while I was typing. Yes! Frito pie!

[NyaChan]

It is actually pretty good depending on the quality of items you put into it.  To make it less "junky,"  I would use more high end chips like blue corn tortilla with a good flavor.

[EmmaJ.]

It's one of my favorite fair foods!  There is always a Frito Pie (or Walking Taco) vendor at our local art & crafts shows, parades, and sometimes they show up at the weekend Farmer's Markets.  They're always mobbed with customers!

[MacadamiaNut]

I had never heard of this but now that I have, I feel it is my life's destiny to try it.  It sounds delicious!

[Hmmmmm]

Frito pie is a long standing Texas tradition at fairs and highschool football games.  I remember my dad's Rotary club making huge chile batches back in the '70's for the HS football games to be served in bags of Frits or on top of hot dogs.  When older working the concession stands (it was the prom fund raiser), I slit many a bags, spooned in the chile, then topped with shredded cheddar.  And, yes a plastic fork was always provided with the bag.

I was surprised the first time I made them for a group of my DDs friends who'd never had Friti pie served in the bag. 

[Mikayla]

I think this stuff is fun!  I know my nephews first mentioned it in conjunction with Indian Guides.  I've also heard of someone in my family using barbecue potato chips and chicken strips (not nuggets).  There was other stuff in it, too, but I can't remember what it was. 

[jmarvellous]

We usually had Frito pie in one of those little cardboard boats you might see a hotdog in, but it was originally (and still is commonly) made in the bag. I had it for the first time the year I moved to Texas for a class Christmas party, and many times thereafter.

Never heard of a "walking taco" but it sounds similar enough. I don't find tacos that difficult to tote around as-is, though! As long as the end is wrapped in foil, they're pretty common for grab-and-go food, no?

[Maggie]

Not just a Texan thing,  Okies love it too!  It is best with just a little mustard on the top.  Now I am really hungry for frito chili pie.

[Hmmmmm]

Not just a Texan thing,  Okies love it too!  It is best with just a little mustard on the top.  Now I am really hungry for frito chili pie.

Maggie, being in the south part of Texas and not up in the Texoma area, I forget how close our food cultures are aligned.  We've always thought of CFS as a Texanized weiner schnitzel brought by the german settlers to the Texas Hill Country.  This past weekend we were in OK visiting a college for my DD and my DS was surprised when someone mentioned CFS being OK's state dish. 

Though a popular story of origin is that it was invented at a Woolworth lunch counter in Santa Fe, NM in the '60s, that can't actually be authentic.  There's way too many people who remember eating them in a 50's school cafeteria and were very popular with returning WWII vets (of which my Dad was one).  Frito company claims the founder's mother came up with the idea.