Taco night for the win! As a native Texan, Tacos are a standard weekly meal, often Taco Tuesday. In our house Monday’s have become Taco night as we ease back into the weekly routine.

I use to watch my mom use ground turkey and wonder how she could possibly cook with ground turkey, I was raised as a meat and potatoes girl in HER house. Fast forward to my life as an adult and I too have begun to cook with ground turkey instead of ground beef. You can always substitute ground beef if your prefer..

Taco Night for the Win with Fresh Spices

Until the last few years I used the little packets of taco seasoning, super easy to use. I started keeping a closer eye on our sodium intake. Hello! Those packets are not your friend if you are watching what you eat and watching the sodium in your food. I know home cooked food is not nearly as sodium packed as restaurant food but I really have seen a difference in using less sodium.

Flavorful Tacos for the Win

My daughter shared some taco recipes with me but the seasonings tasted flat to me, I didn’t taste any depth in the flavors. I will tell you we like spicy at our house so if that is not your thing you can leave out the pepper seeds. I have learned some tricks to add flavor without using a lot of salt, if you are alright with some spice seasonings and fresh jalapeno peppers and serranos peppers, you will taste the depth of the flavors without going crazy with the sodium. If you are good with salt you can always add salt to taste but in the meantime I have the answer for a successful Taco night.

Leave out the black beans, the meat won’t go as far but will be whole 30 for those who are working that program.

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Spicy Turkey Tacos

Super flavorful turkey tacos

Prep Time30 mins

Cook Time20 mins

Total Time45 mins

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Mexican

Keyword: Quick Bites, Tacos, Turkey

Servings: 4 people

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 shallot minced
• 1 jalapeno chopped remove seeds to limit heat
• 1 serrano pepper chopped optional and you can remove seeds to limit heat
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 1 can black beans rinsed and drained
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• ¾ teaspoon Chili powder
• 1 teaspoon smoke paprika
• 1 teaspoon ancho chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 cup of water
• Flour tortillas or taco shells for tacos
• Lettuce (optional) if you want a salad, chopped

Optional

• 1 cup Grated medium cheddar cheese
• Pico de gallo See my recipe
• Guacamole

Dressing

• 2/3 cup Avocado oil
• 1 Egg room temp
• 1 cup Cilantro leaves
• 1 Jalapeno chopped (remove seeds to limit heat)
• 1 Serrano pepper chopped (remove seeds to limit heat)
• 1 tbs Fresh lemon juice
• 1 tbs Fresh lime juice
• 1/2 avocado chopped
• salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions

• Brown ground turkey , making sure to break it up. Once browned remove and place on a paper towel covered plate and set aside. Pour 1 Tablespoon of olive oil into pan, add shallots, jalapenos, serrano peppers and saute stirring until shallots are translucent, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and saute for 1 additional minute. Add black beans and seasonings cumin through black pepper and toast for a minute . Add 1/2 cup of water and stir seasoning together, add more water if it is still dry you will end up using the full 1 cup of water. Add ground turkey back and simmer on low to medium for 5 minutes. While meat and seasonings are simmering work on the dressing.
• Place Avocado oil into a bowl( I use a glass, flat bottomed 2 cup measuring cup) , drop one egg into bottom of measuring cup . Place immersion blender on top of egg yolk and pulse for 1 to 2 minutes until it thickens up , it is basically mayonnaise at this point. Add the cilantro, jalapeno and serrano pepper and pulse. It won't be perfectly smooth and that's ok. Slowly add lemon juice and lime juice and continue to pulse until it is all smooth, it will be much thinner than it originally was. At this time add the avocado and pulse until smooth and blended. Salt and pepper to taste.
• You can serve this as tacos, either in soft tortillas or hard taco shells, you can also turn this into a salad by adding lettuce. It’s a smorgasbord at our house. My son likes flour tortillas, my husband and I alternate between taco shells and salad.
• We add grated medium cheddar cheese, pico de gallo and guacamole to ours.

Notes

Dinner is served!

Melissa