Taco Pizza
I am an equal opportunity pizza eater and lover. In my opinion, there is no pizza topping or crust combination that is off limits. You know what they say - even “bad pizza” is good pizza!
While I’m mostly a purist, appreciating a good red sauce, meat and veggie combo on thin or wood-fired crust, every once in awhile I’ll crave something so out there, like taco pizza.
You heard that right. Taco pizza. A perfect mashup of flavors and cuisines, it's :white people tacos” meets your standard homemade pizza. Crazy? A little. Crazy delicious? Oh, you know it!
I was first introduced to the crazy concoction that is taco pizza from the local pizzeria I grew up with that had a taco-ish style pizza on the menu. Essentially consisting of a "sauce" layer of salsa infused refried beans, basic taco seasoned ground beef and lots of cheese, it's baked to golden perfection then topped with fresh taco components like shredded lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream and/or hot sauce. It literally tastes like your Americanized taco (ie. Taco Bell) in pizza form. What could be bad about that?
My homemade taco pizza starts with a saucy layer of refried beans mixed with my favorite salsa. Then, I layer it with standard taco packet seasoned ground beef and a healthy handful of both shredded pepper jack and sharp cheddar cheese. After getting topped with cold, crisp shredded iceberg lettuce, chopped tomatoes and a hot sauce/sour cream blend, the mashup of your dreams is born! It's cheesy, it's meaty, crispy, spicy and fresh all in one bite which makes it the ultimate guilty pleasure.
This pizza may or may not be wrong on so many levels, but even if it is, I so don't want to be right!
Taco Pizza
Ingredients
1 store-bought pizza dough
1 can refried beans
1/2 cup your favorite jarred salsa, I love me some Fronterra but any variety will do
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup shredded pepper jack cheese
1 pound ground beef
1 packet taco seasoning
2 cups shredded iceberg lettuce
Diced tomatoes, to serve
Diced red onion, to serve
Taco sauce or hot sauce, to serve and/or sour cream mixed with hot sauce for a creamy, spicy kick!
Directions
Let pizza dough sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes prior to cooking before rolling out onto a baking sheet. Meanwhile, brown ground beef in a skillet over medium high heat. Add taco seasoning packet and about 1/2 cup of water and stir to combine. Simmer for about 10 minutes then remove from heat and set aside. Combine refried beans with salsa and stir to combine. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Sprinkle about a small handful of flour onto a baking sheet then stretch dough into square-ish shape as far as you can. Brush with some olive oil and bake for 10 minutes until golden brown, but not all the way cooked through. Remove dough from oven and spread refried bean and salsa mixture evenly onto dough leaving about a 1/2 inch crust. Then sprinkle cheddar and pepper jack cheese evenly across refried bean "sauce". Finally, evenly distribute taco seasoned ground beef across pizza. Bake for another 8-10 minutes until crust is golden brown and cheese is bubbly.
Let pizza cool for about ten minutes. Top with super cold (in fact, we popped our lettuce in the freezer for about 5 minutes), shredded iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, red onions and sour cream. If you want a bit of a spicier kick, combine two tablespoons of hot sauce with sour cream, or just top pizza with all the hot sauce and/or taco sauce your heart desires. Enjoy!
