What's a taco pocket?

It's like a Hot Pocket but homemade and filled with taco

meat and beans and cheese.

Even though it sounds like

it's euphemism for a vagina, it's not.

(upbeat music)

We'll start making the dough.

I've got some more water here.

It should feel like kind of like warm bathwater like I think

about 110, yeah about 110°F is good.

You don't want hotter than that 'cause then it will kill,

God, I can't talk today.

It'll kill the yeast.

I'm gonna add a little bit of sugar like a teaspoon of sugar

'cause that's what yeast eats.

Stir this around to get a little bit dissolved

and all the ingredients are down below in

the description box and also on

my website if you want a printable recipe card.

I'm gonna add the little packet of yeast,

just yeah, it's good.

Good temp.

And we're gonna let this sit for just a couple minutes to proof

the yeast and that's just a sort of double check that your yeast

isn't dead, hasn't been sitting on the on the shelf too long or

something or maybe you know

you boiled to death if your water was too hot.

So, we'll just let this sit and then in about five minutes it

should look kind of foamy and

we can add the flour and make the dough.

Alright, once it looks a little foamy and bubbly,

we're gonna add the flour.

I'm using bread flour.

This is basically like a pizza dough.

If you can't find bread flour you probably could use regular

all-purpose flour but I think you get better flavor and better

texture if you find some bread flour.

It's got a higher protein so it makes more like chewy bread.

Okay, so we're gonna add almost 3 cups.

Whenever you're doing any kind of yeasted dough it's always

better to err on the side of too wet than too dry.

So measure your flour but then don't put all of it and then mix

it up and then if you need to

add a little bit more then you can.

So, I'm gonna start this with my spatula.

'Kay, I think this is actually gonna be pretty great.

So it's gonna turn this mixer on

and let the dough hook

work it's dough hook-y magic.

Dough Hooker magic for about five minutes.

You can also knead it by hand if you don't have stand mixer but

let's see if I need to add some more flour I'll just add a

little bit at a time.

Oh, I'm gonna add our salt, too.

Okay.

(stand mixer whirrs)

It's already starting to pull

together into a nice ball so I think we have a good amount of

flour so I'm just gonna come back in about five minutes.

Okay, this dough ball looks perfect.

Basically, you're just waiting for it

to sort of pull free of the bowl.

It's a little soft but that's okay.

So I'm just gonna drizzle it with a tiny bit of oil

or more than a tiny bit, whatever,

and kind of get this dough ball

coated in the oil.

Just to help it, you know, not dry out and let it rise while we

make our filling.

So for the filling I'm gonna do a ground beef filling.

You can totally use just sliced ham and cheese or something like

that if you want to simplify it a little bit and they won't

exactly be taco pockets but they'll still be good.

Okay, so we're gonna go over to the stove.

I'm gonna heat up just about a teaspoon of oil in my skillet

over medium-high and start sautéing onions with some cumin

and some chili powder and once that starts to get a little soft

and it's really fragrant, we're gonna add in some garlic and

some Serrano chilis.

We'll add in the lean ground beef.

I like to use a lean one for this recipe and break that up.

Crumble it up a little bit.

Let it start cooking.

We're gonna add some salt and pepper and

a little bit of salsa.

And the salsa, that moisture in the salsa is gonna help break up

the ground beef into even smaller crumbles so it fits in

our pockets better.

You can use water too if you don't have salsa or you can even

a little chicken broth, that'd be fine.

Once the beef is all cooked and everything's cooked and ready to

go, we're gonna add in at the very end refried beans.

And just set that aside and let it cool off

while we roll out the dough.

Alright, so our dough has risen a little bit.

If you wanted to make this ahead of time you could make the dough

and then refrigerate it for like 24 hours and then together the

hot pockets when you're ready.

Try to get it as even as possible of course

about eight pieces.

Ooh, I love it.

It feels so spongy and fluffy.

And I wanted to do this recipe because I know a lot of people

have like a New Years Resolution to,

you know, bring lunch to work to save money

or eat healthy or whatever.

And this isn't, I wouldn't call this like healthy exactly but

you can make them ahead of time and microwave at work so it is

kind of like Hot Pocket.

So then we just gonna use a rolling pin or just flatten out

with your hands.

And I've also got my oven right now

preheating to 400°F.

So you want a sort of a rectangle-ish.

maybe 6" x 4", something like that.

I'm using a baking sheet with the sil pat but parchment paper

or two if you don't have one of those.

So, I like to transfer the dough to the tray before I fill them

and I did that in the empanadas video too,

if you want sort of, if you want a vegetarian filling for these

actually check out my blackbean empanadas video 'cause you could

totally use that filling with this dough.

So like 3 to 4 tablespoons

like 1/4 cup or less really depending

on how big your circles rolled out to or your rectangle.

A little bit of cheese.

I'm just using a mild cheddar.

You can use whatever you want and then fold it over.

And it doesn't have to be perfect at all.

I just kind of do this finger crimp.

Jeez.

Fingers, pockets.

(light music)

This next step is optional but I'm gonna do a

little egg glaze and that gives them

a really nice golden brown crust.

Just makes them look prettier basically.

And this is just one egg that I whisked up with a fork with a

little bit of water like a teaspoon of water.

And then a very important step, we're gonna cut a couple of

slashes in the top to let the air out so they don't explode

and burst our beautiful seams.

And I like to do the slashing after I've done the egg wash

because I feel like if you cut it first and then put the egg,

then the egg is just gonna seal up those cuts that you just made

and they won't be as effective.

Okay, yay.

Alright, I'm gonna put these in a 400 degree oven for about

20 minutes and then we'll have some taco pockets to eat.

♫ Taco pockets, taco pockets it's so fun to sing.

♫ And even more fun to eat.

Bye.

(light music)

Okay, so I took them out.

They've been cooling for about five minutes.

Now Chef Baby's gonna give them a little taste.

Can you blow on it and give it a taste?

Are you skeptical?

You're making me look really bad?

- No. (moans)

- Don't want it, okay.

I'll have it.

Please don't fall off the chair let's hold hands.

Alright, remember this recipe is available in printable format at

HilahCooking.com and it's also in the description box below.

Please don't forget to subscribe.

You can click that button right down there and check out my

black beans empanada video for another filling you can use for

this and also a hilarious video.

I'm gonna taste this now.

Oh, you do want to taste it?

Mmmm.

Mmmm, I love it.

- Buh-bye. - Buh-bye.