Animal Style In-N-Out Bacon Cheeseburger Tacos

 When you combine a copycat recipe for an iconic burger + wrap it in a tortilla, taco night will never be the same.  Animal Style In-N-Out Bacon Cheeseburger Tacos.  Boom.  

Every year, the women’s retreat for our church falls on the 1st weekend of May. You know what that means.  Cinco de Mayo party… but since the wives are away, it’s all us guys.  And since it’s a dude-fest, the annual Cinco de Man-o party was born.

It’s something we look forward to every year.

So a bunch of the guys from church are really into burgers.  We kinda have a bucket list of iconic burger joints we all want to check out at some point in our lives.  It’s typically the first and last thing we end up talking about when you get us all together in a room.  And no, we’re not obsessed.  We’re passionate.  There’s a difference, thank you very much 🙂

Asheley and I had our first In-N-Out experience when we went to San Francisco and Napa Valley this past summer.  Pretty much everyone knows about their not so secret menu at this point, which includes making your burger Animal Style. They cook your patty in a bit of mustard, add on caramelized onions, and give an extra smear of their special sauce.  For a fast food burger, it’s legit.

So when I was thinking about what new taco I wanted to roll out this year (last year was the Carnitas Taco with Pickled Onion and Roasted Tomatillo Salsa), I knew I wanted to pay homage to our burger fixation.

The Animal Style In-N-Out Bacon Cheeseburger Taco was born.  It’s got all the components of the In-N-Out burger (sans pickles), wrapped up in a tortilla.  Beef cooked with a bit of mustard.  Check.  Caramelized onions.  Check.  Copycat animal style sauce. Check.

And I added bacon to it as well, because bacon makes pretty much everything better and it’s for a party with all dudes.  It’s a night when we literally try to add bacon to as many things as possible.

Animal Style In-N-Out Bacon Cheeseburger Tacos

• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 40 mins
• Total Time: 50 minutes
• Yield: 4 servings (about 12 tacos) 1x

Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoon neutral-flavored oil (i.e. canola or vegetable)
• 2 yellow onions, finely chopped
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 teaspoon yellow mustard
• Kosher salt
• Flour tortillas
• Sliced American cheese
• 6 slices bacon, chopped and cooked crispy
• Iceburg Lettuce, shredded
• 1 large tomato, chopped
• Animal Spread (recipe below)

for the Animal Spread

• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 1 tablespoon sweet pickle relish
• 1/2 teaspoon white vinegar
• Kosher salt

Instructions

1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-low heat in a medium skillet. Add onions, season with salt, and cook slowly for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onions are caramelized, golden, and soft. Raise heat to medium, add 1/4 cup of water to pan, and stir to scrap up any browned bits. Simmer until all water has evaporated. Remove onions to a small bowl and set aside.
2. Add remaining 1 tablespoon oil to skillet and add ground beef, mustard, and season generously with salt. Cook over medium heat, breaking up beef into bite-sized pieces, until meat is cooked-through, about 4-5 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove beef to a medium bowl.
3. Place a slice of American cheese on each tortilla. Melt cheese onto tortilla by either microwaving for about 10 seconds each or heating tortillas in a skillet over medium heat.
4. Top each melted cheese covered tortilla with beef, lettuce, tomato, bacon, animal spread, and caramelized onions.

for the Animal Spread

1. Combine mayonnaise, ketchup, sweet pickle relish, and white vinegar in a small mixing bowl. Season with Kosher salt.