Taco Bell Crunchwrap

Crunchwrap from taco bell

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Here we take a quick look at the Taco Bell story and move into how to make the coveted Taco Bell Cruchwrap Taco.

First, a little Taco Bell history

In the world of fast-food Taco Bell has shown speed in interesting ways.

The owner Glen Bell…that’s right. You though it was named after the sound making device, clapper and all. I’m with you, I was wrong too. Named after a dude, oh well.

And like many starting restaurant legends, he began this one in a small 20’x20’ location. But first a little backstory.

first taco bell

 

He had a few ventures that were reasonably successful, starting with a burger joint, then partnerships that owned Taco Tia and El Taco. He divested himself of those ventures to become sole owner and developer of Taco Bell. Apparently, he learned well, starting in 1962 he hit a hundred restaurants, including franchised locations, in 1967. Three years later he took the company public with 375 outlets. PepsiCo bought them up, 868 stores in 1978, and accelerated their growth from a regional star to nationally recognized icon.

Taco Bell chihuahua

Yo Quiero Taco Bell

That’s right, like everybody else you want to know all the dirt on the Taco Bell chihuahua. First appearing in 1997, at the peak of the “Burger Wars” (you heard that right, another supposed food fight of zero consequence) he/she started that famous catch phrase. You see, as I am sure almost all of you already know, the character was acted by Gidget, a female pupper – don’t you call her a b-tch – but was voiced by a male comedian. Of course, the gender issue was completely avoided by never giving the character a name, merely the “Taco Bell Chihuahua” moniker.

Taco Bell chihuahua

After bringing us other such great phrases as “Drop the Chalupa” and “Viva Gorditas”, she was summarily dismissed in 2000. Like so many Hollywood icons she was discarded and forgotten due to a lack of commercial success, and no longer adding to the sales production of a greedy corporation. An unforgiving profession in an unforgiving city. Gidget found other work with GEICO and in the Legally Blonde movie sequel. But you could tell her heart wasn’t in it, and she passed in obscurity in 2009 and was cremated. As Taco Bell said, despite discarding her at her prime, “Our deepest sympathies go out to her owners and fans”. Another legend faded into obscurity, at least we have our plushie to remember her by.

dog with heart

Moving forward

So, they gave the dog the boot, lost a multimillion-dollar suit to the guys who actually created the dog idea, although it was frighteningly named “Psycho Chihuahua” (aren’t all Chihuahuas a little psycho?) and that decade was not off to a great start for the organization. The horizon grew bright in the summer of 2005 when the Crunchwrap Supreme was introduced. The rest is, as they say history. An oddly obvious statement since it all happened a while ago, but there you are.

New taco bell logo

In this case, it was their most successful launch ever, sales took off, and in a mere 6 months, January 2006, the Crunchwrap earned a prestigious spot as a permanent menu item. Such a lofty pedestal to climb in so short a time, one is humbled by the greatness. Okay, maybe not, but it is a darn tasty food item, and not too difficult to make your own way. What it really shows though, is the versatility of the Americanized Mexican food ingredients. A few base components and you get a geometric progression of potential foods by weaving them in and out.

Crunchwrap Supreme Recipe

Crunchwrap Supreme

Allen Bixby
Making Taco Bell's famous Crunchwrap Supreme. This recipe only has a couple tweaks. Queso is a delightful sauce, we went with shredded cheese instead. Which brings up a couple technique points.
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Course Appetizer, Lunch or dinner
Cuisine American, Mexican
Servings 4 persons
Calories 662 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 16 Ounces Ground beef cooked as taco meat
  • 4 12” Flour tortillas
  • 4 Tostada style tortillas
  • 8 Ounces Sour cream
  • 8 Ounces Shredded cheese
  • ¼ Onion diced
  • ¼ Head lettuce shredded
  • 8 Ounces Salsa

Instructions
 

  • Shred lettuce and dice onion
    Shred lettuce, dice onion
  • If your flour tortilla is cold, microwave it for 20 seconds at low power. Place it on a work surface and make a 5-6” circle of shredded cheese.
    tortilla with shredded cheese
  • Add a layer of your taco beef atop the cheese
    tortilla, shredded cheese and taco beef
  • Add a couple ounces of your salsa of choice evenly over the meat
    Salsa over the meat
  • Place tostada or chips on top
    Tostada on flour tortilla
  • Spread a couple ounces sour cream on tostada sour cream on tostada sour cream on tostada close up
  • Preheat your skillet or griddle to medium heat
  • Add lettuce, onion, or whatever your choices are for the fresh layer
    lettuce, onion with sour cream
  • Fold the tortilla up to the edge of the tostada
    first fold of tortilla
  • Fold one end of that first fold toward the center, repeat this process 6 or 7 times until the tortilla wraps the filling completely
    Complete tortilla wraps
  • Put the folded sides down until you have prepped all your crunch wraps
    folded sides down tortilla in plate
  • Spray or spread a light coat of oil on the cooking surface
    tortilla on the cooking surface
  • With the folded side down, place the wraps on the griddle or cooking surface
  • Place a heat safe pan or pot to press the wrap down, heavy enough to get good contact with the surface, not so heavy as to overly squish your food, cook for 2-3 minutes
  • Flip the wraps, continue to cook another 3-5 minutes without the weight
    2 cooked Crunchwrap Supreme
  • Serve with your favorite sides & sauces, and enjoy!
    Crunchwrap Supreme serve in plate

Notes

Pro tip; If you are using chips as your crunch layer, whisk a little milk into your sour cream and you can drizzle it more evenly on the chips.
The wrap needs to be cooked to seal it shut more or less. However, this surface is in direct contact with the lettuce, so if you take too long the lettuce will wilt to goo. We make sure that side gets a quick cook, and you put a pan on top to get the nice seal on your tortilla. The other side, where the meat and cheese are, needs twice as long to get a good melt on the cheese. We weren’t feeling like tomatoes in ours, so we went with some finely diced onions and used green salsa. We thought about sliced olives too. Which brings up this point; use what you like. Cilantro, jalapenos, tomatoes, avocado, beans, rice, corn, etc. You get the idea; you can really customize these. Last item, we got tostado corn tortillas to use. You can put a layer of your favorite tortilla chips instead.

Nutrition

Calories: 662kcal
Keyword copycat recipe, crunchwrap supreme, how to make crunchwrap, taco bell
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
About the Author Allen Bixby

They say that 10,00 hours working a skill makes you an expert. By that standard I qualify as an expert cook. I eschew the title Chef because I do not have formal training…but dang, do I have hands on work, with the burn and cut scars to prove it. [Read More]

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