How Restaurants Make Taco Shell Bowls
March 18, 2010 at 12:13 am Chad Upton 1 comment
If you’re ever ordered a taco salad, it has probably been served in a giant bowl made from a taco shell. Nachos are often served with smaller versions of these tortilla bowls to hold sour cream and salsa.
My friend Scott worked in a restaurant back in our high school days. While we were having dinner one night I asked him how they did it.
For the smaller sized dipping bowls, they would take two ladles, put one ladle cup inside of the other while sandwiching a small tortilla shell between them. Then they would hang on to the handles and dip the other end into the deep fryer. After a short amount of time they would remove the ladles from the fryer; as the tortilla cooled, it would hold its shape. It was a good bowl, but it was a great deep fried bowl shaped nacho when that last bit of salsa was left at the bottom.
For the large taco salad bowls, the process was the same although they used large strainers with handles on them and large tortilla shells.
If you want to make these at home, you can make them in your oven. Place a bowl upside down on a cookie sheet. Spray both sides of the tortilla shell with cooking spray and lay the tortilla shell over the bowl. Put it on a low rack and bake at 450 for a few minutes.
Broken Secrets
Written By: Chad Upton
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Entry filed under: Around The House, Demystified, Food and Drink, Hacks, ProTips. Tags: bowl, chef, dip, home, nacho, restaurant, salad, strainer, taco, tortilla.
Broken Secrets 
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Jen | March 25, 2010 at 8:36 am
As a teenager I worked at Taco Bell, we had actual presses for making these types of things. Same idea as the ladles, but there was room for 4 or 5 tortillas in the press. Although I’m not sure if they have those in the US, that’s how we roll in Canada.