Chopped Cheese Tacos

These chopped cheese tacos are cheesy beefy goodness on a crispy griddled tortilla! The true magic of a chopped cheese sandwich is when the American cheese melts and forms a sauce with the ketchup, mayo, beef fat, and adobo seasoning. The beautiful gooey sauce holds the beef and onion together in pure sandwich bliss! I loaded this amazing meaty mixture into some corn tortillas and cooked them until they got crispy on the edges.

The inspiration for this recipe

I have to take a second to apologize to chopped cheese – I didn’t really understand the magic of the sandwich until I moved to a chopped cheese city. I don’t live in the chopped cheese city – New York, but Atlanta really throws down when it comes to this sandwich. There are some amazing versions that I have tried here and great twists on it too! Now that I know what makes it a chopped cheese and not just ground beef in a roll, I can actually have fun and make some new versions.

I had some chopped cheese tacos out of a great food truck here that actually seasoned them with jerk seasoning. They came as regular tacos but I wanted to make them into griddled tacos, more like the way you usually get birria tacos.

Cook the meat and onions

I like to do this on a griddle so it’s true bodega style! Add the beef first, then the onions, and then get to chopping.

I usually wait until it’s about halfway cooked before adding more seasoning. Garlic powder, sazon, and adobo.

Build the chopped cheese tacos

Get the tortillas on the grill to warm and soften. Cook them on both sides for a few minutes each.

Then add the cheese, some meat, and a drizzle of the sauce! Oh right, the sauce – it just ketchup, mayo, worcestershire, and red wine vinegar.

Fold the tacos over and let them cook. The cheese will melt and combine with the sauce for that true chopped cheese magic! Make sure to cook until crispy and let some browned edges form where the cheese and sauce burns a little on the grill.

I transferred the finished chopped cheese tacos to a rack to rest while I continued to make the remaining ones. You could also hold these in the oven on low.

Add the veggies to the chopped cheese tacos

Open up the taco and add some lettuce, tomato, and pickles. Then close it back up! This way the veggies stay fresh instead of getting cooked in the taco

Serving the Chopped Cheese Tacos

Serve on a plate with the extra sauce.

These are SO GOOD! Truly chopped cheese tacos and not just ground beef tacos. They would still be chopped cheese tacos if they were served like regular tacos, but griddleing them like this takes them to the next level.

Of course a dip in the sauce makes them even better!

Twists on this recipe

You could skip the veggies at the end of these tacos if you wanted, or add your prefered chopped cheese toppings. I also almost added mustard to the sauce. Some people put mustard on this sandwich, and I generally love mustard, but I wanted to keep it classic today.

If you want to get more familiar with chopped cheese, I like this fun and funny video from Matty Matheson.

For more meat and corn tortilla magic, check out my tortilla smash burger. For unique taco ideas, check out my coffee berbere beef tacos, or these kung pao shrimp tacos!