Smash Burger Tacos (Viral Big Mac-Style Tacos)
The viral Big Mac-style taco: a thin ball of beef smashed straight onto a flour tortilla, griddled until the patty fuses to it with a deep crust, then dressed with cheese, lettuce, pickles and burger sauce. Six tacos from one pound (454 g) of beef, 25 minutes end to end.
Ingredients
- ground beef, 80/20 (90/10 for less splatter)1 lb / 454 g
- flour tortillas, 6-inch (15 cm)6
- American cheese slices6
- salt and black peppergenerous
- iceberg lettuce, finely shredded2 cups / 100 g
- white onion, finely diced½ cup / 75 g
- dill pickle chips18–24
- smash burger sauce (see linked recipe)¾ cup / 180 ml
Method
- Make the sauce and prep toppings. Whisk up a batch of smash burger sauce first (ours takes 5 minutes) and put it back in the fridge. Shred the lettuce fine, dice the onion small, and have pickle chips and cheese slices unwrapped and within reach — the cooking goes fast once it starts.
- Portion the beef. Divide 1 lb (454 g) of ground beef into six equal balls — about 2.7 oz (75 g) each; a kitchen scale makes them even, but six equal portions by eye works. Keep them cold until the minute you use them: cold beef smashes cleaner and buys the crust time before the patty overcooks.
- Press the beef onto the tortillas. Place one ball on each 6-inch (15 cm) flour tortilla and press it with your fingers into a thin, even layer — about ¼ inch (6 mm) — all the way to the edge. Season the exposed side generously with salt and pepper. No taco seasoning: despite the name, this is a burger. Pressed tortillas can wait in the fridge, covered, for a few hours.
- Heat the pan. Heat a large cast-iron skillet or griddle over medium-high until a drop of water skitters and evaporates on contact — around 400°F (205°C) surface temperature. No oil needed; the beef renders its own.
- Cook beef-side down. Lay the tacos in the pan beef-side down — the tortilla never touches the heat first — and leave them alone for 2–3 minutes, until the edges are deeply browned and the patty releases with a thin spatula. Resist peeking early; the crust is the flavor.
- Flip, cheese, lid. Flip each taco onto a cleaner, cooler part of the pan — not into the pooled grease — lay a slice of American cheese on the beef immediately, and cover with a lid for about 1 minute: the cheese melts while the tortilla toasts. Pull them when the tortilla is golden and crisp at the edges, 1–2 minutes on that side at most.
- Rest on a rack, then dress. Rest finished tacos on a wire rack, never a plate — trapped steam turns the crisp tortilla soggy in a minute. Working in batches? Hold them on the rack in a 250°F (120°C) oven and wipe the pan with a paper towel between rounds so old grease doesn’t scorch.
- Build and serve. Top each taco with a drizzle of burger sauce, a handful of shredded lettuce, diced onion and pickle chips. Serve flat and fold at the table like a taco. Two per person is a meal — one pound (454 g) of beef feeds three.
Why this recipe works
The flour tortilla is doing bun work. It is absorbent enough to bond with the raw beef, sturdy enough to survive the flip, and it toasts in the beef’s own rendered fat like the inside face of a griddled bun. Corn tortillas fail on all three counts — they crack, sog and refuse to grip the patty — which is why every serious version of this dish uses flour.
Pressing the beef onto the tortilla before it hits the pan — rather than smashing a ball on the griddle through the tortilla — is the method this recipe backs. Off-heat you can press the beef truly edge-to-edge with no hot-surface risk, the tortillas can be assembled ahead and held in the fridge, and the crust comes out the same, because the sear happens beef-side-down either way. The griddle-smash camp gets an identical taco with more burned knuckles.
A 2.7-oz (75 g) patty pressed to ¼ inch (6 mm) is nearly all crust — the smash burger trade in taco form. Salt and pepper only: the browned beef, the sauce and the pickles are the flavor system, and taco seasoning just makes it taste like a different, worse dish.
Where this dish comes from
Smash burger tacos have a name attached: pitmaster and food writer Brad Prose of Chiles and Smoke posted the version that lit the fuse to Instagram and TikTok in March 2023 — the Washington Post called him the person to thank for starting the spark, and Good Morning America and the TODAY Show credit his smashing technique for the craze. Big Mac taco videos had racked up over 451 million TikTok views by mid-2023, with Chrissy Teigen posting her own take. Honest footnote: griddled beef-on-tortilla has older cousins, from Tucson’s decades-old Pattie Beef Taco to Mexico City’s tacos de hamburguesa — Prose’s smash is the version the internet fell for.
His own pro tip survives every copycat: flip the taco onto a clean, cooler spot of the griddle, not into the grease the beef just rendered. And his current evolution — toppings added on the griddle, taco folded closed, then shallow-fried crisp on both sides — is worth trying the second time you make these.
Cooking for a crowd
This is the rare viral dish that scales like a party trick. The math: 1 lb (454 g) of beef makes 6 tacos and feeds 3 people; 2 lb (907 g) makes 12 for 6; 3 lb (1.4 kg) makes 18 and runs a party. Sauce scales straight — one batch covers a six-taco round with a little left for fries.
The workflow: press all the tortillas in advance (they stack, separated by parchment, in the fridge for a few hours), then run an assembly line — a big griddle takes 6 at once, a large skillet 2–3. Finished tacos hold on a wire rack over a sheet pan in a 250°F (120°C) oven for a good half hour without going soggy, so you can cook every batch before anyone sits down. Set out the toppings in bowls and let people dress their own.
Safety & hygiene Important
- Ground beef temperature. Ground beef is safe at 160°F (71°C) — the USDA minimum, and unlike a steak there is no medium-rare exception, because grinding spreads surface bacteria through the meat. The good news: a ¼-inch (6 mm) smashed patty on a properly hot pan blows past 160°F (71°C) during its 2–3 minute sear, so a fully-cooked patty and a great crust are the same thing here. Check the look regardless: no pink, deep brown crust, juices running clear.
- Splatter and burns. Thin patties on high heat spit rendered fat. Use a long-handled spatula, keep your smashing hand off the hot surface (press the beef onto tortillas off-heat, as this recipe does), and a splatter screen helps indoors. Leaner 90/10 beef spits noticeably less.
- Raw beef handling. You are pressing raw beef with your fingers — wash hands and board with hot soapy water afterward, and keep the pressed tortillas refrigerated, covered, if they wait more than a few minutes. Use a clean spoon for the sauce, never anything that touched raw meat.
- Grease management. Wipe rendered fat out of the pan with a folded paper towel (held with tongs) between batches — pooled grease soaks the next tortilla and burnt fat smokes. Never pour it down the drain; collect it in a jar.
3 ways to plate it
- Fold each taco only halfway, so it holds a wide V and the filling faces the diners.
- Lean them against each other in a row on a long platter, all facing the same way, slightly overlapping like fallen dominoes.
- Drizzle the sauce across all three in one continuous zigzag — one confident pass beats three careful ones.
- Finish with a pinch of diced onion scattered along the row and serve immediately, while the tortilla edges are still crisp.
- Place the taco flat and open on a small plate, beef side up, straight off the wire rack.
- Pile lettuce, onion and pickles on one half only — the empty half is the reveal, showing the seared beef and cheese.
- Zigzag the sauce across the whole face, dressed half and bare half alike.
- Serve with the fold as the first bite’s job — the crisp crackle when it closes is the moment.
- Hold each batch on a wire rack in a 250°F (120°C) oven until all the tacos are cooked — never stack them hot.
- Arrange the tacos folded, in loose overlapping rows on a big platter, seams all facing the same direction.
- Set small bowls of shredded lettuce, diced onion, pickle chips and sauce around the platter, a spoon in each.
- Put the sauce closest to the tacos — it goes on first, under the lettuce, so the toppings stick.
Questions, answered
What are smash burger tacos?
A viral mashup popularized by Brad Prose in 2023: a small ball of ground beef smashed paper-thin onto a flour tortilla, cooked beef-side down until deeply crusted, then flipped, cheesed and dressed like a Big Mac — lettuce, onion, pickles and burger sauce. Big Mac taco videos had passed 451 million TikTok views by mid-2023.
Can I use corn tortillas?
Not for this. Corn tortillas crack when flipped, turn soggy under the juicy patty and won’t bond to the raw beef the way flour does. If you need gluten-free, use a sturdy gluten-free flour-style tortilla rather than corn.
Do you cook the beef side or the tortilla side first?
Beef side down, always — 2–3 minutes for the crust while the tortilla stays safely up. The tortilla side gets only 1–2 minutes at the end, just enough to toast it and melt the cheese.
How do you keep the tortilla from burning or going greasy?
Three habits: flip the taco onto a cleaner, cooler spot of the pan instead of into the pooled grease; keep the tortilla side under two minutes; and wipe the pan between batches. Rest finished tacos on a wire rack, not a plate — steam is what turns them soggy.
What sauce goes on smash burger tacos?
A creamy burger sauce — mayo, ketchup, Dijon and dill pickle. Our smash burger sauce (linked below) is built for exactly this; bottled Thousand Island is the accepted emergency shortcut.
Do you use taco seasoning?
No — every top version seasons with salt and pepper only. It’s a burger that happens to live on a tortilla; taco seasoning fights the burger-sauce-and-pickle flavor system.
Can you make them ahead?
Partially. The sauce keeps 5 days, toppings can be prepped, and the beef-pressed tortillas hold covered in the fridge for a few hours. Cook them fresh — but finished tacos hold 30 minutes on a rack in a 250°F (120°C) oven, and leftovers re-crisp well in a 375°F (190°C) oven or air fryer.
How much beef per taco?
About 2.7 oz (75 g) pressed onto a 6-inch (15 cm) tortilla — so one pound (454 g) of beef makes six tacos, which feeds three people at two tacos each. A dressed taco runs roughly 400–430 calories.
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