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[jdmessner]

Now that the playoffs are here, I am starting to think about food for a Super Bowl party. On Sunday nights I am involved with a youth program that has an average of 75-100 teens show up each week. For the Super Bowl they normally throw a big party. However, a lot of the kids have limited interest in the game, so they will form small groups that compete in various games throughout the night. There is always a lot of food.

I usually try and make something for the party. This year I am thinking of doing a pizza taco and taco bar. A pizza taco is quite different than a taco pizza. For a pizza taco, the taco shell is a pizza and you put all the taco ingredients in the folded pizza. I am thinking it would be a good prize for a team of kids. Everyone else would be welcome to the taco bar.

My plan is to get a 16” pizza for the shell. I am figuring it may take up to three pounds of meat and two pounds of cheese, along with lettuce, tomato, onions and sour cream for the filling. That is the nice thing about doing it with a taco bar, I can just use what I need.

I have no idea if this will work. I should probably stop watching those cooking videos that keep showing up on Facebook. I will be trying a smaller version of the pizza taco in early February, just to see if it is doable.

While I was planning this, I was wondering about any different, creative, or "out of the box" food ideas anyone has done or would like to try. Please feel free to share!

[02ebz06]

My concern about the Pizza Taco, would be cutting it up.  I assume it will not be one per person. 
Once you cut it, the fillings will fall out, plus it would no longer be a Taco.
Also, a lot of money work to feed 100+.

Maybe just do Brisket and use regular taco shells.
Brisket tacos are great.

[Bar-B-Lew]

Do a Google search for crescent roll sausage bake.  It is basically crescent rolls, ground sausage and cream cheese.  My wife adds sautéed onions and mushrooms to it.  You could add anything else you like.

[BigDave83]

I like the taco pizza idea but can't figure out how you would do it, I am guess here, but a prebaked shell is what you would use but not sure how well it would fold, and as mentioned cutting it up would be difficult.

we did a taco bar things for the GF's nieces birthday last year. I did regular taco meat, pulled pork, and shredded chicken.The pork I smoked and the chicken breast I seasoned and bagged then SV at 142 for 4-5 hours then shredded and put the liquid that cooked out back in with the meat and more seasoning.

I am thinking if you want to do a taco theme buy or make dough and make like a Mexican Stomboli or Calzone fill it with the taco meat cheese sauce onions and what ever you like, kind of a Stromburrito.

[jdmessner]

My concern about the Pizza Taco, would be cutting it up.  I assume it will not be one per person. 
Once you cut it, the fillings will fall out, plus it would no longer be a Taco.
Also, a lot of money work to feed 100+.

Maybe just do Brisket and use regular taco shells.
Brisket tacos are great.

If you go to YouTube and search "DefinitelyNotGourmet Giant Pizza Taco" you will see the motivation behind the project. The guy in the video folds and tapes the pizza box to the table to form a mold that will hold the pizza, while putting together the taco. My theory is the bigger and messier it is, the more the kids will enjoy it. If they can hold it up long enough for a photo opp it qualifies as a taco!! How they decide to cut or split it up is on them. Seeing how they decide to do that is going to be a big part of the fun! 

I am not providing all the food myself. I will be getting donations for the taco bar, my job will be putting it all together. I am looking forward to the challenge! I was just thinking of doing ground beef for the meat, but it might be a good excuse to do a brisket. I also like Dave's idea of adding chicken and pork. I will start keeping an eye out for bargains.

Lew - The crescent roll idea sounds very good. I plan on giving it a try sometime in the near future. There are a lot of creative possibilities.

[Bar-B-Lew]

If brisket is too expensive, you can cook a chuck roast and shred it for the taco bar.  It will be more expensive than pork or chicken but could be cheaper than brisket.  But, who knows anymore what something should or actually costs with inflation and supply chain issues and all of the other issues or excuses

[BigDave83]

My concern about the Pizza Taco, would be cutting it up.  I assume it will not be one per person. 
Once you cut it, the fillings will fall out, plus it would no longer be a Taco.
Also, a lot of money work to feed 100+.

Maybe just do Brisket and use regular taco shells.
Brisket tacos are great.

If you go to YouTube and search "DefinitelyNotGourmet Giant Pizza Taco" you will see the motivation behind the project. The guy in the video folds and tapes the pizza box to the table to form a mold that will hold the pizza, while putting together the taco. My theory is the bigger and messier it is, the more the kids will enjoy it. If they can hold it up long enough for a photo opp it qualifies as a taco!! How they decide to cut or split it up is on them. Seeing how they decide to do that is going to be a big part of the fun! 

I am not providing all the food myself. I will be getting donations for the taco bar, my job will be putting it all together. I am looking forward to the challenge! I was just thinking of doing ground beef for the meat, but it might be a good excuse to do a brisket. I also like Dave's idea of adding chicken and pork. I will start keeping an eye out for bargains.

Lew - The crescent roll idea sounds very good. I plan on giving it a try sometime in the near future. There are a lot of creative possibilities.

I think I may have seen that video, Sky makes some odd and unique things, I think he gets a lot of the ideas to try off Tik Tok. He does drinks also under the Tipsey Bartender name I believe, not  much of a drinker any more so I usually don't watch them.

I went and watched it, he just picked it up and started eating. If you want something messy for kids I am thinking that would work out well once you cut it up.

[jdmessner]

The Super Bowl is getting close. If I had known earlier which two teams were going to be playing, it would have been planned quite differently. I can envision conducting a purely unscientific poll, with one side of the room serving Philly Cheese Steak for the Eagles and the other side BBQ brisket to represent Kansas City.

However, it is a little late to change directions. I have had a lot of people make some generous donations. One person gave me 20 lbs. of ground beef, so pizza taco and taco bar it is. Thursday I am doing a test run, so hopefully I will have some pictures to share and a better idea of what I am doing.

My biggest concern right now is how to serve the tortillas for the tacos. We will be offering flour, corn, and hard shell tacos. I would like to keep them warm rather then just serving them out of the package. I am hoping to avoid over steaming them so they become gummy and sticky. There is an oven and stovetop where I am prepping the food, but not at the party. I have formed a plan based on various things I have read online. If it is online it has to be true! Right?

At this point I am thinking I will heat the tortillas individually on both sides in a cast iron pan, make stacks of about 10 tortillas, wrap in aluminum foil, keep them warm in a roaster, and transport them in the roaster to the party. It is only a couple of miles, so I shouldn't lose much heat. When it is time to serve, a few stacks will be unwrapped, and placed under a heat lamp to keep warm until served. I am wondering though, if this might dry them out. Another option would be to heat them, put them on a rack in a chaffing dish with a moist towel under the rack. But, would this make them stick together?

There are several people who will be there that are well versed in authentic Mexican cuisine, so I would like to do a good job, rather than go by the assumption that teens will eat anything and like it. My wife has a really good recipe for refried beans and volunteered (OK was volunteered) to make them. Some people are donating seasoning packets for the ground beef. I wouldn't mind making my own, but haven't done it before. Any suggestions for a go to recipe or a good prepackaged seasoning? Since I am doing it for a group, I don't want to go too spicey. But, I will try and have some hot sauce and spices to be added.

Thanks for your help as the countdown to kickoff has begun!

[02ebz06]

As for the tortillas, if the oven at the house has a "bread proofing" setting, you could keep them warm in the oven.
Mine is about 100 degrees in proof mode.
I don't think a damp towel over them would make them stick.

[jdmessner]

The trial run went well. I used a 14 inch pepperoni pizza, about 1 1/2 lbs. of taco meat and 1/2 lb. of cheese along with ample amounts of lettuce, tomato, onion, sour cream, and salsa. It fed six people with a couple of pieces left over. I am looking forward to Sunday, when we will have a 20 inch pizza. I was surprised at how good the pizza taco combination was. Once again I am having issues getting pictures off my phone. I will try to post a couple of pictures soon.

[jdmessner]

Hopefully it is better late than never! It was a fun night, the kids enjoyed putting the pizza taco together and the taco bar was a hit. It was a 20 inch peperoni pizza and probably around 3 pounds of taco meat, with about a pound of cheese, to go with the lettuce, tomato, sour cream and onions. They decided against refried beans, salsa, and guacamole.



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[yorkdude]

Looks like the kids were having fun.
Very nicely done.