Jack in the Box tacos

[pam]

If there is anyone out there who shares my conviction that the JitB taco is a tiny slice of Nirvana served in a clever waxed envelope, please post a reply or email me at the above address.

[Jim Dorsch]

I've never had a Jack in the Box taco -- we don't have them around here -- but just last night I had a couple Taco Bell tacos and a tostada. Exquisitely trashy, and I love 'em. Minutes later I told the Big Dog I'd dined at TB. He winced but allowed that it's a chowhound prerogative and refused to engage in trash talk.

[pam]

I would encourage you to hunt down the JITB taco; puts Taco Bell to red-faced shame. Like the Platonic world of forms and appearances, TB tacos are but pale reflections of the real thing. JITB is mostly west coast (my favorite is on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu) but they are opening in the south as well. I bide my time till they creep up the East Coast.

Unlike TB, JITB tacos are stuffed with "meat" and beans and then fried, and then topped with shredded lettuce, cheese and a vinegary red sauce. The contrast in texture between the meet stuffed part and the chewy crispy corny shell in the JITB taco has it all over the crumble-when-you-bite-it Taco Bell. Moreover, JITB is served in an elegant waxed pouch that catches what crumbs you create (you will want to eat them) whereas TB is wrapped haphazardly in paper, which spills the contents all over the place when you unroll it. Unacceptable.

[Jim Dorsch]

What I do at Taco Bell is buy 2 or 3 tacos and a tostada. (I always buy the cheapest stuff on the menu. None of the stuff with sour cream oozing out of it. There's something 'pure' about it, and I only eat a billion calories instead of, say 2 billion.) I eat the tacos directly over top of the tostada, which catches all the stuff that falls off the tacos. Then I scoop it all in with the tostada.

[Dave Feldman]

Now there is Chowhound ingenuity!

Of course, some would argue it would be better to eat the Taco Bell tacos over a waste receptacle and you'd be better off.

[Jim Dorsch]

"Of course, some would argue it would be better to eat the Taco Bell tacos over a waste receptacle and you'd be better off."

LOL!

[Pepper]

Or just to throw the Taco Bell tacos into the waste receptacle to begin with and cut out the middleman.

[Canadian]

TB is not my favorite, but I will tell you what, Crunch Wrap Supremes are the most delicious food articles made in under three minutes. I am ready to defend my position.

[torimo]

Perhaps even throw them in the toilet and cut out yet another step.

[pat hammond]

That's exactly what I order and how I eat 'em! Been doing it for 35 years. p.

[Jim Dorsch]

I led a tacoless childhood, and when I first went to a TB around 1975, I cautiously ordered something they had then called a Bell Burger. Well, this thing was just a taco on a hamburger bun, and wasn't that great, to say the least.

[therealbigtasty]

I remember those! Oh, how fast food time flies.

[davinagr]

Dang I miss the Bell Beefers, anyone else?

[revsharkie]

They still have them at the Taco Bell in my hometown. The reason is that way back in the pre-TB days we had a vile place called Taco Hut (which my parents loved for some reason) that served taco burgers, and got everyone in town hooked on them. TB came in and knew they'd go broke if they didn't offer something similar to the clueless local folks who thought such things were edible.

EEEWW...now I'm starting to want one.

[Sarah]

My strategy is NOT to eat at Taco Bell. The establishments in my area are DIRTY, SLOW, and ILL MANAGED.

[aynrandgirl]

Opening where in the South? I haven't seen one anywhere in Florida. JitB is one of the fast food franchises I still pine for having moved from CA to FL (the others being In-N-Out and Round Table Pizza).

[deibu]

They are a few in NC and upstate SC.

[judy leibovitch]

Used to work for JIB in high school and still have a nostalgic fondness for the stuff. One thing I can share is that the quality of the food was terribly high, (for the genre). I mean, real, fresh eggs, fresh produce we poor shmucks had to shred, all beef for the burgers and tacos. Cleanliness was a religion, and anything over 20 minutes old was tossed, (in our case, we gave it to a street person who came by regularly.) I still have illicit thrills for fast food breakfasts, even though a breakfast sandwich carries enough calories to fuel a small country.

[Norma Garcia]

How many calories in one of your regular tacos?

[Dave Feldman]

Pam,

You have named one of my very favorite fast-food items, either. There is something about the crisp texture of most of the shell combined with the soggy bottom where the meat is placed that is sublime. Love 'em. But beware of JIB Super Tacos. They are the enemy.

[Heather]

I love Jack in the Box tacos, too, but the Ultimate Cheeseburger is my absolute favorite. Two patties, three slices of erstaz cheese, and all the mayo you can handle on a squishy bun! I may be alone, but that heart-attack-waiting-to-happen wrapped in foil gets my juices flowing.

[R. Carter]

I haven't been to Jack in the Box in 25 years. But back then, when stricken with the munchies, a carload of my friends and I would head for the Jack in the Box drive-through and each order a complete meal. Then, if we had money left over, we would repeat the process, doing as many laps as it would take to exhaust our pooled funds.

THIS is why kids should just say no to drugs.

[Vanessa]

I think it was definitely the drugs. I loved those tacos back then. Now, I don't think so.

What about Popeye's though? Sublime spicy fried chicken. Love the red beans and rice too.
There just aren't enough of them around.
Do any other chowhounds share this passion? My only fast food guilty pleasure.

[Jim Wong]

Ironically, Popeyes was about the only place open in the rubble of the Jakarta revolution ('98). Went there almost every day.

I had never even heard of them actually (and never seen one anywhere since) -- what region are they from?

I recall some Tex/Mex-sounding name on those beans (Bronco Beans?). Dang, they were good...almost worth having our house torched, and the Marine airlift out of there....

Chicken stunk though!! Grease city. Maybe just that branch.

[Vanessa]

I don't know where they are from, but I wanna guess the South. They seem to be spread thinly across the country though. A few here in the Bay Area where I live, a few in NY, I even saw one in Maine of all places. I think I backed up on the freeway that time.
I've seen them in the middle of the country, but can't remember where, and they are definitely not numerous. Jakarta huh? Interesting. Does anyone know the answer to this question?

[Dave Feldman]

Popeye's is based in New Orleans. And the flagship store on Canal St. is something to behold on a weekday lunch, when hundreds & hundreds of people stream through. The food tends to be at its best then (more turnover) and the dirty rice, in particular, benefits from being prepared seconds before you eat it.

FWIW, I'm fond of Popeye's onion rings, which contain the same spices as the chicken. The only problem is that the fry cooks hate to make them, and usually they are made to order. I've heard anguished squeals of pain as hot oil hits employees, making the onion rings a doubly guilty pleasure.

[rjka]

Popeye's is unbelievable! Loved the biscuits and Cajun Fries. One meal filled my grease quota for the month though.Had one in my town in Fairfield Cty for several years which sadly closed (not a Fairfield Cty type of chow). Don't know of any others in the NY metro area.

[MU]

You mean the one in Times Square is gone?

[jen kalb]

at a minimum, the ones in Chinatown (on bowery under Silver Palace) and on Lexington at around 25th are open - the latter opened just about a year ago. Must be others too - no reason to think the chain is going away in NYC.

Havent tried it yet - I have a grievance against the Lex shop, which replaced a really excellent little mideastern takeout.

[Mary]

Was there just 6 weeks ago. Am still working off the extra biscuits. It's around 44th or 45th St.

[Jessica]

A branch of Popeye's just opened on Court St., near Borough Hall in Brooklyn, in the space formerly occupied by a Ranch 1. For the record.

[rjka]

I apologize. I am in the suburbs usually and they are hard to find here. Should have been more specific in my comment.

[Bob W.]

Popeye's is most definitely the class of fast food chains. The diry rice is great, and the crawfish etoufee, which appears a couple times a year, is far better than what you would expect at a fast food joint.

Those biscuits! That chicken! Those fries! MMMMMM.

[Jim Dorsch]

Popeye's red beans & rice is (are?) great. A medium makes a good lunch, and reasonably healthy if you don't get a biscuit to go with it. Of course, I always get the biscuit.

[R. Carter]

Popeye's was our standard picnic food for opera/Philharmonic in Central Park. While those around us would set out their dainty spreads of stinky cheese and $37-a-pound pate, we'd haul the "Family Size" box of chicken and grease-soaked bag of biscuits out of a fraying Bag-Day-at-Shea giveaway, pop the cork on some Freixenet, and feast away. People would look at us as if to say, "Is one ALLOWED to bring such pedestrian fare to the Philharmonic?" and "Why didn't WE think of that?"

We got ours from the one that used to be on 23rd St. just west of 7th. I think it's now an S&M theme restaurant. Come to think of it, Popeye's had something of a pleasure/pain dichotomy, too: pleasure now, (gas) pain later.

[vanessa]

That is sooo funny, because I live on the West coast, but when I was in Manhattan just this last July, I had cocktails at that very S&M restaurant. Wasn't quite masochistic enough to try the food.

[yumyum]

Now that's just funny. Please, don't get me wrong ... Popeyes red beans and rice are one of my favorite guilty pleasures, but "relatively healthy"? I read an article once about how much margarine the chain uses to cook all their food. Let's just leave it at "a lot". I am quite certain that if you are looking for healthy stuff, Popeyes shouldn't be on the list. But I LOVE it. Thank god they finally closed the one in Cambridge Mass., or I'd be at least 300 lbs.

[susancinsf]

There is a Jack in the Box commercial about folks like you used to be.....(guy goes to JIB apparently stoned, not sure what to order, Jack suggests one of everything, that is what he does....)

[someyoungguyy]

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fus...

[a&w]

Ah, the Jack in the Box taco...truly a staple of my youth. I think the key for me was the sliced (velveeta?) cheese. Delicious but deadly...

[billjriv]

Yah there good remind me of Taquitos.Just rollup raw meat onions and tomatos in corn tortilla then fry.(warm tortilla first or itll fall apart)

[tlegray]

I've been craving Jack-in-the-Box tacos for days. I've never understood their appeal but when you get the craving it's just got to be filled. Now because of this thread I'll have to fill the craving.

Add mustard to it and it's culinary heaven.

[Debbie M]

As teenager, my friends and I used to love JitB tacos big time. As someone mentioned above, they had good, contrasting textures between the soft, meaty fried and the crispy fried. Much better than Taco Bell tacos.

Once while out cruising our deadsville suburban town, we made a JitB taco & fries stop, and the equally bored teens who spoke to us through the clown head inadvertently doubled our order. We thought we'd died and gone to heaven.

Can't say I'd really care to have one now.

[billjriv]

You still order in a clown head lol we dont have those anymore in Seattle.Yah I like when they mess up orders,like sometimes ill ask for little extras or cheese and theyll forget and they always give me another of the same free.

[calabasas_trafalgar]

I wish they were more aerodynamic. They'd make great skeet targets

[DanaB]

Jack in the Box tacos are better eaten drunk . . . they taste better that way. When you eat them sober, as an adult, you can really sense the low quality. But as a snack after a night out, yes, I am with you.

Now if you want to talk the dearly departed Chicken Supreme from Jack in the Box, I am with you. During my teen years, this was my favorite fast-food indulgence (and I was selective -- quit eating McDs, Carl's Jr. etc. around the age of 15). But the Jacks' Chicken Supreme was IT.

[billjriv]

I don't eat them with alcohol and they taste fine and im old,rather eat mine with Hawaiin punch or water,that way I don't crash into a wall and get taco all over my face.Home made Taquitos are good,there cheaper and taste better for the cost of 2 tacos at Jitbox you can make around 30 Taquitos which are the same thing.

[JK Grence the Cosmic Jester]

Oh, the Chicken Supreme... I grew up on those. I was mourning for months after they discontinued those. I'm still a little bitter about it.

[drmidian]

DanaB,Cosmic Jester, I also love those chicken supremes. I remember when they were invented in the mid 70's They had several and that one lasted because it was so good. I wish Jack in the Box would reconsider its change and reinstate the great chicken supreme.
It was so delicious. It has wheat buns, a nice chicken patty that was not over-processed,a nice slice of swiss cheese, a nice fresh leaf of lettuce and a crisp fresh slice of tomatoe,
The creamy dressing was great also. I used to eat those because the taste was so unique. If I had wanted a spicey jack chicken sandwhich I would have gone to popeyes or some other place. Here is the phone to Jacks offices. Here are 2 of them.
1-800-955-5225 and [phone]. Lets get them interested in giving us back that great chicken burger.

[sfkusinera]

When I was 15, about two decades ago, I worked at a Jack in the Box. I distinctly remember the prep for those tacos, because I remember being horrified that the taco comes frozen and already filled with a mystery meat and bean filling. The fry cook would deep fry the whole thing, then stuff processed cheese and lettuce into the taco. But amazingly, they are delicious because of the contrasts of crispy, greasy shell, creamy, salty meat/bean, and cool lettuce and tangy cheese. They are best, in my opinion, with the salsa, not the taco sauce.

of course, my palate has matured since then. but my devotion to those tacos has never wavered. i loved em then, i love em now. love em even more when they're 2 for a buck. in my gluttonous teens and twenties i chased many a sourdough burger with one of these beauties, and wasn't even drunk. my now thirty something stomach can't handle them more than once in a while.

[calabasas_trafalgar]

Like Jack sez to the stoner: "You should order 30"

[aelph]

I was a fan of the JiB taco in my Texan youth...unfortunately? JiB is difficult to find in the Chicago-proper area...perhaps they exist in the faraway 'burbs. Anyway...has anyone contrasted/compared JiB's with Burger King's? I believe the tacos are of a similar provenance.

[calabasas_trafalgar]

they are equally inedible, but BK's perhaps a little less greasy.

[BearCity]

Jack in The Box tacos are superior to Burger King, HOWEVER, BK has the superior hot sauce. JiB taco w/BK hot sauce=pure skanky taco bliss.

[therealbigtasty]

Where can you still get the BK tacos? I remember those being badass!

[BearCity]

They are here and now in L.A.

[TexasToast]

No, I do not share your view. I can't STAND JiTB. It truly is the WORST fast food outlet.

TT

[billjriv]

.Jack in the Box is ok for somethings tacos are pretty good I think,I like the big cheesburger then ask for onions lettuce tomato,its free.Better than paying 8 bucks for the same thing somewhere else.When your poor Jack in the Box is gourmet.I think Mcdonalds is the worst,but I guess were not here to discuss that subject.

[davinagr]

Not sure if this is an Urban Legend or truth, but heard the "meat" in the JITB tacos was soy protein. Does anyone know if this is true? It is kind of mystery meat-ish.

[BearCity]

You know how sometimes you find an enigmatic white chunk in a sausage, and it grosses you out because it reminds you of the animal it's made from?

Jack in the Box tacos are definitely meat.

[jensvp]

I had a vegetarian friend of mine who swore there was no meat in the Jack tacos. Seems a bit odd to me though.

[adkim]

nothing beats jack in the box at 2:30 am. after spending all your money on overpriced drinks it's nice to be able to get two taco's for a dollar.

i'll take four taco's and one breakfast jack, please. now i just need to mine the seats for some change.

[ricepad]

I had a couple of JitB tacos last week - first time in probably 25 years - and they were every bit as good (bad) as I remembered them...all that lovely mystery meat-like paste, the greasy yet crispy shell, and the surprisingly fresh lettuce. Oh, they were wonderful!

[adkim]

so true. so true.

[Leighny]

Got to love the Box!

[ozzygee]

I live in LA so there is no shortage of real tacos. But sometimes you want a nasty, salty gringo grease bomb taco, and the JITB taco is the apotheosis of said weapon of mass destruction. No pretense, no apologies, just wham, bam, see you at the coroner's. Thank you, Jack.

[jbeaux]

This is so funny. My mom *loves* JinB tacos, tho she swears they're made from meat-flavored tofu. Urban legend? Who knows.. anyway, they're good.

[Humbucker]

Here's the ingredients list straight of the JitB website:

Beef Regular Taco or Beef Monster Taco® Filling Ingredients: Beef, Water, TEXTURED VEGETABLE PROTEIN (SOY FLOUR, Caramel Color), SOY GRITS, Seasoning [Chili Powder (Chili Peppers, Spices, Salt, Garlic Powder), Wheat Flour, Taco Mix (Chili Pepper, Garlic, Salt, Spices, Monosodium Glutamate, Dextrose, Onion), Imitation Beef Extract (Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Hydrolyzed Soy, Wheat and Corn Protein, Monosodium Glutamate, Dextrose, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Disodium Guanylate, Disodium Inosinate), Silicon Dioxide (added to prevent caking)], Salt, Tomato Paste, Worcestershire Sauce (Distilled Vinegar, Molasses, Corn Syrup, Water, Salt, Caramel Color, Garlic Powder, Sugar, Spices, Tamarind, Natural Flavor, Sulfiting Agent). Tortilla Ingredients: Ground Corn, Water, Lime. Contains Soy, Wheat

So your mom is partially correct: TVP and soy grits are used as filler.

[Cali]

Jack in The Box Tacos, the Porn of fast food. Just like Porn you love them, you're addicted to them yet you're too ashamed to tell others that buy them.

[BearCity]

Agreed.

[krushdnasty]

these are the worst thing to ever enter the culinary universe. guaranteed gut bomb without any redeeming quality. c'mon they stuff their damn hamburger cheese slices in there once its done frying. Horrible, gummy, and worst of all, usually there are alternatives around if its in a city area.

Ever heard of Tito's? Now thats a real fried taco.

[adkim]

party pooper.

[davinagr]

OMG....I'm laughing so hard...what a great thread and I found out the answer to my urban legend question. WHO KNEW that I could have simply gone to the JITB website for product ingredients. Jack Rules!

[anthonyG]

I have to agree......

just horrible, even after a night of drinking....

[steveb]

Let us not forget that Jack killed four children in 1994. Now that IS being a party pooper.

[globlamega]

I have to admit, I still love those awful Jack in the box tacos. i don't know what's in them, I don't want to know, but man do they hit the spot every six monthes or so, (KINDA LIKE THE WHITE CASTLE HAMBURGER....disgusting but good in that car wreck kinda' way)

[NoeMan]

Just had two for brunch this morning. Yum. JIB deserves credit for cooking stuff to order all night long and for concocting some pretty creative offerings versus the other fast food guys.

[billjriv]

They got a deal now where if you get a 10$ gift card you get 2 tacos and a bacon cheddar double Cibbata with a 20$ gift card.

[a_and_w]

Do they still slip in the slice of American cheese? For some reason, that was always the key for me...

[NoeMan]

No slice of cheese at my local one on Bayshore in San Francsico.

[a_and_w]

Sacre bleu! I maintain the slice of American cheese product makes the Jack in the Box taco...

[DanaB]

In Los Angeles, the slice of american cheese is de rigeur. Maybe they forgot to add it on the poster from SF's taco?

[NoeMan]

You are now "forcing" me to go back again and very closely inspect for the cheese slice (yippee!!). I always go for the super taco rather than regular, wonder if that's it? I remember the slice from my early days of this addiction back in Chicago before they ditched my town and left me Jones-ing for the things.

I'll report back.

[NoeMan]

Just back from the research. No cheese slice on the regular. On the Monster taco (not called the super as I erroneously mentioned above) there is cheese that is melted, but on the edge I noticed the slightly unmelted corner of a slice. Since they now make things to order I think the just out of the fryer meat is now fully melting the old slice, hence I didn't notice with out close inspection.

[a_and_w]

Had two Monster Tacos and some onion rings the other day. The meat was as mysterious as ever, and the slice of American cheese in full effect. For a moment, I became unstuck in time and was hurtled back to my youth...

[NoeMan]

They still rock !!!!

[monkuboy]

I checked out the JITB website and it says one taco (which they refer to as a "regular 'beef' taco" (so much for soy protein unless they are lying) has 160 calories. I would have thought these wonderfully greasy things would have more, but not according to the website. We went today and although I really wanted the tacos, I decided to be a little healthier, or so I thought, by ordering the spicy chicken sandwich. The JITB chart says those have 620 calories, so that would only be 20 less than 4 wonderful tacos, with the same amount of fat calories. I shoulda just had the tacos instead! Well I guess I shouldn't have even eaten at JITB if I was trying to be healthy, lol.

[Katj]

Jack in the Box tacos are the best. I haven't had one in years. Popeyes used to have a great chicken taco too but I haven't seen one in forever.
There are no Jack in the Boxes in Atlanta, that I know of. Darn.

[Ph8te]

Great funky little tacos!
Thanks for bringing topic up.
Peace

[PaulF]

Jack in the Box tacos are on the list of the best foods to eat while:

1 - drunk
2 - stoned
3 - broke
4 - uninterested in knowing the exact ingredients
5 - waiting until Monday to start your diet
6 - driving

[michele cindy]

Just like your post infers, they are the "White Castle" of Tacos. Jack in the Box tacos are one of my favorite trashy foods that I can't get anymore. There aren't any in the NY Metro area. There was a time when I could eat 12+ in one sitting, then again I was 15 not sure I could do that these days. Every once in awhile I get the urge, and whip up a batch of tacos Jack in The Box style to satisfy it. I also make tacos that are more traditional, and those in my book are totally different from the style served by JITB. Just take an uncooked corn tortilla, fill it with about 2 tblsp. mixture of cooked very ground beef and veal baby food, + a sprinkle of taco seasoning. Add a 1/2 piece of American cheese, fold and fry each side in peanut oil. Then serve with finely chopped iceberg lettuce, and a mild taco sauce. It really satisfies me when I get the JITB taco urge. Which after writing this I have right now...

[a_and_w]

The "White Castle" of tacos is a perfect description LOL!

[madgreek]

I just tried one this past week while in Honolulu. Now I'm addicted. The burgers are good too. It's a good thing (but only for my waistline) that we don't have any JITB locations in my area!

[kdsffjunkie]

I also love JitB tacos, much better than taco bell. I also miss JitB bean and cheese burritos from the 80's as well as the chicken supreme sandwhich on the wheat bun. Those were two of my faves!

[texanness]

they are simply the best!

[theeatenpath]

Oh indeed... not only is the Jack in the Box taco a tiny slice of Nirvana, I would dare say it's the edible flag of American processed food. Is there any industrial process that hasn't been used to make this miracle? I don't want to know.

http://theeatenpath.com/2008/06/29/ja...

[Midlife]

If these are the same tacos that are part of the $3.99 meal deal (two tacos, a burger and fries) I couldn't disagree more. I stop at JIB very seldom but gave in to the deal recently when I was very hungry. Burger and fries were fine but the tacos were way below anything I'm used to.

[monkuboy]

I thought that deal was $2.99? In So Cal I am pretty sure the tv ads say $2.99. Mmm, I love their tacos!

[Cathy]

Yep. Considering you can get two tacos for 99 cents, a Jumbo Jack for $1.29 and fries for $1.19 if bought individually...the $3.99 deal would be only for those who thought they never needed to learn math.

[Rene]

Maybe it comes with fries and a drink? :)

[Midlife]

This board never fails. You're right, it was $2.99! Doesn't make the tacos any better.

[torimo]

Problem is, they "jacked" up the price of the drinks. So now, a medium soda adds another $1.79 to the cost. They always get you somewhere.

[NoeMan]

At "Jack"-In-The-Box, it seems to me, that they "Jack"-up everything as a matter of corporate policy...tee hee.