New recipes can rise to viral popularity overnight and the latest dish to join the ranks of Instagram and TikTok trends is a mashup of two foods people love already -- smash burgers and tacos.
So-called "Big Mac taco" recipes have surged on social media recently, with videos using search term garnering over 451 million views on TikTok alone.
Home cook, cookbook author and self-proclaimed "grilling nut" Brad Prose told "Good Morning America" that he created this hybrid dish for his sons and said "I knew it would be a fun recipe, but I never expected it to take off the way it did."
"My boys love it when I make smash burgers, and we just happened to be out of buns. I always make tacos at home, so I thought it would be fun to attempt to combine the two and have fun," he said. "The first batch didn't quite turn out, so I spent a few days testing it with various tortillas, heat, timing, and eventually came up with the recipe we have."
Prose said his recipe video "went so viral that most of my friends were sending me three to four videos from different creators every day, for over a month." He said he realized it was a huge success when "Gordon Ramsay and Chrissy Teigen posted theirs."
Like most viral recipes that take off on social media, the smashburger tacos took on various iterations from hundreds of other content creators.
"Some of the creators made incredibly unique versions with different meats, toppings, and even tortillas," Prose said.
Prose said "the biggest key to success is to flip the seared taco to a cooler side of the griddle or skillet, not directly into the grease that the burger was cooked in." As a result, he said "this ensures that the tortilla doesn't get greasy or burnt."
"Through testing, I discovered that the smashburger steams itself into a flour tortilla much better than corn tortillas," he added.
Sami Schnur of The Naughty Fork, who regularly hops on viral food trends and shares recipe content, told "GMA" that this recipe reached new heights with her followers too.
"This was probably one of the top five dishes I've ever made," she said of the video that garnered over 800,000 likes on Instagram. "It was so good and super easy. It really does taste like a mashup of a burger and a taco. The Big Mac sauce added a nice sweetness too. I would definitely make it again."
Home cooks have taken to this dish, mainly thanks to its simplicity of ingredients, ease of cook time and how it can be adjusted for personal taste preferences.
Ingredients
Small flour tortillas
Hamburger meat
Mayonnaise
Sweet pickle relish
Sweet onion
Yellow mustard
White vinegar
Paprika
Onion powder
Sea salt
Pepper
Garlic powder
White sugar
Pickles (optional)
American cheese
Lettuce
Directions
To make the Big Mac sauce: Mix together 1/2 cup mayonnaise, 2 tablespoons sweet pickle relish, 2 tablespoons grated sweet onion (with juices), 2 teaspoons yellow mustard, 1/2 teaspoon white vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon paprika, 1/2 teaspoon onion powder, 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt, 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon white sugar.
To make the tacos: Flatten the hamburger meat all the way to the edges of a flour tortilla. Season the patty with salt and pepper.
Place the tortilla hamburger side down on a flat top on high heat and sear for about 6 minutes. Flip over and add a slice of American cheese and allow to melt.
Remove from heat and add lettuce, pickles, diced onion, and your Big Mac sauce!
An earlier version of this story was originally published on July 27, 2023.