Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone!! Since it’s also Taco Tuesday, we are having some tasty tacos to celebrate. You’ll love these tacos with seasoned grilled chicken, street corn aka elote and fresh salsa folded into a flour tortilla for an explosion of flavors in every bite. Normally I would roast fresh corn on the grill but it’s not quite corn season so I opted for frozen roasted corn that you can get at Trader Joe’s. It’s the best roasted corn when you’re in a pinch. The corn is mixed with a tangy cream sauce with the flavors of lime, chile, garlic and Cotija cheese. It’s so delicious and makes a wonderful dip or side dish. The chicken is seasoned with a blend of red and green chile spices and a spritz of lime juice. Spoon some fresh salsa on top with a sprinkle of Cotija cheese and you will have one of the best tacos you’ve ever tasted!
It’s Tuesday so it must be Taco Tuesday! Today I’m sharing the tacos I made with the leftover mojo pork tenderloin. I cut the remaining mojo pork into small chunks to make these delicious tacos with mango salsa and a drizzle of chamoy sauce. Mango and chamoy pair together like peanut butter and chocolate, they just belong together. One of my favorite snacks are dried fruit or gummy candy coated in chamoy. My sister Kat picked up a bottle of Siete Chamoy sauce that is one of the best chamoy sauces I’ve ever tasted. Kat and I are condiment junkies, we are always trying something new and she challenged me to make something with this sauce. It has sweet tones mixed with tangy and spicy notes that make these tacos so flavorful. It’s distributed across the country so most likely you will find it at your local grocery store. I think you will love it on dried fruit, fresh mango or pineapple, and also pork and chicken. And don’t forget to make a Mangonado Margarita to go with your tacos. Happy Tuesday!
If you’ve ever had a taco salad at a restaurant, it’s usually served in a flour tortilla bowl that has been deep fried or baked. It’s filled with salad and topped with seasoned ground beef, chicken, steak or pork, followed by grated cheese, salsa and a spicy ranch dressing. Sometimes I make a vegetarian version with black or pinto beans with roasted corn and avocado. I don’t have a mold to make flour tortilla bowls but I do have an alternative. I take a flour tortilla, cut it into triangles and pan fry them. They turn out light and crisp and seasoned perfectly with a sprinkle of red chile salt. I have a hard time not eating them all before they go into the bowl; they are so addictive! But with that said, fill your bowl with as many crispy fried tortillas as you wish and then top them with the rest of your salad fixings. Your going to love it! And if you want to make it healthier, just add some beans, corn, avocado or any other veggie to your salad, it’s up to you what you put in it.
Over the weekend, Joe and I spent a day in Taos, NM. We love Taos for their small town charm, the local artistry and the food! We could spend hours walking through the plaza, surrounding shops and art galleries. On Saturdays the plaza is packed with a farmer’s market, artisan breads, local crafts and music. When we started to get hungry we stopped at a food cart for some street tacos. We ordered a Carne Asada and a Poblano taco which were both amazing! The poblano tacos had a miso vinaigrette which sounded a bit strange (at least to me) but it really worked. Joe absolutely loved it and couldn’t stop talking about it so I took a picture of the menu with the intention of recreating it at home. Since it’s green chile season here in NM I thought I would use them in place of the poblano. I picked up some “Hatch” green chile and fresh corn at the market and roasted them on the grill. Then I prepped the miso vinaigrette and made a small batch of picked red onions in the morning so that they had time to marinate. With all the prep work taken care of, the tacos took no time at all to put together. My Hatch green chile had a bit more kick than the poblano version but no matter what you choose your taste buds will smile. There are so many flavors going on in these little tacos and it all comes together in a very good way!
Recently I cleaned out the freezer, something I do every few month’s. You know how it goes when we add things to the freezer and some things get pushed to the back and forgotten. I found a bag of vacuum sealed shrimp that I had put up a couple month’s ago. Since it’s grilling season, I immediately thought shrimp tacos would taste mighty good, especially with some mango or pineapple salsa and crunchy cabbage. I went to the store to pick up some fruit and cabbage. I found ripe mangos but the pineapple would need a few days, so it’s mango salsa tonight. This meal is a simple way to have a colorful tasty meal with little effort. I love the taste of grilled shrimp with tropical fruit. And the finely chopped cabbage adds a bit of crunch which makes these tacos look and taste like they came off a food truck.
Posted at 10:03 am by NativeNM, on August 20, 2021
I’ve only smoked meats a few times and while the outcome has always excelled my expectations, the method of using charcoal was difficult. Using charcoal to smoke is tiresome and difficult to regulate the temperature that you need to maintain over so many hours. After many month’s of debate with myself, I decided to get a pellet smoker. I did a lot of research and weighed the pros and cons before deciding on a Z-Grill. I’ve used it 3 times now and the meat has come out excellent, the cleanup has been fairly easy and has made the overall experience of smoking meats much more enjoyable. Recently my sister Kat gave me a bag of Gourmet Pistachio flavored pellets made here in New Mexico. I couldn’t wait to give it a try and thought smoked carnitas sounded so good using a pork butt roast with a red chile rub. I couldn’t have been more happy with the results. After 11 hours in the smoker, it reached the desired internal temperature of 203 degrees. I left it wrapped and set in a cooler to steam and rest for 2 additional hours. The moment I unwrapped the aluminum foil, the aroma of smoked pork permeated the kitchen. It smelled so good and we couldn’t wait to pick off a little piece to try. It was moist and tender and pulled apart so easily. The bark with all the spices is my favorite part. We set aside enough to make tacos and vacuum sealed the rest in half pound packages for the freezer. You can make so many meals with smoked carnitas. Try making tacos, taquitos, wraps, nachos, quesadillas, or a burrito bowl with rice and beans. Maybe I can convince anyone who is considering smoking meats that a pellet smoker is the way to go. It’s like a whole new level of cooking. I find it a fun experience from the first couple of hours when the aroma starts to infuse the air until the moment you take that first bite.
I usually stay away from fried foods but when it comes to fry bread I will always make an exception. Lets face it, you just can’t make that crispy airy bread any other way. And one of the best ways to eat fry bread is to make Indian tacos aka Navajo tacos. This past year with Covid we’ve been ordering takeout instead of eating inside and I haven’t had an Indian taco from a restaurant in over a year. It tastes so much better when it’s fresh and comes out to the table warm and crisp. So I decided to make them at home and I have to say they tasted pretty darn good! The fry bread was a simple prep courtesy of Desert Gardens Fry Bread mix. Just add water, stir and let sit for 10 minutes. I used half the dough and placed the rest in the fridge to make sopaipillas the next day. For the toppings I browned ground beef and added beans and green chile. It tasted so good along with lettuce, cheese, tomato and onion. The one thing I would do is make smaller portions next time. These turned out huge and way more than we could eat but every bite was delicious!
Recently I spent a weekend roasting a chicken and pickling some radishes to make some of the tastiest Mojo tacos around. Have you seen the spatchcock chickens that everyone is grilling these days? I think they look amazing! Mojo chicken can be described as chicken that’s been marinated in orange and lime juice along with garlic and herbs. Making it spatchcock allowed the chicken to lay flat on the grill and cook evenly. The chicken turned out tender, juicy and full of flavor. A whole chicken for 2 people makes a lot of meals; there was enough chicken for tacos along with some wraps, a pot of soup and sandwiches. The tacos can have any number of toppings, I chose some picked radish mix along with cilantro, avocado and crumbled fresco cheese I splurged and picked up some street tortillas in corn and flour that are smaller but fun to eat. We enjoyed these little street tacos with salsa and chips and called it a meal. They tasted like we got them off a taco truck!
Breakfast tacos are easy to make and scrumptious to eat. I like to make them with creamy scrambled eggs and toppings that include cheese, bacon, avocado and tomato with a drizzle of salsa. There are so many options that might go into a breakfast taco . . . maybe some diced onion or red peppers, green chile, spinach, or herbs. When it comes to toppings it’s all up to you. What I really want to talk about is the cheesy hash browns on the side. They are fantastic. If you order hash browns at a dozen different restaurants you’ll probably get a dozen different tastes and textures. I like my hash browns crispy outside while creamy inside. That’s a rare find but I think I’ve found a way to make them at home. After testing boiled potatoes and baked potatoes, I tried using dehydrated hash browns that you find in a box. The dehydrated shredded potatoes were the one that achieved that perfect combination of crispy and creamy hash brown. The addition of flour and butter makes the potatoes crisp on the outside while the cheese and egg keeps the inside creamy. I plan on testing some other additions like sour cream or yogurt instead of cheese to see how that alters the taste and texture. I’ll update you on my findings but in the meantime enjoy some breakfast tacos with some cheesy hash browns on the side.
When I first discovered taquitos they were made with ground beef. These days you will find them filled with shredded chicken or beef and pulled pork. While they are all delicious, I find the ground beef taquitos a classic. And the salsa to dip them in is what makes them taste so good. You have to be choosy when picking corn tortillas for wrapping taquitos. They need to be thin and stone ground. If you have soft tortillas they are more likely to tear when rolling and won’t crisp they way they should. Bueno is my brand of choice here in NM. They are stone ground and a larger tortilla which is always a plus in making taquitos. Pan frying the tortillas in oil before rolling them is also key. Never blot the oil from the tortilla, this is what helps create that crisp texture when baking. Taquitos also freeze well, just double or triple the filling and tortillas and have them whenever you want. Continue reading →
An Inspired Cook 