Tag: Latin American
Birria Tacos
Birria Tacos
Over the last 6 months, there has been a huge trend in the Mexican culinary world. All of a sudden, every Mexican restaurant is carrying birria tacos. So what is a birria taco? Birria originated from the Mexican state of Jalisco; also home of pozole and menudo. It all started with caldo de birria, a meat stew in a pepper broth. Traditionally goat and lamb are used, but beef can be substituted. I used a combination of all 3 meats. Corn tortillas are dipped in the birria broth, then assembled with the meat, onions, and cilantro. The tacos are folded over and grilled on a griddle until they are crispy. The tacos are served with a side of the birria broth to dip the taco in; just like a French dip sandwich. I chose to use an Instant Pot to make the birria. It only took 90 minutes to prepare. You can make this in a Dutch oven or a crockpot if you don’t have a pressure cooker. It will take anywhere from 4-6 hours to get the meat tender enough to shred. Either process will get you the same results.
Servings: 24 tacos
Equipment
- food processor
- instant pot
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lbs beef chuck cubed
- 1 beef shank
- 1 1/2 lbs bone in goat shoulder cubed
- 1 lamb shank
- 3 dried ancho chilies
- 6 dried guajillo chilies
- 3 roma tomatoes
- 1/2 medium white onion sliced
- 6 garlic cloves
- 4 whole cloves
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1/2 tsp black peppercorns
- 1 tsp Mexican oregano
- 1/2 tsp marjoram
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1/2 cup vinegar
- salt to taste
- 2 cups water
- corn tortillas softened
Garnish
- white onion finely chopped
- cilantro chopped
Instructions
- Dry toast the dried peppers in a sauté pan over medium heat for 5 minutes.
- Place the peppers in a bowl of hot water for 20 minutes.
- Dry toast the cumin seeds, cloves, and cinnamon stick for 2 minutes. Remove from the pan.
- Dry toast the tomatoes, onions, and garlic for 10 minutes.
- Place the rehydrated roast peppers, tomatoes, onion, garlic, whole spices(except the cinnamon stick), oregano, marjoram, vinegar, and salt in a blender.
- Purée until smooth.
- Arrange all of the meat in a glass baking dish.
- Pour the sauce from the blender over the meat. Cover with foil and marinate overnight in the refrigerator.
- Place all of the meat and sauce in the Instant Pot along with 2 cups of water. Toss in the cinnamon stick. Turn the function to pressure cook on high for 90 minutes. Put on the cover and push start.
- Remove all of the meat and bones from the Instant Pot.
- Keep all of the birria juice warm.
- Pick out all of the bones from the meat. Place the meat in a large sauté pan over medium high heat.
- Cook down the meat until the majority of the liquid has evaporated.
Birria Taco Assembly
- Dip the softened corn tortillas in the birria juice.
- Top the tortillas with the meat, onion, and cilantro.
- Place the tacos on a griddle over medium high heat. Fold the tacos over.
- Grill the tacos for 3-4 minutes a side until the tortillas are crispy.
Campechano Tacos
Campechano Tacos
This might be the most ultimate taco ever. Carne asada, chorizo or longaniza sausage, and chicharron are the meats that make up tacos campechano. Yes. 3 meats in this taco. The tacos are topped with onions, cilantro, and morita salsa; with lime wedges on the side. This taco is a sign that life is good and not to take it for granted.There are a couple options that you can use for the beef. Top sirloin, flank steak, or skirt steak are all tender enough cuts. Everyone knows what chorizo is, but most don’t know about Mexican-style longaniza; not to be confused with Filipino longanisa. Longaniza’s main flavors are from achiote paste and orange juice, giving it a citrusy flavor. Both sausages contain enough fat once rendered out to cook and flavor the steak. The last minute of cooking, serranos and chicharron are added to the campechano, giving it heat and another textured layer of porkiness.
Ingredients
- 1 lb top sirloin, flank steak, or skirt steak cut into small cubes
- 1 lb chorizo or longaniza sausage
- 2 serrano peppers finely chopped
- 1 cup chicharron crushed
- salt and pepper to taste
Tacos
- corn tortillas
- white onion chopped
- cilantro chopped
- morita salsa
Instructions
- Crumble the sausage into a large sauté pan over medium high heat.
- Brown the sausage for 6 minutes.
- Add in the beef. Continue sautéing for 3 minutes.
- Add in the chopped serranos and crumbled chicharron. Cook for 1 more minute.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Morita Chilies Salsa
Morita peppers are dried jalapeños that have been slightly smoked. They have the spiciness similar to a chipotle pepper. What’s different about this salsa is that the dried peppers and garlic are fried in olive oil then soaked in hot water for 10 minutes to further hydrate them. Then they are purred with the water they were soaked in and the oil they were fried in. This salsa reminds me of the canned chipotle abodo sauce that chipotle peppers are packed in, but less smokey in flavor.
Equipment
- Blender or food processor
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 12 dried morita peppers
- 6 garlic cloves
- 1 cup hot water
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Heat up olive oil in a sauté pan over medium high heat. Fry the morita peppers and garlic for 2-3 minutes. The peppers will puff up. That’s when you know that they’re done.
- Scoop out the peppers and garlic and let them soak in a cup of hot water for 10 minutes.
- Add the peppers, garlic, soaking water, and the oil they fried in to a blender. Purée until smooth. Season with salt to taste.
Belizean Stewed Chicken
Belizean Stewed Chicken
My good friend Sam Gilles was just recently in Belize and brought me back some recado rojo paste. It was literally tied up in a sandwich bag. This really excited me because that shows how homemade this paste really is. Now I had to do some research on how to cook with it. What I discovered is that it is pretty much the same thing as achiote paste that I’ve used in making pibil chicken, which is from the Yucatán part of Mexico, right next to Belize. Now everything is making sense.Stewed chicken is one of the most popular dishes in Belize. Chicken pieces are marinated in the recado paste, then stewed with a ton of onions until the meat falls off the bone. The chicken is typically served with beans and rice or with Belizean-style johnny to sop up the sauce. It turns out that you can buy recado rojo at most Latin markets. If you can’t find recado paste, achiote is an acceptable substitute.
Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 2 lbs bone in chicken thighs
- 1/2 cup red recado paste
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 medium onion sliced
- 1/2 lime juiced
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Place the recado paste in a bowl.
- Mix the paste with 1/2 cup water until it is thinned out.
- Marinate the chicken thighs with the recado for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.
- Heat up cooking oil in a Dutch oven over medium high heat. Brown the chicken thighs for 5 minutes a side. Remove from the pot.
- Sauté the onions for 5 minutes.
- Add the chicken back into the Dutch oven with the rest of the marinade. Pour in 1 cup of water.
- Bring to a boil. Cover. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for 90 minutes.
