Carnitas Tacos

As I mentioned last week, I've been working through the pulled pork chapter of my friend Nick's cookbook: Love Your Leftovers. You can find the core pulled pork recipe in my post from last week, but for this post, I'll write about one of the many suggested recipes in his book. It uses the slow cooker pulled pork in a new way. I hope to take some of the frozen pulled pork out of my freezer and make a third recipe later this week. Because as far as I'm concerned, a week without pork products is a sad one!

Carnitas Tacos (makes 8 tacos)

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. shredded pork (approximately 3 cups)
• 3 TB unsalted butter, melted
• 16 (6-inch) corn tortillas (or 8 flour tortillas, whatever is your preference)
• 2 avocados, mashed
• 4 radishes, sliced thing
• Fresh cilantro
• 1 lime, juice only

Quick Pickled Red Onion

• 1 red onion
• 1 large lime, juice only
• 1/2 tsp. kosher salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

To make pickled onions, peel the onion and slice it first in half and then into thin slivers. Add to a bowl and toss with lime juice and salt. Let sit at room temperature for at least 15 minutes while you prepare the rest of the carnitas.

Add shredded pork to baking dish. Try to spread out pork so it is in a thin layer and covering the entire pan. Drizzle pork with melted butter.

Bake until the shredded pork becomes crispy on top, approximately 10-12 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare your other toppings.

If you have a gas range, and you like your tortillas a little toasted, you can do so my placing the them directly over the gas flame over medium heat. Let them cook until they are lightly charred, about 10 seconds per side.

To make the tacos, use two toasted corn tortillas per taco. Smear tortillas with some mashed avocado and then pile on the pork, followed by the radishes, cilantro and pickled red onions. Finish off with a little squeeze of lime juice.

In honor of Cinco de Mayo...Tempting Taco Recipes!

If you search taco on my blog, you will probably find more recipes in this category than any other type of food. I love tacos. But of all the tacos I've made, my fish taco with mango avocado salsa ranks supreme. It's easy. Flavorful. And with avocados in season, now is the time for you to make them. I made these again last week and they are simply delicious. I've also included the direct links to two other recipes that I would put in my top 3 taco attempts of all time. With Cinco de Mayo just around the corner, pick up taco fixings along with your tequila. They do go hand in hand.

1) Cumin-spiced Tilapia Fish Tacos with Mango Avocado Salsa. Pictured at right. No other explanation needed. It was blurry because I was shaking with hungry anticipation. Seriously.

2) Potato and Chorizo Tacos. Because meat and potatoes are meant to be. Like Romeo and Juliet. Beards and Ironic Hipster Glasses. And me and you.

3) Beer-braised Chicken Tacos with Cabbage Slaw. Something a little less Mexican, but a whole lotta tasty. Diversify your tacos!

So pick up some tortillas and have some fun in the kitchen this weekend!

Food Porn: Arizona

This will be the first in a three-part series showing off all the wonderful food I had the opportunity to eat while on vacation.

About a week into the furlough, I headed out west for a previously scheduled vacation. My first stop was to Arizona where I had grand plans of seeing the Grand Canyon before heading to Scottsdale for the wedding of an old friend from high school. Due to the powers that be in the government, the Grand Canyon portion was not possible, but I did get to spend some more time in Sedona, which was absolutely gorgeous. It was great to get away from the madness of DC, though the conversation often found its way back to what was happening back home, be it from chance encounters with tourists who had recently come back from DC or for the countless numbers of people invading Sedona during the week, since their dreams of a Grand Canyon experience had also been cut short.

While in Sedona, I ate a lot of Southwestern food. And by that, I mean a ton of tacos. This trend continued in San Francisco, but the best were in Sedona. My first night there, I managed to squeeze into a spot at the bar of Elote, a very popular restaurant slightly set apart from the tourist traps of the main drag. It had a pretty solid reputation on TripAdvisor, so I decided to give it a go. I started off with the signature elote, a Mexican corn and cheese dish, which they served as a dip here. I've made something similar to this before on the blog, and have had it at Estadio, but this was by far the best. I of course washed it down with a margarita.

Next up was the pork carnitas. This dish was slow-roasted pork shoulder with a tomato sauce and served with guacamole and rice with beans. While it sounds simple, the flavor was just amazing. The meat was so tender, it just fell through the prongs of the fork. The picture really doesn't do it justice. Looking back, I'm kicking myself for not buying the cookbook from this restaurant...I'm sure it's amazing.

The next day I continued to eat more tacos, but not without lunchtime beer samples from the Oak Creek Brewery. Now that's what I call a power lunch.

Beer-Braised Chicken Tacos with Cabbage Slaw

I present to you the last of the recipes from my taco trifecta.

I know I'm going to garner some criticism for the statement I'm about to make. Any cook, good cook for the most part, will tell you that the dark meat chicken is much better to cook with than the white meat. It's more flavorful and remains moist, even after long amounts of cooking. Chicken breasts can dry out easily and there isn't as much flavor in the meat. 

This is what everyone says but me. Not that I disagree with them, I just don't like the taste of chicken thigh meat. I've tried to cook with it on a few occasions, this being one of them, and I just find the byproduct greasy.  At the end of the day, I'm a breast woman. :)

The flavors in this were great, but I think they would have been just as good with white meat. You be the judge and try it out.

Beer-Braised Chicken Tacos with Cabbage Slaw (serves 4)

Ingredients:

• 4 bone-in chicken thighs, skinned
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 TB extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 1 1/2 cups brown ale
• 1 tsp all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp sugar
• 4 center-cut bacon slices
• 2 TB cider vinegar
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 2 cups thinly sliced red cabbage
• 1 cup julienne-cut Granny Smith apple
• 8 (6-inch) corn tortillas 

Directions:

Heat a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle chicken evenly with salt and pepper. Add 2 teaspoons oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add chicken to pan, flesh side down; cook 5 minutes or until browned. Turn chicken over; cook 2 minutes.

Combine beer, flour, and sugar in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk until smooth. Slowly add beer mixture to pan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook 15 minutes or until chicken is done, turning once.

Remove chicken from pan; let stand 5 minutes. Remove chicken from bones; shred. Discard bones. Bring cooking liquid to a boil, scraping pan to loosen browned bits; cook 2 minutes or until reduced to 1/3 cup. Return chicken to pan; toss to coat.

Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until crisp (about 8 minutes). Remove bacon from pan, reserving drippings. Drain bacon on paper towels; crumble. Add 1 tablespoon drippings to a medium bowl. Add remaining 1 teaspoon oil, vinegar, and mustard to drippings in bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add bacon, cabbage, and apple; toss to coat.

Working with 1 tortilla at a time, heat tortillas over medium-high heat directly on the eye of a burner for about 15 seconds on each side or until lightly charred. Arrange about 1/4 cup chicken mixture in center of each tortilla, and top with about 1/4 cup cabbage mixture.

Potato and Chorizo Tacos

Any regular visitor to my blog knows I like good ethnic food, and in the last year, I have experimented with several types of tacos. Two weeks ago, I picked up a pack of corn tortillas and went to work, resulting in three different taco recipes in 10 days' time. I'm a little over tacos at the moment, but you will thank me for this little endeavor. Because 2 of the 3 taco recipes were amazing. This one was the most amazing of them all. And it includes one of my favorite (albeit expensive) cheeses: Manchego.

You can just thank me now.

Potato and Chorizo Tacos (serves 4)

Ingredients:

• 2 poblano chiles (I used jalapenos because I couldn't find poblanos)
• 1 TB canola oil
• 2 cups diced white potato
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 cup fresh corn kernels
• 1/8 tsp ground red pepper
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 oz Mexican raw chorizo, casings removed
• 3/4 cup unsalted chicken stock
• 3/8 tsp kosher salt
• 8 (6-inch) corn tortillas
• 1/4 cup sliced green onions
• 1 oz Manchego cheese, shredded (about 1/4 cup).
• 8 lime wedges 

Directions:

Preheat broiler to high.

Cut poblanos in half lengthwise; discard seeds and membranes. Place poblano halves, skin sides up, on a foil-lined baking sheet; flatten with hand. Broil for 8 minutes or until blackened. Place in a paper bag; fold to close tightly. Let stand 5 minutes. Peel; coarsely chop.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add potato; cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove potato; place in a large bowl. Add onion to pan; cook 3 minutes. Add poblano, corn, red pepper, and garlic; cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Add onion mixture to potato. Add chorizo to pan; cook 1 1/2 minutes, stirring to crumble. Return potato mixture to pan. Stir in stock and salt; bring to a boil. Partially cover, reduce heat, and simmer 6 minutes or until potato is tender, chorizo is done, and liquid almost evaporates.

Working with 1 tortilla at a time, heat tortillas over medium-high heat directly on the eye of a burner for about 15 seconds on each side or until lightly charred. Arrange about 1/3 cup potato mixture in center of each tortilla; top with 1 1/2 teaspoons onions and 1 1/2 teaspoons cheese.

Serve with lime wedges.