- 1
- 10 mins
- 15 mins
Ingredients
- Pre-cooked pork, chicken or turkey (allow several tablespoons per taco)
- Onion (optional)
- Roasted garlic (optional)
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground kosher salt
- Red pepper flakes (optional)
- Grated or crumbled Mexican cheese (optional)
- Lettuce (optional)
- Tomato (optional)
- Diced avocado (optional)
- Sour cream or Mexican crema (optional)
Preparation
Step 1
INSTRUCTIONS
In a small bowl, combine the garlic powder, onion powder, ground coriander, ground cumin, chili powder, sugar, coarsely ground black pepper and coarse kosher salt.
If you’re using a sweet meat like pork and want to use caramelized onions, skip to the next step. If not, chop up part or all of a storage onion. Add a little oil or fat to a skillet, heat on medium high flame, and add diced onions. Sauté, stirring periodically, until onions are lightly browned.
Add shredded pork (or other meat of your choice) to the skillet, allowing 3 tablespoons of meat per taco, 2 – 3 tacos for adults, 1 – 2 tacos per child. Add at least 1 teaspoon of roasted or minced garlic and caramelized onions, if desired. If you want to add green or red peppers or chiles, dice them and add them now.
Sprinkle a teaspoon of your home made taco seasoning mix on the meat and stir to blend in. Allow to cook 1 minute to “bloom” the spices (this enhances both their scent and their flavor), then taste to see if you want more spice mixture on the meat.
If you want more spice mixture, sprinkle another teaspoon on top of the meat, and mix it in. Wait another minute before tasting. Repeat as needed until the meat mixture is spiced properly. If you put too much, add some more meat to compensate. If you want your mixture even spicier, you can sprinkle in some red pepper flakes.
Once you have seasoned the meat to your taste, remove the skillet from the fire. If you’ve used a leaner cut of meat, chicken breast, turkey breast, pork chops or pork loin, you may want to add a little water or broth to keep the meat a little moister, or add a little butter, margarine or chicken fat to add flavor and help keep it tasting moist.
If you want fried tortillas, you can heat a small amount of oil in the skillet, grasp the tortillas with your tongs and essentially drag each tortilla through the hot oil, flipping it, dragging, and repeating until the tortillas are a little crisp, but not stiff enough that they can’t be folded without cracking or breaking. To steam tortillas, you could use a Tortilla Steamer steamer, or place the tortillas on a plate in several stacks and microwave them on high for 1 minute. To steam them on the stove, wash your hands and bring a saucer or shallow bowl of water over to the stove. Heat a small pan over a low flame. When the skillet has warmed up, use your fingers to flick water drops onto the pan surface, add a tortilla, and flick a few more water drops on top. Wait a few seconds, flip the tortilla, and flick more water droplets. Repeat as needed until tortilla is pliable and can be folded without tearing.
Spoon a couple of tablespoons of the meat filling into each taco. If you want your taco mixture to go farther, or to boost the nutrition even further, add some cooked black or pinto beans on top.
Add a little grated Mexican cheese or queso fresco on top of the filling.
Finely chop lettuce and add to the tacos. I like to use romaine lettuce or any of the loose leaf green lettuces both because of their vibrant green color and because they are far more nutritious than iceberg lettuce.
Dice tomatoes into small bits and add on top of the lettuce. I like to use Roma tomatoes because of their deep red color and because they have fewer seeds and less pulp than regular tomatoes. Add diced avocado and sour cream (or Mexican crema) (optional).
INSTRUCTIONS