street tacos

Street tacos are like this elusive mirage of something that you know has the possibility of being incredible, but isn’t always easy to reach that level of deliciousness.  We’ve tried many versions of street tacos and never get it quite right.  We’ve used ground beef, chicken, flank steak and it just didn’t quite hit the spot.  And then we tried barbacoa tacos.  Mike and I actually made a barbacoa taco bar for our rehearsal dinner.  On that occasion, we cut large chunks of chuck roast and marinated it in a Fronterra barbacoa packet.  It was delicious!  A few years down the road, we thought to ourselves, “why are we buying these packets?”  Buy the packets if you need convenience, but that wasn’t our reason.  We bought the packets because barbacoa seemed out of reach.  Sometimes I think as home cooks, we think we have to rely on a premade version of something in order to make it.  That is such a fallacy!  Search for a recipe online, do some research, and give it a try.  I’ve found that it’s much less complicated than maybe I originally thought and I probably already have most of the ingredients in my pantry – making it much more economical and healthy.

So here’s to barbacoa tacos.  And if you’re feeling extra ambitious, make them along with my corn tortilla recipe.  And top with crumbled cotija cheese and diced onion mixed with cilantro.  Plus a little hot sauce (we used Tapatio).  That combination has lead to the best street taco I’ve had – no exaggeration. 

Yield: 8 servings

barbacoa street tacos

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Ingredients

• 4 LBS of beef (chuck, shoulder roast, or stew meat), cut into large 4" pieces if possible (smaller is ok if they're already cut)
• 4 TSP salt
• 1 TBSP pepper
• 1-2 TBSP olive oil
• 1 onion, thickly sliced
• 2 oranges, cut into wedges
• 4 bay leaves (fresh or dried)

Marinade

• 4 dried ancho chiles
• 1-2 chipotle peppers in adobo (from a can), plus a bit of the juice
• 6 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
• 2.5 cups chicken or beef stock
• 1 orange, juiced
• 2 TBSP ground cumin
• 2 TSP ground coriander
• 1 TBSP chile powder
• 1 TBSP dried oregano
• 1/2 TSP cinnamon
• 1/4 TSP cloves
• 1 TBSP apple cider vinegar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325F.

To make the marinade, remove stems from the dried chiles, discard the seeds, and tear the chiles into pieces. Add these to the blender or food processor and blend until the pieces are as small as possible. To this, add the remaining marinade ingredients and blend/process until smooth.

Season all sides of the meat with salt and pepper. Heat a large, deep skillet or dutch oven over medium high heat and add the oil. Sear the meat in batches until deeply browned on all sides.

Nestle all of the meat into the pot and add the onion and oranges to the top. Add the bay leaves and then the marinade and stir to combine and coat well. Cover tightly and place in the oven for about 4 hours. Check on the meat to ensure there's still liquid in the bottom of the pot. If you run out of liquid before the meat is tender, just add water.

Shred the meat and serve with corn tortillas (homemade preferably), cotija cheese, chopped onion and cilantro, and hot sauce of choice.

Notes

Inspired by: Feasting At Home