Recipes that are simple and delicious.
It’s that time of year again where pumpkins have infiltrated my front porch. Don’t get me wrong, I actually get somewhat excited to pickup some pumpkins, and as much as I like taking the kids pumpkin picking, let’s face it, it’s not cheap. That is…
If you have been following my blog for any time now you probably know that I love Mexican food. Who doesn’t right? You probably also know that I try and get out to eat at least once a week for work, and I typically go…
Last week I decided to step away from the office desk and go out and get some fresh air, that and some lunch. Often times I find myself eating lunch at the desk as either I am too busy, or too lazy to get up and get out. Fortunately when I do get a chance to get out, I often chose to go to the local Mexican restaurant and grocery store, El Rey Supermercado. I’m not going to lie, I love their tacos, and their tacos love me. As I normally do, I check out, then cruise through their aisles, often picking up limes or avocados. As I quickly browsed through their homemade salsas (I love their salsa verde), one of them caught my attention. It was a chipotle tamarind salsa. That flavor profile really caught my attention enough to pick up a couple of simple ingredients and head home to make my own version.
When I first noticed tamarind, I was completely unaware that the Mexican culture used tamarind in their cooking. I knew the Thai culture used it in many of their dishes, and I often use it when making pad thai, so I was really surprised, and excited to use it to say the least.
Let’s get started.
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.
Add the garlic, tomatoes, and onion to a baking dish. Add the oil and a pinch of salt and swirl the ingredients to lightly coat with oil.
Place into the preheated oven to roast and slightly char, about 25 minutes.
While the vegetables roast, add the tamarind juice and the piloncilloto a skillet or sauce pan. Cook on medium heat to soften and break down the unrefined sugar. Once it boils, reduce the heat to low.
Once cooked, remove from the oven and let cool. Remove the skin from the garlic, and add them to a blender or food processor. Add in the tamarind and piloncillo as well as the cilantro. Add in the can of chipotle peppers, along with the adobo sauce. I just love that stuff.
Blend until you have a nice, smooth sauce. Add in a bit of water if you want to thin it out a bit.
This will make a couple of cups of sauce, and you can use it on pretty much anything. The chipotle tamarind sauce was pretty amazing. At first I was thinking it was just going to be too hot due to the amount of chipotle peppers, but it gets perfectly balanced by the sourness from the tamarind, as well as the sweetness of the onion and piloncillo. I’ve been drizzling this all over my eggs in the morning, as well as any Mexican food that I make during the week, such as these tostadas.
If you are looking for a great sauce that can be used on any meal, give this one a shot. I bet it would also be a great condiment on a sandwich, or heck even to dip some french fries in. Hope you enjoy!
It’s finally football season, and my wife and I (and I think the kids) get excited about game day. It’s one of those days where we can finally slow down, do a quick cleaning of the house in the morning, make it to church if…
I’ve had this idea of making Totino’s style pizza rolls for some time now. I’m not sure why, as I don’t recall the last time I purchased a bag of them, but I do recall liking them when I did pop 5 or 10 of…
I frequent a local Mexican restaurant about once a week, and it is typically the same one every time. They know me so well, almost like Norm Peterson in Cheers, whereas as soon as I find a place to sit, I am delivered my usual horchata, and on occasion they simply bring me my usual plate of three tacos al pastor without me even ordering. Yes, it’s that good. I do on occasion want to see a menu however, only to tempt my taste buds with something other than the tacos. But, man, I love tacos. There are two things on their menu that is a bit pricey and that is the tostada and their enchiladas. I also love a great tostada and as I know they are super easy to make, they can also be a bit messy should the tostada fall apart on you, mid bite. That’s why I make these at home, and I think you should as well.
There are some great things about chicken tostadas, not only are they open faced tacos, but there is one thing that shines on the tostada and that is refried beans. My wife, who doesn’t care for refried beans for the most part, will definitely take on the tostadas loaded with refried beans, so that is saying something.
Let’s get started.
Ingredients:
This recipe is really quick and easy to make, and it great for make as an appetizer, or as a meal.
Once the chicken is pulled apart, add it so a large skillet and add in the taco seasoning and water. Bring to a simmer after mixing the chicken with the seasoning. Cover, remove from the heat and set it aside.
Preheat your oven to 320 degrees. In the meantime, warm your beans until warmed through. Have all of your ingredients ready. I like to prepare these family style, allowing the table to build their tostada. Heat your tostadas for about 4-6 minutes.
Once the tostadas are warmed through, remove them from the oven and place onto a serving dish. Add the chicken to a serving bowl.
To serve, cover the tostada with a generous layer of refried beans. Doing so allows the rest of the ingredients to ‘stick’ together, so the beans basically serve as your glue for this dish. Top the chicken, then lettuce, tomato, onion, cilantro, cheese, and chilies. Drizzle with the crema, hot sauce and a bit of lime juice. Pick up the tostada with both hands and bite on in. To me, this is a perfect bite. It’s similar to what you might expect within a Mexican torta, however delivered on a crispy tostada shell. Let’s just say these are not only easy to make, but they are super delicious and everyone at the table devoured them. That’s always saying something. I hope you enjoy.