I told you that I am a sucker for tacos. It’s no joke, and I often reiterate to my wife that if I could eat anything any day of the week it would probably be tacos (or pizza). Once of my most recent taco findings was the Mexican Potato Taco. You would never think that something so simple could be so flipping delicious. As I was thinking about making another batch of tacos de papas (potato tacos), I decided to go another route and marry two ingredients that I knew would really work well together for my taco Monday. Kidding, I am not sure what day I made these but I can probably say it was not on a Tuesday. Not that there is anything wrong with eating tacos on a Tuesday!
Chorizo and Potato Tacos Recipe
These are not the prettiest of tacos, but having been around chorizo for many years I can guarantee there really is no great picture of cooked Mexican chorizo. Taste, however, well that is on a whole other level!
Start by adding water to a pot. Add in your diced potatoes and bring to a boil. Cook the potatoes until fork tender, about 15 minutes. Once tender, strain and set the potatoes to the side.
While the potatoes cook, add the chorizo to a large skillet on medium-high heat.
Remove the chorizo from the casing and squeeze it into the skillet. Start breaking up the chorizo with a wooden spoon. Add in the diced onions and cook, continuing to break the chorizo along the way.
It will look a bit oily. Don’t worry as the cooked potatoes will soak up all of that spiced goodness.
Add the drained potatoes to the skillet, and give this a good stir. Reduce the heat to low, cook for about 5 minutes, then load your taco.
Take a couple of warmed corn tortillas, spoon in some of the chorizo and potato mixture, and top with avocado, as squeeze of lime, and a wedge of avocado and you have yourself one heck of a great taco. Not only is this super affordable, but it is a nice twist on a standard taco night. Hope you enjoy!
I often find it funny on all of the posts for ‘Taco Tuesday’. Granted I love the name and the idea of it all, especially if you are planning out the weekly meals, but I feel that Monday (Meatless), Wednesday, Thursday, Friday (Fish Fry in Wisconsin), Saturday, and Sunday get left behind. I’m sure those days are out there in terms of identifying food to a day but that is not how it goes down in our house. Sure, we try to get a meatless Monday in (and any day of the week for that matter), and hump day or Thursday results in (at least for me, ‘I’m tired of cooking) a let’s order something kind of night, but for tacos, heck, I could eat those every day of the week. So upon my wandering around the house looking for something to do or cook as I was bored, I came across a lonely poblano pepper.
Yep, one poblano pepper resulted in this Taco Thursday. The idea of the poblano made me think of the chicken poblano recipe that my wife loves, but I had just recently made that for her, hence the lonely poblano. So I came across a nice looking chuck roast that was calling my name, as was the pressure cooker for that matter.
These pulled beef tacos were super simple to make, and quick (due to the pressure cooker), and made everyone’s Thursday a very happy one.
I left this one pretty generic as the taco game is pretty diverse. The idea here is to get your shredded beef ready and you load however you want. This particular evening I went with hard shelled tacos with cheese, onion, and garden tomatoes, along with some hot sauce.
If you do not have a pressure cooker (I highly recommend that purchase) then feel free to use a slow cooker with less water, and cooking that on low for 6-8 hours. The pressure cooker however will get you done and ready within 45 minutes if that.
To the pressure cooker, heat 2 tablespoons of the canola oil on medium-high heat. Season both sides of the chuck roast with salt and pepper. Once the oil begins to shimmer, add the chuck roast and sear it on both sides, about 4 minutes per side. You want some good browning so let it sit there, do not disturb it, then flip until both sides are seared.
Once seared, add in the garlic, onion, and poblano pepper. Cover the roast with water or beef stock, cover, and cook for about 45 minutes. Let your pressure come down before taking off the lid (follow your pressure cooker instructions). The roast should be fork tender and should easily shred with a couple of forks.
Pulled Beef Tacos Recipe
Discard the onion, garlic, and pepper.
Remove the roast onto a cutting board, and reserve a couple of cups of the liquid.
Using two forks, shred the beef and discard any of the weird fat that may still be intact. No one likes that stuff, trust me.
Next, heat a large skillet on medium-high heat. Add in the oil, and once shimmers, add in the beef. Season with a pinch of salt, then the berbere spice. Give that a good toss, and sear the shredded beef. Something about those slightly crispy strands of beef get me every time.
Once the beef is slightly seared to your liking, add in just a bit of remaining liquid, to your liking, to moisten the beef.
Once your remaining taco ingredients are ready, it’s taco time!
Load in the beef into your desired shell whether that be hard, or soft, and load in your fillings.
The result is super tender shredded beef with awesome flavors from that berbere spice, and just all of those goodies from your taco fillings. This shredded beef taco is not only easy to make, loaded with flavor, and perfect for any day of the week, but it also is a nice change to that classic American ground beef mixture that we grew up to love. Hope you enjoy!
I left this one pretty generic as the taco game is pretty diverse. The idea here is to get your shredded beef ready and you load however you want. This particular evening I went with hard shelled tacos with cheese, onion, and garden tomatoes, along with some hot sauce.
If you do not have a pressure cooker (I highly recommend that purchase) then feel free to use a slow cooker with less water, and cooking that on low for 6-8 hours. The pressure cooker however will get you done and ready within 45 minutes if that.
To the pressure cooker, heat 2 tablespoons of the canola oil on medium-high heat. Season both sides of the chuck roast with salt and pepper. Once the oil begins to shimmer, add the chuck roast and sear it on both sides, about 4 minutes per side. You want some good browning so let it sit there, do not disturb it, then flip until both sides are seared.
Once seared, add in the garlic, onion, and poblano pepper. Cover the roast with water or beef stock, cover, and cook for about 45 minutes. Let your pressure come down before taking off the lid (follow your pressure cooker instructions). The roast should be fork tender and should easily shred with a couple of forks.
Discard the onion, garlic, and pepper.
Remove the roast onto a cutting board, and reserve a couple of cups of the liquid.
Using two forks, shred the beef and discard any of the weird fat that may still be intact. No one likes that stuff, trust me.
Next, heat a large skillet on medium-high heat. Add in the oil, and once shimmers, add in the beef. Season with a pinch of salt, then the berbere spice. Give that a good toss, and sear the shredded beef. Something about those slightly crispy strands of beef get me every time.
Once the beef is slightly seared to your liking, add in just a bit of remaining liquid, to your liking, to moisten the beef.
Once your remaining taco ingredients are ready, it’s taco time!
Load in the beef into your desired shell whether that be hard, or soft, and load in your fillings.
One of my colleagues recently told me about something he was watching someone next to him eat at one of his go to Mexican restaurants. As you may be aware, my go to at any Mexican restaurant is tacos or a torta, hands down. But what he was describing was intriguing to say the least. Chicken smothered in cheese and loaded with thinly sliced onions and poblano peppers. What was I supposed to do when I could not shake that thought off my mind? You got it, I went to this place (Casa de Alberto), ordered this dish and was so blown away that I had to recreate it, and I nailed it. This dish is not only way too easy to make, but my wife actually sent me a text as she has been eating the leftovers, that it is one of her new favorites. It’s not only about the cheese, or simplicity, but the combination of all of the ingredients.
5 medium sized poblano peppers, seeds removed, thinly sliced
3 cups Chihuahua cheese
2 whole yellow onions, thinly sliced
Mexican rice, cooked
1 can refried beans, cooked
corn tortillas, warmed, optional
2 tbsp canola oil
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
Heating a large skillet on medium to high heat. Add in one tablespoon of the canola oil and swirl that around. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Add the chicken to the skillet and cook for a few minutes on each side.
To another skillet, add the remaining canola oil on medium heat. Add in the onions and poblano peppers and cook just until slightly tender. You still want a bit of a crunch to them. Remove from the heat and top them to the top of the chicken.
Add the cheese, covering the chicken and peppers and place into the oven.
Chicken Poblano Ingredients
Cook for about 15 minutes or until the cheese is completely melted.
Remove the skillet from the oven (make sure you have your oven mitt), and get ready to plate.
Using a spatula or large spoon, dig out some chicken, peppers and onions, and serve with the cooked refried beans, rice, and tortillas.
This dish is a stunner. That cheese alone will rock your world, but all together, this is one fantastic dish. Hope you enjoy!
I frequent a local Mexican Taqueria probably twice a week. Please don’t judge me. There is something about the vibe, the people, and the food that completes my day. I often kick myself when I leave from these lunch spots because I typically default to tacos. I love tacos, and again, please don’t judge me. But while I wait for my tacos, which doesn’t take long at all, I gaze at what others are ordering, and then I question my order. One particular week I was just stunned by this bowl of soup that a couple of locals ordered and I had to question my waitress as to what they ordered. As I always do, I make every attempt to use the Mexican language that I took for about 10 years of my life, and found out that it was a Mexican shrimp and fish soup.
Heck, I did not even pay attention to my tacos during my lunch. I was paying attention to the soup that these locals were slurping, and eating. They were pulling out whole, cooked, shrimp while at the same time slurping on this delicious broth and taking down tender vegetables. I was all over that stuff and decided to make this Mexican shrimp and fish soup for my weekly soup.
Mexican Fish and Shrimp Soup Recipe
This soup reminds me of comfort and simplicity, and it is loaded with this awesome seafood flavor. It’s a true delight.
Ingredients:
1 tbsp canola oil
8 cloves of garlic, minced
1 whole onion, diced
6 Mexican pulla peppers, seeds and stems removed
14 oz can of fire roasted tomatoes, diced
6 cups of vegetable stock
3 whole carrots, cleaned and cut into bite-sized chunks
3 yukon gold potatoes, cleaned, and cut into bite-sized chunks
3 tilapia fillets
15 whole shrimp, deveined
1 lime, juiced
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup of fresh cilantro, chopped
Mexican rice, cooked (optional)
corn tortillas, warmed (optional)
The soup itself is really simple, but pretty complex in flavors. It actually reminds me of a mix between an Italian cioppino and a Mexican chicken tortilla soup and I love everything about those two!
Start by heating the oil in a soup pot on medium heat. Add in the onions and sweat those down for about 7 minutes, stirring along the way. Toss in the garlic and whole chilies. Give that another good stir, and cook for a few more minutes. Add in the fire roasted tomatoes, and about a cup of stock. Stir, then add this mixture to a blender.
Blend until smooth, and strain the mixture back into the soup pot. This will remove any of the chilies that did not blend.
Mexican Fish and Shrimp Soup Ingredients
Add in the carrots, potatoes, and fish fillets. Stir, and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover, and let this cook until the potatoes are slightly tender.
During this time, make the rice if you are going that route. I always see the locals at the Taqueria eating their soup with some rice, and warm tortillas. They know what’s up so that is the route that I take.
Once the potatoes are tender, add in the whole shrimp, shells and head. Yep, the whole thing. If you are not into that then by all means just use cleaned shrimp. I like the experience and flavor so I keep them whole, but clean them of their dirty vein before throwing them in.
Let those shrimp poach for a few minutes. They don’t take long. Then get your ladle out and get that soup into a bowl. Make sure you get everything. The fish will fall apart so don’t worry. Shower some fresh cilantro and lime juice on top, and serve alongside some hot Mexican rice, and get a few tortillas ready as well. The result is a soup so comforting on a cool day. It’s really a perfect seafood soup and one that I was glad to gaze at during my lunch last week. I hope you enjoy!
