Roasted Salsa

I just made a Salsa. It is so delicious, I could cry. It's going to be so yummy over the Tacos Al Pastor that I am making tomorrow for dinner. Can you tell that I'm in a Mexican food kick? I think its probably because there is no decent Mexican food to be had in Chino "Cultural Abyss" Hills.

I adapted from this recipe from food gawker.

This made about 48 oz. of salsa. If I were to judge its spiciness on a Likert scale of 5, I'd give it a 3.

5 large tomatoes, quartered
1 onion, quartered
3 Jalapeno peppers, seeded

Put these things on a baking sheet and roast @ 375 degrees for about half an hour until the tomatoes are soft and the other things get kind of a nice char to them.

Take all the roasted ingredients out of the oven and let them cool.

After they are cooled, you put them into a food processor. Along with:

5 cloves of fresh garlic
3-5 chipotle chiles from the can + some of the adobo sauce they come packed in (adjust to your taste)
a handful of fresh cilantro
1 sprig of scallion, roughly chopped
1 1/2 tsp Salt, (adjusted to your own taste, of course)
Juice of 2 limes

Pulse the food processor until smooth but still chunky. Chill in the fridge and then eat on something, anything.

Quick 'n' Tasty Shredded Chicken Tacos

I know, I know, I am the meatless one. What the hell am I doing making chicken tacos? Well, I have a sin to confess. While I am living at home, I tend to let my vegetarianism fall to the wayside and eat whatever my mom makes for me. She works very hard and I think I am just being a dutiful daughter by doing this. The other day, my mom brought home a rotisserie chicken from the market. My family is what you would call a dark meat family. We love dark meat chicken. My dad is a wing man, I like the thighs and my mom likes drumsticks. Unfortunately for poor chickens that means that after we are done, they are nothing more than breasts stuck on the bones. We don’t like chicken breasts. My father is convinced that they should charge you less than the other pieces at fast food restaurants for the breasts. Usually, my mom will cut up the breast pieces and pack them for lunch or shred them up to make ga chay, which is eaten over rice. I am not a fan of ga chay. So when I found the Tupperware in the refrigerator of shredded skinned roasted chicken breasts, my mind went looking for alternatives. The first thing that came into mind was my favorite Mexican food of all time…. TACOS! Not the disgusting cheese and lettuce dressed messes you get at “Mexican” fast food places, but the simple and pure taqueria style tacos that fed me for the last 3 weeks of my undergraduate education.

To me a taco is all about simplicity. Soft shells, not hard. Corn tortillas not flour. A generous heap of finely seasoned meat nice and charred, some simple pico de gallo or other salsa, maybe some cabbage that’s it. No sour cream, no lettuce, no melted cheese, no volcano chipotle zesty nacho cheese sauce, no tapatio (unless you really want it).

Presentation is simple; place a warmed tortilla on a plate. Top it with cabbage, then meat, then salsa. Voila, you have the most perfect and delightful food ever conceived. Fresh but hearty, spicy but cool, a paradox of flavor. Yum!

And yes, I like shredded cabbage on my tacos. Not lettuce, cabbage. This is a remnant of my times spent in Latin America. Lettuce in hot weather turned into a bitter wilted mess, where as cabbage maintained its crispness and added that fresh contrast I need in a taco. I make a sort of simple slaw to go on mis tacos.

Here is my very simple recipe for very simple tacos.

Here’s the rundown:

This will make like 10 tacos or so, you decide.

Ingredients:
The Shredded Chicken:
The breasts from a rotisserie chicken, skin removed, shredded
Half an Onion, chopped
1 Bell Pepper, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1-2 Jalapeno pepper(s) seeded (unless you really like spicy things) and chopped (Use the 2 peppers if you like really spicy stuff.)
2 Tbsp Ground Cumin
Juice of a Lime
Oil for Sautéing
Corn Tortillas

The Slaw:
Half head of Cabbage, shredded fine (you know, like coleslaw)
Juice of 1 Lime
Salt and Pepper

Optional (but strongly suggested): Salsa of your choice (I just used a prepared Pico de Gallo we had laying around)

1. Assemble the slaw, toss the shredded cabbage with lime juice, salt and pepper to taste and set aside.
2. Put oil in a pan (I used a wok) and sauté onions, bell pepper, and jalapenos until soft. Then add garlic and sauté together until everything is cooked through.
3. Add shredded chicken and ground cumin. Sauté together just to warm chicken through, not too long though since that chicken is already dead AND cooked once.
4. Finish with fresh lime juice.
5. This is typically where you will taste it. I didn’t season with any salt or pepper because I find rotisserie chicken already really salty, but that’s just me.
6. I warmed my tortillas in the microwave right before serving, but you can wrap them in foil and put them into the oven, warm them on the stove, whatever.
7. Assemble: I like slaw -> Chicken -> 2 tsp of pico de gallo, but whatever you want is fine.