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911 Posts
Discussion Starter #1 (Edited)
Difficulty 4/10. Time 20-30 minutes.

For all you Mexican food fans here's my favorite taco recipe.
If you think Taco Bell/Dell Taco is Mexican food just leave this thread now :biggrin: Your taste buds wont be able to handle this greatness.

All joking aside lets get started on the ingredients.

If you have a local Mexican deli near you take a look at these cuts:

Diesmillo, Ranchera, Milanesa and Espaldilla. My favorite is Espaldilla the one's in Mexican delis usually have most of the fat removed.
If you don't have a Mexican deli near you just have your butcher cut a piece of steak into 3/16" slices. These are the cuts in English:

Boneless Chuck(Diesmillo)
Boneless Round Tip(Milanesa)
Boneless Flap Meat(Ranchera)
Shoulder Chop/Clod(Espaldilla)

Just look to see which one looks best on that day, any will work. I used Milanesa for this recipe since the Espaldilla didn't look good today at the butchers.

1.5lbs is good to feed 4 people 3lbs for 8.

Next meat up is the Pork Chorizo. Try to find the one that looks like sausage if you can. Spanish and Italian sausage wont really work for this recipe. If you cant find

Authentic Mexican sausage you can get away with this type:

It just wont taste as great as the real one. They sell it at almost any grocery store like Krogers(Ralphs/Food4Less)

Authentic kind has a natural casing that you can eat, while the bootleg kind has a plastic case. I don't really like the second kind of Chorizo in this recipe. That type is

more suitable to mix in with breakfast eggs or potatoes. But it will still work in case you cant find the real stuff.

The ratio you'll need is 1/2lb of Chorizo for every 1.5lb of Beef.
So 1/2lb to feed 4 and a full pound to feed 8.
Serving size is 3 tacos per person.

Half a head of lettuce chopped into thin slivers. 1/4" is perfect.
White or Yellow onion, chopped fine. The smaller the better.
A little bunch of cilantro, about half a cups worth. Chopped finely, again the smaller is better.. Now I failed by forgetting to buy the cilantro :pinch:

Avocado cut into slivers around 1/8" thick or 1/4 if you really love them. I prefer the thinner cut so they don't overpower the meat.

Two large Roma tomatoes, or 4 small ones if you cant find the Romas.
Quarter cup of cilantro, quarter of a large onion.

Finally the peppers. Chile de Arbor are perfect if you can find them.
Krogers even carries them so they're not hard to find, they have them next to the veggies. 10 are good for a mild salsa, 15 are better if you like hot food.

If you can't find them you can substitute some dry jalapenos. Or even canned ones.4 large ones is good for mild 6 if you like it hot.

I forgot to buy the Arbol ones so I got stuck with the canned jalapenos, it still taste really good. But I prefer the Arbol kind because they have a great earthy taste and are spicier.

911 Posts
Discussion Starter #2 (Edited)

This salsa is essentially an all purpose one, you can use it to top tacos, as a dip for chips and in other dishes like huevos rancheros,etc...

There's two methods of making it. The more traditional one is the kind I made today. I'll also include the directions for the other kind.

First up fire up your Comal to medium high heat, a Comal is a flat cast iron skillet. A steel regular skillet will work just fine though.

Toss the tomatoes on it and darken all the sides of the tomatoes till the skin starts to peel on all sides.

An alternative method is to wrap the tomatoes in aluminum foil and toss them directly onto the burner and flip till all sides are darkened.

When the skin starts to peel on all side they are done. Remove them and now toss in the chiles de arbol/jalapenos and brown them up a bit. They're done fast about 15 seconds per side.

After those are done clean up the Comal/skillet, you will need it later on to heat up the tortillas. Just use a flat spatula to scrape off the pieces of skin, if you're using a steel skillet turn it off and turn it back on when you're ready for the tortillas. A Comal takes a while to heat up so I like leaving it on low.

Alternative method
The second method is to just boil the tomatoes and chiles. Just until the skin starts to peel off and the chiles are fully hydrated. Drain then continue to follow the recipe.

Put the tomatoes into a blender/food processor. If you don't like smokey flavors you can remove the skin, but it tastes way better if you leave it on.
Add a quarter cup of water, two teaspoons of salt, the cilantro and the chiles.

Optional: If you like garlic flavor you can toss in a clove. Or better yet roast it first, remove the skin and add it in.

Blend it all up on liquify. Then pour into a resealable container/jar, you'll have a lot left over. So Tupperware it up for later. It'll last 5-7 days in the fridge.

If you like a thick sauce you can grind it up in a mortar and pestal. Without the water.


911 Posts
Discussion Starter #3 (Edited)
Cooking the meat.

Remove the chorizo form the casing and toss into a large skillet/pan with deep side. Or a small stew pot is what I use. Heat is medium high, break the meat apart with a spoon. Wooden spoon is ideal if you don't wanna scratch up your pan.

Cook it till it's well done and starts to brown, only takes abut 5 minutes.
The authentic one renders almost no grease, the other kind has a lot so you can drain it off if you want.

Now lower the heat to the lowest, just to keep it warm you don't want to keep cooking the chorizo. If your burner wont go low enough just turn it off.

Set it aside while you cook up the other meat.

This meat is cut thin enough so that there's no marinating required to make it tender. Seasoning is dead simple, just salt and pepper, Laury's also works well with it. Just don't use to much remember these are thin cuts.

Toss the meat in a skillet on high(two pieces at a time), it only take 30-45 seconds per side.

Cook it till it's well done. Rare or medium rare is pretty much non existent in Mexican cooking. And they wont work in this recipe. (After your first set of meat lower the heat to medium or medium high.)

Next cut up the meat on a cutting board 1/4 or a little bigger is fine.

Toss it in the chorizo and mix, you're looking for almost a 1:1 ratio of meat to chorizo.(Also turn off the heat on the chorizo now.)

And you're done! :bigok:

911 Posts
Discussion Starter #4 (Edited)
Tortillas and Plating.

Now that you're done with the meat heat up your tortillas.

Turn the Comal up to high heat, or turn on your skillet.

These only take about 20 second per side to heat up, when they flexible they're done. After like 6 tortillas lower the heat down to medium.

Place them on a plate and add a spoonful of meat. About 2 table spoons in fine.

Add your toppings(veggies) and finish it off with a tablespoon of salsa.

These are addictive as hell, so the serving size an go out the window pretty quick. I get full with 3 though.

PS: Sorry for the filter shit on the pictures, I forgot to turn off the "Lomo" setting on my camera. The Lomo setting also disables manual macro so that's the reason for the blurry pics :pinch:

Also I'll make it into a printable .pdf file if anyone wants it.

formerly allnaturalrex
1989 honda crx si
4,639 Posts
oh man i need to try this. although i think Diesmillo is by far the worst meat ever since its full of fat. preferably espaldilla is far superior but of course ranchera is the best. the only reason i get diesmillo all the time is because its usually the cheapest but i don't recommend it. awesome write up i need to try this stat looks so good.

91 CRX Si
4,454 Posts

formerly Kit88
ek hatch
6,233 Posts
I'm hungry,

I use no letucce on this tacos and chile serrano or jalapeño on the salsa

The Great Weldini
91 civic
8,901 Posts

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