Mexican Street Tacos

The guys at work and I participate in two types of barbecues, our weekly barbecue and the much larger department-wide barbecues held during the summer. The department barbecues are hosted by different groups throughout the summer and are only held once a month. Typically these barbecues consist of frozen burger patties and polish sausages (aka frozen hockey pucks and tube steaks) with various myriad of accompanying sides. But that doesn’t really jive with the way we like to do things. We like to go big!

The four of us were caught in deep debate about how we were going to step up our big barbecues. Prior to the most recent barbecue, we have roasted two whole pigs, smoked briskets, served up tri-tip, and given the eaters the option to choose from from pork, beef, and chicken. We have even made home-made root beer to serve up in floats. So what could we do to hold up against our other meals? 

The Department of Morale (as the four of us are known; Sidedish, Hot Wood, Picnic, and myself) made the decision to let the people choose. And, choose they did. We were put on the spot to provide 150 people with Mexican street tacos, and when it comes to cooking, we take every challenge we get.

First we had to grapple with the idea of tortillas. I know that seems strange but when it comes to our food we like to try to cook everything ourselves. Let’s face it though, 800 something tortillas is a lot of work! So, we decided to go to the local mercado and buy our fluffy little corn tortillas, 60 pounds worth.

Next were the meat options. Of course we couldn’t just do one meat and one cooking style. So we decided on the triad: beef, chicken, and pork. Ultimately, we ended up with chicken tinga, beef barbacoa, and pork verde; each with a little twist of its own.

In my opinion the chicken tinga was the underdog and the overall winner of the show, even though many people opted to bypass it. Chicken thighs simmered for 4 hours, were pulled, and set to rest. Then, the morning of the barbecue, the chicken was simmered again in a hearty chipotle and tomato sauce, inspired by the recipe linked at the end of this post. The crisp acidity of the tomatoes played on the smoky complexity of the chipotle peppers. Chicken always plays sweet notes against your palate, so the contrast with the tomatoes and peppers lent itself to a delightful and complex flavor profile. To top the whole thing off, was a great pairing of the tinga with a smoked pineapple salsa I prepared. A delicate, slow-heat salsa that intermingled the spice of peppers with the smoky-sweet acid of the pineapple. You can find my recipe for it at the end of this post.

The beef barbacoa spent about four hours under light smoke to, first of all, begin the slow cooking process, and also to develop an even more complex flavor against the acidic backdrop of the barbacoa. The barbacoa sauce started with the same base as the tinga, but throughout the process, an ample amount of fresh squeezed lime juice and further seasoning of cumin and cloves were introduced. After smoking the beef (we used a sub-primal cut of chuck roll), we cut it into large chunks and let it simmer away for another 8 hours with the sauce. Mmmm, delectable… In fact, I had this as left-overs the other night and I can still savour the depth of flavor and tenderness of the beef.

Of all the meats, I have to say that the pork was my least favorite. Not that it was bad, it just couldn’t hold up to the others. The pork was lightly smoked for a full day and then finished with a very acidic verde sauce. This is how I prefer my verdes, lots of tomatillos and a sweet balance of spice. The pork was tender and quite delectable, but would have been better in an enchilada than a taco.

The salsa bar was spot on. It had my smoked pineapple salsa as mentioned, Hot Wood’s multitude of spicy and mild salsas, and Sidedish’s excellent pico-de-gallo. I want to be completely honest here, Sidedish makes one of THE best picos I have ever had!

It is hard to fully share the amazingness of this barbecue in text, as I assume it will be for all barbecues, but we really pulled this one off. Granted, it took four days of cooking and countless hours of planning, but we made it happen. We managed to live up to the name of Department of Morale.