Welcome!

**DaveD** · July 28, 2023, 06:21 PM

Alrighty, after seeing all these amazing tacos, with all sorts of wild and wonderful ingredients and approaches, I decided rather than sit out I would make a play for the totally ordinary corner. Master of the Mundane, that's me. The quintessentially quotidian. Strenuously standard. Garden variety, run-of-the-mill, humdrum, dime a dozen, everyday, routine commonplace tacos.

Here's the setup.

Some Prime ground beef leftover from the ~pound from which I made a fantastic steakburger last weekend while my lovely bride was away visiting her mom. First up, saute some diced red onion in some EVOO:

Then add the meat and get it mostly browned.

Next, the liquid seasonings: Ortega medium taco sauce, Santa Fe Ole New Mexico red chile sauce, and some Heinz Simply ketchup (which has only six ingredients, no HFCS) - a great thing to cook with.

Then all the dry seasonings: kosher salt, coarse ground pepper, homegrown oregano, red chile powder, granulated garlic, and cumin. Cooked on low heat until done.

Then heated the tortillas in the microwave for 30 seconds, loaded em up with diced homegrown tomato, chopped iceberg lettuce, Wholly Guacamole, and light sour cream, and chow down.

Cosmically delicious! They're too bodacious for hand-held, these are knife & fork tacos. Yum.

**Red Man** · July 28, 2023, 09:16 PM

Homemade tortillas and guacamole. Leftover pulled chuck roast crisped up in a skillet. Onion, cilantro, pickled red onion with scotch bonnet pepper, lime. El Yucateca habanero hot sauce. These were some excellent tacos!!

**AdequateEatin** · July 28, 2023, 10:07 PM

Damn, I am on a 2.5 week work trip. Won't be able to participate. I might have to post in a week and a half when I get back into town I love making tacos!

**WayneT** · July 29, 2023, 09:19 AM

Just in case participants need to be incentivized for this Taco Smack Down, here’s how your bragging rights will be eternally and symbolically memorialized. Suitable for display in your trophy room.

So, c’mon you bunch of rookies, take off the hot mitts and show us what you’re really capable of.

**WayneT** · July 29, 2023, 10:03 AM

With seriously cool awards on the line and about 36 hours left in the 2023 Taco Smack Down, let’s see what tricks participants still have up their sleeves. Anyone pulling a rabbit out of a hat and making tacos with it is disqualified.

**Potkettleblack** · July 29, 2023, 10:23 AM

Car in the shop, so can’t do pork cecina. Not sure I can contribute. :-(

**Richard Chrz** · July 29, 2023, 12:24 PM

You don't learn to make tortillas unless you continue to find reason to eat them. I had some smoked pork shoulder that I had not pulled and was vacuum sealed, so I went with carnitas this time.. Left over Rancho Gordo pinto beans from the refried beans I had made, so I made some beans to go with it.

**ItsAllGoneToTheDogs** · July 29, 2023, 02:54 PM

I have a long experiment going in the MAK super smoker box so figured I'd throw my hat in the ring with a pulled pork entry.

Pork was rubbed down in Mexican oregano, New Mexico chili powder, cumino, salt, red pepper flake, garlic powder, and just a pinch of habenero powder.

Next I pickled some onions with vinegar, lime juice, more Mexican oregano, a dash of the above chili powder, and a clove of garlic.

Other than that kept the tacos simple

**skipsdaughter** · July 29, 2023, 05:55 PM

My submission for the contest has a beef taco and chicken taco option with street corn salad on the side. The beef taco was marinated in a hibiscus lime marinade which was then reduced as a sauce along with queso fresco. The chicken is a crockpot recipe I'm testing out before the baby arrives later this fall.

**58limited** · July 29, 2023, 06:27 PM

Bet y'all thought I was sittin' this one out but no... I took the extra Click wagyu sirloin flap that I used to make Bistec Ranchero and used it to make carne asada tacos. When I made the Bistec I seared the meat on my PK grill- it was so thick that it was still raw (fine for the Bistec since it has to simmer for 15 minutes or more). I took that thick flap meat and butterflied it then marinated it again using this recipe: https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/#

So basically this is double marinated and double grilled, still came out medium rare (really hot fire). I also took the opportunity to fire roast eight pounds of bison soup bones for stock. I probably should have saved them for a winter soup or something - they have a lot of marrow.

Tacos with refried beans, Spanish rice, Oaxaca cheese, and Texas Texas brand salsa. Yum!

**RichieB** · July 29, 2023, 06:30 PM

All right, reluctantly submitting. I don't know the rules as I didn't read the them. I automatically disqualify myself for my dissention. Note: Indoor griddle due to our effing weather, again.

Leftover over smoked t bone
Pepper Jack
Jalapeño
Pepperocini
Picante sauce
onion
Lime juice

**Jim White** · July 29, 2023, 06:31 PM

I've always wanted to try my hand at tacos al pastor, but all the recipes I've read bluff me out on the complexity of the prep and on the cook itself. And then along came my hero barelfly who showed us terrific tacos al pastor where he just went with adobo on pork steaks cooked hot and fast for the parts that worried me about the prep and cook.

Of course, I couldn't just copy completely, so instead of salsa roja, I decided on a salsa verde. And then, with a bit more thought, I realized there could be pineapple in the salsa verde as well as on the tacos. I googled and found I was of course not the first person to think of putting pineapple in salsa verde. But I didn't quickly see anyone roasting both the tomatillos and pineapple. This salsa turned out to be the star of the show.

Roasted tomatillos, onion, pineapple and serrrano peppers:

That went into the blender with most of a bunch of cilantro.

Since the salsa turned out so tasty, with a bit more thought I realized that with roasted pineapple in it, it could be part of the marinade, adding the acid freshness without the pineapple enzymes making the meat mealy. So I mixed two parts adobo with one part salsa verde for the marinade.

Here's the four pound boneless pork butt cut into steaks. I hit them with the normal dry brining amount of salt before they went into the marinade for several hours.

As noted by barelfly, the adobo does give a great char. The rest of the pineapple and some corn went on the grill with the pork.

And I even made tortillas, cooking them on the Pit Boss. Lisa provided photographic proof.

And here we are. Of course, we had to go street style with fresh onion, pineapple, cilantro, salsa verde and lime juice. I may just have to put this into regular rotation.

**mnavarre** · July 29, 2023, 07:33 PM

Quick lazy tacos. Pulled chuck from the freezer, queso Chihuahua frico, hog fat flour tortilla.

Topped with avocado, cebolla y cilantro, and a chiletepin hot sauce.

Took longer to preheat GriddleBot than it did to make the tacos.

**Draznnl** · July 29, 2023, 08:40 PM

Okay, maybe they aren’t technically tacos, but there are carne and corn tortillas on the plate.

**Michael_in_TX** · July 29, 2023, 08:45 PM

I have not yet been able to go through everyone's tacos, but this is a thread for the ages! I originally wanted to do tacos al pastor, but the week got away from me, so I decided to do my take on grilled chicken tacos.

This is my favorite thing to grill/cook, without question. I could eat this every day.

I based this on a recipe Malcom Reed did several years ago, although mine is significantly simplified: https://howtobbqright.com/2020/10/01...chicken-tacos/

About 4-5 hours prior to grilling, I trim up eight boneless, skinless chicken thighs and place them in a zip lock bag and add a marinade of 1/2 cup oil (I use canola), 1/4 cup lime juice, 1/4 cup water, and 1 tbl salt. I get everything all distributed well and flip the bag every hour or so.

When it comes time to cook I get a full chimney of charcoal going in the Weber Kettle. While this is going, I remove the thighs from the marinade and season both sides with a rub that is very similar to Malcom's Grande Gringo rub. It's salt, garlic powder, black pepper, chili powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, and Mexican oregano.

Here's the chicken after the rub has sweated in a bit.

Right before the chicken goes on, I add a chunk of pecan, my favorite wood for chicken no matter the style. I now do my typical chicken thigh grilling technique: four minutes, flip, four minutes, and then flipping at further two-minute intervals until we are at 185 F internal, my preferred doneness for dark meat. (Takes about 18-20 minutes total.)

Here we are about halfway through and looking nice. It also smells amazing at this point.

(If they start getting too charred, I'll just move them to the indirect side, but I didn't need to do this for this cook.)

Once the chicken is done, it is moved to a sheet tray under some foil to rest while I do the tortillas. I use HEB made-in-store flour tortillas, which you've heard me rave about before.

Here I am trying not to let them get too close to the flaming block of pecan.

First, a shot of the chicken! (If you want to use this for your cell phone background, I won't mind.)

Now, let's BUILD! Tortillas, in place, ready to accept all the goodness.

And the chicken.....

Following by a stream of garlic-lime-crema. I make this by taking 1/4 cup Mexican crema, 1/4 cup mayo (I use Hellman's), 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tbl hot sauce (I use Tapatío), and 2 tbl lime juice and mixing all of that together.

Hot pico de gallo, from HEB, so it is better than homemade.

Finally, a sprinkling of a Mexican cheese blend and, channeling my inner Steven Raichlen, ciiiiilaantro!

I told you....I could eat this every day.

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