Chicken enchiladas are corn tortillas rolled around shredded chicken, laid in a dish under red chile sauce and cheese, and baked until the sauce bubbles. The thing that separates a tray that holds its shape from a pan of mush is a step that takes two minutes: the tortillas get a quick dip in hot…
Red enchilada sauce is dried chiles, soaked and blended smooth, then simmered with a little toasted flour and broth until it coats a spoon. It takes about thirty minutes, most of it soaking, and the difference from canned is large: many canned sauces are built on chili powder and tomato, while this is built on…
Beef barbacoa is chuck roast braised slowly in a blended sauce of chipotle, garlic, lime and warm spices until it falls apart, then shredded and returned to its cooking liquid. The shredding step is the easiest place to lose it: pulled apart on a board and served dry, the meat is fine; shredded back into…
Chicken fajitas are strips of seasoned chicken and sliced peppers and onions seared hard in a very hot pan, wrapped in warm flour tortillas at the table. The version you get in a restaurant, arriving loud and smoking on a cast iron platter, comes down largely to one thing that is easy to get wrong…
Taco seasoning is a blend of chili powder, cumin, paprika, garlic, onion, oregano and pepper, and making it yourself takes five minutes and one bowl. The reason to bother is not just cost: many packets list starch and salt among their first ingredients, and a homemade blend lets you decide how much salt goes in…
Pico de gallo is a fresh, uncooked salsa of diced tomato, white onion, chile, cilantro and lime, and it is also called salsa fresca or salsa bandera, the last name because the red, white and green of it match the Mexican flag. It is five ingredients and no cooking, which means there is nowhere to…
Guacamole is mashed ripe avocado seasoned with chile, onion, cilantro, lime and salt, and the traditional method does something that is easy to skip: it mashes the seasonings into a paste before the avocado ever goes in. That one change in order is the difference between evenly seasoned guacamole and a bowl of bland avocado…
Refried beans are pinto beans cooked in seasoned fat and mashed until creamy, and the versions that come out pasty, grey or bland usually went wrong in one of two places: the aromatics were not cooked in the fat first, or the beans were thinned with water instead of their own liquid or broth. The…
Salsa verde is a green salsa built on tomatillos rather than tomatoes, with chile, onion, garlic, cilantro and lime. The single decision that separates a bright, balanced salsa from a thin sour one is how you cook the tomatillos: roasted under a broiler, not boiled in water. The recipe card carries the full method with…
Carne asada is beef marinated in citrus, garlic and herbs, grilled hard and fast over high heat, then sliced thin across the grain and piled into tacos or onto a plate with rice and beans. Three things decide whether it comes out like a taqueria version or like grey pot roast: how long the meat…
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