Sweet Livin' Chicken & Steak Tacos, Roasted Corn & Chiles Corn Salsa

Living the Good Life,

Eating Good Too

This post goes out to a good friend we all know as Bonnie and to her readers over on Sweet Life where you will always find a cool outlook, Texan style.

Living in a state as big as Texas, one can easily get lost trying to compete with the fusion of Mexican cookery, sweatin' hot Texan cookouts and influences of outside folks, like me, but not our sweetie pie. Straight shooting, stable and unwavering (maybe ‘cause she’s a youngin’ as far as I am concerned), you just can’t help be drawn into a sense of calmness after some of her reads. And her down-to-earth, Mex-Tex border-style recipes are so appealing, photos are so darn astonishing, it’s like visiting a cooking show for amazement, sometimes a street vender for a sensory test and sometimes when we’re lucky, a reality show for comic relief.

Edinburg Texas is just a good stone’s throw to the Rio Grande if I’m not mistaken and I have a feeling she is native to some part of the southern Texas region. If not, she has settled pretty darn well into the Texas sweet life. Her two girls and hubby all seem to be in harmony with a life some of us can only dream of living.

So my friends in Texas and elsewhere, I want to share a few recipes that’s sweet on my list. Now these tacos are not meant to contend nor even compare with a few Bonnie posted back in July. I’m talking about Diana Barrios’ puffy tacos with that great beef picadillo and the spicy rajas de poblano. You can find the recipes in her 5 part series featuring Diana. This one also has her puffy taco recipe from the Food Network’s Throwdown with Bobby Flay.

My tacos are great served with a side of frijoles refritos or my Frijoles Charros. Both of the meats are flavorful, not as spicy as it sounds and grilling quickly over a hot fire leaves the meat extra saucy. To top these off, I roasted up some rajas of sweet red bell peppers and onions and made a salsa with some left-over ears of corn and chiles.   Enjoy!

Livin’ the Sweet Life Chicken Tacos

marinated chicken

2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts

Marinade:

1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
3 garlic pods, minced
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons native honey, optional

Wash and clean up the chicken. Pat each piece dry with a paper towel. Slice each breast horizontally in half and with a mallet, pound to an even thickness.
Combine everything in a sealable plastic bag, add the chicken pieces and marinate for 1 to 2 hours.
Grilling: Remove chicken from the bag and discard the marinade. Grill the chicken over medium-high direct heat until brown on each side. Remove to a platter and cover with foil.
Assembly: Slice chicken into 1/4-inch thick slices. Fold taco and stuff with slice chicken, add Roasted Chiles and Corn Salsa, and a light squeeze of lime.

Grilled Chipotle Steak Tacos

marinated steak

1 pound thin sliced breakfast steak (from bottom sirloin) or skirt steak
8 roasted garlic pods, peeled & mashed
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire
1 tablespoon red chile powder
1/2 teaspoon smoked cumin
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped chipotle with adobe sauce
2 tablespoons Heinz chili sauce (or ketchup will do)

Pound the meat with a mallet to about 1/4-inch thickness.
Make a rub with remaining ingredients and spread over the steak covering both sides. Cover and refrigerate overnight or at least 6 hours.
Grilling: medium-high direct heat, turning once, cooking no more that 6 minutes total
Assembly: Slice meat against grain into 1/4-inch strips or into a fine dice.
Serve with corn tortillas and your choice of red salsa, shredded lettuce, cabbage, radishes, chopped tomatoes, limejuice, sliced avocados or cheese.

Roasted Chiles and Corn Salsa

fire roasted

Olive oil
5 or 6 ears fresh sweet corn
6 to 8 roma tomatoes
10 to 12 Anaheim, Chile Verde, California Red or New Mexico chiles
1/2 red onion, chopped
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon fresh minced oregano (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Brush oil over the tomatoes, chiles and corn. Place over a medium heated grill turning often until corn is brown and the skin of tomatoes and chiles are blistered. Place corn aside to cool and put the tomatoes and chiles in a plastic or brown paper bag to sweat for about 20 minutes. Roasting the vegetables is easy in the oven as well as on the stove-top.

Cut the kernels from the cob into a bowl. Peel the skins from the chiles and tomatoes. Remove and discard the seeds and give both chiles and tomatoes a rough chop. Place in the bowl with the corn along with remaining ingredients. Stir and allow to marinate covered in the refrigerator for at least an hour to develop.
Note: Add a chopped mango or grilled peaches to sweeten this up if desired.