In this edition of Epicurious 101, professional chef Saúl Montiel demonstrates how to make classic Mexican chicken tacos–it’s all about the tortilla, filling, and sauce when making the perfect taco.
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00:00 Hi, I'm Saul Montiel. I'm a professional chef and today I'm gonna show you how to make the best tacos.
00:05 It's so simple, so good. You can do this any time of the day.
00:08 It's layers and layers of love.
00:10 This is Tacos Uno and Uno.
00:13 What I'm looking for in the best taco is three things.
00:16 The quality of the tortilla, the marinade and the way you cook the meat, and also the salsa.
00:21 No matter what taco you're making, I'm gonna give you the best tips to make a really good taco.
00:27 [Music]
00:30 I'm gonna be teaching you how to make chicken tacos.
00:32 I normally didn't grow up eating chicken tacos, but this is a taco that grew on me because of my kids.
00:38 They love chicken tacos and also our customers at Cantina Rooftop.
00:42 In front of me I have chicken breast.
00:44 I'm just gonna do a butterfly cut.
00:46 Basically you split it in half and it has the shape of a butterfly.
00:50 So the chicken breast before it was thicker here and thinner here.
00:53 Now it's just evenly. You're gonna have a nice consistency through the entire breast.
00:57 I'm gonna put it here and I'm gonna move into marinade.
01:00 I think it's really good to use dry ingredients.
01:03 With marinated meats, it kind of gets through the meat faster and also the flavors are deeper, stronger.
01:09 I'm gonna add a little bit of lime, a little bit of salt, garlic powder, onion powder, pepper.
01:16 You gotta make sure you spread it all over the breast.
01:20 A little more lime, a little bit of salt. Use enough salt to cover the chicken.
01:24 Onion powder, same thing with the pepper.
01:28 A little bit of oil. Let it dance.
01:32 And we're gonna let this sit for like 10-15 minutes, no more than an hour.
01:36 While this is marinating, we're gonna go and make the salsa.
01:39 Today I'm making a creamy avocado salsa for my tacos.
01:45 You have two types of salsa, spicy one and the mild.
01:48 Today I'm just gonna be making the mild one because of the simplicity and how delicious it is.
01:54 I'm gonna use quarter of an onion.
01:56 Now what I love about this salsa is that you can make it in three minutes.
02:00 Now, the serrano. It doesn't smell like anything.
02:04 But if I do this, the flavors and the spiciness are waking up.
02:08 So I'm just gonna do half. I'm gonna do lime.
02:12 I always do this to my limes. It's a really good habit.
02:14 So one lime for two avocados.
02:16 If it needs more, I'll add more.
02:18 The best way to choose an avocado is by the color.
02:21 It needs to be dark brown with a little bit of greenish.
02:24 Not too green, not too dark. Something in between.
02:27 Now this here, the avocado stem, you remove it.
02:31 If it's nice and yellow, greenish, that means it's on point.
02:34 If it's brown or too yellow, it's not good.
02:37 When cutting an avocado, you need to be very gentle.
02:39 I can already tell it's beautiful by the color and the moment of truth.
02:43 Maravé. Voila.
02:45 You see this right here?
02:47 This is somebody that was squeezing my avocado with their fingers.
02:50 Stop doing that. You're doing this to my avocado.
02:52 It's no bueno, man.
02:54 Now, removing the seed, right?
02:56 Use my thumbnail. Push it. That's it.
02:58 We're gonna scoop our avocado.
03:00 Whole avocado. Uno.
03:02 I'm going to remove this dark, bruised part that somebody did to my avocado.
03:07 I just wanna see somebody in the market grabbing the avocado.
03:09 I'm gonna give a lecture.
03:11 I'm gonna use the cilantro, using the entire stems and leaves,
03:13 'cause the stems have a lot of flavor.
03:16 I'm gonna do a little bit of water. Add some salt.
03:19 And now I'm going to puree this until smooth.
03:22 I'm gonna start slow.
03:24 [ Whirring ]
03:27 But look at the texture.
03:29 This is what you want in your taco, a creamy, smooth sauce.
03:33 Oh, my gosh.
03:36 [ Clattering ]
03:38 Amazing. My salsa is ready to go. Let's start cooking.
03:41 The reason why I'm using cast-iron pan is because it holds the heat really nice.
03:48 Also, I'm gonna heat up the tortillas here, so I kind of want a wider pan,
03:52 so I can cook the tortillas here to get the flavor of the chicken into the tortillas.
03:56 Anytime we're cooking chicken, pork, or fish,
03:59 you want to sear, you want to give color to whatever you're cooking.
04:02 So the level of heat right here needs to be really hot, but without burning.
04:07 And I'm using canola because canola can hold heat really high.
04:10 So how do you know your oil is ready?
04:13 You move it around, and if it travels faster, that means it's really hot.
04:17 Very important. You're dealing with fire and wet.
04:20 So shut it off, and now add it.
04:23 [ Sizzling ]
04:24 So now you turn it on back on.
04:26 Let it sit there.
04:28 You're gonna put some pressure so it cooks evenly.
04:31 Now all this flavor that comes out of the chicken, we're gonna use it to heat up our tortillas.
04:36 When cooking chicken or any kind of meat, if you want a nice sear, you leave it alone.
04:41 You don't want a nice sear, keep playing.
04:44 It's not playing in the kitchen. Not in my kitchen.
04:47 Well, it depends. If my kids are around, we play.
04:49 We have to make it fun.
04:51 I can see the edges getting nice and gold.
04:55 So now we're just gonna flip it.
04:57 And look at that beauty. So simple.
05:00 I would say this will probably take 8 to 10 minutes, 4 to 5 minutes on each side.
05:05 But it all depends on how thick your chicken breast is.
05:07 The thinner, the faster. The thicker, the longer.
05:10 The reason why I'm removing the chicken from the heat is because I want all the moist to stay in the chicken.
05:16 If I cut it right away, all the juices are gonna come out.
05:19 So you're gonna let it rest this for like 4 minutes, and then we'll cut it.
05:23 And all these oils, it's love. We're not gonna throw them away.
05:26 That's what we're gonna heat up our tortillas.
05:28 ♪♪
05:31 I'm going to remove these burnt bits.
05:33 I'm putting oil all over the cast iron pan.
05:35 You're gonna go low heat.
05:37 I'm gonna get some corn tortillas.
05:39 I like to stack them together so they're kind of oily and steamy at the same time.
05:43 Keep turning.
05:45 And look how we're removing the fat out of this.
05:48 We have to make sure they're nice and greasy and steamy without being too oily.
05:53 This is why I'm moving all these tortillas around.
05:55 So we're just gonna keep turning this until they're all nice and wet.
06:00 Now we're gonna keep them all together like that so they stay warm.
06:05 I'm gonna put it on a towel.
06:07 Let it sit there.
06:09 Let's move into assembling the tacos.
06:11 ♪♪
06:14 We just let our chicken rest for the past 5 minutes, and it's ready.
06:18 Now we're gonna do small dices.
06:20 We're gonna make sure we keep it the same size.
06:22 So every bite of your taco is very important.
06:25 You have the same amount of chicken on every bite.
06:28 So have a nice sear. It looks moist.
06:31 Now let's grab our tortillas.
06:34 Load it with a little bit of chicken.
06:36 And we're gonna do the sauce.
06:38 We have to make sure the sauce is all over the taco.
06:40 I'm gonna do a little bit of cheese.
06:42 So the reason why I'm using shredded lettuce is because I want to add freshness to this dish.
06:47 Same thing with the tomatoes.
06:48 They're nice and small, so every bite has the same amount of love.
06:53 Now I'm gonna do the crema, which is a Mexican sour cream.
06:57 I'm gonna do a little bit.
06:58 And this is how I cook for my kids.
06:59 Nothing wrong with these tacos.
07:00 A lot of people, "Mom, you're gonna be like, 'Oh, you're making American tacos.'"
07:04 This is not American tacos. This is a chicken taco.
07:06 And everybody loves it.
07:08 And now I love it because my kids are crazy about this.
07:11 We're going to finish it with a little bit of queso fresco.
07:15 It's a cow's bill cheese, a salty, dry, crumbly cheese.
07:18 Why did I use two cheeses?
07:19 One is more for, like, flavor,
07:22 and the other one is kind of like a seasoning and also garnish.
07:25 Whatever you put on top, it's all up to you.
07:28 And this is the best way to make tacos.
07:31 My tacos are getting cold, and they're ready to be tasted.
07:34 Every bite has the same amount of love.
07:39 The avocado sauce, the sour cream, the chicken is still moist,
07:42 and everything is just perfect.
07:44 So this taco, it's very simple to do it.
07:47 Even though I make a chicken taco,
07:49 I want you to use the tips that I just gave you about the tortilla,
07:52 about the protein, about the salsa to make any taco that you want.
07:55 Three things -- tortilla, filling, and sauce.
07:59 (upbeat music)