Tacos Archives

When we moved from our family home to a condo a few years ago, I set up one of the bedrooms as my office. It has a huge desk and a really comfy ergonomic chair, perfect for sitting and writing blog posts, editing photos and all the other desk work I do. There is a huge window and lots of lovely light. Yet, somehow, I’m not using this space as I envisioned.

My office has become a storeroom for all my props, an addiction that has usurped my previous addiction for shoes, as well as a repository for all the items I’m not sure what to do with yet. Oh, and under the floating bookshelves, are several cases of empty wine bottles that have been piling up since social distancing began almost 19 weeks ago, but we won’t go there today.

I spend all my time in my kitchen. I have a small sitting area, off the kitchen, with two chairs and an ottoman. I bought a laptop tray and have set up an office from there. I’m happy, so all is good, but I really need to organize that office.

I’m excited to share this recipe with you today. It’s moved into our weekly rotation of dinners around here. The inspiration came from a Bon Appetit recipe for Chipotle Honey Shrimp Tacos. This is my adaptation. I love a dinner you can eat with your hands, where everyone assembles their own. This used to really confuse my husband. He would come to the table and see all the bowls of ingredients and sauces and say, “Cin, what do we do here?” It’s become one of our favourite family jokes.

Start with marinating boneless, skinless chicken thighs in a mixture of honey and canned chipotle chiles in adobo. They are found in the Latin/Mexican section of the supermarket. If you can’t find them, I included instructions for making a substitute sauce in the recipe.

Let the chicken marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes. Roast in a 375°F oven for about 30 minutes. While the chicken is roasting, prep all the sides. Anything goes here. Be creative. I used red and green cabbage, sliced jalapeños, pickled red onions, cilantro, avocado and lime. I mixed up a quick crema sauce with garlic, mayo and dairy-free sour cream (Tofutti sour cream).

Serve with beer (optional) and lots of napkins (not optional). These are a delicious drippy mess.

Click here to print recipe for Honey-Chipotle-Chicken-Tacos Download

For me, the best part of a grilled cheese sandwich is the rogue bits of cheese that escape, melting and then dripping down the side of the bread, bubbling and browning away on the bottom of the pan, transforming into a lacy crispy disc of cheese. The Italians have been making these crispy discs for years. They call them Fricos. I have made cheddar-parmesan ones to serve with soup.

The genius folks over at serious eats figured out a way to get that crispy cheesy goodness on a taco. Normally, grated cheese is added to a taco, but that’s kind of humdrum. They fused melted cheese to the taco.

My mind immediately went to breakfast, needing to fill these with eggs, avocado, jalapeño and salsa. If you are just going to make one taco, (and who could eat just one?), then you can certainly make the whole thing in a frying pan. But I wanted to figure out how to make several at a time, in case you are really hungry, or perhaps have a few people to feed.

Start with a parchment lined baking sheet and a 375° oven. I chose cheddar cheese, but feel free to experiment with your favourite. Pepper-jack would be good too. Arrange 1/2 ounce of grated cheese in a 5- by 2-inch rectangle. Repeat until you have about 3 or 4 cheese rectangles on the baking sheet. Bake for about 3 minutes until the cheese starts to melt.Then lay a fresh corn or flour tortilla on top of cheese so that roughly half the cheese is covered by the tortilla. For my first batch, I lightly oiled the tortillas, which turned out to be a mistake, because you don’t want the tortilla to become crispy. It must remain soft, pliable and moist, so you can fold your tortilla in half to eat it. So I briefly dipped the tortillas into a bowl of water before placing them onto the cheese and back into the hot oven. That way, the surface moisture evaporates, steaming the tortillas to give you the perfect supple texture.When they cool, you can lift them off the baking sheet and each tortilla is now wearing her own crispy cheese mini skirt! Then the fun begins. Fill them with whatever makes you happy.