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Anyone that's had a true authentic Carneada street taco knows that it can't be beat. But what was once my $1 anytime day or night taco has turned into a $4 taco that I cannot afford to eat whenever I want. So today we're making them at home, better and cheaper.
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Now, the humble but delicious street taco consists of three key parts: the tortilla, the meat, and the accoutrements. You need all three. And if you're missing one, your taco will collapse both metaphorically and physically, and that would just be a bummer.
Now, we'll start with our meat. Now, you may see people online say, "Use skirt, use flank, maybe even ribeye or strip." And that's fine. You can use those. I, on the other hand, don't want to pay for ribeye, strip, flank, or skirt. It's expensive. So, for me personally, when I'm making street tacos, not fajitas, because they're different, I'm going with chuck or sirloin. Most of the time, I'm going to go with chuck because chuck has great marbling. You just have to look for it. And you see this? You see that price? That's $7.99 a cut. It's even cheaper if you don't buy it cut, but in this case, it's a lot easier. So, for the extra dollar, I'll pay to have it cut.
Now, like I said before, this is not fajitas. This is street taco. Typically, if you're making fajitas, you're going to want to use a wet marinade. Street tacos, personally, I think you should just dry season it because it's so thin. It's going to cook so quick, and you just want it to sear nice and evenly. Oh man, it's going to fit. Don't worry, I'm going to make it fit. I'm going to make it fit. Okay, it kind of fits. And you see how thin that is? That's going to cook extremely fast, which is what we want.
Now, to season it, we're just going to go real simple with some salt, black pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. And well, great question. Why am I putting my meat on a wire rack? Well, let me tell you. It's because I want as much airflow as possible to dry out not only the top, but the bottom of the steak as well. Because if it's drier, it's going to get a better crust. All right, we've got one side good. Now, we're just going to flip. And feel free to use a spice rub because this is pretty simple. Like, if you want to add a little bit more flavor, that's fine. Add a little more flavor. Generally speaking, street tacos let the meat shine through, but it's your taco, so do what you want. And now that we've got this all seasoned up, we're just going to set it to the side and wait to cook it because it will be quite literally the last thing we do.
Now, for our accoutrements, you're going to start with white onion and cilantro. Very simple, very basic, very delicious, unless you have that weird onion gene, in which case it's not delicious and it's unfortunate and disgusting, and I'm sorry for you. But anyway, you're just going to go ahead and peel your onion. I like to just cut all the way around my onion versus doing the crosshatch and the top hatch. It's not my favorite way to cut an onion, but you know, whatever, whatever you enjoy, whatever gets it into a nice fine, mostly consistent dice. Then we'll just move that to a bowl. And if you're not a big fan of raw onions, totally understand. They can be a little bit harsh, but if you just run them under some cool water and let them sit for about 10 minutes, then strain them, it takes away a lot of that punchiness and makes them a little bit more mild. So, give it a shot if you like.
Now, for our cilantro, I find the best way to cut cilantro is just to kind of go at it like this. Get it all off the stems. But you also can use the stems because the stems have a ton of flavor. Personally, just not going to use it in stuff like this. I'll use that for salsa for shadowing. And we'll just add that over to our onions. And we'll give that a nice toss. Beautiful.
Now, for our salsa, we have two options: a red and a green. Now, for our green salsa, which just so happens to be my favorite and also not spicy, it starts off by peeling a bunch, just removing the skin and unveiling the gross, sticky interior, which I'm not really sure why it's sticky, but I don't like it. I can tell you that much. And because they're sticky, I'm going to rinse them off. Then we'll just give them a quick little dry. Then we're just going to cut these in half and throw them on a sheet tray. Technically speaking, you don't have to throw them on a sheet tray, but I'm just putting them in here for organizational purposes. We're also going to roughly chop up that other half of the onion we used earlier. And this doesn't have to be perfect. I just want it rough. And then lastly, we're going to crush some garlic. There's nothing I hate more than peeling freaking garlic.
Now, we'll just squirt on a generous amount of olive oil. Make sure it's all nice and coated, as well as a dubious pinch of salt. Now, you have two options here. You can throw this under your broiler, let it char up, or you can just do it on the stove. I'm going to do it on the stove. Now, I'm using a flat top here because I'm going to use that for everything today. But you can also just use a pan, you can use a comal, you can use a wok. You really use whatever you want. Don't use a wok. That was a bad idea. I'm sorry I said that. But once this gets nice and hot, we're just going to add on a little bit of that olive oil just to give ourselves a nice base coat. I'm going to use this tomatillo to kind of spread it out. Be efficient with it. And then I'm just going to place all of our veg on here to char. Now, the tomatillos and the onions are going to take some time, but the one thing you really want to watch out for is the garlic because you don't want to burn it. So, this is a nice way to kind of keep an eye on it versus if you throw it in the oven, you throw them in the broiler, it's harder to watch. After about 2 minutes, our garlic is already charred up. We're going to remove that. And then after about 8 minutes, they all should have a nice char on them, and they should be nice and soft. Maybe I should have done it in the oven.
Anyways, now we're just going to give this a quick wipe down because it's important to clean as you cook. And now we're just going to add all this to a blender along with an avocado. Oo, a beautiful one, might I add. Our cilantro. Look at that story resolution. The juice of a lime, some chicken bouillon powder, salt, and of course, pepper. And then you're going to add in some ice. Now, you can just use water, but ice preserves the color a little bit better, as well as cools down everything because you don't really want a hot salsa. I mean, you might. I like a cold salsa. I think the contrast is better. But hey, if you want a hot salsa, just use just use water. It's not going to be as green. Just use water. And we'll just throw the cap on there. And we are going to blend it. And remember, this is a taqueria salsa for street tacos. So, you want it to be extra smooth because typically you you pour it from a bottle. But, you know, if you want it chunky, leave it chunky. Beautiful. Well, hot damn, would you look at that? I overfilled it. But that's good. It's good. And just because we're feeling a little bit fancy, we'll go ahead and crush on some cotija right on top.
Now for our red salsa, which is going to be spicy, it starts off with some Roma tomatoes. And again, we're just going to put those on a sheet tray, but this time, this time, I'm going to do it in the oven because you only make that mistake once. Then we're just going to cut up a jalapeño. You can leave the seeds in, you can leave them out. It's going to be spicy, so I really don't think the jalapeño seeds are going to make that big of a difference. But if for some reason you're like, "Hey, I want to take those seeds out," go for it. But it's going to be hot either way. We're also going to need half of a white onion, just like the other one. And if there's something in either of these salsas that you're not a particularly big fan of, like, that's okay. You can leave it out. The beauty of salsa is that it's so versatile. You can put whatever you want into it. You could take whatever you want out, as long as there's tomatoes or tomatillos in it. And even then, it really doesn't even need to have that because I got like pineapple salsas and stuff. So really, you could just do whatever you want. Don't let people tell you what to do. And the last thing that's going to go in here is some garlic. And then like before, we're just going to add in a hefty amount of olive oil. Make sure those garlic pieces are especially coated because if we're going to throw it in the oven under the broiler, we want to make sure they don't burn. And a hefty pinch of salt all the way around. And I almost forgot the thing that's going to make this really spicy. I left them in the bag because I really didn't want to touch them with my hands. But agua chili and some chile de arbol. That's a lot more chile de arbol than I thought I got. That's a lot. I would say five. That's like 12. And now I'm just going to throw this under the broiler until everything is nice and charred and soft.
All right. And after about 20 minutes in the broiler setting on the toaster oven, because it's not going to be as powerful as a regular oven, we're just going to add all this into our blender. And go ahead and add in those juices as well. Then we'll add in our lime juice, some cilantro, a little bit of chicken powder, and of course, salt and pepper. Then we'll just pop that baby on and give it a whirl. Wait, I forgot the ice. Less ice this time, but still a little bit of ice. Helps cool it down. Makes it a little bit thinner. And now we give it a whirl.
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Oh yeah. Oh crap. I'm already sweaty. Gross. It's It's burned it. It sits there and it waits until you've taken like your fourth bite, and then it's like, "Hey, what's up? I'm here to party." And there you have it. If you used as many chile de arbol as I did, use this sparingly. It's delicious, but it's hot. Uncomfortably hot.
And for the last of our accoutrements, we're just going to slice up a few limes and some radish. I like to cut the tips off and then use this baby mandolin because baby mandolin is super dope. Ah, this is so cool. I love it. You should get one.
And now for our tortillas. Now, you don't have to make your tortillas from scratch. In fact, let me tell you a secret. Most of the time, I don't. I live close to a Mexican market and often just buy the ones that they make because they're really good and it's really hard to beat 60 tortillas for like $3 and change. So, by all means, skip this next 30 seconds and just make these, or take the next 30 seconds to learn how to make them because they're super easy and if you want to, it's a fun thing to do, but also like this is okay, too.
Now, for corn tortillas, it's pretty simple. There are three parts to it: you have your masa, you have your water, and you have salt. It is almost a 1:1 ratio of masa to water, but it's not quite. You're really more looking for feel than an exact measurement. So, let me show you what you're looking for. So, first, let me get my masa in here. I'll give this a hefty pinch of salt. And this is very warm water. You want warm water because it helps to hold it all together. If you use room temp or cold, it gets a little more crumbly. Little bit of water. Take it slow. Then you're just going to use your fingers, move it around. Take your time. Really feel it out. Give it a little bit of tortilla foreplay. Once it's all nice and crumbly, you're going to add in a little bit more. And you're just going to keep doing this until you've got the consistency that you're looking for. And you can do this in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, but it's a little bit easier with your hand because then you can really feel how grainy it is and how much water you need to add versus if you're just going off of look, you know, it's a little bit harder. There we go. Now it's starting to come together. And we're just going to push it all together. Make sure it's all incorporated. We don't want any dry spots. We don't want any wet spots. We want it to all be nice and even. Now you'll know your masa is ready because it'll come together in a nice smooth ball when you roll it together and it'll hold its shape. But then when you take some and you form it into a little ball and then press it out, you should see minimal crackage around the edge. You want it to hold its shape. A little crack is okay, but you don't want it to be ripping from the sides.
Now, to form your tortilla, you need two things. You need a tortilla press, and arguably, you can get away with just using two heavy flat objects, like a cutting board or two large books. Uh, and the second thing you're going to need is a Ziploc bag. Now, we use a Ziploc bag because it prevents the tortilla from sticking to our press and tearing apart. This is a little bit easier to remove. And so, what I like to do is I'll just cut off the top. And then I'll just cut off the sides because I want it to be able to open up like a book. And if it's sealed on the sides, it's not going to open like a book, you know? Voila. Reading. Now you're going to open up your tortilla press. You're going to lay in your makeshift tortilla non-stick device. Then you're going to take some of your masa and you're going to roll it up into a ball. And you'll find the right size that you like. You'll find that maybe you like smaller tortillas. Maybe you like bigger tortillas. It's it's really up to preference, but I start about there. It's like a large grape. Then you're just going to place it in the center. You're going to lay down your press very carefully. And I like to do two presses. I like to do a light press this way. And then I'm going to lift it, rotate it 180°, and press this way. Because the problem with these sorts of things is that this is a hinge, which means as it closes, it's going to be tighter on one side and taller on the other side. So if you just do it one way, you're going to end up with a lopsided tortilla. Then you're just going to remove it, peel back one side, then you're going to place it in your hand, and peel back the other side like this.
Now, for your tortilla making station, you're going to have three sections where you're going to press your tortilla, where you're going to cook your tortilla, and where you're going to rest your tortilla. Three very important parts. Once we're at about a nice medium heat, you'll start by taking your dough, form it into a ball like we talked about, place it inside your press, give it a good press. Then, we're going to rotate it 180°, press it again, and then we'll just peel it right off like that. Then, we'll just let this sit and cook for about 30 to 40 seconds before we flip it. And usually in that time, you have enough time to start your next one. Then we're just going to go ahead and flip it over and let the other side cook. Once they're finished, you go ahead and remove it. You'll place it inside your little tortilla bed or hot pocket or I guess it's more of a sleeping bag. And personally, I like to think of tortillas as sort of like pancakes. The first few are going to suck, but then after that, you get used to it. They start coming out better and better. Eventually, you're going to start to end up with tortillas that are pretty darn good.
And if you decided to go with the store-bought tortilla route, no shame. You can go ahead and throw them onto your griddle to make sure they get nice and heated and warm.
And now finally, we make a full circle back to our meat. It has been sitting and waiting and soaking up all the flavor. Now, we're just going to pat it dry. And then we're going to cook it on a grill top. You can cook it on a grill, you can cook it on the stove, either one. And the reason I'm patting it dry is because I want to make sure I absorb as much of that moisture that has been pushed out from the salt as possible because I want it to sear quickly. Once it's nice and pat dry, just like that, we can preheat. Let this get up to temp. We want medium-high. And then once we're there, we're going to add on a little bit of neutral oil. I'm just going to spread that around. Make sure we have nice and even coverage. And then we'll just carefully lay on our meat. Make sure it has full contact all the way through. And then once that first side has started to sear, we're just going to go ahead and lift it up and flip it. And if you have weights, you can also use those to kind of help fight that curl to make sure it gets a nice and even sear. And after about another minute, we're going to go ahead and check it. We got good sear, so we're just going to go ahead and remove it. And if anything stayed behind, I would just go ahead and scrape it off before you throw on your next piece of meat. And you're just going to keep repeating this process until you've cooked through all of your meat because you only make that mistake once. Literally the last piece of meat. We're almost done. We're just going to power through and we're done.
And now that we have cleared out the house of smoke for the second time today, time to chop our meat. Take your meat, throw it down, and then I'm going to layer it on top of each other so I can save some time. Cut it one way. Rotate and cut it the other way. And that should leave you with some nice bite-sized carne asada. Now, would you look at all of this carne asada that we have for what was it like $15, $13, something like that? This is fantastic taco meat. Oh. And to assemble, you'll just start with your torn tortilla, some of your carne asada, onions and cilantro, and a squeeze of lime. And then you do this about 25, 30 more times. And you have this.
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It is everything that you want at a price that you want. What's not to love? This isn't all of it. There's more. This is just all I can fit on the biggest plate that I own. So you tell me, this is happiness.