If there is one thing that everybody knows about me is that I love tacos. I’m not kidding when I say I love them. I have an Instagram dedicated to it and I travel the US for work and I try tacos in every city I come to. I was beyond happy when the taco fad hit the United States in full storm a few years ago and all these new taco places start popping up.
I finally got the chance to expand my concept of the taco and fell in love with all the new exotic tacos of octopus, cuddle fish, black chicken, walleye, & alligator. It wasn’t until I went to a small hole in the wall taqueria that I had a true taco awakening though. All these shops served fancy tacos but not the originals that helped bring the fad to what it is today. There is nothing like a good soil of the earth taco that has stood the test of time. One of the staple tacos that I think is a gate way into the world of cooking not a boring Tuesday night taco is, Shot and a Beer Chicken Braised Tacos.
The recipe is very easy, full of flavor and shockingly not spicy. There are three main peppers used in it, two for flavor, dried ancho and dried chipotle, and one for heat, habanero. You control the spice with how much habanero you use. My partner doesn’t like his face melting, so we only did half a pepper for this batch, when I’m alone I do a whole one (or more).
I started cooking this taco from a book Tacolicious by Sara Deseran but I have made a few changes to fit my pallet. I usually have everything on hand to make this taco, because of how simple it is and how most ingredients are either in your pantry or freezer. When you start cooking tacos, the fun part is finding all the dried peppers, after a while you will have a basket like I do marked peppers that is full of fun.
Like all good hand tacos, this is served with onions, cilantro and lime, you can also add a salsa of your choice, but you don’t need it for this one though, the sauce it flavorful enough. This does take a few hours to cook, but it’s a nice one to throw in the oven and walk away to get everything ready for tomorrow, and to come back and enjoy a simply flavorful taco dinner.
Shot and a Beer Chicken Braised Tacos
Equipment
- 1 Cast Iron Skillet
- 1 6qt Enameled Cast Iron Pot
- 1 Blender
Ingredients
- 3 dried ancho chiles (steamed and seeded)
- 1 dried chipotle pepper (steamed and seeded)
- vegetable oil
- 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1 white onion (chopped)
- 5 cloves garlic (chopped)
- 1 flavorful beer of your choice
- 1 shot tequila
- 14 oz diced tomatoes
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp Mexican oregano
- salt & pepper (to taste)
Serving
- corn tortillas
- chopped cilantro
- chopped white onion
- lime wedges
Instructions
- In a cast iron skillet, over medium heat, toast the ancho and chipotle chili for about 30-60 seconds, until fragrant. Do not burn. Set aside.
- Wash and pat dry chicken thighs. Salt and pepper chicken thighs.
- In a large enameled cast iron pot (6 quart will do fine), heat up about an 1/8 a cup or vegetable oil over medium heat.
- In batches if necessary brown chicken thighs, about 3 minutes each side. Remove and set aside.
- Add the chopped onions and habanero half, cook while occasionally stirring till onions start to become translucent, then add garlic till onions start to brown.
- Add Chilies, beer, tequila, canned tomatoes, chicken broth, cumin, oregano and salt and pepper to taste. Turn down to medium low and cook until chilis become soft (15 minutes or more, do not stop till they are soft). When soft, remove from heat to cool.
- Pre-heat oven to 325° F
- Add Chili-beer mixture to a blender in batch and blend till smooth.
- Add chicken back to pot and cover in chili-beer-blender mixture.
- Cover and place in oven for 2 hours.
- After two hours, remove lid and cook for additional 30 minutes (stirring when needed for sauce to not stick or burn on side).
- Remove from oven, shred chicken.
- Warm tortillas in a cast iron on the stove (very important, do not skip)
- In tortilla, place chicken, then onion, cilantro and squeeze lime.
