How To Make Homemade Taco Shells and Chicken Tacos

Tacos  in our house growing up were a weekly thing. My Dad loved tacos. As we got older my sister and I would have to fry the taco shells sometimes up to 15 or so. Tedious, but as I grew up I never, repeat never bought those prefab taco shells. They just do not taste the same as homemade. So here is a tutorial and a recipe for you to enjoy. I am even throwing in my daughters recipe for American Guacomole. Enjoy!

Ingredients

American Guacamole

1med avacado

2-3tbsp of sour cream

1/4 lemon wedge

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

salt to taste

~optional items~

1/2 diced tomato

tbsp fresh minced onion

1 minced jalapeno

Taco Shells

10 - 6 inch corn tortillas yellow or white

1/3 cup of canola oil for frying

Chicken Tacos

3-4 breast fillets cut up

1tbsp olive oil

2tsp of "No Salt" seasoning like Mrs. Dash

Salt to taste

10 Taco shells

Taco Fixings

1 cup of shredded cheese of your choice or crumbled Cotija

1/4 of small iceberg lettuce sliced thinly

1 tomato diced

Sour Cream

American Guacamole

Salsa or Hot Sauce

Sopes

Sopes (pronounced so-pays) are something my Mom never made, but I did some googling and learned how to make them, they just seemed like they would be good! My kids love them.The sope is a cornflour or masa disc that is thick and topped with whatever you can think of. It is served as an "antojito" or "little bite". There are even dessert sopes. The sopes I am going to show you are Roasted Chicken sopes. Traditionally sopes are fried, which you can do but I made these as a clean eating version and skipped the frying altogether.

Ingredients

For the Masa

2c. Maseca brand cornflour

2c. warm water

2tsp of salt

For toppings

Refried beans of your choice, pinto,white or black see my Boiled Beans recipe

Roasted chicken see my Easy Roasted Chicken recipe or buy one precooked at the store
or use some roasted beef, or barbecued tri-tip
salsa- see my Easy Blender Salsa recipe
fresh guacamole
shredded lettuce
diced tomato
cotija cheese (fresh mexican cheese)
sour cream

For the masa mix all the ingredients until a soft dough forms add 2nd cup of water in intervals using only the amount needed to form a dough you can easily handle.

Dough should look like this and be easy to roll into balls about the size of a baby lemon this recipe should yeild you 8 sopes

Take the sope ball and place between two sheets of plastic, I opened the sides of a large storage bag. This shows you how to do it without a tortilla press. Next take a plate and press down on masa. This should form a 3 to 4 inch disc.

This sope is ready to heat up in a cast iron pan or comal, which is a griddle...pour a drop of canola

oil onto a napkin and wipe surface of your pan or griddle.

heat through as you would a tortilla, the sope will be dry on both sides

Once the sope is out of the pan pinch up the edges with your thumb and forefinger,this creates a lip on the sope, be careful not to burn yourself! At this point you can make all of the sopes and set aside. When building your sope if you prefer to fry them do so in a pan with a little bit of oil till both sides are golden, drain on paper towels. I prefer them unfried they are just as tasty and healthier.

To build your sope spread some refried beans on it, add shredded chicken or beef, top with lettuce, salsa,  guacamole, sour cream and cotija cheese. These are a hit at my house! Hope they are at yours!

Boiling Beans....With Epazote..

Epazote (pronounced ep-a-zotay) is a new herb to me, but has been around for thousands of years, used by Aztecs as a medicinal herb in the form of tea. It is now being studied for its antifungal properties as well as its anticancer and antitumor properties. Epazote has long been used by Mexican cooks, from those who cook in a 1 room shack to five star restaurant chefs. Epazote is very potent and should be used sparingly, in high doses it is toxic. For more information on this wonderful herb go to this link http://www.rain-tree.com/epazote.htm The purpose of this herb in this simple recipe is to act as not only a flavoring but also for its antiflatulence properties. You can find this herb in Mexican groceries. Fresh or dried.

Ingredients

2lbs dried beans -white, pinto, or black

water for rinsing

2 tsp salt

2-3 leaves of epazote
1/2 small white or yellow onion cut in chunks
3 cloves of garlic

5qt pot

water to cover beans

additional water for boiling

Put your beans in a colander and fill a bowl with hot water, let the beans rinse and pick off any

thing that floats to the top or looks bad, you can let the beans soak for no more than 6 hours. I only soaked mine for about 30 minutes. Once beans are soaked and cleaned pour them into a 5 qt. stockpot and add water, make sure water is about 2 knuckles high over beans. Add epazote and salt, onion and garlic and boil on medium heat for 1 and a half to 2 hours, I added water as needed. The texture of the beans should be creamy. I made a large batch because I used  them in several meals. You can use these to be refried, actually I do not add an oil or fat to my refried beans. I just put the amount of beans I want in a pan and mash them and reheat. The epazote gives it a very traditional Mexican flavor....one that is hard to imitate.