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

Tri-tip 101

I love tri-tip, it is solely responsible for keeping me from being a vegan...ok I love NY strip steaks too.
This is the first step to preparing a great tasting tri-tip. Tri-tip is big in California and I am not sure if it has made its way further east yet but a few years ago no one out of Cali knew what it was. When I lived in Minnesota people were like tri-tip whats that? Well it is from the cut of meat known as the brisket and it is generally a fattier piece of roast, which makes it ideal for us Cali barbecuers, is that a word? Anyway I have been loving me some tri-tip for over 20 years now. I was first introduced to it by working my first job in the now closed Monty's Liquor on Howard Road in Madera. It was my job to prep the numerous tri-tip we would go through on a Friday. We grilled inside on a large grill in the Deli Kitchen. This is the "secret Monty's Tri-tip recipe" I call it mine but of course I just stole it from them...
So here we go...on the way to tri-tip heaven!

Ingredients

1 bottle of liquid Hickory Smoke

salt

pepper

garlic powder

1  3lb tri-tip

Don't make the mistake of using garlic salt...use powder only, and you will want the shakerful because there will be a lot of shaking going on.

This is the first video of prep it shows no cooking. Cooking video will follow tomorrow.

Prep video

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!

Easy Roasted Chicken

I always thought roasting a chicken was going to be some long drawn out process...the only roasted chicken I knew of as a kid was the kind you could by at the store. My Dad probably didn't like it so my Mom never made it. Come to think of it I don't recall my Mom roasting a turkey, maybe thats because my Grandma Katie would make the turkey on Thanksgiving day and Mom would bring her famous enchiladas. So I pretty much learned how to roast a chicken by trial and error. This recipe is simple and the same concept can be applied to roasting a turkey!

Ingredients

1 5 to 6 pound whole chicken

1tbsp olive oil

1 tsp paprika

1tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1tsp garlic powder

roasting pan 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, set roasting pan near your prep area, mix paprika,salt,pepper and garlic powder, (not garlic salt!) together. Rinse your chicken and remove giblets, save to make broth if you would like! Pat chicken dry and place in pan. I tuck the wings and truss the legs with the chickens own skin, cutting slits big enough to slide the end of  the leg through. Did not get pics of how to do that! Pour 1tbsp of olive oil on your chicken, and rub in. This makes me think of my sunworshipping days as a teen for some reason! Come to think of it my chicken looks like it has a really good tan when its done! Take spice mixture and sprinkle over chicken. Then rub into oil. Stick your chicken in a 350 degree oven and roast for about 1 hour and 45 minutes. A good rule of thumb when roasting chicken is to roast 20 minutes per pound unstuffed. 20 x 5 =100 minutes which =1 hour and 40 minutes. I check for doneness at the joint where the leg and thigh are attached, if it pulls apart easily and juice runs clear its done. I have rarely used a thermometer but if you are new to cooking invest in one. Most thermometers have a poultry gauge which is about 170 degree mark. Remember no two ovens are alike and your roasting time may be slightly longer or shorter! You will notice that the paprika gives it a beautiful golden color! Sage would also be a great herb to add!  Let your chicken rest a bit before you carve it, if it is too hot when you cut it it will shred!

patted dry and olive oil added

spices sprinkled on

spices rubbed in ready to roast!

finished chicken, so easy and simple sooo good!