Carne Asada Tacos (Tijuana Street Style)

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The carne asada (steak) tacos you get on the street in Tijuana, Rosarito, or Ensenada are pretty simple. Generally it's grilled steak, a hot salsa, creamy avocado, and chopped white onion and cilantro on a home made corn tortilla. It might be simple, but it's a special combination of flavors. I've tried to recreate it as much as possible. This is pretty close. Like most great street food, it's also about the experience of the location. That's tough to replace here in New Hampshire. But a bite of these tacos does take me there for a second or two.

Grilled Carne Asada

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There's many ways to do carne asada. I do it a couple ways; grilled or in a cast iron pan. This is my grilled recipe. I use flank steak here, but you can use any steak you like. Sirloin tips work wonderful.

Pico De Gallo Salsa

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This is our go to recipe for a simple salsa that we put on most of our tacos and is great with chips.

Pollo Asada Torta

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Tortas are Mexican sandwiches. You can make your own rolls, but here I've used a store bought Portuguese Bun. You can add sliced tomatoes if you want. A refried bean spread would go nice with this as well.

Pollo Asada Tacos

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These chicken tacos are amazing. I use home made corn tortillas here. You can certainly use store bought. Don't feel like you need to use every ingredient here. These would taste great with guacamole vs. the avocado sauce. You can use a different salsa and you don't need the queso fresco. The tacos would taste fine, but these tacos taste great.

Jed's Corn Salsa

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My neighbor Jed Schwartz is an amazing farmer among other things. In late summer he always brings us a bag of sweet corn that he's pulled from the stalk within the hour. It's like candy. This is his recipe for corn salsa.

Pan Toasted Arbol Chile and Tomatillo Salsa

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This is a Rick Bayless recipe. It's a spicy twist on tomatillo salsa. The arbol chiles pack a little punch. Careful when you're making this. There's a bit of a sting in the air when you're frying the chiles. The salsa works great on tacos. It's awesome on chicken.

Avocado Sauce

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This sauce is great on everything. It's basically a simple gaucamole that's blended. Water is added to make it smoother. Add a little more water than this recipe describes and you can add it to a kitchen squirt bottle. That makes it really easy to add to tacos.

Pollo Asada

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Pollo Asada is grilled marinated chicken. I use a similar marinade for my carne asada. I add a bit of orange and lime juice here. I learned this recipe from the chef at a restaurant in Bonita, California when I waited tables there as a kid. It's perfect by itself or in tacos, burritos, or tortas.

Carnitas Tacos

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Carnitas is slow roasted pork. It has a slightly crispy outside and a wonderful fork tender quality. I use it here in tacos, but it's perfect in tortas or as is with rice and beans.

Roasted Tomatillo, Tomato, and Poblano Salsa

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This is an easy roasted vegetable salsa. It has a flavorful, spicy quality that's great with any taco or just with chips.

Corn Tortillas (Home Made)

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The best corn tortillas are freshly home made. The fresher, the better. So it doesn't get any fresher than making them yourself. It's tough to get them just right. I haven't quite mastered it yet, but these aren't bad. I use Masa Harina corn flour. The amount of masa to water depends a bit on the brand, so it's important to know what you're looking for in terms of dough consistency. You want it to feel moist, but not sticky. You don't want it too dry. Not enough water and you won't be able to get a thin tortilla. Too much water and the tortilla will be impossible to remove from the tortilla press and onto the griddle. It takes a little practice. You'll need to get a tortilla press. Mexgrocer.com has some affordable options. Unless you do it for a living, you'll probably have a tough time getting it just right, but even a not perfect fresh corn tortilla is worth having every once in a while. It's a special treat.

Red Cabbage Slaw

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Cabbage goes great on tacos with seafood. There's plenty of varieties of slaws that will work. A much simpler version would be fine, but this has ingredients that I usually have readily available and it creates a nice complex bit of flavor to an seafood taco. Feel free to use any cabbage you have. I happen to like the way the red looks on tacos.

Chipolte Lime Mayo

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We put this sauce on just about everything. Tacos, burritos, eggs, etc.

Guacamole

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This is our basic gaucamole recipe. We put this on all of our tacos. Guacamole can be kept in the fridge for a day or two. You'll want to limit to exposure to air as much as possible. When you're not using the guac, you'll want to cover and refrigerate. Cover it will plastic wrap and push the plastic wrap right against the guac. If a bit of dark color appears on the top of the quac you can scrape it off and expose nice brightly colored better tasting guac below.

Carne Asada, Taco Shop Style

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You can marinade and cook carne asada in many different ways. This is close to what you'd get from a Taco Shop in San Diego. I use a large cast iron pan on high heat. This works in tacos, burritos, tortas, pizza and whatever.