I make a lot of homemade tacos. A lot. It’s a good thing Ryan likes tacos. Mostly I use corn tortillas, occasionally flour, and once in a blue moon I’ll make hard tacos for Ryan. Those are the kind he remembers fondly from childhood. My taste buds have grown up, but as a nice wife, I occasionally, begrudgingly, make them.
I primarily use pork. Usually the same style chunky I use for pork green chile (cut even smaller). If I’m feeling fancy and a little rich, I use cut up steak. Chicken is rarely used although my waistline says I should eat more pollo tacos. Pollo is Spanish for chicken.
I think I’ve tried making fish tacos once or twice, but quite frankly, I’d rather have someone else handle cooking any fish for me. Although I can cook salmon. If anyone has a super easy fish taco recipe for me, send it to [email protected].
The key to making homemade tacos is adding freshly cut onion and cilantro before serving. Last night, I made pork tacos and forgot the buy cilantro. Our garden cilantro stopped growing when it got hot. So, therefore, we sadly went without.
As you can see by the photos, I like a few pieces of jalapeno or serrano peppers sprinkled on mine. I call this Heidi-Style, as I have never seen it at a food truck or Mexican restaurant.
Instant Pot Pork Butt Makes a Delicious Carnitas Taco (2023)
I don’t have a recipe for meat. I just thrown in whatever spicy seasonings I have on hand which is usually a lot. Also, I have found that cooking the pork in water with garlic and all the spices, and then letting the water boil off and adding olive oil and letting it fry a little, is my kind of home cooked pork perfection. This is also the way I start making pork green chile. Yesterday I throw a half a ghost pepper into the water mixture as it boiled down.
If you ask me, there is no wrong or right way to make homemade tacos—do what floats your boat. But if you want it extra delicious, the way it is usually served to you from a taco truck, this is the key:
fry up the tortilla, just a little. I use my small frying pan on medium heat. Put down butter (not olive oil) and then throw in a taco-sized tortilla (corn or flour). Then I put a little pad of butter on top of that and throw another tortilla on top of the first one. Letting the butter melt a few seconds, I then flip only the top one so the melted butter side is now up. Then, I flip both tortillas so that the second one is now face down on the heat.
I removed the first tortilla because it’s done, and start the process all over. Pad of butter, let it melt, flip entirely, pull off the face up tortilla. As I write this, I realize why people have YouTube videos about cooking. Even for a writer, it sort of hard to explain the method to my madness.
It’s super easy. However you do it, know that frying up your tortilla a little is a game changer. Next, throw on the meat, followed by a little cotija cheese, if you have some on hand, sprinkle on the onion and cilantro, and add some hot sauce if that suits you.
Feeling fancy? Add a slice of avocado and a radish. Like things spicy? Add a sprinkle of chopped jalapeno or serrano pepper. Sometimes I add a little sour cream before the meat because we are heathens. Crema would be the more acceptable item to add, but I find that it goes bad super fast, so I seldom keep it around. I should make my own crema.
And that’s it! Not necessarily a super fast dish, but it’s not difficult either. Happy taco making!