Barbacoa Tacos

These were absolutely awesome. The smell of the ground chillies is amazing! This also comes from food network.

Ingredients

• 8 dried guajillo chiles, stemmed and seeded
• 2 plum tomatoes, quartered
• 1 small white onion, quartered
• 8 cloves garlic, unpeeled
• Kosher salt
• 2 pounds beef chuck, cut into 1-to-2-inch pieces
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro (leaves and stems)
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Corn tortillas, warmed, and assorted toppings, for serving

Directions

1. Heat a large cast-iron skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the chiles and cook, pressing them down with a spatula, 10 seconds per side; transfer to a plate. Add the tomatoes, onion and garlic to the skillet and cook, stirring once or twice, until the vegetables are charred in spots, about 10 minutes.
2. Peel the garlic and transfer to a blender along with the tomatoes and onion (reserve the skillet). Tear the chiles into pieces and add to the blender along with 1/2 cup water and 1 teaspoon salt; pulse until smooth. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into the skillet, pressing it through with the back of a spoon.
3. Add the beef to the skillet and turn to coat in the chile sauce using tongs. Cook over medium-high heat, turning occasionally, until a crust starts to form on the meat, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle in the cumin, cinnamon and cayenne pepper and cook 1 more minute. Meanwhile, puree 2 1/2 cups water, the cilantro and thyme in the blender; add to the skillet along with the bay leaves.
4. Reduce the heat to low. Cover and gently simmer until the meat is very tender, about 2 hours, adding up to 1 1/2 cups water if the sauce gets too thick. Remove the bay leaves and season with salt and black pepper. Serve in tortillas with assorted toppings.

Pork Adovada Tacos

This food network recipe got pretty close to replicating that yummy stuff we miss from Mi Madres Tacos in Austin.

Ingredients

• 3 pounds pork shoulder loin, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons California chile powder
• 2 tablespoons New Mexico chile powder
• 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 5 whole cloves
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cups soybean oil
• 8 to 12 white soft corn tortillas
• Diced white onion, for serving
• Chopped cilantro leaves, for serving
• Limes, for serving

Directions

1. Place the meat into an 11 by 12-inch baking dish. Toss the meat and dry ingredients with 2 cups soybean oil. Marinate overnight or for 6 hours covered in the refrigerator.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 C).
3. Bake, covered, in the oven for 45 to 60 minutes. Remove and allow to cool slightly.
4. When slightly cooled chop meat into small cubes. Serve on 2 warm soft white corn tortillas. Sprinkle with diced white onion and chopped cilantro, and of coarse a squeeze of fresh lime!

Asian marinated baked chicken

This was super simple and absolutely delicious. It is probably getting added to our regular rotation. I used boneless skinless chicken thighs but the recipe says that bone in, skin on chicken would work better. We only marinated it for an hour (maybe) but the recipe calls for 12-24. If it was this good after an hour of marination, I can only imagine how good it would taste after 12! I found this recipe on Yummly after googling around looking for a good chicken recipe that would use up my scallions as well. I think the original recipe is from Chow.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup soy sauce (I used half dark soy, and half malaysian sweet soy)
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 3 tbsps fresh ginger (peeled and finely chopped, from 1, 3- to 4-inch piece)
• 1 tbsp chopped garlic (finely, from about 5 medium cloves)
• 2 tsps toasted sesame oil
• 1 tsp ground black pepper (freshly)
• 3 lbs bone in skin on chicken thigh (drumsticks, or breasts, or a combination of all three, I used boneless skinless chicken thighs)
• Scallions (bunch, I had 6) chopped 

Instructions

1. Place everything except the chicken in a 13-by-9-inch broiler-proof baking dish and whisk to combine. If I was actually going to marinate this recipe overnight I would probably do this entire marination in a big ziplock. I also added a drizzle of some hot and sour dipping sauce I had because some of the original comments suggested it needed some chili flakes.
2. Lay the chicken in a single layer in the marinade and turn to coat. Add half the scallions as well. Cover, refrigerate, and marinate at least 12 hours and up to 24 hours, turning the chicken at least once during the marinating time. (The one hour, room temp marination also yielded mind-blowingly yummy chicken. I suspect longer marination would be better for bone-in, skin-on chicken.)
3. Remove the chicken from the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes. (This step is not necessary if using a ziplock bag for the marination.)Meanwhile, heat the oven to 475°F (250C) and arrange a rack in the middle.
4. Turn all the chicken pieces skin-side up in the dish (if you’re using drumsticks, just turn to recoat them in the marinade). Bake until the chicken is starting to turn a dark brown color, about 40 minutes. (We started with the dish covered and then removed the foil 20 minutes in and also turned the pieces over once while baking since mine were skinless.)
5. Set the oven to broil and broil until the chicken skin is crisped, about 3 to 5 minutes more. Skipped this step. Added remaining scallions over the top and ate with boiled white rice with the sauce drizzled over the top.

Delish.

Calories: As written, this marinade contains 577 calories (excluding the ginger, garlic and scallions as minimal.) As written, the entire dish contains 1617 calories (0.9 kg boneless skinless chicken thighs at 1000 calories) and probably yields about 4-5 servings (big eater servings :blush:) at 400 calories each. Add rice calories separately. Keep in  mind that you probably won't eat the entire marinade. We had most of it left over after drizzling some onto the rice. So I think a more accurate per serving calories count would be somewhere in the 300-350 range.