We're making barbacoa today, or shredded beef tacos.
They're going to slow cook for five hours.
The important thing, whether you're using a dutch oven
and slow roasting in your oven
or slow cooking in an electric devise,
is that you put color on that protein first.
Color equals flavor in cooking.
So, I've got a beautiful lean piece of beef brisket here.
This would feed a small army.
A nice four to five pound brisket is what I brought home.
Toast some spices and make the cooking liquid
or the brazing liquid.
Little more olive or vegetable oil in the bottom of the pot,
and now we're going to toast our spices.
We're going to use two palm fulls of smokey, earthy cumin.
We're going to add one palm full of oregano.
Cumin's best buddy is coriander.
So we're gonna use a fat palm full of coriander.
Then, we're going to add a little bit of clove,
couple little pinches.
Then, my favorite ingredient in this,
about a quarter cup of pureed Chipotle and adobo.
Smoked hot peppers in vinegar and spice.
A couple of fat bay leaves.
A piece of a cinnamon stick and stir
that beautiful mixture around,
and then we're gonna throw in a handful of crushed garlic
into our mix.
We're going to add in half a quart of beef stock,
and for acidity, you can use half a bottle of beer
or the juice of a couple of limes.
I'm going to add about a quarter cup of lime juice
down to this blend,
and then we're going to put the meat back, of course.
Throw this in the oven or your slow cooker,
and let it go on high in the slow cooker
or 275 in your conventional oven for five hours.
So when we come back, we'll talk about what happens
five hours later and some of the toppings for our taco bar.
(audience applauding)
So when you're about ready to serve
and shred up your barbacoa
or the shredded beef for your taco night,
we're going to make a couple of accessories
to put up on top.
So, simple pickled onions is the first one
I'm gonna show you.
This is one red onion, and we are going to quick pickle it
right on the stove top by heating up about a half a cup
of white wine vinegar or cider vinegar.
Then you're gonna add about a teaspoon of sugar
and about a half a teaspoon of salt.
Let those two items dissolve into the warm acid,
in this case the vinegar.
Add your onions, spin 'em around, turn it off
and let them come back to room temperature
and then chill them until you're ready to serve.
Easy quick pickled onion.
Now I'm gonna take and add to the chili peppers
and the red onion, the whites and light greens
of a couple of scallions or green onion.
Tabasco makes a Chipotle pepper sauce,
and since we're serving this with the meat and the Chipotle,
and the mint is bright and the cilantro's bright
or verdant, as John would say,
I'm gonna balance it with a couple of shakes
from the Chipotle hot sauce in there too,
and then lastly, we add all of our chopped tomatoes,
about two cups of finely chopped seeded tomatoes.
So there you go, there's our salsa.
I'm gonna crumble up some queso fresco or asadero,
any easy, white crumbly cheese
that you wanna serve for this.
I'm gonna crumble that up over the break.
Come on back, I'll show you the rest of our toppings.
Oh, that's ready.
(audience applauding)
Hey guys.
So, it's taco night.
I made barbacoa or shredded beef.
I always, if I'm serving a hard shell taco,
if I'm making a taco bar, I offer everything.
I offer flat bottom, hard shell tacos
and corn and flour charred tortillas.
For your soft tortillas, corn or flour,
if you have a gas top stove, just turn the burner on
and brown them literally, directly over the flame
right on the burner.
For the meat, when I took it out of the oven,
you know how this goes, right, just like shredded pork,
you grab two forks and just shred your brisket,
bring over your shredded beef and let 'em have at it.
Now our toppings over here, our crumbled queso,
our pickled onions, extra cilantro,
pickled jalapeno peppers, which I love on everything,
our homemade pico de gallo, wedges of lime
and especially with beef,
I love very thinly shaved radishes, delicious.
Any extra sauces or hot sauces of choice,
and there you go, it's taco night.
(audience applauding)