Tags: Little Foodies Taco Tuesday Weekday Meals
It’s Taco Tuesday!! Our favorite day of the week!
I’ll admit this obsession with tacos is a new development for me, but there’s no denying it’s true love! I love ALL tacos—chicken, beef, pork, fish, shrimp…soft, or crunchy—it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t even have to be traditional south-of-the-border style: I love me some Korean tacos from Kogi.
I didn’t always love tacos. Growing up, my mom cooked Mexican food ALL THE TIME! She loves Mexican food and could live off it. If she wasn’t cooking Mexican food at home, we were eating out at Mexican restaurants. We would drive from San Jose to Capitola JUST to eat at her favorite restaurant El Toro Bravo (a 40-minute drive…one way!). She’s a diehard.
Her homemade tacos are killer. She fries up her own crunchy taco shells and prepares tons of toppings so you can customize your tacos just the way you like them. Every time she made tacos, she’d ask my dad, “How many tacos, Brian?” He’d respond the same every time, “Line ‘em up, Ma!” I’m pretty sure everyone who’s ever tried my mom’s tacos would respond the same way.
Sadly I didn’t truly appreciate Mexican food growing up—I think it’s because we ate it so often—so I went out of my way to avoid it. At home I’d ask for mac-n-cheese instead, and at Mexican restaurants I’d order cheeseburgers (a common menu item at Mexican joints, surprisingly).
A few months after Adrian and I moved to Las Vegas, I got this intense craving for street tacos. I thought I was pregnant for sure! There was no other reason I’d be craving tacos. Instead of alarming Adrian I decided to just make tacos, see if the craziness would pass. I made carne asada street tacos with all the yummy toppings—onion, cilantro, radish and salsa. I ate about five or six tacos and realized what I had been missing all these years.
It was all down hill from there. I had tacos on the menu at least two times a week and I was not mad about it. Adrian dutifully supported me.
Unfortunately we can’t find a good Mexican restaurant out here in Virginia. I’m back to digging through library books to find authentic recipes. I’ve even resorted to thumbing through old Food Network magazines my mom gave me. And that’s actually where I stumbled upon the inspiration for this post. It was an old Aarón Sánchez article where he gave this cheat away, and I decided to try it out.
Now, the reason I call these “cheater fajitas” is because it feels like a huge cheat. There’s no 25-ingredient marinade to make or 42-spice rub to use before grilling which is what I expected from a super delicious fajita recipe. You simply marinate your meat in a can of store-bought pickled jalapeño peppers for 1 hour. The juice from the pickled peppers gives the meat a wonderful flavor that you’d swear came from a much more complicated process.
So, dust off the grill and give this recipe a try. And when everyone is praising your abilities as a cook, don’t tell them how simple it was to make. Ride that glory train for as long as you can!
CHEATER FAJITAS
- 2 lb flank steak
- 1 can pickled jalapeño peppers, including the onions and carrots if you can find it.
- 1 medium sweet onion, thickly sliced into rings
- 1 green bell pepper, sliced into large pieces
- Olive Oil
- Salt & Pepper, to taste
- Flour tortillas
Place steak in a rimmed baking dish and pour contents of pickled peppers on top. Let marinate for 1-hour. Skewer your onions and peppers and brush with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Wrap your tortillas in foil.
At the end of an hour, brush the pickled contents off of your meat and season with salt and pepper. Grill everything—meat, onions and peppers, and foil wrapped tortillas until everything is cooked to your liking.
Serve family style with guacamole and salsa or pico de gallo.
*NOTES:
- We cook our meat a little longer because we have little ones eating it and it can be a little chewy otherwise.
- I also tossed the pickled peppers because they were too spicy for us, but you can add those to skewers and grill those as well for a little added heat.
