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Turn off your oven and grill tacos this summer

June 26, 2018Uncategorizedal pastor, al pastor tacos, apple, authentic mexican, best tacos, black pepper, carne asada, carne asada tacos, Chef Yankel, chicken breasts, chicken tacos, corn tortillas, good tacos, grill taco, grilled steak, mexican, mexican food, mexican restaurant, Mexico, pork tacos, refried beans, taco grill, tex mexDennis Keohane

Tacos.

You can never go wrong with tacos. And while in a former life I wouldn’t blink at “Making a Run for the Border” for a few late night beef, cheese, and lettuce treats. These days, there are too many good things happening with tacos to out there to even think about heading to the Taco Bell.

Not only are there a lot of Mexican restaurants concocting tacos with fantastic flavor combinations or perfecting the classic Mexican street taco, but there are also a plethora of amazingly delicious taco recipes out there these days that are quick, easy, and affordable.

For a truly splendid taco experience, you need to make them yourself. Skip the stovetop, skillet, and box of hard tortilla shells and seasoning mix, and throw lightly seasoned grass-fed flank steak on the grill, and thank us later.

There is no better time than summer to fire up the grill and make your carne asada tacos or grilled chicken tacos.

We even fully support cranking up the slow cooker for some al pastor or carnitas with a heritage breed pork butt. But, you don’t even need to do that. You can make both pork taco dishes on your grill as well.

Before we get into some great tactics for making the best grill tacos this summer, let’s quickly dig into how the delicious food became so popular in the first place.

Silver mines to street tacos to Tex-Mex

According to Jeffrey M. Pilcher, professor of history at the University of Minnesota and the author of the book Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food, tacos as we know them today can be traced to the snacking habits of Mexican silver miners.

Pilcher explains in his book that, “People have been eating corn tortillas with bits of meat or beans rolled up inside for more than a millennium.” These corn-dough snack foods were known as antojitos and would come in many shapes with a variety of fillings.

The Spanish word taco was used for a “small bite of food” well before it can be found used in Mexico, according to Taco Planet. The term was also used for firearm plugs, among other things. At one point, “taco” was slang for gunpowder wrapped in paper used by silver miners outside of the town of Pachuca. It happened that these Mexican miners also preferred rolled tacos — and used that same term for both explosives and their packable lunches. Once the silver mining operations died down, they brought their rolled version of the dish to the streets of Mexico City, and then later to the American Southwest.

Tacos emerged in the American Southwest in the mid-twentieth century due to cultural intermingling and one particular food entrepreneur.

Mexican Americans living in the “borderlands” created various versions of tacos influenced by the mixing of cultures along the US-Mexico line. Tex-Mex, New Mexican, and Cal-Mex cuisines all had their own versions of the taco. Rolled tacos, for instance, are still popular at authentic Mexican restaurants in Southern California today.

While at a rolled taco shop in California in the 1960’s when hot dog vendor Glenn Bell realized he could quicken the pace of the methods used to make the long-cooking, fried rolled tacos. He realized he could do for the taco what McDonald’s did for the cheeseburger and opened his first taco shop in San Bernadino. Taking a relatively little-used preparation technique — the pre-fried, U-shaped, crispy corn tortilla shells — Bell’s restaurant, which eventually became Taco Bell, turned a Mexican food tradition into an American staple.

But the best tacos are grill tacos

There’s a bit of a food culture backlash against Glenn Bell’s crispy creation among taco aficionados. The days, the standard Mexican street taco — or at least a version of it with soft corn tortillas, barbacoa or carnitas, and a garnish of onions and cilantro — has become more prevalent at authentic Mexican restaurants, hole-in-the-wall Mom-and-Pop joints, street vendors, food trucks, and the like.

In his book on tacos, Jeffrey Pilcher even made a trek to Hermosillo, Mexico, to try the regions hard-to-find, traditional taco specialty, carne asada tacos. To make a point about “fast food,” he recounts the two minutes it took the husband and wife street cart vendors to grill their steak to perfection and fill it in warm tortillas with onions and cilantro. On his return to America, he compares his experience in Hermosillo with the two minutes it took the staff at a Los Angeles Taco Bell to nuke their take on the steak taco.

The best part of the move away from pre-mixed taco seasoning and ground beef tacos is that people now realize, just as Pilcher did, that it is as easy to make grill tacos in the far more delicious and fresh manner by cooking a lightly-seasoned steak on a grill or slow-cooking pork tacos.

We love all kinds of tacos, and we don’t think anyone can beat tacos with grilled grass-fed steaks, like flank steak or skirt steak, as well as free-range organic chicken breasts and heritage breed pork butt.

There is no comparison to marinating a steak overnight in some sweet and spicy marinade and throwing it on the grill, and then cutting it up, throwing it in some warm corn tortillas, and then adding some fresh radish or cabbage or cilantro. This dish is obviously best with some refried beans and an ice-cold Modelo.

We even found a recipe created by our friends at Traeger Grills that allows you to make al pastor tacos right on the grill.

But for all the recipes we love, few compare to Head ButcherBox Chef Yankel Polak’s delicious and easy NY strip steak tacos — grilled to perfection, sliced, and then mixed with a cabbage slaw.

Check it out one of the best taco recipes we’ve tried below:

Sweet and Sour NY Strip Tacos with Cabbage Slaw

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

2 ButcherBox NY Strip Steaks
Marinade and Slaw Dressing
¼ c sesame oil
¼ c honey
¼ c coconut aminos
¼ c rice vinegar
4 Tbsp sesame seeds
Slaw
2 c shredded napa cabbage
½ c shredded carrots
½ c shredded Gala apple (any apple works!)
salt and black pepper to taste
2 Tbsp fresh chopped cilantro (optional, for garnish)

Directions

1. Mix all marinade ingredients. Use ½ to marinate the steaks overnight, and reserve other ½ for the slaw.

2. Mix cabbage, apples, and carrots. Dress with marinade and refrigerate overnight for best flavor.

3. Preheat grill. If using an open flame, wait for flames to die down. Right before grilling, make sure grill surface is extremely hot, then rub it down with an oil-soaked rag – we advise using tongs to hold the rolled-up rag.

4. For medium-rare, place NY Strip Steak at 45° angle across hottest part of grill grates, then grill for 2 – 3 min per side, while rotating 90° every 1 ½ min. Move steak to the cooler part of the grill, then grill for 4 min per side. Keep your meat moving to ensure that it cooks evenly. Remove from grill when a meat thermometer inserted into thickest part reads 120°F.

5. Rest for at least 8 min. Slice thinly against the grain.

6. Serve steak topped with slaw in your favorite taco shell or sticky bun. Garnish with fresh cilantro and enjoy!

6 of our favorite bacon recipes you need in your life right now

June 6, 2018Uncategorizedapple, bacon cheddar, bacon cheeseburger, bacon jam, bacon makes, bacon ranch, bacon recipes, blt, bourbon bacon, brown sugar, california, cheddar cheese, cook bacon, crisp bacon, crispy bacon, easy recipe, grilled cheese, maple bacon, maple syrup, mashed potatoes, pork chops, smoky baconDennis Keohane

We are very passionate about bacon here at ButcherBox. So much so, it is sometimes all we think about.

We love crisp bacon in all manner of form and function, as a side dish or a main dish: In a cheddar cheese omelet, featured on a bacon cheeseburger, in a delish BLT, wrapped around a steak, wrapped inside a chicken breast, smashed into in grilled cheese, mixed into mashed potatoes, in a salad — maybe a California Cobb or in bacon ranch dressing — maple bacon, apple bacon, bourbon bacon…any type of crispy bacon makes us swoon.

We have experimented and devised a number of ways to cook bacon.

Many of the recipes that we use over and over again — with delicious results every time — are developed by our own Head ButcherBox Chef, Yankel Polak.

We have also discovered some amazing bacon recipes created by some friends of ButcherBox.

Here are our favorite bacon recipes at the moment:

Chef Yankel’s Candied Bacon
Bacon candy! This amazing recipe allows you to easily make bacon that you can serve and eat as a standalone dish. This savory treat is enhanced by the addition of maple syrup, sriracha, and brown sugar flavors. Trendy, high-class cocktail bars and restaurants are replacing their bar peanuts with candy bacon more and more. But you don’t have to go out to enjoy this amazing take on bacon. Grab a baking sheet and in 16 minutes and 6 easy steps, you can have Chef Yankel’s “Perfect Candied Bacon” for yourself.
Bacon-wrapped Filet
What’s better than a juicy filet mignon? Why a filet wrapped in bacon of course. Chef Yankel has a great recipe for a luxurious dinner — made all the better with our grass-fed ButcherBox beef — featuring bacon-wrapped filets. His “Bacon Wrapped Filet with Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes and Mushroom Red Wine Sauce” is the perfect dinner for two.
Bacon-stuffed Pork Chops
The folks at Smoked n’ Grilled have concocted a pork masterpiece: The “Bacon-and-Asiago-stuffed Pork Chops” recipe is simple and packed with rich flavor. Use our ButcherBox heritage-breed pork chops and our thick, smoky bacon, and you cannot go wrong with this dish.
The Ultimate Bacon Cheeseburger
Chef Yankel loves to talk about this time working at a restaurant that catered to the late-night service industry crowd. During the late night hours with a dining room packed with chefs, line cooks, and bartenders, Chef Yankel would experiment with different ways to make that quintessential American food, the cheeseburger, just a little bit better. The fruits of his labors resulted in this amazing, bacon-heavy recipe for his unique bacon cheeseburger with this recipe: “ButcherBox Bacon Burger with Chipotle-Lime Mayo.”
Bacon and Sausage Patties
Kristen Boehmer at Living Loving Paleo has done the unimaginable. She has created the perfect recipe for combining all of our favorite breakfast flavors: Bacon, sausage, and maple. Check out her easy recipe for “Maple Bacon Sausage Patties,” and thank us later.
Bacon and Swiss Quiche The best way to cook breakfast in the morning is to prepare it the night before. Chef Yankel’s “Bacon and Swiss Quiche,” is an easy recipe to get ahead of the game while hosting a big brunch or just lazily heading into Sunday morning.

Now that you are armed with the greatest bacon recipes, all you need to do is get your hands on some smoky bacon.

How to braise beef and why it’s one of the best cooking methods

March 20, 2018Uncategorizedapple, aromatic vegetables, bay leaf, bay leaves, beef broth, beef chuck, beef recipe, beef stock, best cuts, black pepper, braise meat, braised beef, braising beef, braising liquid, brown, browned bits, butcherbox recipe, chef, Chef Yankel, chicken stock, chuck pot roast, chuck roast, cook, cooking method, cooking time, dutch oven, flavorful liquid, fork tender, fresh herbs, great flavor, high heat, low heat, medium-high heat, olive oil, pot roast, pot roasting, red wine, rosemary, rump roast, short ribs, slow cooker, tender cuts, tomato paste, tough cutDennis Keohane

Whenever I come across braised short ribs on a restaurant menu, I have a hard time passing up the delectable dish. Just thinking about it, I can taste the melt-in-your-mouth, flavorful meat. In all my short rib adventures, I’ve never stopped to wonder how chefs create such divine creations.

The secret, I discovered comes down to braising.

A cooking method mixing high dry heat, low moist heat, and time

Braising is a two-step cooking method that uses both high-heat for a short period and low-heat for a longer period of time. First, it involves browning meat in olive oil, butter, ghee, or some other fat — on high heat — usually by sauteing in a pan. Second, the meat is cooked in a covered dish, in the juices left from the browning and often also with an added liquid such as stock, water, etc.

The second, slow-cooking step is done in a tightly covered pot, like a dutch oven, or, often, in a slow-cooker. This process is also sometimes referred to as “pot roasting.”

Slow-cooking — and, well, the use of a slow-cooker or Crock Pot — helps to add flavor and tenderizes tougher cuts of beef and other meats.

According to The Kitchen Encyclopedia, published in 1911, “Braising is a method much used in France, and is a cross between boiling and baking.” The word itself derives from the French word brasier, which is a form of braise, meaning “live coals.” A brasier or brazier, in French and English, is also another name for a receptacle to burn coal or charcoal. Dutch ovens can also be called brasiers. The origin of the term braising seems to come from a French word for a method using both dry heat and moist heat.

Why braise?

Braising can be done with any meat but is most often done with tough cuts of meat, because tender cuts usually don’t need additional tenderizing or flavor.

Cuts that traditionally have less flavor — say a chuck roast, shoulder steak, chuck pot roast, pork butt, or beef chuck arm — are the best cuts to use and may need richer braising liquids. The best way to add great flavor is with beef broth or chicken stock, as well as spices like rosemary, bay leaves, and other fresh herbs. Moreover, braising done in the style of a pot roast can include aromatic vegetables — carrots, onions, and more — for additional flavor.

How to braise meat

The first step of braising takes about ten minutes, but achieving truly fall-apart-tender meat takes many hours of cooking time. Our in-house ButcherBox Chef Yankel Polak recommends seasoning the meat with salt and black pepper, then searing your meat until you get a nice brown crust. When cooking pork, he likes to use apple cider as a braising liquid that can also help scraping the browned bits of meat left from searing. Chef Yankel also recommends adding tomato paste to your braising liquid for texture and taste. For added flavor and simplicity, he also advises using the same pot to sear and cook, covering the dish after the flavorful liquid and browned meat have simmered.

A long, slow cook is crucial for breaking down the proteins and tenderizing the meat. You’ll need to cook for at least an hour and a half to two hours (depending on the size of your cut of meat) in the oven set to 300 degrees. Cooking on low heat allows the meat to cook slowly as the braising liquid evaporates. It is this process that makes dishes like pulled pork, carnitas, and roasts fork-tender.

Whether cooking pork in the slow cooker or keeping a watchful eye on a roast spending a day in a Dutch oven, meat braising in its juices and spiced-up flavor can turn a simple cut of beef or pork into a truly amazing dish.

You can find some of Chef Yankel’s favorite recipes to braise beef, chicken, or pork here, or watch the video below for more braising techniques.

If you want more from Chef Yankel, check out his recommendations for the best red wine to pair with braised beef and other dishes.

Our monthly ButcherBox comes often comes with cuts like pork butt and grass-fed beef roasts that are perfect for braising. You can also get these cuts in a custom ButcherBox. If you’re not a member already, you can sign up here.