Hi guys! Long time,
no talk! I took last week off because we
moved. We are all settled in now. I still have a few boxes in my room left to
unpack, but we are pretty much “in” for the most part. This move reminded me how much I hate
moving. I will live in this house until
the day I die. I don’t care what I have
to do to stay here….I will make it happen.
Moving is a nightmare.
Enough bitching….onto the food;)
Think I have talked about this before, but Reno has a pretty
good street food scene going on here lately.
Of course, my favorite food truck is Gourmelt. And not just because they are using my Smoky
Chipotle BBQ sauce in their special sandwich of the week this week, but
because….it is a truck that serves all grilled cheeses. Hello…..it doesn’t get any better than
that! The owners are also super
cool. But there is another truck here
that I have been fascinated with. It is
called “Kenji’s” and they serve Asian/Mexican fusion as well as some Hawaiian
food.
The first time I heard about this truck, I was super excited
to go. Then I checked their Facebook
page and found out that they basically only serve in downtown when the bars
were closing. I thought “Perfect! I will go the next time I am out getting my
drink on downtown.” And then I remembered
that I have never done that. I have
never been to the bars in downtown Reno.
I don’t even know what constitutes a cool bar. And I
especially wouldn’t be awake at 2 in the morning. So I resigned myself to the fact that I would
never get to enjoy Kenji’s. But
then…..they showed up at the Spark’s Farmer’s Market. I got to try their Asian tacos….and I was in
love.
Their Asian tacos are grilled chicken or steak that has been
marinated in Asian flavors. They serve the tacos on corn tortillas, like a street
taco. They are topped with cilantro,
chopped white onion and the most delicious pickle-like cucumber.
I realized that I could pretty easily do this at home. This will save me the trouble of stalking
them at 2am. I’m not trying to say that
I am as cool as them, or my Asian tacos are better….I’m just trying to say that
nobody wants this 35 year old downtown at 2am.
I call my Asian tacos Huli Huli Tacos. You will see why. They were frickin’ amazing. Maybe I will get my own food truck. I will show up at Little League games and
elementary schools at pick-up time so moms like me can enjoy a good Asian taco.
I started with chicken thighs, thin cut rib-eye and a bottle
of Huli Huli sauce. Huli Huli sauce is a
Hawaiian specialty. It is basically their
BBQ sauce. It is like soy sauce, but
sweeter and it has ginger in it. It is
delicious. I got my bottle at Cost Plus,
but it is pretty easy to find. I prefer
it to regular soy sauce.
If you absolutely can’t find it….use a mix of soy sauce and
teriyaki sauce.
I marinated my chicken and steak in Huli Huli sauce
overnight. I rubbed it around every once
in a while to make sure it was sinking in.
I really let these bad boys marinate along time.
A couple of hours before I was ready to grill my meats, I
made my version of the cucumbers that Kenji’s uses on their tacos. I may be a complete copy cat, but I keep
telling myself that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
I used cucumbers, brown sugar, Huli Huli sauce, rice
vinegar, Sriracha hot sauce, garlic, and sesame oil.
I mixed together all the ingredients but the cucumbers. It won’t seem like much liquid for the amount
of cucumber, but remember….as they soak, the salt in the Huli Huli sauce will
pull out a lot of moisture. In fact, there will be so much liquid...you will need a slotted spoon to pull the finished product out.
Toss in your diced up cucumbers and cover this with plastic
wrap. Let the bowl sit in your fridge
for a couple of hours. The cucumbers
will soak up all the goodness and become sort of an Asian pickle.
After the chicken has marinated for a super long time….toss
it on the grill. I used my indoor grill
because I haven’t managed to find my charcoal yet. I am pretty sure it got thrown away…..
I grilled it until it was cooked through. These pieces are pretty small and flat so it
went quickly. About 4 to 5 minutes a
side.
I also grilled my steak, about 3 to 4 minutes a side because
it was super thin.
Then, I chopped up all the meat into tiny pieces. Not minced or anything, but smaller than bite
sized.
The last step before I assembled my tacos was to make a sauce
to drizzle over the tacos. I used mayonnaise,
white sugar and Sriracha hot sauce.
I stirred the 3 ingredients together and poured it into a
squirty bottle. If you don’t have one,
don’t sweat it. You can drizzle the
sauce over with a spoon.
I used white corn tortillas.
I used 2 per taco. I tossed mine
on my gas grill to get them a little more pliable. I set them directly on the burner and cooked
both sides for less than a minute. If
you don’t have a gas grill, throw the tortillas on your BBQ if you are outdoor
grilling.
Assembly time….
For my chicken taco, I layered the diced chicken, chopped
white onion, chopped cilantro, my “pickles” and my special spicy sauce.
Same for my steak taco.
Holy crap…these were so good! The meat is salty, sweet and so crazy
good. But the best part is the cucumbers
mixed with the yummy special sauce. The “pickles” are sweet, salty and
spicy. So, so good. I don’t
want to brag….but Chris ate 8. And not
just because he is freakishly large. But
because they were that good.
Watch out Kenji’s. I
don’t need you and your 2 am truck;)
Huli Huli Tacos
½ pound chicken thighs, boneless and skinless
½ pound thin cut rib-eye, or your favorite cut
1 ½ cups Huli Huli sauce
24 white corn tortillas
½ cup cilantro, chopped
¾ cup white onion, chopped
Special sauce-recipe to follow
Asian “pickles”-recipe to follow
Place chicken and steak in its own re-sealable plastic
bag. Divide Huli Huli sauce
equally. Place meats in fridge and let
marinate for at least 8 hours.
Remove meat from marinade and pat dry. Grill chicken on BBQ, about 4-5 minutes per
side. Let rest. Grill steak on BBQ, about 3-4 minutes per
side. Let rest.
Once meats have rested, chop into bite sized pieces.
Warm tortillas on grill to make them pliable. Place 2 tortillas on plate, right on top of
each other. Layer meat, chopped onion,
chopped cilantro, “pickles”, and special sauce.
Makes 12 tacos
Asian “Pickles”
1 large cucumber, diced
½ cup Huli Huli Sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 dashes Sriracha Hot Sauce
Mix together all ingredients except for cucumbers. Pour mixture over chopped cucumber. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at
least 2 hours.
Special Sauce
½ cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 to 2 teaspoons Sriracha Hot Sauce
Mix together all ingredients. Chill until ready to use.
No comments:
Post a Comment