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  • Hey guys, welcome back to Basics with Babish. For this week, I've partnered with Blue Apron to help transform taco night.

  • Blue Apron is a meal kit delivery service that makes it easy to cook healthy meals at home and the first

  • hundred people to sign up using the link in this video's description will get $50 off their first two weeks of deliveries.

  • We're going to use this kit to make some Asian-Inspired Hoisin Chicken Tacos later.

  • But for now, let's get all our new toys in the fridge and get down to Basics

  • {Basics with Babish Intro Music}

  • Okay, so first thing's first. I'm in the mood for corn tortillas.

  • If you want to make flour tortillas check out the Fish Tacos episode of Binging with Babish

  • Otherwise follow along with me as we combine 2 cups of Masa Harina with one and a quarter cups water.

  • Mix gently by hand and pat into a ball.

  • That's it. Mic Drop

  • Cover with plastic wrap and let it rest for 20 minutes before pressing into tortillas using a tortilla press,

  • and a plastic food storage bag that you have cut open like a book. This prevents the tortilla dough from

  • sticking to the tortilla press. So now, just roll out golf ball sized balls of dough, close the tortilla press and let it do what it does best.

  • "But Babish," You might be asking, "What if I didn't spend $30 on a 10 pound cast-iron unitasker that I'll probably only use once a year?"

  • Well, the answer lies in the heavy bottom of a good ol' fashioned skillet.

  • Simply press down firmly on our plastic bag contraption, oop...little bit more firmly than that.

  • Put you whole body into it and...Presto! You'll be greeted with the same high-quality homemade tortilla.

  • Once you've got your tortillas out of whatever press you're using, you'll want to bring it over to a waiting, preheated, non-stick or cast-iron skillet.

  • Make sure it's ripping hot and flip after 30 seconds to 1 minute, or until you've got a few brown spots.

  • Let it go for maybe another 20 seconds on the other side before removing from the heat and keeping warm in a

  • tortilla warmer or in a low oven, wrapped in foil.

  • Alright, so now that we've got our tortillas finished, it's time to address the matter of what to put inside them.

  • I'm gonna make 3 different kinds of tacos. I'm gonna start off by making a chimichurri for steak.

  • Into a food processor, I'm placing one Fresno pepper, a few cloves of garlic, a handful of parsley (or cilantro,

  • if that's your thing), a quarter cup of olive oil and a few tablespoons of red wine vinegar.

  • I'm also going to lightly season it with salt and freshly ground pepper, and then it's time to take it for a spin

  • until it is lightly chopped but not fully pureed. This is going to act as both the sauce and the marinade for

  • our skirt steak. Oops, do not forget to fold down the top of your bag so you don't get any meat juice on the

  • outside of the bag, and add about half of our chimichurri, reserving the other half for later application.

  • Squeeze all the air out and give it a nice deep tissue massage, making sure the marinade is evely distributed.

  • Place in a glass bowl and fridge for at least 30 minutes and up to overnight. Now, let's do some chicken.

  • We didn't have much time to shoot this episode, so I'm going to make 3 different kinds of tacos, all at once. I hope you don't mind.

  • We're starting by butterflying the chicken, placing it into a similarly outfitted bag, and preparing a simple marinade,

  • courtesy of America's Test Kitchen. A few cloves of roughly chopped garlic, the juice of two limes,

  • a good shake each of white pepper, cumin, smoked paprika, oregano, and for a little bit of heat, cayenne pepper.

  • You can omit this, if you're a wuss.

  • We're also gonna add a good drizzle of olive oil, a healthy sprinkling of salt, and a few twists of freshly ground black pepper.

  • We're also gonna add a little bit of a sugar. This is gonna help with the browning of the chicken later on.

  • Whisk together, and toss that bad boy into the marinade bag, give it a massage, put it in a bowl, and fridge it for

  • 1 to 4 hours. Last up, I'm going to make some tacos with chorizo and potato. For this we're gonna start by simply

  • peeling and chopping our potato into nice little bite-sized cubes. And then we're going to put them into a pot and

  • cover them with cold water, which we're going to slowly bring up to a boil. We're gonna salt the water a little bit

  • for flavor and expedited boiling, which takes a long time when you use a blowtorch. Just kidding.

  • We're also gonna add a little bit of white vinegar. This is gonna help the potatoes retain their structure.

  • After parboiling these for about 10 minutes, drain and place them on a rimmed baking sheet to cool completely.

  • Next up, the accoutrements for our chicken. We're going to make Rajas Con Crema, which are poblano peppers

  • that have been roasted and cooked in a zesty sort of Mexican sour cream.

  • You can tell I'm excited to roast some peppers, because it means I get to burn things over an open flame,

  • and that's just what we're doing. Putting these guys right on the stove grate until they turn black on the outside.

  • We're then wrapping them in foil to soften them up, letting them rest for 10 minutes, unwrapping them,

  • and peeling off all the black stuff. I often like to leave this stuff on, but apparently it's bad for you,

  • so I can't really recommend it. Anyway, now that we've got them nice and peeled and safe for consumption,

  • we're gonna slice them into strips. And these ones look a little bit too long so I'm also going to cut them

  • crosswise so that they're nice and bite-sized. Now, also for the chicken tacos, we're gonna make some

  • quick-pickled radishes aka one of the few beautiful comforts in an otherwise cold, indifferent universe.

  • Simply scrub, wash and thinly slice your radishes, put them in a heatproof bowl, and pour some boiling

  • apple cider vinegar over top. If you're just making these for snacking, like I do, you can also add things like

  • mustard seeds, and whole peppercorns, and fresh dill, but these will do nicely for our purposes. We're gonna let

  • these quick-pickle for about an hour, or until they've cooled off. Last piece of accoutrements, some simply

  • diced onions, combined with a little bit of chopped, fresh parsley (or cilantro), and the juice of one lime.

  • Mix it up and let it sit for 15 minutes. Now, at long last, it's time to head over to the stove.

  • This is kind of an interesting episode of Basics, because it's the workload that you'd have if you were making

  • all 3 of these tacos for like a dinner party or something. Anyway, we're starting by browning some chorizo that

  • we've squeezed out of its skin, and in another nonstick pan we're getting some onion started with a little bit of

  • olive oil. These will be for the Rajas Con Crema. Once they've softened up a little bit, it's time to add the Rajas,

  • otherwise known as the roast poblano peppers from earlier. We're gonna season those will a little bit of dried

  • oregano, and let them get to know each other just a little bit. During which time, we can throw our steak on a

  • preheated cast-iron skillet. This is skirt steak, so you'll remember that we want this ripping hot, so we can cook

  • it as fast as possible. Same goes for our nice, thin butterflied chicken. Next up, we're adding about a

  • quarter cup of heavy cream and the juice of half a lime to our poblano-pepper-onion mixture and simmering that

  • for about 5 minutes or until thickened. We're also gonna season it with a little bit of salt and pepper.

  • The lime helps emulate the sort of "zing" that we would've gotten from real Mexican Crema.

  • Now that the chorizo is nice and brown, we're gonna put it on a plate, set it aside.

  • Reserve a little bit of that sausage fat, adding to it a little bit of vegetable oil. While that's heating up, check the

  • browning on our steaks, give them a flip if they're ready to go, and once the fat in the chorizo pan is nice and

  • sizzling hot, we're gonna add our parboiled potatoes, leaving them untouched over high heat for about

  • 2 minutes, so we get some nice, crispy brown spots. Achieve some steak flame, that it totally going on

  • Instagram, and remove once the interior of our steak reaches 130 degrees Fahrenheit. Cover with foil and set

  • aside to rest. Give the potatoes a flip now that they've browned and crisped up a little bit.

  • Give the chicken a flip, make sure it's not overcooking. We don't want those going over 165(F). Try to keep

  • sampling and tasting as you go, so you know how you want adjust the seasoning of each element of a dish.

  • I'm gonna add some salt, and a little splash of olive oil to help these guys finish up. Once the potatoes have some

  • nice brown stuff on them, add back the sausage, and boom, those are done. Just heat the mixture the whole

  • way through while chicken stubbornly comes up to temperature. The steak and the chicken have rested so

  • it's time to carve. We're cutting across the grain, on the steak and then cutting it into bite-sized pieces.

  • The chicken, cut it up however you like, just make sure it'll fit in a taco.

  • And at long last, it's time to plate up. One taco with a healthy helping of our chorizo-potato mixture, one with

  • a few strips of our steak, and one with a few strips of chicken. You can obviously top these up however you

  • like, but I like to put the Rajas Con Crema on the chicken, with a few of the pickled radishes, a little bit of the

  • reserved chimichurri sauce on the steak, our onion and "fake cilantro" (parsley) mixture on the chorizo-potato,

  • and all 3 with a generous helping of Cotija cheese. If you can't find Cotija, Feta is an acceptable substitute, sort of.

  • And there you have it: 3 delicious, if a bit labor-intensive, tacos, sure to spice things up at your next dinner party.

  • But what about something a little bit more weeknight? Little bit healthier, little bit easier, Blue Apron's got oop,

  • shoot, Blue Apron's got us covered with some Asian-Inspired Hoisin Chicken Tacos.

  • Start by cutting the 4 included sweet potatoes into wedges, and then we're gonna prepare a mixture in

  • which to toss them. We're gonna start by placing into a large bowl a little dab of white miso paste, a tablespoon

  • of water and two tablespoons of olive oil. We're also gonna season this with salt, and freshly ground pepper.

  • Then we wanna whisk the whole thing together until it is a homogenous slurry, I'm sorry I didn't use tiny whisk, into

  • which we are going to toss our sweet potato wedges. Give them a little toss until they are evenly coated in the mixture.

  • We are then arranging these guys on a parchment or aluminum foil lined baking sheet, and placing in a 425F oven for 25-30 minutes.

  • During which time we are going to get the fillings for the tacos ready. We are stemming and seeding 4oz of sweet,

  • adorable little peppers that we are then halving and thinly slicing. We're gonna put those in a bowl with 2

  • smashed and roughly chopped garlic cloves, then we're going to bust out our woefully inadequate backup

  • vegetable peeler, and peel the skin off a little 1-inch knob of fresh ginger, that we're then going to finely mince,

  • you can also run this through a microplane if you like. That's the cool thing about Blue Apron; if you follow the

  • directions to a tee, you're gonna end up with a great meal, but you can also put your own spin on it,

  • or employ your own techniques. Next up, I am following the directions and thinly slicing 2 small, halved

  • cucumbers, along with the white parts of two scallions, I'm gonna give those a rough chop so they're a little bit

  • less intrusive, and add those to the cucumbers along with the cutest little bottle of rice vinegar that you ever did see.

  • We're also gonna add a little splash of olive oil and season this with salt and freshly ground pepper and let it marinate for the 20 minutes or so until the tacos are done.

  • Little bit more accoutrement to take care of, we're going to thinly slice the green parts of the scallions, and season a tiny little serving of creme fraiche with a little bit of salt and freshly ground pepper.

  • And now it's time move over to the stove top. We gotta start by heating up our flour tortillas in a preheated, nonstick skillet.

  • You could also microwave them between two damp paper towels, but either way as soon as the skillet frees

  • up, we're gonna hit it with some vegetable oil and drop in our two pounds of ground chicken, which we're gonna

  • break up a little bit, season with salt and pepper and let it sit for about 3 or 4 minutes until it turns a bit brown.

  • Optionally practice your tossing skills. Either way, make sure the chicken is cooked through before adding

  • our sweet-pepper-garlic-ginger mixture. Toss those together, and cook for an additional 2 to 3 more minutes

  • until those flavors have gotten to know each other, then add the two packets of Hoisin sauce, and the little cup of black bean sauce.

  • Toss together and let simmer for an additional minute, and we got ourselves some taco filling. Turn off the heat, keep it warm, whilst we assemble our tacos.

  • Oh, and by the way, our sweet potato wedges turned out pretty awesome. Now we can plate those up along with the main course,

  • Now this whole thing only took about 35 minutes to make, it was the perfect little dinner for me, and me again when I have the leftovers tomorrow.

  • Blue Apron is an awesome way to get cooking at home, pick up new cooking skills, and help your family eat healthy.

  • They use farm-fresh ingredients, all their meals are between 500-800 calories per serving,

  • they've even teamed up with Bob's Burgers and Alvin Cailan to bring some of Bob's punny burgers to life in your kitchen.

  • And like I mentioned earlier, the first hundred people to sign up using the link in this video's description will get

  • $50 off their first two weeks. Hope you guys give it a try yourselves, now if you'll excuse me,

  • It's Taco Time.

Hey guys, welcome back to Basics with Babish. For this week, I've partnered with Blue Apron to help transform taco night.

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