Destination
Puerto Vallarta
The story
Tacos de guisado are the lunchtime tacos of Mexico City: not the grilled tacos of the taquería, not the confit tacos of the cart, but the slow-simmered home-style stews that a fonda cook makes in a row of clay pots — cazuelas — set out on the counter with hand-written signs above them. Tinga de pollo (shredded chicken in chipotle-tomato broth), rajas con crema (poblano strips with corn and cream), chicharrón en salsa verde (pork rind in green salsa), chile relleno picadillo (chopped stuffed poblano), huevo en salsa verde (soft-scrambled egg in tomatillo sauce) — each cazuela is a different guisado, and you point at two or three to build your plate. Served on warm handmade tortillas, sometimes fried into a hard shell, always with a spoon of frijoles refritos and a stack of pickled jalapeños.
Method
Bring a pot of water to a simmer with the halved onion, 3 garlic cloves, bay leaves and a pinch of salt. Add the chicken thighs and poach 20 minutes. Lift out and shred with forks. Reserve 300ml of the broth.
Blend the tomatoes with the remaining 3 garlic cloves and the chipotles to a smooth sauce. Warm 2 tbsp oil in a pan. Cook the sliced onion 5 minutes until soft. Tip in the tomato-chipotle sauce, adobo, oregano and salt. Simmer 8 minutes to thicken. Fold in the shredded chicken and 200ml of the reserved broth. Simmer 10 more minutes until the sauce coats the chicken. Keep warm.
Blacken the poblanos directly over a gas flame (or under a grill) until charred all over, 6 to 8 minutes. Seal in a plastic bag 10 minutes to steam. Rub off the skins, tear off stems, deseed, and slice into strips.
Melt 3 tbsp butter in a pan. Cook the sliced onion 6 minutes until soft. Add the poblano strips, garlic and corn. Cook 5 minutes. Off the heat, stir in the crema, crumbled queso fresco and salt. Keep warm.
Char the tomatillos, chillies, onion and garlic on a dry pan 6 minutes. Blend with the coriander and salt to a smooth sauce. Warm 2 tbsp oil in a pan; tip in the sauce and simmer 6 minutes until thickened.
Whisk the eggs with a pinch of salt. Pour into the pan of simmering salsa verde. Scramble softly with a spatula, folding rather than stirring, until the eggs are just set — 3 to 4 minutes. Do not overcook; the salsa keeps cooking them.
On a hot pan, warm pairs of tortillas 20 seconds a side. Stack in a towel.
Lay two overlapped tortillas per taco on each plate. Spoon a heaped 2 tbsp of one guisado into the middle. Serve as three tacos per person — one of each. Offer refried beans, pickled jalapeños, coriander and lime on the side. Eaters build their own combination.
Tips
- Pick your guisados by mood. A fonda offers 6 to 12; a home cook can offer 2 to 3. Tinga is the mandatory one; rajas is the vegetarian; huevo is the eggy comfort option. Mix and match.
- Guisados hold well. Every guisado in the recipe holds in the fridge 3 to 4 days and reheats. Make one Sunday, one Monday, and by Tuesday you have a two-guisado taco lunch.
- Char the poblanos properly. A pale poblano gives you pale rajas. The chile should be blackened, blistered, then peeled — that's what gives rajas their smoky depth.
- Fold the eggs, don't stir. Huevo en salsa verde is a soft-set egg in salsa, not a scrambled egg dry-cooked. Fold slowly. The eggs finish cooking off the heat.
- Fonda tacos are folded, not rolled. The taquería tradition of the rolled taco is a Sonoran/norteño thing. Mexico City fonda tacos are folded flat like an envelope. Both work; the fold is more traditional here.
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