Chorizo, Poblano and Sweet Potato Tacos
If you’ve never tried potato and chorizo tacos I recommend you stop what you are doing and head to the store immediately. The sweet, slightly crunchy sweet potatoes with the spicy, but not too spicy Mexican chorizo is a perfect combination. I add a little bit of corn for sweetness and roasted poblano for smokiness.
As the Mexican chorizo cooks and basically melts into the chorizo seasoning, I stir in a bit of ground meat (turkey, pork or beef) to absorb the chorizo flavor and add additional substance to the meat. Add a little bit of cheese, avocado, and cilantro and you’ll be giving street tacos a run for their money.
Chorizo, Poblano and Sweet Potato Taco Recipe
Makes 8-10 small tacos
Ingredients
- 1 medium-size sweet potato, peeled and diced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 2-3 Tbsp cilantro leaves, chopped
- 1/2 cup corn frozen or canned corn, or 1 ear fresh corn
- 2 scallions, diced
- 1 avocado, cubed
- 1 lime, quartered
- 1 cup Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
- 2 poblano pepper, roasted and diced
- Olive oil
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
- 7-8 ounces Mexican chorizo (one package)
- 1/4 lb ground beef, pork, or turkey
- 8-10 small corn tortilla shells
Directions
Prepare the Ingredients
- Preheat the oven or toaster oven to 400.
- Peel 1 medium-sized sweet potato, and dice into small bite sized pieces.
- Peel and mince 1 garlic clove.
- Remove the cilantro leaves from the stems, and roughly chop into about 2-3 Tbsp.
- Chop the green portion of 2 scallions.
- Defrost 1/2 cup of frozen corn or open a can of corn. If using fresh corn, remove the husk and silk.
- Cut the avocado in half and remove the pit. Run a knife along the inside of the avocado to make cubes and scoop out the cubes with a spoon.
- Wash 1 lime and cut into quarters.
- Shred Monterey Jack cheese into 1 cup. (I prefer to shred my own cheese because it tastes better, but you can use pre-shredded.)
Start Cooking
- Roast 2 poblano peppers. Use one of two options below:
- Remove the top from the poblano peppers. Cut them in half length-wise and remove the seeds. Place the peppers skin-side up on a foil lined baking sheet, and broil for 8 minutes until the peppers start to blacken. Remove the peppers from the oven and place them in a small plastic bag. (I use a Ziploc.) Let the peppers sit for 5-6 minutes to steam. Remove the peppers and use your hands to scrape off the skin. Dice the peppers into large pieces.
- Or, if you have a gas stove or grill, place the uncut peppers (top and all) directly over the flame. Rotate the peppers with tongs until they are charred on all sides, about 6-8 minutes. Place the peppers in a plastic bag to steam. (I use a Ziploc.) After about 5-6 minutes in the plastic bag, remove the peppers and use your hands to scrape off the skin. Remove the top and the seeds and dice the peppers into large pieces.
- Toss the sweet potato cubes in a drizzle of olive oil, 1/2 tsp kosher salt, 1/2 tsp cumin, and 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper. Spread the potatoes in a single layer on a foil lined backing sheet. Bake for 15 minutes in the oven or toaster oven.
- If using fresh corn, bring a medium sized pot filled half way with water to a boil, and boil the corn for about 10 minutes or until tender. Shape a piece of foil into a bowl and stand the cooked corn up in the middle of the foil. Run a knife along the ear to remove the corn kernels. The foil will help catch the kernels as they fall off.
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add a drizzle of olive oil and the garlic. Cook for 1 minute. Add the tube of chorizo and 1/4 pound of ground meat. Cook the meat until browned, about 7-8 minutes.
- To the skillet, add the roasted sweet potatoes and poblano peppers. Stir to combine and reduce heat to low.
- Warm 8-10 small corn tortilla shells in either the oven or the microwave.
- To each tortilla add a scoop of the meat/potato/poblano mixture, corn kernels, cheese, scallion, avocado, and cilantro. Top with a squeeze of fresh lime juice.
Instead of simply cubing the avocado you may consider making guacamole. It’s fresh and merges with all of the flavors really well. Either way tastes great. If you are sensitive to spice, you may also want to add a dollop of sour cream.
In these pictures you can hardly see the cheese because I actually melted the cheese onto the shell first so it was warm. You can skip that step and sprinkle the cheese on top at the end if you prefer.
If you like this recipe and make it more than once you may want to play around with the ratio of chorizo to ground meat. I like the combination of the two because the Mexican chorizo almost melts when you cook it so the additional ground meat adds more substance and absorbs all of the great chorizo spices. Adjust the portions to your liking.
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