Have you ever heard about a restaurant over and over again, but you never get to try it? Mine is an Asian-Mexican fusion place in Orlando called Tako Cheena. My husband travels to Orlando a few times a year, and he almost always hit up Tako Cheena while he’s in town. I admit I had trouble wrapping my head around the concept of pairing Asian and Mexican, but my husband raves about this place. One of his favorite dishes is their Korean Beef House Takos. I decided I want to give this unique cuisine a try, so this week I am, but from home. Korean Beef Tacos anyone?
Whoa. Guys. These are the most mind-blowing tacos EVER! Filled with everyone’s favorite Korean beef, caramelized kimchi + Sriracha mayo!
The Ingredients
Shopping for this recipe was pretty easy. I even managed to find a jar of kimchi for $5.99. It was enough to make this recipe twice. Everything else was pretty standard and easy to find.
I have to tell you not to worry if you can’t find sesame seeds. They looked pretty, but I couldn’t taste them.
Also, I bought the smallest tortillas I could find. They looked like the typical taco or fajita size, but they seemed very big once I filled them. This size only made 4 tacos while the recipe said it made 12 tacos. I’m guessing the author used smaller tortillas, but I couldn’t find them.
The Process
I like to do some of the recipe prep and finish the rest while I am cooking. However, this recipe worked much better with everything prepped before I began. I got a lot of use out of my ramekins—they were the perfect size to hold the prepped ingredients.
The prep work was simple and it flew by. Nothing was surprising until I got to the kimchi. The recipe says “chopped kimchi”, but kimchi is made of shredded vegetables. However, the jar I bought had some large strips of cabbage. I gave it a quick chop to break those up because I hate chomping on a big piece of a topping and pulling it out with my teeth.
Cooking was just as smooth as the prep work. Just be sure to keep a couple of small bowls ready for the finished ground beef and kimchi (I used regular soup bowls).
Also, I used my largest skillet for both the beef and the kimchi. I just wiped it out with a paper towel between the two so the kimchi didn’t taste like the beef.
As I mentioned in the previous section, I only got 4 Korean beef tacos out of this recipe instead of the 12 listed. Eight ounces of ground beef isn’t a lot, and I ended up doubling the recipe. My husband and I had 3 tacos a piece for dinner, and there were a couple leftover for lunch the next day.
Finally, the all-important time. I didn’t time the prep work and cooking separately and instead just timed everything from start to finish. It took me 24 minutes to prep and cook everything. That doesn’t include time to assemble the tacos, but I’m positive I would still be under the 35 minute total listed on the recipe if I had included it.
