Yield: 4
Tacos de Lengua
Boiled and fried tongue has a truly unique texture, it’s both soft and tender and crispy all at once. Tongue can also be boiled and peeled, then refrigerated for a few days so it’s an easy dish to almost fully prepare on the weekend when you’ve got some time to leave a tongue simmering on your stove for a few hours. Later on that week you can just chop, fry and tuck into some tortillas and have dinner ready in minutes.Â
Quick note - make sure you peel the tongue when it’s warm just after being boiled. Once it’s fully cooled the exterior membrane is much, much harder to remove.
Ingredients
- 1 beef tongue
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 2 tbsp pickling spice
- 1 head garlic, halved
- 2 dried chili peppers
- 3 tbsp canola oil
- 10-12 tortillas, to serve
- Chopped red onion, to serve
- Hot sauce, to serve
Instructions
- In a large pot, combine beef tongue, onion, carrots, pickling spice, garlic, and dried chilis. Cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook for 3-5 hours, or until the thickest part of the tongue is tender when pierced with a knife.
- Remove the tongue to cool on a cutting board. Strain the stock if you’re planning on using it, otherwise, discard. When the tongue is cool enough to handle, peel off the outer membrane that covers the tongue (make sure to do this while the tongue is warm!). Coarsely chop the tongue into 1/2-inch chunks. At this point, the chopped tongue can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 days.
- To serve, heat 2-3 tbsp of oil in a large cast-iron pan over medium-high heat. Sear the tongue until it’s browned on all sides, then serve tucked into warm tortillas topped with chopped onion and hot sauce. Serves 4.
