Pollo Asado Tacos with Roast Butternut Squash

The Night Before

Pickle the Onions

Prep Time: 10 min

• Combine 1 ~tsp kosher salt, 1/4 cp sugar, 1/2 cp rice vinegar in a sealable container.
• Cut your onion in half from root to tip, thinly slice into half-moons, add to the vinegar mixture.
• Mix thoughoughly and chill overnight. Mix a couple times the next day.

Make the Serrano Salsa

Prep Time: 10 min

• Dice your as fine as you can get it.
• Dice 1 large or 2 small garlic cloves.
• Combine these in a small bowl with the juice of 1 lime, and 1tbsp of Orange juice, and 1/4 tsp kosher salt.
• Chill overnight.

Marinate the Chicken

Prep Time: 10 min

• Combine 1/2 cp Orange Juice, 1tsp salt, 1 diced chipotle + 1 scoop of adobo sauce in a sealable container.
• Grate in 2 large gloves of garlic.
• Mix and adjust to taste. This should taste sweet, salty, and spicy.
• Add 4 chicken thighs, toss to cover.
• Chill overnight.

The day of

Cook the Chicken

Cook Time: 15-20 min on the grill, or 25-35 min in the oven

If you have a grill, grill the chicken. If not, you can roast it in an oven at 475f. Once the chicken has reached 180f, remove from the heat and rest covered for ~15 min.

Prepare and cook the Squash

Prep time: 15 min. Cook Time: 15 min

• Pan-fry 6 strips of bacon over med-low heat. Start with a couple tbsp of water in the pan to help the fat render.
• While the bacon is cooking, peel and clean a butternut squash, and chop into small, 1/2" cubes. Put these is a large heat-proof bowl.
• Once the bacon is crispy, remove from the pan, and drizzle the squash lightly with the bacon fat. Toss and test for coverage. Every peice should be lightly covered with bacon fat.
• Season generously with chilli powder, salt generously with Kosher salt. The salt is really important here. Butternut squash does not really taste like much of anything until you salt it. Add some salt, toss, taste a piece of squash. Repeat until you can taste the salt begin enhacing the flavor of the squash.
• Spread out in a single layer on a baking sheet and roast in a hot (at least 475f) oven for ~15 min until the edges are starting to brown and the texture is soft but not mushy.

Presentation

10 Minutes

• Warm your tortillas. Side-note here: the lowest-effort way to take your mexican cooking to the next level is to make your own corn tortillas.
• Chop a bunch of cilantro the tacos.
• Chop your chicken after it has rested. Adjust seasoning as needed.
• Pull your squash from the oven when done.
• Construct your tacos: squash, chicken, pickled onions, garnish with chopped cilantro.
• If you like it spicy, drizzle on a little bit of the serrano salsa, but be warned it's about twice as spicy as tabasco, so adjust your portioning accordingly.