Mexican Food For Cheap | Struggle Meals

today i'm capturing all the essence of authentic mexican food and distilling it into something that fits the struggle budget hey tacos and burritos move over life can be a struggle but a good meal doesn't have to be we can make creative nutritious and inventive dishes for under two dollars a plate [Music] let's talk about mexican food delicious deep earthy flavors stewed meats tortillas all of these things are wonderful and today i'm taking my favorite things and reforming them into struggle mexican food you know what i love carbonized flavor of charred meat and that is what carne asada is all about you hit it with high heat for a short amount of time and all of the spices on there just sizzle up including the fat i think a perfect cut for carne asada is skirt steak because it's got a lot of fat so it stays juicy no matter how you like your meat cooked as always this is an affordable cut once considered unwanted now highly sought after let's get a plethora of flavors on here let's go garlic powder salt pepper a little bit of cumin chili powder for a zing and paprika for the smokiness that we're looking for finally some sugar to aid in the caramelization process other side and some red pepper flakes because i like fire if carne asada is all about getting caramelized deep rich burnt flavors and we don't have a grill how do we go about doing that the broiler is the answer slam that thing at full heat man and then use your oven let's talk about corn we've made it before but one of my favorite ways to eat it is blistered with a spicy and sweet mayo sauce call it street corn if you will let's make it sweet corn all right here's our corn let's husk it back but not too far because we want to cook the corn in the husk that's going to let us steam it without having to use aluminum foil you may be looking at this and saying to yourself how do i get rid of all these little hairs the answer is of course with a toothbrush so this is my dedicated food toothbrush you know butter get it all over there a little bit of salt and now close it back up we will cook this corn in the husk it will act sort of like an all-natural steam oven boom the corn is going to go into a 425 degree oven for 25 minutes the corn is in the oven the carne asada is resting now it is time to make that extra special sauce that goes on the corn bowl packet drawer four mayos and you get a little bit of struggle lime zest a long way lime in half put some lime juice in there some cilantro fresh herbs are where it's at some salt some pepper so you want to look for something that is viscous but will drip if you find that it is too tight add a little bit of water and if it's too loose add a little more mayo the corn is out look at how beautiful this is pull this back beautifully cooked soft to the touch let's finish up this corn so we come in with some crema just drizzle that on top a little bit of cotija cheese cotija is a crumbly mild feta-like cheese top it off finally with a little bit of chili check out our rested skirt steak let's cut it in half this one's for a friend can you see the lines going this way i want to cut perpendicularly against them that's just going to give us something a little extra texture-wise trying to mimic that amazing street food flavor that i crave at night let's lay out that steak nice there it is so here we have carne asada and street corn inspired by the wonderful street foods of mexico these flavors are in your face they want to be noticed built-in handle so you get these rich flavors from the chili and then the lime is like hey don't forget about me really good combo coming in i'm taking a piece of charred jalapeno because i love you soft spicy juicy it's perfectly seasoned 1.98 i don't know what else is gonna give you this much zing maybe the next two dishes i hope you saved some taste buds [Music] so last tuesday i had a taco party and you know what i've got some tortillas left this next dish is different across all regions of mexico it's called chilaquiles i hope i'm pronouncing it correctly and it is a wonderful way to use stale tortilla pieces they're simmered in a delicious tomato sauce it's not unlike what europeans do with stale bread so the base of this is a wonderful tomato sauce if you've got a pre-made tomato sauce you can totally use that but why when you have a can of tomatoes and something as simple as garlic it always tastes better and it's certainly more affordable and fresher a little bit of extra virgin olive oil for our crybaby soup because the onions are making me cry onions in jalapeno in so the base of our chilaquiles is onion and jalapeno you can build whatever sofrito you see fit but it is important that you either grate or finely chop all of the ingredients that way they all dissolve into the soupy tomato broth a little bit of cumin some chili powder and some pepper and now what i'm going to do is try and make a little bit of a garlic paste slam it with some salt you run through it and you mash down with it on your knife pull it run through it you see that isn't that beautiful get that in building flavor right here second i drop this tomato in the oil temperature drops down to the boiling point of water just give this a little stir here comes water a little bit of cilantro stems are good stir that in top on gentle simmer 15 minutes these tortillas are sort of at the end of their life because taco tuesday after all was on tuesday and that's what chilaquiles is all about giving life to something that is dying isn't that in a way our struggle mantra i think so if you've got a fryer and you want to make fried tortilla chips go for it but i think it is more cost effective to bake these with oil in the oven and honestly i don't think you're gonna miss the fried stuff these taste great spread these out so that they're not on top of each other this way each piece gets exposed to the air in the oven and each piece gets exposed to the oil that i will subject it to in moments all right olive oil this is incredibly satisfying salt 425 degrees for 9 to 12 minutes making sure that you turn them at least once or twice so that they can all get crispy check out these tortillas you see that oh now i'm gonna grate up some cheddar cheese this is most certainly not traditional but i've got it in the fridge and i think this is a great place to use it up let's check on our sauce beautiful what we want to do is layer the tortillas and the cheese and the beans so the best way to do that is to remove some sauce so that we have room to work there are deep dark roasted aromas here and i love it tortillas some black beans a nice layer of that gotta get a layer of cheese in the middle it's gonna melt here comes the sauce more tortillas oh this looks really great no more sauce on top some more cheddar cheese this needs just a kiss in the oven so the cheese can melt and the tortillas can absorb you know what's really great on top of chilaquiles a fried egg eggs add extra protein obviously the yolk is one of the most pornographic things in the entire food world and if you've got the eggs this is a perfect time to use them after all this dish is about using things that are on their last leg so why not add more flavor if you've got it let's hit this with some red onions some cilantro leaves and finally some cotija cheese this looks like the world's greatest breakfast this also looks like it could be the world's greatest lunch oh this might be one of the best values we've ever made this is a dollar ninety three and the quantity will absolutely send you straight to the siesta oh you can hear the crunch cheesy as delicious this mexican-inspired dish has me feeling like i'm eating comfort food but not the heavy kind that puts me to sleep this tastes fresh and bright and it's all thanks to that tomato sauce which was really quick to make you can do it man does it make a difference what else can mexico inspire us to do we're gonna make chicken thighs in mole sauce it's probably gonna be the most flavorful thing ever because mole is probably the most flavorful thing ever often made with 20 or more ingredients nuts and peppers and chocolates and all kind of equipment that we can't afford how are we going to do it we're going to make a struggle mole with ingredients that we do have readily available in our budget we'll salt the chicken thighs i'd argue it's the most flavorful part of the whole chicken just a wee bit of earl alright season side away from you chicken thighs have wonderful texture incredible flavor and they're very affordable season the other side i mean you can see the texture in the meantime let's grate an onion because i don't have a blender i'm grating the onion making sure that that onion completely melts into the struggle mole sauce protection always use protection kids onion crying is a real syndrome that's going right through the glasses nice color look at that remember it's not fully cooked through we're just trying to get some seared flavors and here in the base of our chicken schmaltz we will add just a little bit of cumin we will add some cinnamon this gives us an earthy and warm flavor which is fundamental in a mole here i have chili powder absolutely not traditional but you've got to remember there are all kinds of fresh chilies that are being dried and ground down in a real mole sauce this is the hack to get those flavors in an affordable package garlic powder get all those spices into the fat and you can smell them open up and second you do throw the onions in here comes a little bit of tomato paste tomato paste is concentrated tomato you get all the sweetness and all the acidity of one of my favorite botanical fruits now we're going to come in with a little bit of almond butter this is how the struggle mullet gets around the fact that there are lots of nuts pre-ground delicious flavors large quantity nuts and seeds in a traditional mole act as a thickening agent and that's exactly what the almond butter is doing here stock comes in boom chocolate it's going to give us deep dark flavors and the dark color that we know in molay and melt it that is looking pretty awesome and now the chicken gets braised in this mole hack sauce and of course all this fine juice from resting bring this down to a gentle simmer cover this up and the chicken and you are both set up for success the chicken is finally gonna cook all the way through being massaged and cuddled by the wonderful flavors of our struggle mole baby freshness into the chicken thigh mole sauce you gotta get some brightness because this is all about earth and smoke some sesame seeds they add a little bit of nutrition i've got them and it looks really great on camera all right i happen to have some white rice that i made this is always a great thing to have with anything soupy because the rice absorbs all that extra liquid on top slamming it with flavor the struggle mole may not be traditional but it has a genuine heart and for two dollars you will not get more flavor let's dig in oh yes love the chicken thighs really nice texture as i'm cutting i can feel it chocolate pepper sweetness from tomato holy moly we just made three mexican inspired dishes that weren't traditional mexican at all but they also weren't traditional americanized mexican there were no burritos there were no tacos and yet we still had delicious food that was loaded with flavors i think we did a really good job of capturing the essence in our budget and with ingredients that are available on our supermarket shelves struggle on amigos

Channel: Tastemade

Views: 249,954

Keywords: Tastemade, recipe, food, cooking, how to, cook, bake, grill, sweet, dessert, savory, travel, home, lifestyle, mexican recipes, mexican food, cheap recipes

Id: BMPfK8uNpXA

Length: 13min 51sec (831 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 06 2019