7 SKILLFUL TACO SUGGESTIONS FROM AARÑN SÁNCHEZ

Our new ideal job is chef Aarón Sánchez’s: he gets paid to eat tacos. Taco Trip, Sánchez’s new show, travels the nation sampling the greatest tacos America has to offer while airing on the Cooking Channel on Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. EST. With the program and Johnny Sánchez, the New Orleans taqueria he recently launched with chef John Besh, Sánchez has developed into a true taco guru. Here, he offers his seven finest taco-making suggestions.

Keep it to two bites. In order to preserve the integrity of the taco, Sánchez always uses 4-inch maize tortillas that are double-stacked. The standard corn tortilla is six inches long, but Sanchez feels that’s excessively large. “When you bite into a 6-inch tortilla, pieces start to fall out,” he claims. “Everything is kept small and limited to two bites thanks to the 4-inch tortillas.”

Soften up the tortilla. Sánchez is strongly opposed to hard-shelled tacos. “Never do a hard shell,” he says. “That’s a tostada, not a taco.” To make sure his tortillas are the perfect consistency and temperature, he warms them on a griddle with a squirt of equal parts oil and water.

No ground beef allowed. “That’s no bueno,” Sánchez says. Instead, he prefers slow-cooked beef, lamb shoulder or goat simply marinated with ancho chile, garlic and Mexican oregano.

Get your meat placement right. Sánchez recommends keeping a quarter-inch border of open tortilla around the taco, that way the contents won’t spill out.

Keep the cilantro stems. “When I see people not using the stems, that’s what I call a gringo move,” he says. One of his favorite garnishes is cilantro complete with the stems, which give the taco a zesty punch of flavor.

Only use white onion. “Spanish onions are too aggressive,” Sánchez says. Instead, he garnishes his tacos with chopped white onions, which are much milder.

Pump up the flavor with something pickled. Sánchez pickles anything he has in the kitchen, from Swiss chard stems to cactus to ramps. He uses their bright flavor to cut through the richness of the meat.