Taco Meat Alternatives

Featured Pro: Sam Talbot
Category: Cooking
Time: 2:42


SAM TALBOT: When I need to feed a hungry crowd of people, think one thing: Tacos – not just regular chicken, beef or fish tacos. We’re going to kick it up a few notches.

I’m Sam Talbot, and this is your GMC Trade Secret.

When I do tacos, I like to keep them fun and funky. You know, I’m tired of doing grilled fish, grilled chicken, beef, whatever. So right here I had some leftover short rib, threw them in a flour tortilla, a little bit of radish, fresh carrot. I have some Korean kimchi, purple cabbage, fresh cilantro and a little lime.

I don’t know if you guys know about kimchi, but it’s amazing. It’s a fomented Korean cabbage, offers a ton of spice. I have it at both my restaurants, at the Surf Lodge and Imperial No. 9. I love kimchi. I go to one of my favorite markets in New York, pick up a bottle, come home and throw it in a tortilla.

What’s cool about this is that you can do the same thing with one of your ethnic favorites, whether you’re into Indian food or maybe you’re into Mexican refried beans. You can bring them back home, throw them in a taco, and it’s a crowd pleaser. It’s diverse and a little bit different.

One of my personal favorites, king crab taco, topped with a little chow chow. It’s one of my favorites. I’ve been making it for almost 15 years. I started when I was in Charleston, South Carolina. It’s basically toasted mustard seed, some jalapeno, some tomatillo, a little bit of red onion and some tomato, blended with a touch of sugar. We put this right on top of the king crab, and all that nice juice smothers it like that. Take a little fresh lime, good to go.

All right, so now I’m going to show you all one of my favorite things to do. Basically, it’s called the kitchen sink taco. At the restaurant sometimes you have a lot of leftovers. Maybe in your home you have a lot of leftovers. No problem. When you take all these ingredients and you throw them in a corn tortilla per se, they just elevate them.

So what I’m going to do, I’m going to build one with a little bit of avocado as a base, some fresh kimchi, put a bit of short rib right on there, a touch of radish for some crunch, and a little bit of lime. We’ll get the creaminess from the avocado, spice from the kimchi, some sweetness from the beef, and a little pepper kick right from the radish.

All right, so I’m going to finish up one more and go get the guys.

SAM’S FRIEND: Dude, it’s so amazing.

SAM’S FRIEND: Thanks a lot for the tacos, Sam.

SAM’S FRIEND: They’re so good, man.

SAM: Just have at it.

SAM’S FRIEND: I’m going to have a little bit of that.

SAM: Yeah, lime, lime, lime.

SAM’S FRIEND: Put a little lime on there.

SAM: It’s good, right? Cheers.

SAM’S FRIEND: Cheers.

SAM’S FRIEND: Thanks for the tacos, man.