How do you cook lengua tacos?

Question

How do you cook lengua tacos?

Answer 1

Tacos de Lengua

1-lb (or so) beef tongue

5 small cloves garlic (or 3 large ones), smashed & chopped

1 onion, quartered

Salt & pepper to taste

Rinse tongue, pat dry, season well with salt and pepper. Allow it to sit about 15 minutes for the seasonings to penetrate a little. Put it in crockpot and add water (or half water/half beer) to cover. Add garlic and onions to water. Cook on "high" for 4-5 hours. Turn crockpot setting down to Low. Turn tongue over and add more water if necessary. Continue cooking on low until tongue is done (skin hard, inside soft). Remove tongue and skin it (discard skin). Chop meat finely.

Serve immediately with "fixin's" - like corn tortillas, lime wedges, pico de gallo, avocado slices, chopped cilantro, onions, jalapenos, salsa...etc.

Answer 2

Sharron's Tacos de Lengua

Makes about 12 servings

First, Cover an approximately 3 pound beef tongue with good water (filtered or purified in some way.) Add about 2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon whole peppercorns, 2 bay leaves and 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar. Bring it to a boil, then reduce it to a simmer. Skim off any "floaties" that come to the surface of the broth and discard them.

Note: You'll probably accidentally skim off the peppercorns or maybe even the bay leaves. Put them back into the pot.

Cover the pot and allow it to simmer for about 3 hours. After that time, put the tongue into a 9"x13"x2" pan (or something similar) covered with about 1/2" of the cooking broth. The broth is to keep the meat from drying out. Allow the tongue to cool until it is easy to handle -- about 20 to 30 minutes, turning it once during the cooling time. Most sources say don't let it cool all the way until it is "cold" -- then it will be difficult to skin.

Skinning the tongue: What I did was slit the white "sandpaper" covering with a utility knife lengthwise along the whole tongue, all the way around. Then I just slipped my fingers under it and pulled it right off. It was that easy. Some sources warn to make sure to get any bones, fat or gristle off the tongue, but mine didn't have any of those, thankfully.

Chop the tongue into 1/2" pieces, putting them back into the pan with the reserved broth, again to keep them from drying out while working with the rest of the meat.

Cooking the meat -- the last stage:

Put about 1 tablespoon of lard, 1/2 cup diced white sweet onion, 1 teaspoon minced garlic, 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano leaves into a large frying pan. Cook, stirring often, over medium-high heat until the onion pieces are translucent, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add the chopped meat along with some of the reserved broth. (I basically just dumped the contents of the one pan into the other.)

Add about:

1/2 to 1 teaspoon lemon pepper

1 teaspoon seasoning salt

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 to 2 teaspoons cumin, ground

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon chili powder (I had roasted chipotle)

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves

1/2 lime, juiced

Cook the meat, broth and seasonings over medium high heat until the broth has thickened, about 15 minutes. Taste the meat and adjust seasonings if desired.

Serve the prepared meat on corn tortillas with sliced radishes, cucumbers and chopped sweet onion (& cilantro.) Optional additional garnishes: Sour cream, salsa, guacamole (or just avacado), cheese, etc.

In my humble opinion, these tacos were every bit as good as the little taqueria's. I hope you enjoy them!

Answer 3

couldnt be easier, is essentially the same recipe as barbacoa de cabeza but using cheaper tongues and requiring no beef head surgery. the meat requires little prep, just some salt,  as most of the prep is in the salsas, you may just want to add some bay or rosemary leaves to the pot to mask the steaming fat aromas and give the meat a nice smell ;

you are going to STEAM, not boil you beef tongues. i suggest using a large pressure cooker and a rack but a large covered pot and rack will work as well, check water level once an hour steam  utill the tongues begin to fall apart. they should reach between 180 and 195 farenheit internal temp . once this happen, usually give 1hour per pound, let the tongs cool a little outside the pot and remove the scaly tongue skin. the meat should be so soft that it should fall into strings with the exception of the bottom rear tongue muscle. use your favorite red or green cilantro warm salsa along with chopped onion, dont use cold tex mex style salsas, serve immediatedly as the barbacoa congeals quickly, corn tortillas work best.

Answer 4

Take the lengua you're gonna cook and boil it. I like to cut mine up into two or three pieces so it cooks faster. When it's done you should be able to poke your knife into it and pul it out and the meat should be nice to tender, very soft. remember to add salt to the water when you're cooking it. I like to add an onion cut up into quarters and a few teeth of garlic also to give it some flavor.

While it's cooking chop up some onion and cilantro and make or buy your favorite salsa.... I have an ethnic grocery store around the block that makes the best salsa for tacos so I buy mine from there.

When the meat is ready your gonna wanna take it out of the broth and peel off the tough exterior skin. you dont wanna eat that. then chop your meat into little cubes... bite size cubes.

once your meat is ready, take your tortillas, heat them up, plate them add your lengua, some onion and cilantro, and some salsa on top and that's all you need.