Tacos: 75 Authentic and Inspired Recipes

Ay, que rico! Tacos--real tacos, with soft or crispy corn tortillas, succulent fillings, and snappy salsas--are a revered street food on both sides of the border. In TACOS, Mark Miller adds a chef’s sensibility to this vibrant primer for building delicious and authentic tacos.

The heart of a great taco is its filling, and TACOS brims with filling recipes for chicken, fowl, pork, beef, lamb, game, seafood, vegetable, and breakfast tacos. Miller’s recipes are a satisfying balance between impeccably rendered classics like Carnitas (crusty fried pork shoulder), Rajas and Cheese (strips of roasted poblano chiles with melting queso Oaxaca), and Beef Ranchero (with its smoky-spicy sauce), and fresh, sophisticated riffs like Chicken with Apples and Goat Cheese, Baja-Style Tempura Fish, and Roasted Tomatoes and Pumpkin Seed Pesto.

Rounding out the book are luscious photographs; thorough instructions for making soft tortillas from scratch and crafting them into crispy variations; recipes for salsas and accompaniments such as Guacamole and Refritos (＂refried＂ beans); and a suite of essential techniques, like roasting chiles and blackening tomatoes. Each filling recipe provides suggestions for the best tortilla choices, salsas and sides, and beverages to complement the tacos--giving you all you need to make your next taco experience as authentic, inspired, and downright delicious as even the most well-seasoned taquero could make it.

Mark Miller is the acclaimed chef-founder of Coyote Cafe in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He has started and owned thirteen different restaurants on three continents from 1979 to 2008. He is the author of ten books with nearly 1 million copies in print, including Tacos, The Great Chile Book, The Great Salsa Book, and Coyote Cafe. Mark currently works in International Culinary Consulting and lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Benjamin Hargett is a travel-loving chef who has cooked in Europe, the Carribean, Mexico, and the United States, where he worked with Mark Miller at the Coyote Café for many years.

Jane Horn is an award-winning cookbook writer and editor. She lives in Piedmont, California.