Review: “Tacolicious,” Sara Deseran

Pros: Yum!
Cons: …
Rating: 5 out of 5

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.

Tacolicious: Festive Recipes for Tacos, Snacks, Cocktails, and More, by Sara Deseran, is the companion cookbook to the restaurant by the same name. It’s a lovely book–hardcover, some pictures included, and a fairly clear recipe layout. Contents include a salsas, pickles, & more chapter, followed by snacks & sides. The salsas chapter includes a very nice corn salsa with tomatoes and basil (we liked it both as a salsa and as a veggie side–it has enough heft to it to work that way). It includes a cumin-lime crema that is out of this world–so perfect on pulled-pork tacos. Other recipes include smoky chipotle-tomatillo salsa, pickled red onions, chile con queso, shrimp cakes with corn-basil salsa, spicy tamarind-glazed pork ribs with jicama salad, and more.

Cumin-Lime Crema

Next is a ‘tacos, tacos, and tacos’ chapter. Our favorite so far is the potato and homemade chorizo taco. It has SO much flavor, was easy to make, and reheated beautifully. You’ll also find lamb adobo taco with spices and orange, shot-and-a-beer braised chicken taco, and a breakfast taco that was also quite delicious–and very filling!

Potato and homemade chorizo taco

There’s an extensive chapter of cocktails and other beverages (I can’t wait to make the horchata). Beverages include infused tequilas, cocktails (la siesta, sangrita, mucho gusto), agua frescas “and other G-rated drinks” (mango agua fresca, kiwi aqua fresca), and a “syrups, salts, and infusions” section (chile salt, pink peppercorn salt, chile vinegar, and more).

Breakfast Taco

We loved everything we tried out of this book, and definitely plan to make more. Some of the recipes are more complicated than others, but we found no mistakes in any of the recipes we tried. I would recommend it to any taco-lover!