After the Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory, Joey and a friend traveled to Kansas City for the parade.
Apparently, the experience is less than glamorous, and he came home after a long day pretty exhausted from standing outside for hours with no access to food or water and little access to any bathroom facilities. (But with absolutely no dimming of his post-championship enthusiasm.)
They left early in the morning, grabbing some breakfast on the road, and then didn’t eat again until late in the afternoon, and Joey claimed that the tacos he ate were the best he’s ever had.
Now, that could have been the slight starvation and dehydration speaking, but he was insistent that we should try to recreate the experience, specifically because we had some barbecued pork shoulder sitting in our refrigerator, and these weren’t just any tacos: they were barbecue tacos.
With the meat already prepared, it was simple to just saute some onions and peppers to go with it, but the main trick was recreating the sauce Joey said he tried in Kansas City: crema chipotle.
Since Joey always expects me to perform miracles, I started researching the fabled sauce and apparently, I managed a pretty good facsimile, which is what I’m going to share with you this week.
The recipe I found comes from the blog “Laylita’s Kitchen,” by Layla Pujol. You can find the original post at https://www.laylita.com/recipes/creamy-chipotle-sauce/. As you will see, it’s a very simple recipe. I did add extra garlic and some paprika in my version.
Creamy Chipotle Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 cup plain Greek yogurt Mexican crema or crème fraiche
- 2 small chipotles in adobo sauce remove seeds to keep it a bit milder
- 4-6 cloves garlic
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- juice of one lime about two tablespoons
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Combine all of the ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until the sauce is smooth and creamy.
- Taste it and add more seasonings, if necessary. Also, if the sauce is too spicy, add a bit more yogurt. If it isn’t spicy enough, add more chipotles and adobo sauce.
- Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator between uses. Greek yogurt tends to have a one to two week shelf life, but use your best judgment.
- Serve with anything that could use an extra zip—tacos, sandwiches, quesadillas, etc.
We have been getting all kinds of mileage out of our batch of chipotle sauce. It was amazing on our barbecue tacos, but it’s also been going on turkey sandwiches for lunches lately.
I was glad Joey got more out of his trip to Kansas City than sore feet and a very fleeting view of the Super Bowl champions as they waved to the crowd.
Our sauce is now amongst the other condiments in our fridge in its very own squeeze bottle, so I suppose that’s the highest honor a sauce can achieve.
And unfortunately, I reinforced to Joey once again that if he can vaguely explain a food to me, I can probably figure out how to make it.
As long as he sticks to the less complicated stuff, I think I’m in the clear, but it would probably be to my benefit to keep him away from anywhere fancier than a taco truck.
This piece first appeared in print on Feb. 20, 2020.
Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.
