Eat: Chili Lime Grilled Shrimp Tacos with Chipotle Adobo Sauce

It's been a while since we've talked about food, right? 

What is Sarah's blog without some good old fashioned fatty food porn?!

Nothing.

Lately I've had the most ridiculous and incurable craving for grilled shrimp tacos.

Living in Arizona, you would think that awesome tacos would be as common as swimming pools and people who say "Hot enough for ya?"

But honestly, there are so many chain Mexican restaurants run by gringos out here, that really, truly amazing Mexican food can actually be a bit hard to find.

Anytime I go to a restaurant lately that has shrimp tacos on the menu, I have to try them. 

Mostly I've been overcharged, underfed, and sorely disappointed.

What's a girl to do??

Make her own, that's what.

BUT! I knew it wouldn't be as simple as just grilling up some shrimp and dumping it in a tortilla.

I need a good, smoky, spicy chipotle sauce! I need good, flavorful shrimp! I need it all!

I did some research, found some recipes and tips here and there, and thought, I think I'm ready to try this shit.

So I did. 

Surprisingly, they were super easy, and so fucking good.

First we'll start with the ingredients list.

You need:

1 bag of raw shrimp. I get the frozen stuff because it's cheaper, but you have to get the raw ones, and the larger ones the better because they shrink a bit when cooking.

1 can of chipotle peppers in Adobo Sauce. You can find these in the "International" section of your local grocery store. In Arizona this means a lot of Mexican food ingredients, and some boxes of pad Thai. For the adobo sauce, you also need sour cream and fresh limes, and garlic powder. 

If you're like me and like to make your own tortillas, you need 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of water, and three tablespoons of olive oil, plus salt and garlic powder to taste. 

First, thaw out your shrimp under cold running water.

Peel those bitches.

In a big bowl, toss them in 2 tablespoons or so of olive oil, and coat with chili powder, garlic powder and salt. 

Squeeze half a fresh lime over it and put them back in the fridge.

While those are chilling, make the dough for your tortillas. 

Mix the two cups flour with the 1 cup water and 3 tablespoons of olive oil and add a teaspoon or two of salt and garlic powder if you like them like that, which I do.

Mix it up in a big bowl with your hands. We keep it simple, 'round here.

Flour a surface like a wood cutting board, and dump the dough out on it.

Knead it real good, and shape it into a cute little ball like the one you see in the picture above.

Let it sit for a couple minutes and have a beer.

Once your beer is gone, rip the dough ball into smaller balls. Something between a golf ball and a lemon, depending how big you want your tortillas. 

Flour your rolling pin, and roll the dough out into something that sort of resembles a circle.

If you're me, it will never be a circle. You'll just be lucky to get it flat.

Roll them as thin as possible.

Heat up a non-stick skillet, and heat them on both sides until they bubble up a bit and have sexy little brown spots on them like this:

That's a good looking tortilla, am I right?

Now, cook as many as you want/need. The recipe makes quite a few, and you can wrap up the dough and save it in the fridge for later.

It's time to make the shrimp.

In the same hot skillet, wipe out the burnt flour with a cloth, and dump the shrimp right out of the bowl.

Add a little extra lime juice and olive oil, and sprinkle on garlic powder and salt to your liking. 

Grill them up until they plump up, get nice and firm, and the tails curl in a little, like this:

Now turn the heat off and cover those bad boys, but leave them on the burner. 

Make your chipotle sauce. 

Open your adobo peppers, and seperate the whole peppers from the sauce and the little pieces. 

In a bowl, add two or three big, heaping spoonfuls of sour cream. 

Start spooning in your adobo sauce from the can, and the little pieces of peppers, mixing well and tasting it as you go. Keep adding adobo sauce until you've reached the heat and smoky flavor you want.

Add some garlic powder, salt, and a few squirts of fresh lime too if you're feeling fancy, but really the adobo sauce has such a good, deep flavor you may not need anything else. 

And BOOM. 

You're done.

I ate the shrimp on the tortillas with nothing but lime juice and adobo sauce, but my kids like shredded cheese and lettuce and fresh tomato and all that.

Honestly by the time they were done I was so fucking hungry I was not wasting time with additional condiments!

Now, crack open a Corona and eat a few tacos, and look at pictures of the beach. 

Happy Summer.