It’s Tuesday night; tacos anyone?

By Deb Quinn

Jan 31, 2023

Family feasts: Deb Quinn delights her family and visitors with delicious home cooking. Photo by Rechelle Zammit

Debbie Quinn has a lifelong love of food and cooking, nurtured in her parents’ restaurants and in her own family’s kitchen. Every fortnight she shares her passion and expertise with our readers, bringing her best recipes, tips and tricks to the table.

Deb’s Chicken Taco Rice

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This is a great little recipe, and the flavours are fantastic together. It’s a perfect casual family dinner for all ages, serve it up and let people go back for more taco mix, salsa, lettuce, or cheese. It’s a real crowd pleaser. (I could even eat the salsa on its own!)

Ingredients

Spicy salsa:

150g cherry tomatoes, coarsely chopped

50ml rice wine vinegar

1 tbsp mirin

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 tsp finely grated ginger

1 small red chilli, thinly sliced

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

Chicken taco:

2 tbsp vegetable oil

500g coarsely minced chicken (not breast, it’s too dry for this recipe)

1½ tbsp finely chopped ginger

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

1 tsp ground chilli

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp sweet paprika

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tsp shiro white miso (available in the Asian section of most supermarkets), dissolved in 300ml boiling water.

Steamed short-grain sushi rice (see tips)

Thinly sliced iceberg lettuce and coarsely grated cheddar, to serve

½ bunch coriander leaves chopped roughly to garnish

Preparation: All you will need for Deb’s Chicken Taco Rice Photo by Deb Quinn

Method

For the spicy salsa, combine all the ingredients in a bowl, season to taste with salt and white pepper and set aside for flavours to meld.

For the chicken taco, heat oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat, add chicken and brown well, breaking up any lumps with a wooden spoon (4-5 minutes).

Add ginger, garlic and spices, stir until fragrant, then add soy sauce and miso and simmer until well flavoured and mince is cooked through (5-6 minutes).

Check seasoning, then serve on steamed rice, topped with lettuce, cheese and spicy salsa. Or serve poke bowl style with rice, taco chicken, salsa, lettuce and cheese side by side.

For the rice, I use the absorption method. Firstly, rinse with cold water. Then put 1 cup of rice and 1½ cups of water in a saucepan with a fitted lid. I also add 2 tsp Massel chicken stock powder to the water to give a little more flavour to the rice.

Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer covered for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let rice stand with lid on for 10 minutes just to finish the cooking process. Fluff the rice through with a folk.

Tuck in: It’s all ready to go. Photo by Deb Quinn

Deb’s tips

This recipe is also great with either beef or pork mince.
As a rule, the smaller the chilli the hotter it will be. Slice the chilli in half long ways then scrape and rinse the seeds out prior to chopping or use a medium red chilli if you don’t like too much heat. Leave out the chilli if you find it too spicy.
Sushi rice is great for this dish. It’s easy to make using the absorption method, which is also suitable for most types of rice.
If you prefer brown rice, Riviana Brown Basmati Rice works well as a brown rice absorption method option.
The rice also is extra luscious with a dob of butter melted through just before serving.
Store miso in the fridge — it lasts for ages and it’s fabulous for simple Japanese stocks for soups. But more importantly you will want to make this dish again, so it’s great to have on hand.