Recreating Roy Choi's Carne Asada Tacos From Taste

LWe challenged resident Bon Appétit super taster Chris Morocco to recreate Roy Choi's carne asada Tacos recipe using every sense he has other than sight.

Was he up to the challenge?

- Hey guys, it's Alex.I'm here in the BA Test Kitchen,and I'm gonna have alittle secret conversationabout Chris Morocco with y'all.Once again, we're gonna puthis super taster abilitiesto the test.These are Roy Choi's carneasada tacos with salsa verde.Roy Choi, LA native, grew up in Koreatown,cooking Korean food andeating a lot of Mexican food.We're gonna challenge Chriscreate this exact dishwith every ingredient in just two days.Chris is gonna be able totaste it, touch, smell it,but at no point will he everlay his eyes on this dish.At the end of the second day,I'm gonna come back through,taste Chris's version, and bethe judge of whether or nothe pulled it off.[dramatic music]- I really hope youguys aren't screwing meon this mask, man.I got a real bad feeling about this.Okay, cool, hi.- Hi, are you doing?- I'm all right.These are the ones thatfreak me out a little bit.Like, this is very soft, very subtle.I thought I maybe smelleda little bit of cornand just feeling the edges of these platesit feels like I've gota tortilla situation.When I get really close, Ifeel like I get somethinga little bit kinda cool and crunchybut it's so faint.Okay, let's just take thisitem by item, shall we?Something very fleshy, likecilantro or something here.Got diced raw onion.I would kinda imagine that's white onion.There's some heat tothis, there's some zip.There's a little bit of moderately spicyfermented hot sauce.There's something a little bit,yeah it's not crazy spicy.And there's not a lotof other flavor going onbut it's got a little bitof funky fermenty kinda thing happening.Everything's freaking me out today,even the cilantro's freaking me out today.Who is that?- It's me!- Oh my God,are you like lurking?- I'm just herefor the entertainment.- Oh my God!- What mask are you wearing?- I feel like I'm getting antlers,I'm getting like a little button nose.I got a really bad- Are you a reindeer?- [beep] feeling that I'm Rudolph.You make me very jumpy sometimes.- Stop, I thought we were friends.- We are, mostly.Okay, so we got somekinda piece of meat here.Whoa, that has a deep level of char on it.There's what I was kindasmelling that was likethat meaty, toasty edge.Tastes like beef.It's got a pronouncedkinda fibrousness to it.Could this be our friend skirt steakback for another rodeoor is this something a little bit denser?What is on the steak that's giving itthat accentuated kinda char and that edge?Is there a little bit of a dry rub?And then how is the hot sauce being used?It's really hard tosort of figure out okay,is the hot sauce only on the meat?Is the hot sauce kind of everywhere?There's also sweetnessin here that's like,is it as simple as somebodymade a tomatilla salsaand somehow sweetened itand punched it up with lime?I think part of it islike tomatillos themselveshave a ton of acidity but theystill have that green tomatocharacter to them.What's really tricky iswhere does the brightnessof the lime juice kind of end potentially,and then the acidityof the tomatillo begin.Then there's also a little bitof that vegetal bell pepperquality to green chiles,you know, specifically,and I can't necessarily tell whatthe chili source is here, tricky.All right, so I'm feelingaround to see if I can havean edge of meat that doesn'tseem to be overly sauced.Yeah, I don't think I'mcalling this for skirt.Skirt would be a little bit floppier.It would have a little bit moreof a shreddy kind of texture to it.I'm picturing in my mind all the graphicsthat are gonna be appearing for you guys.Like wrong, skirt steak, Chris sucks,you know like, check!It's too even, it's too fine grained.I think my opening move with the steakis gonna be New York strip.In my mind a dry rubmakes more sense on thisbut then again I'm nottasting obvious spices.There is very savoryumami quality to the meat.It tastes good.It's almost a scenario inwhich I can see something likea soy sauce or somethingthat's salty and very umamibeing used on the meat.This one is a tricky one.What the [beep] is that.- Just me, buddy, I'm love ya.- I could [beep] sense your presencebecause you went quiet.I heard you back there- Whoa, creepy, right?- and then like,you're not quiet.- A little warm airon the neck?- Quiet is not what you do.- Good luck, brother!- Thanks, dude.I mean, it would be just like you guysto choose skirt steak afterthe pork belly debacle.I don't know.Whatever, take it away.I'm gonna go sulk with theother misfit reindeer over here.I guess there's the question,is this not strictly Mexican?In my head it could skew slightly Asian.All right, shopping list.So steak, I wanna get skirtand some New York stripfor this first pass.Hot sauce, soy sauce,garlic, tomatillo, jalapeno,cilantro, white onion, lime.I think that's it.I'm gonna head over to thesupermarket up the street.I don't know, I'm gonnabe doing a lot of thinkingon the way there.I'm not yet ready for the spice aisle.We're gonna start in veg, produce, okay?Tomatillos.I'm gonna grab a coupleserranos for safetybut I think I'm dealingwith jalapeno here.Cilantro, we're gonna get some limes,we're gonna get some garlic,we're gonna get some oranges.Corn tortillas, let's go to the meat case.I'm not dealing with spices yet.Could I have the skirt steakthat's right on top there?And could I also have a New York strip?Yeah, if I could have the secondone from the back, perfect.Thank you so much for your help.- [Butcher] Have a good day.- Appreciate it.I feel like it's probably skirtbut I don't wanna commit 100%.Let's go get some hot sauce.See, this is a problem.Like when you start talking hot sauces,what are you even talking about?I think unequivocally whatI'm tasting is an amalgamationof several ingredients,but I don't know.But if you don't know theplayers that doesn't get you,that only gets you so far.Hold on, this is Molly.Let me see if she's got any inspiration.- [Molly] What's up?- Hey Molly, what do you need?- [Molly] Can you buy me abox of oyster crackers please?- A box of oyster crackers?- [Molly] Yeah.- I thought you were my life line.- [Molly] Oh no, I really justreally need some oyster crackers.- You just really need theoyster cracks, all right.Some life lineyou are, Molly.- [Molly] I'm here for you.- All right, I'll getyou the oyster crackers.You're the best.- [Molly] Thank you,I'll see you in a bit.- All right, cool, bye.- [Molly] Bye.- Well that was interesting.[upbeat jazzy music]All right, just back from the supermarket.I have most if not all ofwhat I think I need here.Still some TBDs.[beeping]See what I mean?It's like he comes in and then he's loud.So if you hear Brad go quiet,he's probably about to blowon your neck and do something kinda weirdbut kinda a little bit awesome too.I'm gonna do the sauce two ways.I'm gonna roast some of the ingredientsand I'm gonna do a version where.Do you actually havesomething in the oven?[beep] man, since when do you everhave anything in the oven?- [Andy] Is the timer right?- No, probably not.I probably beeped it.I'm so sorry.- He stole my timer.- Where the [beep] are my timers?Since when does Andy ever...All right, I'm gonnado the sauce two ways.I'm gonna use more orless the same ingredientsbut I'm gonna prepare the sauceusing two different techniques.So one technique is gonnabe blistered in the ovenand then pureed, and onetechnique is going to bewith the ingredientssweated out on the stove topand then pureed.So I'm starting with the tomatillos herebecause I believe theyare a major componentof the sauce.Some white onion, garlic clove.Let's go serrano, why not.Little neutral oil, little pinch of salt.I'm roasting at kind of a high tempto kinda char it up a little bit.Over here we got our onion started.Just gonna sweat that a little bit.It's Andy's timer, I'm not touching it.All right, so I've gotgarlic which is gonna go inon top of that whiteonion in the sauce pan.This is a somewhat spicy serrano,so just gonna use this quarter of it.All right, so I just added garlicand a little bit ofserrano chile to the pot.And then I'm going tohave these tomatillosand just throw them in thereafter another minute or so.I'm gonna add a splash ofwater to that tomatillo one,kind of let the sauce cook out.I just don't want everythinggetting too toasty in there.All right, sauces are going.Starting the marinade.So I've got lime juice, anorange, teaspoon of ancho chile.Some garlic, I'm gonna doa little bit of soy sauce.See what happens.So this is our roasted sauce.Didn't take long, buttomatillos are collapsing.And I've got little bit ofchar, little bit of raw bitetaken off the onion.So I'm just gonna wait a minuteand then blend this all together.Tomatillos are soft.Just about ready to go,I wanna just cook off alittle bit of that moisture.Both of these will beblended with cilantroand more lime juice and salt,and then we'll taste side by side.All right, so this is our strip steak.Now we've got skirt steak here.I'm just gonna cut likelittle sample piece off,I don't need to marinate the whole thing.I don't wanna waste it.Both of these pieces aregonna go into our marinade.I'm gonna try to givethem 20 minutes in there.Sauce one is sweated andsimmered on the stove top.[blender whirring]All right, so that'sturning pretty nicely.I'm gonna throw in alittle bit of cilantro.All right, so we need toloosen this just a little bit.You know what I like about that?It actually has a fair amount of sweetnessand the heat is kind of balancedand not that differentfrom the original sauce.I don't hate it.A little lime juice.Right now I'm stronglyleaning towards thisbut let's continue theexercise since we're here.The heat's a little bit more pronouncedin the roasted version of the sauce.I like the roasted version,however I do feel likethe stove top version of the sauceis just a little bit brighter.Flavors shine through a little bit more.So I'm leaning towards this herewhich is the stove top version.So I wanna drain the steak really well.The marinade has done something.See what happens here when we grill this.I don't know if these guyscooked theirs on the grill.All right, I think we are good.Skirt looking real good, NewYork strip may be a touch over.We're all right, everything's cool.We're gonna let these guys rest.So I'm just doing my dicedonion for the garnish.Picking some cilantro for the garnish.If it's not steak then justcancel the [beep] show, man.And we can all just go home early.I'm going with skirt,that's what's in my head.Version one.So this is my first attempt at the dish.Already I can just know in my mindI want a little more flavordevelopment on the steak.I'm hoping that the nexttasting of the original dishwill be revelatory.Some how I doubt thatthat's gonna be the case.In my mind it's not bad, butI think it's time to tastethe original dish again.I don't think I'm gettinganywhere here by myself.Ingredients, honestly,this is one of those caseswhere it could be a pinch of this,could be a dash of that.Could be entire other ingredientsthat just do not registerflavor-wise in terms of anindividually distinct wayin the original dish.So I'll give myself 60 for ingredients.Taste, I'll give myself a 65.Things are dark today,it's just the way it is.I'll give myself 60 for technique.Appearance, I'll call it a 70.I think this is sort ofthe overall compositionof this dish.So I think overall maybeI'm hovering around D+.I have one more chance totaste this dish tomorrowand then I really need to bring my A game.So big night of sleep,maybe couple glasses of winewhen I get home, and afresh start tomorrow.I am a sad little reindeer today.So this is a piece of whatI believe to be steak.I can't tell what ishappening from the sauceand what's happening from the steak there.The sauce is, I'm pickingup a little more heat today.It's very angular, you know?It's bright and sort of buzzes.There's like a fattiness to this sauce.There could be a little bitof a fermented kind of qualityto this flavor that I kindawas feeling like was a resultof using kind of like fermented hot saucethat I was responding to yesterday.Like I have a bit of awild guess in my mindbut I kinda don't wanna say it,because then there's gonnabe that [beep] graphic herethat's like ehhh, you know?[beep] you, Chris.Well I guess the other question then is ifit's just green fermentedhot sauce, you know,like green Cholula or something.What does that mean?I'm definitely feelingbetter about skirt steak.This just feels like a little bit looserand it's kind of like sortof muscle fiber structure.Not for nothing, straight up,like I don't know thatanybody could figure outwhat the hell was on that steak.I'm thoroughly confused here.Take it away.We're gonna try a fewdifferent things here.Set up some base recipesand then kind of branch off,add some different thingsto one or the other.Okay, let's do it.For the marinade, I'm gonnastart with some orange and lime.I'm gonna do some garlic as well.Ancho chili powder.So far they're identical,but I feel like I needto set up a little experiment.I'm just not sure whatvariables I wanna tweak.That was just a little bit of brown sugar.Little salt just so I cankinda get a better gaugeon the flavor.Gonna grab some green tapejust so I can keep trackof what's what.Let's put this pieceof skirt steak in here.I wanna make another tomatillo salsaand really think about the texture of it,and then possibly combineit with some avocado.Just thinking of ways tokinda add richness and fat,specifically, to the salsa.I kinda just wanna make a baseand then see where it goes.So this is a little neutral oil.White onion, we're gonna do some garlicin the sauce today as well.This is serrano again,although I do wanna mess aroundonce I have that base sauce made.I'm gonna let that go for just a minute.Some tomatillos going in there.So this is the one with the sugar,I just wanna see how it's gonna color up.There's no real obvious smokeyflavor in the original dish,although there is char.So I'm thinking maybe it'sjust a hard sear in a pankind of situation.I just wanna gauge thedifference between doing itin a pan versus the grill.Little too much flavor developmenthappening around the edge,like the sugar's certainly gonna do that.I frankly like the grilled steak better.Gonna let that rest for a minute.Salsa's cooked, we'regonna let this cool downfor a couple minutes.It's a little too sweet.I also don't like what happenedin that cast iron skillet.I frankly liked the grill better.What I'm gonna do, takingthis piece of skirt,gonna put it in our marinadethat doesn't have the sugar.So this one, the bigdifference from yesterdaywill be that it does not have soy saucebut it has everything else that I putin the marinade yesterday.And we'll see where wekinda end up flavor-wise.- How're we doing?- [Chris] Not looking great.- What do you mean?Yes it is, Chris.- [Chris] I don't think it is, but.- I need you to stay positive, bud.He's struggling with the salsa.- Struggling a little bit with everything.There's like--- To be fair, Chris, I think this might bemore than a tough one.- More than a tough one.- [Brad] Oh, you know what it is?- Oh, Delaney knows all about it.- So what'd you lay it on,a tomatillos, spicy, zingy?- Yes, but there's a creaminessand there's a richnessto the salsa that'sfreaking me out.- Vitamix?Maybe it's just hair?- I was almost like--- [Brad] Oh, mango, yes.- That's an avocado, Brad.- That's what I meant.[laughing]- Mango!- I had a stroke.- Imagine if Brad wasthe host of this show.- I mean, clearly it's an avocado.- [Chris] I knew what he meant!- We'll let Chris get back to work.- Yeah, yeah, yeah,Chris, you got work to do.- You guys came along at a good moment,I was having a hard timefilling the silence.I'm gonna hold some ofthis sauce back for safety.I'm gonna put in a nubbin of avocadoand then I want to put someof that green Cholula inand see what happens.I also want a little bit more cilantro.I mean, the hot sauce definitely helps.It built up that vibrancy, that energyin the sauce a little bit.Do I love it?Am I in love with it?I don't know about that.All right, so this is themarinade that does nothave sugar in it.I'm just gonna season with saltand I'm going back to the grill with this.I did not like the way the steak cookedin the black steel skillet.Yeah, why would anything be wrong?I'm actually gonna fix it now.I was close.So with the steak toss,you can't get too greedy with it.Like doing it from overwhere Tyree is over there,that would be a mistake.I think I deserve a little bit of a bump,a little extra credit,because A, I'm not losing heart here.I'm keeping it light, I'm keeping it fun.And this is an opportunityto kinda decide,listen, I'm gonna give thiswhat I can, what I have to give.But I'm not gonna freak out about it.This does not define me.Although if the steak tossdefined me a little bit,that would kinda be okay.This one's really hard.I don't mean to complainbut it's just a really,really tricky one.Really quickly re-warming our tortillas.Definitely looks better tome coming off the grill.All right, so this is attempt number two.Somebody reached out tome and they were like hey,maybe it would help you ifyou tasted your own foodwith the blindfold on.Maybe that would give you abetter judge of what you've got.And you know what?I can't remember your name,but this one's for you.Gimme the mask.The most satisfying thing about itis I can take the maskoff whenever I want.Steak definitely needs more flavor.Even if I don't add other ingredients,I need to double down on what I do have.The salsa needs salt.It could be a little less tomatillo-yand little bit moreavocado-y and hot saucy.Ingredients, let's say 50%.Taste, I'd put myself up around 75%.I think things could be tightened up herebut I think flavor-wise it's definitely,this is a big step in the right direction.Technique-wise, oh, I'd say I'm at 70%.There could be anything happening here.Appearance, this is whereI wanna say I'm closest.I would maybe put myself at 80%.This is kinda what I feltin the original dish.I don't think I'm missing any elements,so I wanna say steak, tortilla, sauce,couple toppers, that's it.Over all score, can't do that mathbut maybe we've gone from a D+ to a C-?Maybe we're hovering around 72, 73?I've got one more shot.If I can get everythinga little it tighter,I think I may just eke this one out.But one more chance to do it for Alex.And I'll see you guys in a sec.I'm running out of time,I'm running out of options.I'm running out of ideas.I've considered alcohol.We'll do kinda like a light,more like lager style beer, probably.So I've got a dry-hoppedwheat ale, fruit ale,and then got a long neck here.I think of these three,it's probably the Bud.So I've got beer, I've got garlic.The lime juice in both.Feel like we definitelyneed some sweetness in here.Light brown.That's definitely tasting better.I'm gonna just aboutdouble the chili powderjust because I have more liquidthan I was dealing with before.I wanted more intensity.And the beer is dilutingthings quite a bit.All right, so it's bright, it's zingy.It's got a little bit of chilidepth or something happening.Got a little bit of sweetness.So these marinades are stillbasically exactly the same.I'm just leaving open thepossibility of adding somethingif I need to.I wanna work with the sauce I haveand just see what happens when I adda little more avocado to it.I feel like maybe it wasa touch too much avocado.It's now getting a little bitthick, a little bit gloopy.All right, let's make one more sauce.Let's roast it.Got time on the clock.Okay, I have green chili,couple gloves of garlic,tomatillos, white onion.I'm gonna go look fora green pepper option.Poblano pepper, a poblanois the kind of chili pepperthat you would most expect to see, I feel,in a roasted tomatillo salsa.It's gonna add depth, it's gonna add bulkwithout making the salsa overtly acidic,especially if you wannaadjust it with lime.Let that go for a little bitand let's check back in a few, okay?So not too much color.Let's blend some sauce.Okay, cilantro's going in.Flavor is good, I'madjusting with our friend,our green hot sauce.I like the texture a little better.I'm kinda feeling this one.See how this colors up.All right, I'm gonna cutinto both these steaksin like five minutes andsee which one I thinkis good enough for my man Alex Delaney.You only get one.Flavor of this one isjust slightly better.I think it's just the steak itself.This is like a more richly flavored steakand it's taken the beer in themarinade a little bit better.I would say I'm at limitedconfidence about the sauce.I'm garnishing withwhite onion and cilantro.Okay, so this is it.This is the last chance.This is the dish I'm gonna serve to Alex.I've reached the stage of this exercisewhere I just need to know what's going on.I need answers, all right?I'm giving myself a C on this.- Chris, what's going on?How're you feeling?- Oh, man.This was a really tough one.They're all tough in different ways,this one, oh wow.I feel like I just didn'tunderstand the conceptfrom the beginning.- It's really a mix of twodifferent sets of flavorsthat ultimately combineto make this thing.I would like to introduce you toRoy Choi's carne asadatacos with salsa verde.Do you see Roy Choi behind that, what?You pretty much nailed it.- Visual is what I feltbest about of everything.Oh man, I would love toknow the ingredient list.- First off, visual,I mean you pretty much nailed it, right?Salsa verde color-wise looks pretty close,onions chopped the same way,cilantro up top, double tortilla.I need a little refresheron what this tastes like.All right Chris, I'mgoing in for your taco.Let's do it.Texturally, it's all there.Consistency in the sauce, same.The big flavor in here that'sjumping out to me thoughis citrus peel.- Of orange and lime?- Orange, lime, zest and juice.- I could read some ofthe chili thing happeningwith the steak, it made sense.But the peel, no.- For the chili too,it was the double dose.So you had the ancho chili powderand then fresh jalapeno.Then on the sweetness level,this is where it really,like the Roy Choi element comes in.- [Chris] Sweetness here?- He uses mirin and thisis absolutely wild to me,he uses kiwi.When I read that onthe recipe, I was like,Chris is going to hate this.There's kiwi in there.- That's [beep] mean.- There' also sugar, straight up.- Which sugar is it?- Good pinch of white sugar.You got salt.- I got salt, I got ancho chili.- Yes, but you got the beer right.- Oh, he does have beerin this?- There is beer in this.- [beep] right off!- So you nailed it.What kind of steak did you use?- Skirt steak.- Check, got it.How did you prepare the skirt steak?- So I marinaded it, Idrained it, salted it,and I ultimately grilled it.- You made the right call.Grilled in the recipe.Okay, sauce, so there isa ton going on in this.All right, shallot,garlic, basil, cilantro.And then I was here for the,or maybe I observed from afar,the avocado situation.You were correct to put it in.- Really?- There is avocado in this.So there is charred tomatillo.And there's also this is like a little,seems a little atypical to me.In Roy's sauce there's mint.So he's really going forthe kitchen sink of herbs.And again, going back to the mirin.There's mirin in here, as well.- Raw, uncooked mirin?- Yep, suspect.Okay, so you're talking aboutthe fat content, the creaminess.- Yeah, the creaminess.Not greasy, but there was like a fattyquality.- There was a fatty thing.Canola and olive oil in Roy's sauce.Okay, and this is like maybethe most out of left field.Toasted sesame seed.Which could explain,like, that deeper note...[sad piano music]All right Chris, I thinkI need to break this downand give you some scores.- [Chris] Okay, yeah,it's time to talk numbers.- Let's talk numbers.Starting with ingredients,I will say this wasan incredibly hard list.Lotta nuances going on.- [Chris] So many things.- From a numbers standpoint the things you hitI'm gonna tell you rightnow, it's not looking good.It's gonna be like a 68.- Okay.- Tough.- Yeah, okay.- On taste, you'reprobably about a solid B.So I'll give you an 87.- Oh, okay, all right, all right.- I think you did a great jobon the flavor.- I can live with that.- Technique, we're gonna go,we're gonna go an 86.- All right, not so badas I feared.- Appearance, Chris, I meanlike, you nailed the appearance.- C'mon!- You nailed the appearance.- C'mon!- You got an A+ on the appearance.- Yeah, boom!- And I do wanna say this.I don't know if we're inthe market for extra credit,I heard there was somepretty impressive acrobatics.- [Chris] Oh yeah, there was somemajor style points.- [Alex] In terms of throwingthings across the kitchen.- I had to try to make upfor my deficit somehow.- So I'm a lenientprofessor, I'm gonna give youan extra five points based on style alone.- Yes, okay!- So we're gonna give youan 84 plus five bonus pointsyou're rockin' an 89.- Oh wow, this not whereI expected to be atthe end of the day today.- Considering the list,I think you killed it.- All right, all right.I'll definitely take this one.Thanks, man.- Oh, of course!- It's such a pleasure.- Another episode down.- All right, cool.All right, wow, what a journey.I feel like a few thingsdefinitely went my way todayand I'll definitely take it.And I feel like I reallytrusted in the flavorson this one.If you're not truly tasting it,maybe it's better to just leave it out.So this was huge for meto just trust myself,to just let flavor be the guide.- What was your approximatelocation of the tortilla shot.I'm trying to make sure Igive you the right amountof extra credit here.- So I think I was here, right?- All right, can you hold that?- Is it fair to say?- So the center of the pan, about?- Center of the pan.- What're we rockin'?- I've got eight feet, let'scall it eight feet six inches.- It's not nothing.- And what're talking with the steak?- The steak, where was I, guys?Was I like here?- [Cameraman] You wereabout the blender there.- Blender, blender?I don't know, I feel like I was this tile.- [Alex] Okay, also the thingabout this shot in particular,there's a fire element,a little bit more danger.- [Chris] Oh, for sure.- [Alex] A little more open flame.- So now we've goteight feet three inches.- Both over eight feet.- Yes, for sure.Distance to beat on the hangar steak tossis eight feet three inches.Why, is Roy Choi gonnacome in and try to beat me?- Roy's not getting that shot.