Sweet and Smokey Brisket Tacos with Guajillo Lime Slaw

I forgot about this draft, but I never forgot about this recipe...

So, here's what happened: I made this recipe. I wrote about it. And then I… forgot it existed? Which is kind of ridiculous, because it’s really good. Like, the kind of good where you take one bite and immediately wonder why you're not turning your oven on for 4 hours in the height of summer more often -please don’t be mad at me, I promise these are worth it.

But back when I first started planning this newsletter, I was on a bit of a tear: writing nonstop, testing recipes, editing late into the night, and a lot of half finished drafts got pushed aside. Some deserved it (looking at you, overly ambitious duck wellington). But this one? This was a baby I accidentally threw out with the bathwater. A dusty gem. A lost treasure. A forgotten favorite.

Thankfully, I stumbled across it again. Is it a project? Yes. Will you need more than one pan? Probably. Is it worth it? Absolutely.

So here it is, back from the archives and (finally) seeing the light of day. Pre-new cameras, pre-slick edits, just good food and me doing my best. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

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DRAFT FROM JUNE 2024…

I saw her number on my cell, and since it was exactly the time I knew she would be testing my recipe for me, I held my breath.

“Hi mom”

“What’s a gwa-hee-yo chili?”

“Oh….yeah… it’s….a dried chili”

“Oh….. not like chili powder?”

“No, it’s a whole chili, it’s just…dried.”

I really knew better than all of this.

“Ohhhhh…..Does Safeway have it?”

”I mean, they might….I’m not sure, you might have to go to…..a Mexican market….” I said that last part really fast.

I waited a beat and scrunched my face in braceful anticipation for the reaction I already knew was coming the moment I heard myself saying any of it.

You see, if you ask my mom what her very worst chore in the whole world is, the one she would not wish on her worst enemy, the chore in which she would be sentenced to in order to satisfy lifelong indentured servitude, it would be grocery shopping. The inception of grocery delivery services did for this woman what antibiotics did for humanity - lives were changed and saved. It’s bad enough for her to grocery shop in a store she at least knows well and is somewhat familiar with.

(long pause) “…mmkay…” she said. I just knew she was biting her lip when she said the “mmkay” too.

And that is because I know that “mmkay” very well. It’s the exact same “mmkay” I heard hundreds of times growing up. The one I would hear when the accountant would call her up to tell her the steps they would need to take in order to see the audit through. The one I would hear her say when she was being informed of the obscene vet bill for our “playful and curious” black lab.

Except this was not an audit and it was not a catastrophic vet bill, it was TACOS.

Besides opting for a colonoscopy rather than a trip to Trader Joe’s, the other thing about my mom - and this is said with respect and affection believe me, but I have to be honest and realistic, she is my mother after all - is that she only tolerates cooking. There, I said it.

Its ironic, too, because she is excellent at it when she does it. In fact, her spaghetti sauce (which I will share one day), is one of my family’s favorite meals. Her pot roast? Cult following. So, I’ve never understood her impatience and annoyance with the whole thing. She just can’t, just won’t be bothered with anything that asks her to get more than one appliance out that plugs in, transferring something to another appliance to be blended, or the biggest deal breaker of all, asking her to go to some special market to get an otherwise obscure ingredient.

I can take one look at a recipe and know if she will make it. So, why on God’s green Earth I thought she would make these tacos as is I will never know.

I decided right then and there, that this recipe, would need a “Nonnie Can’t Be Bothered” asterisk to it. These are the easy, no fuss modifications and substitutions I just know my mother would make. The ones she would make without even a consideration of consulting Google, let alone her chef daughter. Brazen, nervy, unapologetic substitutions, and we love her for it. So, let the Nonnie’s of The Kitchen Counter unite, for those of you that just can’t be bothered with some of it, my mom has your back.

And if these shortcuts make it so you actually tackle these tacos, than that right there makes Nonnie the hero of the day. Mmmmkay?