Spamobada Tacos
Spam isn’t just for the wealthy and elite anymore. It’s accessible to all of us. So I was intrigued when one of my fans, Phil R. from Phoenix posted a pic of smoked spam on my facebook group page and asked me to come up with a spam taco recipe. Sadly, my first attempt at acquiring spam from Food4Less ended in disappointment as they were sold out. So I went to a Vons in a wealthier part of town, and sure enough, they were well stocked. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the wealthy are monopolizing all the spam, as it’s been a symbol for high society for decades. So I was really excited to get my hands on some.
Since spam has some ham in it, along with other pork mystery meat, I decided it would go great with an egg, and some red chili sauce. Also, superfan Phil R. asked me to smoke the spam, and that ended up being key to the recipe.
BTW, did you know that they have “spam lite” now? There’s even plain wrap spam called “pork luncheon meat”. With spam, it’s not just lunch, it’s a luncheon.
What you’ll need -
1 can spam. If you’re on a budget, get “pork luncheon meat”
large corn tortillas
4 guajillo chiles
4 chiles de arbol
1 small clove garlic
1 tsp cumin
1/4 white onion
pinch of salt
1 fried egg per taco
cotija cheese
chopped white onion and cilantro
tomatillo salsa (salsa verde)
You’ll start by smoking the spam. It’s already cooked. So all you’re really doing is adding the smoke flavor. A couple hours at 225 with whatever wood chips you have available will work fine. If you don’t have a smoker, turn your grill into a smoker. Just check youtube. There are 34 thousand bbq nerds on there that will show you how.
Pull the spam after a couple hours when you’ve got a nice brown color on it.
While the spam was in the smoker you’ll have plenty of time to make the red chili sauce. Start by re-hydrating the dried chiles in hot water. Bring some water in a pot to a boil, turn off the heat, and let the chiles sit in there for 20 minutes. After you’ve removed the stems and veins put them in a blender with the 1/4 onion, garlic, cumin, salt, and just enough water to make the whole thing blend. You won’t end up with a lot.
Now slice up the spam into taco filling sized pieces and brown them on a hot pan. After you’ve browned them and given them some nice texture add the red chile sauce and mix it in. Keep a little bit of red chile sauce in reserve.
When the spam is ready fry an egg. If you don’t know how to cook an egg go stand in the corner facing the wall. Heat up some tortillas on a hot pan (not in the microwave, I will mention this every time). Now build the tacos. Add the spam, and the fried egg. Top everything with diced onion and cilantro, some tomatillo salsa, a little bit of the reserve red chili sauce, and cotija cheese. Boom! Spamobada tacos, and they’re delicious. They make great breakfast tacos. They also make great lunch tacos, dinner tacos, or 2 am drunk tacos.
Ok Phil, are you satisfied?
Life is short, taco hard.
Uncle Joe