Taco Night Takes Way Less Effort With This 3-Ingredient Meat Marinade

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A handful of major annual eating events — Thanksgiving, the Fourth of July, even Halloween and Valentine's Day — tend to capture a lot of the food holiday attention. But smaller culinary celebrations also abound year-round. And taco night is primary among them. Even just the phrase invites excitement, signaling that one isn't merely having tacos, but making a whole dang night of 'em. So whether you observe taco night weekly, or at any other cadence, you want it to be special enough to feel like just the esteemed occasion that it should be. One of our easy, three-ingredient marinades consists of chipotles in adobo, lime juice, and cumin — it's just the thing to imbue every taco night with flavor worthy of a real fête.

A typical marinade will include some combination of an acid, a smattering of flavorful seasonings, and a fat. This meat marinade gets you a long way via its lime and cumin, and its chipotles in adobo tips it all over the finish line. The average can of chipotles in adobo will contain the titular dried, smoked jalapeño peppers in smoky tomato puree, along with a bit of oil, aromatics like onion and garlic, a touch of sweetness, and the compulsory salt. That all adds up to each of the elements that any marinade needs to be tasty and effective. And it works just as well with chicken, steak, or any other protein you're using as taco night's centerpiece.

Being that chipotles in adobo should factor into every kitchen's must-have pantry staples, and since cumin should likewise appear among the seasonings that every spice rack should have, you might only need to source the lime for this simple marinade. Something like a bottle of long-lasting Santa Cruz organic lime juice — a brand that boasts some of the best juice ingredients on the market — can even scratch that off your list, too. Heck, should you already have some chicken or beef in the freezer, this can turn into one of your lowest-shop taco nights of all time. You might, however, have to dirty a little more kitchen equipment than usual.

Although the sauce in a can of chipotles in adobo is actually delicious enough to use all on its own, you'll want to include some of the actual whole peppers within to capture their full potential in this marinade, too. You will ultimately need enough marinade to fully submerge whatever poultry, pork, or protein you're working with, so you might want to toss that whole can right into the blender along with about an ounce of the lime juice and a few good shakes of the cumin. You can give it a taste to see if you want more spice or citrus once you've whirled it all together. Poured over the protein into a resealable plastic container, the marinade can begin to work its tenderizing, flavor-enhancing magic in as little as 30 minutes, or even a full day before you begin grilling, searing, or broiling your way to real taco night revelry.