Chicken Tacos – The Robin Hood, Sherwood (Food by Tacolypto)

Ah, the Mexican classic. Served all over the USA, Europe, and indeed Mexico, the humble taco is a street food staple, and comes in many variations. But it’s not often you find them in your local English pub. And that’s just where I discovered these Chicken Tacos.

So what constitutes a taco? It’s typically created by wrapping a hand-sized tortilla around a protein filling, and often embellished with other foods, such as warming beans, crunchy lettuce, or cooling avocado. Traditionally, the soft tortilla is made of corn, but it’s most common to find it wheat-based, or even further from the original: a fried, U-shaped, hard-shell tortilla. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the ‘Americanised’ taco.

As this type of taco has sadly become so ubiquitous, I was pleasantly surprised when presented with a soft, corn tortilla as the foundation for my meal. Such tortillas are treated through the process of ‘nixtamalization’ (which involves grinding and curing maize with limewater), first developed in Mexico by its indigenous people. Don’t be alarmed if you ever see a blue corn tortilla, it’s simply made from a variety of blue corn that has been nixtamalized, and is about as authentic as you can get.

If you plan on making these at home however, dyeing with blue food colouring doesn’t count!

Speaking of home, I was pleased to learn that Tacolypo (the company to whom the chef belongs), sources much of its ingredients from Mexico – the taco’s home. One such example includes the chipotle powder used in the caramelised chipotle pineapple salsa, a dip that added a complementary sweetness to the taco’s heat.

But I digress. Let’s talk about the main event: the chicken.

Or was it the main event? Encased in a thick, deep-fried coating, and then smothered in sauce and sweetcorn, the chicken seemed a little lost in the abundance of popping flavours and textures. Now this isn’t exactly a bad thing, but when sold as a ‘chicken taco’, I’d hoped it would take centre stage a little more.

Unfortunately, what resided beneath the golden crust was slightly overcooked, and so lacked the juiciness that chicken can promise. Nonetheless, the sweetcorn came to the rescue, offering refreshing bursts of hydration to combat the dryness.

And the corn-ucopia of tasty additions doesn’t stop there, as the baked chipotle ‘corn crunch’ (wording from the menu) stole the show. Not the most traditional, but a delightful garnish that somehow ended up coating my sticky fingers just as much as the chicken itself.

Eating a taco, after all, is a messy business – I would not recommend this as food for a first date.

As far as other fillings go, I was actually pleased to see an absence of some. Whilst I’m a huge fan of the lightness that lettuce can bring, as far as tradition goes, it’s a no-no. More authentic garnishes include onions, guacamole, cilantro or Oaxaca cheese (a low-fat white cheese similar to Monterey Jack), but I didn’t feel as though these were needed. There was already a lot going on.

There are many theories as to how the taco originated, but one of the most widely accepted is that the name comes from the Mexican silver mines in the late 19th century, where miners used explosive “taco” chargers similar to the food’s distinctive shape. According to Jeffrey M. Pilcher, professor of history at the University of Minnesota, this led to them being called “tacos de minero”, or miner’s tacos.

Now whether the miners would have approved of The Robin Hood pub’s taco is open to debate… but I certainly do. And at the decent price of £9 (or £12 including skin-on fries), it’s a culinary experience I’d recommend.

Tribudishional score: 8.0/10.

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