Quest for Fire

Rick can’t resist the kind of well-seasoned, simple food grilled over a live fire—the stuff he’s enjoyed at thousands of markets, kitchens and restaurants all over Mexico, where cooking comes down to the simple combination of fresh ingredients and flickering flames. Deep in the Mexican countryside, he pulls over for a sizzling roadside snack—chicken grilled on an improvised oil-drum barbecue; then he shows us how to bring the idea home with a recipe for Roadside Whole Chicken with Knob Onions grilled on his backyard barbecue. At bustling El Farolito in Mexico City, Rick gives us the lowdown on another Mexican fire-cooked favorite: Tacos al Pastor—succulent pork, grilled “gyros-style” on a vertical spit with pineapple. And that gets his appetite working for easy Chorizo, Potato and Mushroom Tacos made in his outdoor kitchen in Chicago.