We had an opportunity to meet with Keyon Cooksey of Texarkana and discuss his Birria Style Creations and got so full that we had to take a nap. Do not confuse Chef Key’s Tacos with authentic Mexican by any means, he has put his own twist on the Birria Style of cooking with some downhome comfort food. Different, and delicious.
It is fun to meet someone working really hard towards a dream, and having a good idea that it is about to come together for them is nothing short of exciting. Keyon Cooksey, “Chef Key”, is working towards a food truck business and most definitely has a unique product and the drive to make it happen. We first heard of Chef Key through social media posts and seeing different people try to describe how good his food is, we had to reach out. The first time we tried, no luck… but was invited to come by for the next day’s orders.
Keyon is from Texarkana, Texas, and attended Texas High School. He has had a strong passion for cooking for the last 13 years, 8 professionally preparing dishes from Burgers to Filet Mignon honing his craft.
We joined the Facebook Group “Chef Key’s Birria Tacos“. Chef Key will make a post when he is taking orders, you then place your order as a comment, and within minutes he is almost overwhelmed with orders for tacos, his special nachos, quesadillas, burritos, etc… So, you have to be quick, but you can always make contact thru the group to place special orders for events or call 903.691.8915.
“Birria” is a style of preparing dishes from the Jalisco region of Mexico. Usually prepared for special celebrations and occasions like Christmas and weddings and is usually prepared with lamb or goat. The meat is prepared in a flavorful broth or adobo sauce and simmered for 5 to 6 hours. Chef Key became a fan of the style and over a period of six years, and trying many different places that served authentic Mexican Birria dishes and put together his twist on it and now there are Chef Key’s Birria Tacos.
He uses American favorites, beef, chicken, and pork. He simmers the meat in a broth of his own blend of herbs and spices for hours, until it is delicately tender. Then Chef Key separates the meat from the broth, or as he called it “The Dip”. Corn or flour tortillas are dipped in the broth and put on the griddle, he adds the meat of choice with cheese and other requested ingredients. With a nod to tradition, his dishes are served with diced onion, cilantro, and lime wedges on the side, but the element to his dishes we saw the most comments on went back to “The Dip”.
(We started out dipping, then just poured it all over everything, after that we swiped our fingers in the containers and licked them.)
Chef Key's Barria Tacos in Texarkana
We meet up with Chef Key and talk about his creations that folks are going crazy over. Its kind of like down-home comfort food meets Mexican tacos. Barria is a style of cooking from the Jalisco region of Mexico, but Chef Key puts his twist in it, and you really need to try them. We love to see folks with a dream chase it, and it is exciting when we know they will make it come true.#chefkey #texarkana
Posted by Texarkana FYI on Sunday, August 30, 2020
