THE TORTILLA TITANS

Ancho & Agave’s taco board is the mic-drop feast you didn’t know you needed. Chef Paul Katz has compiled a budget-friendly taco board to rule them all.

Scanning the menu at Ancho and Agave in Lombard—a sleek, swaggering Tex-Mex chain from the restaurant group that runs Biaggi’s—I spotted something wild: a 57 dollar flex of a feast called the Ancho and Agave Taco Board. There are no cute icons or illustrated arrows pointing toward it on the menu. But it’s there, halfway down the center column.

It’s one of the best taco deals you’ll find on this side of I-55. Fourteen tacos. One of every taco on A and A’s menu. Pick your wrap of choice—flour, corn, or lettuce if you’re feeling wholesome. But don’t be fooled by the word “board.” What arrives is a gleaming silver taco stand—more like a zig-zagging lowrider chrome rail—that spans the entire table.

During our visit, no less than three strangers congratulated me on my selection. One guy shot me a loud clap as he walked by, as if I’d just hit a last-second buzzer-beater. Going on a date? Split it. Wrangling your hangry family for a taco night out? Share it. Filming a solo taco gauntlet for your TikTok feed? Just order the board and take home the leftovers.

If you’re not the gluttonous type, there are plenty of worthy stand-alone offerings: a crispy coconut shrimp starter. A and A’s hearty fajita platter. Or a banger of chicken asado burrito stuffed with sweet corn, poblano peppers and cilantro-lime rice.
But nothing can compete with A and A’s taco board.

Even Paul Katz, the chain’s corporate executive chef couldn’t help but give it his nod of approval when he arrived two years ago. And Katz has cooked everywhere—Italian kitchens, pan-Asian spots, seafood chains. Upon arriving at A and A, he didn’t mess with things too much. He just sharpened it. He makes his tortillas with corn stock, so they’re slightly sweet and glow with a golden caramelized sheen. He crafts fun accoutrements—chipotle cremas, morita salsas, spiced ranch dips. And he treats his proteins with reverence: seared, braised, battered, or blistered on the plancha until they bite back.

Below is our breakdown of all 14 tacos on his board—with chef insights, heat warnings, and some personal reflections.
Pick a few for your next sit-down taco run—or do what the legends do: go full board, no regrets.

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FRIED “NASHVILLE HOT” CHICKEN
This isn’t the kind of flamethrower taco that would break the Scoville scale. It delivers a subtler heat, which rolls over your taste buds slowly, like a smothered Buffalo wing. Katz’s secret cooling agent is a lime aioli, but it’s his gonzo sweet giardiniera—pickled carrots, cilantro, and golden raisins—that dances so well with the heat.

CHICKEN ASADA
I can hear taco traditionalists groaning from every direction. A chicken asada taco dressed with ranch? C’mon, gringos. Only there’s a tasty twist here: Katz makes a Tex-Mex ranch for grown-ups—yes, those are jalapeños you’re tasting—then folds in sweet corn and rajas so it tastes like a Middle American play on elotes.

KUNG PAO CHICKEN
Paul Katz insists this Asian-Mexican mash-up is the most flavorful taco on his menu. It took him years—and experiments in numerous kitchens—to perfect his Hoisin sauce, which glazes tender tendrils of chicken and crispy water chestnuts. A sprinkle of roasted peanuts and flurry of green scallions makes it as bold on the plate as the palate.

STEAK ASADA
It takes patience to make real deal asada. Slices of sirloin flap are tenderized for 24 hours in a gluten-free tamari-soy, then tossed with sauteed onions and slathered with an avocado-cream sauce. More proof that to the patient, go the spoils.

PORK AL PASTOR
The key to flavor-maxing your pork? Cut a big slab of pork shoulder into inch-thick slices, marinate it overnight, add a cupboard full of spices—guajillos, anchos, cumin and a fistful of cumin—and then lock in all those flavors with a hard sear. When it comes to flavor, this one pops like a birthday pinata.

GRINGO
This simple homage to Taco Bell plays on mass-market Tex-Mex nostalgia. The base ingredients are familiar—ground beef, queso, lettuce, pico de gallo—but the addition of an avocado-serrano salsa attempts to elevate it above takeout-window status.

CAULIFLOWER
Paul Katz’s wife is a discriminating vegetarian with a refined palate. Which might explain why his tempura-battered cauliflower taco is no plant-based throwaway. It’s swaddled in a Mexican cheese blend, then dressed with a two-toned ginger-jalapeno cream.

SWEET POTATO
Imagine an oversized sweet potato French fry—only it’s been coated with ground chilis and lime juice instead of boring old salt. Add some avocado, queso fresco and toasted pepitas and you have a deconstructed sweet guacamole in taco form.

SMOKED PORK BELLY
Our favorite taco of the night. Thick-cut smoked pork belly, seared on a flat top, is drenched in a red chile coconut sauce, then mashed with cabbage slaw, peanuts and plantains. Sweet, smoky, salty, fiery—it’s so bold you’ll never look at a Thai menu the same way again.

CARNITAS
The first law of taquerias? Keep the carnitas simple. That’s the strategy here. Even though Katz adds pickled onion, queso fresco and a chipotle crema, it’s the pork that still steals the show.

BAJA FISH
Katz fries up tilapia for this Midwestern play on a Baja fish taco. He adds extra corn for sweetness and layers it with a chipotle slaw. It’s simple, classic and California worthy.

SHRIMP ACAPULCO
Katz turns Ancho & Agave’s best starter—crispy fried shrimp moated in a sticky mango chili chutney—into a sweet handheld. Hats off to his chipotle slaw. It’s crunchy, juicy, sugary, and spicy all at once. If you chase sweet-sour flavor bombs, this taco’s for you.

BARBACOA
Some of Ancho’s regulars are so sensitive to spice, they think black pepper is cause for a five-alarm fire. Which is why he dials down the heat on his barbacoa. If anything it tastes more like a birria—Jalisco’s famous brothy beef stew. A dollop of tomato crema adds a smooth backbeat to all that beefy bravado.

BLACKENED SALMON
The star of this taco isn’t the citrus-forward blackened salmon or a chipotle pineapple slaw; it’s the inclusion of a garlicky jalapeno chimichurri that’s worthy of being. “We wanted a chimichurri,” says Katz, “that delivered serious punch. Mission accomplished.”

Ancho & Agave, 92 Yorktown Center, 630.395.7500, anchoandagave.com.