These chicken tacos with charred corn salsa embrace the heat

As adept as I am in the kitchen, like anyone, I sometimes get careless or lose focus. When that happens, accidents can occur, and I might end up burni...

As adept as I am in the kitchen, like anyone, I sometimes get careless or lose focus. When that happens, accidents can occur, and I might end up burning whatever it is that I’m making.

In most instances, I can play it off by just adding "blackened” or "charred” to the name of the dish. But when food reaches the point of being inedible, it’s simply burned.

In reality, charring and burning are pretty much the same thing - the difference between the two is the amount of surface area to which that heat is applied.

"With concentrated heat, you can burn and char and create blackened, deep and somewhat bitter flavors in ingredients, while holding back from actually setting them on fire,” flavor scientist Arielle Johnson wrote in "Flavorama.”

When we think about the five basic tastes (sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami), we know that each time we introduce one to a dish, it can create complexity that improves the overall flavor.