Traditional Carne Asada Taco Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is in a traditional Mexican taco? ›

The more popular meats are usually chorizo, carnitas (braised pork), arrachera (skirt steak), and tacos al pastor (pork marinated in chili and achiote paste).

This carne asada tacos recipe consists of a skirt steak marinated in lime juice, spices and garlic. It's grilled over a super high heat in a few minutes, resulting in flavorful, earthy and delicious carne asada. Serve it with tortillas, avocado, aguas frescas and an array of salsas and cotija for a delicious dinner.

When making carne asada, figure on about 1/2 pound of raw meat person. If necessary, trim the meat of any excess fat. Then marinate it as you like. Because the meat cut is thin, it does not need a long marinating time.

There's no cheese or lettuce. Instead, you'll see soft corn tortillas filled with authentically flavored meat, cilantro, radish slices, grilled onion, and an assortment of hot sauces. The future of tacos looks bright.

To assemble tacos, layer beef mixture, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes in each taco shell. Serve with salsa; top with sour cream.

Carne asada is also a very popular filling for burritos, which are also said to have originated in Northern Mexico. As well, you can add carne asada to quesadillas, tostadas and just about any other tortilla-based dish. Carne asada is often served with salsas, grilled onions, guacamole lime wedges and chopped cilantro.

The meat is characteristically marinated in lime juice, salt, and Mexican seasonings, but may also be simply rubbed with salt or spice rubs such as lemon pepper, before grilled. After grilling it is typically chopped for filling tacos and burritos, which also minimizes toughness. Once grilled, it is called carne asada.

Carne asada is typically made with skirt steak, but I wanted to test out a variety of inexpensive cuts to be sure. I bought a half dozen different cuts of beef and marinated them in a basic mixture of lime juice, garlic, cilantro, olive oil, and chiles before grilling them to medium-rare over hot coals.

You want to cut perpendicular to the muscle fibers so they become as short as possible. You can a have melt in your mouth steak off the grill but if you cut it parallel to the grain you will end up with long muscle fibers AKA chewy, rubbery tough meat. So cut AGAINST the grain!

Carne asada tacos are delicious flank steak, Mexican-inspired street tacos! Just load up your tortilla with juicy steak bites, avocado, onion, cotija cheese, and fresh cilantro. I think we've firmly established (through the numerous recipes on this website) that I'm a lover of Mexican food.

Do you use white or yellow onions for carne asada? ›

Carne Asada Tacos, on the other hand, are usually served street taco-style, with corn tortillas, sliced beef, diced white onion, chopped cilantro, and a squeeze of fresh lime juice. Sometimes, they'll also have come with a side of guacamole.

Carne Asada 1 lb Cooked(6-8 servings) - Menu Ordering - Tuesdays Street Tacos & Burritos - Mexican Restaurant in Columbus, GA.

After cooking, that 16 ounces shrinks to about 14 ounces. About 2 ounces of meat goes into each taco. So, a pound of asada can make seven tacos. All together, it costs El Taquito 71 cents to produce a single taco using a corn tortilla.

I would get 6.5 to 7.5 pounds of ground beef for tacos for 20 people if the tacos are going to be most of the food for the meal.

Tortillas have hundreds of uses in Mexican cuisine. They can be fried to make chips, which you can dip into salsa, guacamole or queso. They can be filled with meats, cheese and veggies to make tacos or stuffed with beans and rice to make a burrito.

American tacos use flour tortillas or crispy, hard-shelled corn tortillas. You'll find that authentic Mexican tacos use soft corn tortillas as the wrapper. Next comes the toppings. Tex-Mex tacos are filled with shredded cheese, lettuce, diced tomatoes and sour cream.

In Mexican cuisine, cheese is not a common ingredient for tacos. Traditionally, Mexican tacos feature cilantro, raw onion, and salsa toppings.