Mexican Street Tacos
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Easy, quick, authentic carne asada street tacos you can make right at home! Top with onion, cilantro and lime juice!
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Now that I’ve moved to the brisk, cold winter of Chicago, I can’t stop thinking about the taco trucks in Los Angeles serving authentic Mexican street tacos packed with carne asada, onion, cilantro, and lime. But until I can get back to sunny California, here is my rendition of my favorite street tacos that I miss so dearly. It’s a super quick recipe using a simple marinade for your skirt steak. It just needs 1 hour of marinating before you throw it onto a hot skillet. From there, you can top off your tacos with diced onion, cilantro and freshly squeezed lime juice. Simple, easy and just perfect.
Why You’ll Love This Mexican Street Tacos Recipe
- Make-ahead recipe. This is an easy peasy one skillet dinner with a simple 1 to 4 hour marinade, great for prepping ahead of time for those busy weeknights.
- Favorited street tacos. Mexican street tacos are a crowd-favorite for the entire family, and now you can easily make these tacos right at home with easy-to-find ingredients and pantry staples. No fancy equipment or specialty ingredients needed here!
- Freezer-friendly. The carne asada meat can easily be frozen, great for batch cooking, meal prep or saving leftovers. This makes it even easier to whip up tacos using fresh tortilla and your favorite toppings, great for Taco Tuesdays!
What Are Mexican Street Tacos
A Mexican street taco is a small taco on a corn tortilla with meats like carne asada, carnitas, or al pastor. They’re part of Mexico’s street food culture and are usually sold from carts or taco trucks, topped simply with onion, cilantro, and lime. Onion, cilantro and cotija cheese are classic street taco toppings.
Tips for Perfect Mexican Street Tacos Every Time
- Use a cast iron skillet. Use a cast iron skillet, the same tool used in many Mexico street food stalls. Cast iron skillets retain heat much better than nonstick pans, giving your carne asada that authentic sear for Mexican tacos.
- Use flour or corn tortillas. Mexican street tacos are traditionally made with corn tortillas but small flour or corn tortillas can be used depending on personal preference.
- Double up the tortilla. Street tacos are typically served on two tortillas, known as la copia or “the copy”. This practice helps keep the filling together, and if the first tortilla breaks, the back up tortilla can be used for the rest of the filling.
- Slice for tenderness. For the best steak tacos recipe, slice the carne asada thinly against the grain so every bite stays tender.
- Serve with your favorite toppings. Serve with diced onion, cilantro, cotija cheese, salsa verde, guacamole, or salsa. Cotija cheese is a classic Mexican ingredient that adds salty, authentic flavor to any street taco recipe.
- Freeze as needed. Label, date and freeze up to 2 months.
Best Sides to Serve with Mexican Street Tacos
- Mexican Rice
- Mexican Corn Dip
- Creamy Chorizo Queso Dip
- Red and Green Chicken Enchiladas
- Southwestern Chopped Salad with Cilantro Lime Dressing
Tools For This Recipe
Large cast iron skillet
Mexican Street Tacos: Frequently Asked Questions
Skirt steak, flank steak or sirloin steak are all great options.
Yes! We have a recipe for that here.
Leftover steak can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days.
Yes! The leftover steak, prior to assembling in tacos, will freeze beautifully. Let cool completely; portion into plastic freezer bags in individual servings, squeezing out any excess air before sealing. Lay the bags flat in a single layer in the freezer (this will help them freeze quickly). To reheat, thaw overnight in the fridge, reheating over low heat, stirring occasionally, until heated through.
Mexican Street Tacos
Video
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
- 2 tablespoons canola oil, divided
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 ½ pounds skirt steak, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 12 mini flour tortillas, warmed
- ¾ cup diced red onion
- ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
- 1 lime, cut into wedges
Equipment
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, combine soy sauce, lime juice, 1 tablespoon canola oil, garlic, chili powder, cumin and oregano.
- In a gallon size Ziploc bag or large bowl, combine soy sauce mixture and steak; marinate for at least 1 hour up to 4 hours, turning the bag occasionally.
- Heat remaining 1 tablespoon canola oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Add steak and marinade, and cook, stirring often, until steak has browned and marinade has reduced, about 5-6 minutes, or until desired doneness.
- Serve steak in tortillas, topped with onion, cilantro and lime.
Did you make this recipe?
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use chili powder (in Texas chili beans) or Mexican chili powder ( contain only ground red chili pepper?? Thank you in advance for your help.
Easy and tasty. Took these tasty morsels to small group and they disappeared very quickly. Will make again and definitely add to the meal rotation.
This is the best recipe ever!
These are amazing! Cook the meat on my flat top. I top them with shredded cabbage, onions, and crumbled Cotija cheese. I also make a sour cream, cilantro lime sauce to drizzle on top. Family can’t get enough of them.
Yes this was DAMN DELICIOUS!
We did follow the recipe perfectly and I wouldn’t change a thing. Super delicious. Can hardly wait to make it for my friends!
Yum! These came out perfect. I used some “stir fry” cut steak from the supermarket and marinaded it for a while, sautéd, then took the meat out and diced it up, threw it back into the pan and fried just a little longer til everything was cooked through and with a little smokiness. Served on small corn tortillas with onion and cilantro. The tacos were delicious and my Mexican husband and mother in law complimented my cooking. I will say they were surprisingly not spicy at all so if you want some extra heat you can be more generous with the chili powder (or add hot sauce to the tacos lol).
In going to try and make these they sound so good and I don’t go out to eat I enjoy cooking at home
Amazing! My 13 year old front this recipe and we now use it on our taco truck! Everyone loves them!!!
I have made these a couple times now and they are fantastic. I did not have any skits on hand so I sliced some “petit filets” – you know the ones that weigh about 3 ozs each that are cheap at the store – while they were still half frozen. Cut them real thin. Marinated for 2 hours. Awesome.
This is a really good recipe ! I’ve made it for my family several times now. Everyone likes it – and that makes it special!!
OMG, this was AMAZING!!!! It was so easy and full of flavor. The shirt steak was tender too. The only thing I omitted was the cilantro…I’m one of those who finds it tastes like soap. I just topped with the red onion and shredded lettuce. This is a keeper!
Despite following directions, this was just a little too bland for me. I added some spice (cayenne pepper) and it definitely made it better. If you like really mild tacos, you might like this.
Excellent recipe! I like how fast the marinade works. I didn’t have low sodium Soy Saue so I used 1 1/2 tbsp Kikoman and 1/2 tbsp water. Great authentic Mexican style Carne Asada tacos! And they do have these in SE Wisconsin on taco trucks and even in The Chi! I just needed a great recipe to make them at home!
Sooooo good! Keep coming back. I pop the meat into an unwrap or for 6 mins then set to sauté mode so the sauce is absorbed into the meat. Thank you!!!!! The more meat the better
Awesome tacos! I used corn tortillas and had some avocado slices to top it. I had everything to make these without going to the store except canola oil so I substituted with vegetable oil. We will definitely make this again!
Delicious but 1lb steak definitely yields more than 6 servings! Had plenty leftovers for another day.
This is a definite keeper!! My family LOVED this-no leftovers in sight.
I did add 1 tsp smoked paprika
Awesome, delicious flavors! Exchanged flour tortillas to corn tortillas. We will continue to make this recipe. Thanks for sharing .
These were amazing! The only change I made was to grill the steak. I marinated it for a couple of hours, threw it on the grill and then chopped it into bite size pieces. I also warned up the tortillas on the grill after I took the meat off (while the meat rested). Everyone said these were the best street tacos they had ever tasted.
Great recipe
These are awesome Im Mexican and never made with soy sauce before it really is authentic and I never realized that was the missing ingredient ALL my kids ate this which is rare.