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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SO DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I literally can’t wait to make it again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I haven’t made this yet, hard to find skirt steak where I live. What can I substitute it with? Sirloin?
I use flank or flap steak in place of skirt. IMO, eats & can be prepared exactly the same.
I used sirloin and just sliced it thin on a bias. It was DELICIOUS
A must have recipe! I am from Colorado so I am used to CA style tacos and this is the closest recipe I have found.
I made this for my 92 year-old mother of Mexican ancestry. Subbed lean ground beef, fresh lemon for the lime and 10″ corn tortillas because that’s what she had. We warmed the tortillas by giving them a quick bath in hot corn oil. DELICIOUS. Very close to what I grew up eating. Nice balance of flavors. She just loved these tacos! Thank you for the recipe as her recipe is a pinch of this and a bit of that and you were able to give precise measurements. Thank you so much!
Thank you for sharing that you used ground beef, I’d like to try that. Did you marinate the ground beef or cook it then add the seasonings? I have some really lean grass fed ground beef I want to try this with.
Thanks.
No, I didn’t marinate the ground beef. Making these for my mom and my aunt again this weekend. They are just damn delicious!
Also want to add that it is the seasoning that makes this recipe great. Soy saucd in Mexican cooking…whaaat? It wirks here. Delicious.
This is by far my favorite taco recipe- I always come back to it. Thank you so very much! I was scanning most of the comments because I didn’t want to ask a double question, would you happen to know the nutritional content of this?? Thanks again!
Use this every taco Tuesday
I made these last night and they were restaurant-quality delicious!! Only change I made was to add some feta at the end. This will definitely be something I make again and again.
These are far the best and most delicious street tacos ever,so easy to put together and we like to use cojita cheese and fresh salsa,I think that I’ve made these about a dozen times,so I feel that I should leave a high five review,thanks for sharing
The Cumin in the street tacos really brought out the taste and its just delicious in every way
Which taco truck? My favorite was “taco zone” in Echo Park that parked at Jon’s after 8pm. They had amazing Suadero.
I look forward to trying out this recipe.
OMG perfect! I try try and try and never got the right flavor. Thank you for posting this!
I can’t find any good Mexican Tacos in Orlando after living here for 30 years! I miss the Mexican Tacos from my years in the Metro L.A. area. Mine is not a review. I have questions about the recipe. It says to cut the steak into 1/2 inch pieces. Does that mean before I marinade it? Also, is it 1/2 inch strips or 1/2 inch cubes? The recipe leaves it up to interpretation. My normal experience with marinates is to put the whole pice of meat in the marinade and then slice it and cook it afterward in strips and then cube it after cooking. Is seems like I should have cubed it and marinated it and then cooked the cubes.
Any suggestions out there?
I always marinated the entire steak and grill it, let it rest and then slice it very thin.
I’m leaving a review before cooking because I tasted the seasoning and it IS delicious! I marinated it for the full day and making it for tonight.
My question is if I doubled this recipe could I freeze the other half of the steak to use at a later date?
Thank you! I’ve moved to Montana from Colorado and truly miss these. Not sure why no one creates these here.
So easy and delicious! We only marinated 10 minutes. Seriously, this recipe is the bomb!!!
So damn delicious! I wanted tacos and did not have the skirt steak, sooooooo I subbed in chicken. Still a very good meal and thank you so much Chungah. I will try again soon with all of the proper ingredients.
Chicken works just as well. Had the beef last week and just finished the chicken tonight. Lush!
This recipe definitely won me a few points with my girlfriend. I wanted to prepare tacos for Cinco de Mayo, but not the usual ground beef taco. The directions were pretty straight forward. I added shredded Pepper Jack cheese, along with a couple rounds of margaritas. It was a perfect evening. Thank you!
General carne asada recipe. Good but very common. Not a huge difference in this recipe if you’re comparing a “LA” or “Chicago” recipe, which can differ upon region of Mexico.
Absolutely delicious and easy to prepare. I bought tenderized skirt steak and we grilled the meat. Was fantastic! Even my picky kids liked the flavor of the meat. Was fantastic! Can’t wait to make this recipe again.
Great recipe! I add a little cornstarch to the marinade and i love that it tenderizes the meat a bit and crisps it up.
We make these tacos at least a few times a month and they are always amazing. The steak is so flavorful and delicious that sometimes I make a double batch just so we can add the steak to other lunches and meals throughout the week. Definitely one of my favorites.