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
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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.
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Wowzer! These are our new favorite tacos! Thank you so much for sharing. If anyone is on the fence….try them! You will be the hero of your taco loving family!
This recipe is a keeper!
Used it for spanish foods thing. easy. thx.
Made this tonight and it turned out amazing. Served it with pico and limes. So good. Also a side thanks to the various folks who suggested warming up the tortillas in a skillet. It solved my tortilla breakage problems like a charm. This will be a regular rotation. Thanks for sharing.
This was an excellent marinade and I’ll be using it again.
But Chicago tacos can hold their own to LA, even better (especially the carnitas!) Get out there and try more.
que delicisoso gracias
Great recipe, I personally don’t like the taste of cumin. I think it over powers everything else. So I left it out, and it still tasted amazing!
Instead of the skillet, I grilled it. Everyone loved it, definitely a do over!
This recipe was a huge hit in my house, we were all drooling over it, exquisite flavor, fantastic, thank you for sharing it!
Do you think this could be made in a crockpot??
Yes, i do..what i do is: buy 2lbs of ground beef 80/20 crumble it in your crock pot, i use black lava salt, everglades brand seasoning, coarse black pepper, red oions, white pepper fresh muisahrooms with the above ingredients listed and cook for 5 hours high or 10 hours slow
I accidentally put 2 tablespoons into my marinade instead of the 1. Is that okay or do I need to start over?
Should be fine just might be be extra flavorful
OMG these are so good! I had trimmings leftover from a nice beef tenderloin so it was perfect for this. I also added pico de gallo as a topping. SO good. This will be my go to for steak tacos and even can use the marinated steak in quesadillas or on a steak taco salad!
The flavor of these was great. Definitely recommend marinating for awhile, more than an hour if you can. The skirt steak was too tough though, maybe it wouldn’t have been if I marinated for more than an hour. Not sure but it was very chewy and it won’t be my go-to steak for Mexican dishes. But the flavor and everything else was great!
Chop the meat into fine pieces
I found your recipe about a month or so ago and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!! Since I’ve found it I make it once every week or sometimes twice!! I love Carne Asada and this is close to my brothers real Mexican Father’s way he makes it and he said it was rlly good so yah great tacos all around. I get the crumbling queso as a toppers and it rlly adds to the authenticity and I use the green Salsa Verde by Herdez and it’s Amazing!!!
Any suggestions if we only have Regular soy sauce (not reduced sodium)?
I always use regular soy sauce in my marinades and it works really well. You can always use a bit less initially and then taste the ingredients all together before adding the remainder just to make sure that it’s not too salty.
I normally use regular soy sauce for my marinades and it works very well. If you’re hesitant, I would add 1/2 of the recommended amount, taste the marinade once it’s all mixed together and then evaluate how salty it is before adding the remainder.
What brand of tortillas do you use. I made the recipe and it was great bit tortillas turn all flaky and didn’t hold the meat too good. I know tacos normally are messy when eating but would love to know if there is a brand to go to. Thanks for sharing
With corn tortillas it helps if you heat them in a skillet on both sides for a few mins and wrap them inside of paper towels or aluminum foil as you’re cooking them. This makes them more playable and moist so they don’t crack. Any brand should work just fine.
I made this for Christmas this year (it’s 2020, I went easy). What a hit with the family! Even my extremely picky kid loved it!
These were the best steak tacos I’ve ever made!
Just made this for dinner. I had a 2 pound flank steak that I used and same amount of seasonings. Delicious. Everyone loved it, even my daughter who doesn’t love steak. I have made several of your recipes and have not been disappointed. Thank you!
Very good recipe for making tacos at home.
My boys love them & won’t settle for ground beef with taco seasoning anymore.
Quick & easy to make, with minimal preperation.
I am not sure if this would satisfy someone that has a Mexican grandmother, but it does deliver something close to the title.
Thanks for posting.
I normally identify as a 13 year old Japanese school girl, but today I embrace my fake Mexican. I was skeptical that this was going to be delicious, but after all the glowing reviews, I figured I may as well make it. My fake Mexican was pleasantly surprised. Gotta jump on the bandwagon and recommend this. It was very good.