Mexican Street Tacos
This post may contain affiliate links. Please see our privacy policy for details.
Easy, quick, authentic carne asada street tacos you can make right at home! Top with onion, cilantro and lime juice!
Featured Comment
Now that I’ve moved to the brisk, cold winter of Chicago, all I think about is the proximity of that taco truck back home in Los Angeles. 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.
reasons to make Mexican street tacos
- 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 corn tortilla with different meats (al pastor, carne asada, barbacoa, carnitas or chorizo), served on small plates in street-style fashion from carts or trucks in empty parking lots or on the side of the street. Onion, cilantro and cotija cheese are classic street taco toppings.
tips and tricks for success
- Use a cast iron skillet. Cast iron skillets retain heat much better than a nonstick skillet, allowing for even cooking to quickly brown the meat while sealing in its juices.
- 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.
- Serve with your favorite toppings. Serve with diced onion, cilantro, cotija cheese, salsa verde, guacamole or salsa.
- Freeze as needed. Label, date and freeze up to 2 months.
what 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
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.
Video
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
This recipe is the bomb I like to add brown sugar to this recipe and instead use AVOCADO OIL. I only wish i knew how you got your Taco shells to look like that, thanks enjoyed it
If you have a gas range, you can toss your tortillas on there for a few seconds to char them, that’s how you get those crispy edges 🙂
I didn’t have soy sauce, so I substituted with Worcestershire sauce. It was so good!!!! My son raved about it.
These were really good. I actually used ground chicken because that’s what I had but they were excellent. Seasoning was just right.
Love this recipe!!!!
These street tacos were absolutely the BEST! Thank you for sharing this recipe! Absolutely love your blog!
These were phenomenal! I’ve struggled with making pastor and steak tacos… they always come out way too dry. The key here is the canola oil – not only does it keep everything marinated well, it helps the steak from drying out as you grill it. It was concerned there wasn’t enough marinade when I began to grill, but once everything heated up the marinade became more liquid. I grilled the steak for probably 10-12 minutes, until there was only a couple tbsps left of the marinade and the steak was done perfectly. Delicious and still juicy. Everyone loved them!
Logs good
My husband is a very picky eater, it is hard to find new things for him to try and when he does give in and try something, he never likes or complains about it. So, I knew this was a risk to even try but I was pleasantly surprised, he loved it, even went back for seconds (rare occurrence ) Anyone thinking about it should give it a try. It’s easy, quick and so delicious. Thank you for sharing your recipe.
OMG! This is how I envision taco Tuesday (and Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, etc) for the rest of time!! The meat was perfect; the marinade is making my mouth water just thinking about it. This was perfection
Wow. Love the marinade.
I always struggle with steak tacos but not anymore! This was so easy and tasty. Marinated for about 5 hours and the meat cooked up perfectly tender. Thank you!
As always the food is Damn Delicious! One of my Favorite recipes!
I’m also from Cali born and raised and miss the Garbage wagons but I ate at them all the time been in NC from 26 years now and still miss them found a few over the years but they are only there maybe a year. There have been a few restaurants but there not the same as a Garbage wagon. I Googled for a recipe and came across this and WOW it took me back to great . Made with steak the first time this time I’m gonna try pork
Ah the garbage wagons…now you got me missing them too
I made these street tacos tonight for my family of 6. All of my kids LOVED these. Sooo good!!!
Chiberia…lol. More like Chiraq.
After reading through all the reviews, I’m still uncertain if you are suppose to cut up the meat prior to marinating it. (It sounds like it should be cut up first in the ingredients). I’m going to leave it whole and grill it I think, rather than use a skillet to cook it. I hope it still will get tenderized.
I’m confused on this too?
Yes cut it up.
Recipe says to cut it up first and it seems like that’s what most reviewers are doing, but I’ve tried both and prefer to leave the steak whole or cut it into 2 or 3 large pieces. Cutting into smaller pieces does allow the marinade to penetrate the meat better, but it also makes the meat tougher because you really can’t cook it to medium rare or even medium if it’s cut into tiny pieces. If you like your steak medium rare, keep it whole and you’ll end up with much more tender, juicy steak.
This looks really good! This would be perfect on our taco bar! Can this be cooked in a slow cooker? This would free up my last minute cooking time.
Mexican Street Tacos
These were amazing! Just the right amount of spice. Served with Mexican rice and coke slaw. Yum!
These have become a family favorite! I make them at least once a week (if my kiddos had it their we would eat them everyday). The only difference I make is heavily season the meat with the dry ingredients in the recipe while grilling/frying. I use chicken breast as well (great grilled), prior to marinating I evenly flatten the breast with a rolling pin to create an even breast. Excellent recipe! Thank you
I made this and it was so dang delish!!! I usually do not like cumin but I followed the recipe exactly as written and there wasn’t one chunk of meat left!!! 4 pounds so I doubled the marinade recipe. I used corn tortillas and warmed them to be a bit crispy…… soooooo good! My family raved about this. I made refried beans and fideo and bought this frozen Mexican corn from sams club which was another hit and so easy! Sabroso!!!!
My picky kids love this and ask me to make it for dinner at least once a week! I’m going to need to double the recipe! Thanks so much!