Mexican Street Tacos
by Chungah
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Easy, quick, authentic carne asada street tacos you can make right at home, topped with onion, cilantro and lime! Ready in just 20 minutes!
Featured Comment
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 Taco 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 super 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.
How to make mexican street tacos
- Marinate. Combine all the marinade ingredients in a large bowl with the diced skirt steak, letting it marinate for at least 1 hour. The marinade will help tenderize the steak (making it less chewy) and ensure juicy, caramelized goodness once cooked.
- Cook the steak. Cook the steak pieces in a hot cast iron skillet over medium high heat until browned and caramelized.
- Serve. Serve warm in tortillas, topped with onion, cilantro and lime (or your favorite toppings). If freezing, freeze the leftover carne asada prior to assembling in tacos.
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 is the most preferred option as it is a thin cut of meat, cooks very quickly, and has great flavor from its high fat content and marbling (making it much more tender and flavorful than leaner cuts such as flank steak).
Flank steak is a great alternative. Just be sure to slice it thinly against the grain after cooking so it stays tender. Sirloin steak is another solid option if you prefer something a little leaner.
Yes! We have a recipe for that here.
Two things can cause tough steak here. First, make sure you’re cutting the steak into 1/2-inch pieces before marinating, not after cooking. Smaller pieces cook faster and more evenly in the skillet. Second, always slice against the grain. Look for the direction the muscle fibers run, then cut perpendicular to them. That short cut through the fibers makes every bite tender instead of chewy.
Yes, you can! 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, can keep in the freezer for at least 2 months, perfect for quick taco nights throughout the week!
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 corn or flour tortillas, warmed
- ¾ cup diced red onion
- ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
- 1 lime, cut into wedges
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.
Equipment
Notes
- Cut the skirt steak before marinating. Dice the skirt steak into 1/2-inch pieces prior to marinating, not after cooking. This will allow the marinade to coat each piece evenly, yielding a much better sear in the skillet. This is also key to getting that favorited caramelized crust on each piece!
- Avoid marinating for too long. The high acid content from the lime juice can break down the muscle fibers if marinated for too long. Marinate the steak for 1 to 4 hours.
- Use a cast iron skillet. A cast iron skillet is the same tool used in many street food stalls in Mexico. It retains heat much better than nonstick pans or even a grill grate, yielding a better sear on the meat without steaming it and giving the steak that authentic sear for Mexican street 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.
- 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 before assembling in tacos. Let the leftover carne asada cool completely; portion into plastic freezer bags in individual servings, squeezing out any excess air before sealing. Label, date and freeze up to 2 months. To reheat, thaw overnight in the fridge, reheating over low heat, stirring occasionally, until heated through.
Did you make this recipe?
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Yummy and easy! Followed directions and marinated meat for one hour, cooked on stovetop and ate stuffed into corn tortillas with homemade pico and feta cheese sprinkled on top. A hit at the dinner table!
We loved this. I (oddly for me) was out of soy sauce and I substituted Lea & Perrin’s. Other than that the only change I made was adding some thinly sliced poblano pepper.
Thank you for posting this recipe. I’m always looking for new taco ideas.
Absolutely Amazing !
This is an amazing recipe and we are trying it out tonight! Since we have a garden that has somehow been successful in particular with the resulting multiple peppers, we are now adding to the marinade a moderate amount of chopped fresh jalapeños, and limiting the amount of tiny chopped pieces of the intensely hot cayennes. Love the blend of spices, but as someone has commented here, the world’s various cultures have been connected for many many centuries. Thank you for being present as the go-to source of all wonderful recipes!!
Wow. This was so freaking easy and seriously tasty. My daughter who will not eat anything unless it has refried beans and cheese on it asked for seconds. I did it exactly as the recipe stated and was perfect. Will be keeping this in the rotation thank you so much!!
This is an excellent recipe! I do not change a thing in the marinade although I may have to buy a different meat if skirt steak is not available. I am amused by the comments that say this is not “authentic” because of the soy sauce. If you are at all interested in the history of Mexico you should know that there were a lot of Chinese immigrants in Mexico in the 1800’s. Guess what, they brought soy sauce with them. Carne asada almost always has soy sauce in it.
Good Point! Love the history you provided. Thanks,
I do make carne asada quite often I have not used this recipe but it should be fine too put it on the grill right
I made these for a party and doubled the recipe. Everyone loves it. I didn’t use any heat and allowed people to add hot sauce after if they wanted. I’m from East LA so street tacos have their own place in my food repertoire. I don’t think I’ll ever use ground beef for tacos again. This was so simple and delicious. Thank you for this recipe.
Damn delicious indeed personally I make way more marinade then called for but it is better that way maybe it’s just me but recipes never seem to call for enough marinade especially when the steak drinks it
The marinade is amazing! I made this for my family, and my dad asked me what I put on the steak because it was the best steak he’d ever had. This marinade is also good on cauliflower for any vegetarians out there!
My picky husband was commenting how good it smelled as soon as I started cooking!
Served it with guacamole and sour cream with street corn. Delicious.
He suggested corn tortillas next time-will update!
So easy!!
I love this recipe. If I don’t make it weekly, I am at least making it every other week. My picky teens love this too. We all agree it is DAMN DELICIOUS. I love how quickly this comes together.
These are amazing and I’ve made them 3 times now! It even works with leftover steak if you throw it in the marinade!
Thanks so much for this recipe! I actually tweaked it a little and used it last minute on some ground beef for quick street tacos and wow!! Absolutely delicious. Tastes remarkably like my favourite taco truck.
I’ve been making these tacos for the past few years and always come back to this recipe. Easy, delicious, full of flavor! You won’t be disappointed.
My dad and I make these once a month they’re easy to make they’re delicious the only difference between the street tacos and Carne asada isyou use jalapeno and Orange juice and lime juice
These are delicious and easy to make. I like to serve refried beans and a salad to make it a meal.
Me and my boyfriend love this recipe and make it all the time! I use tamari instead of soy sauce and olive oil instead of canola oil. It tastes exactly like the carne asada tacos from our favorite Mexican restaurant
This has been my go-to recipe for taco night for several months. Everyone loves it! I always make extra for leftovers, though they rarely make it to the next day. I have used several cuts of beef and they all turn out great!
Tasted like they just came off the taco truck!
2/21/22. Made yesterday. The seasoning is great. My husband and I both loved it. I actually used round steak cut into really small pieces, because that’s what I had in refrigerator. The meat tasted really good!