Taco Styles

In a previous post, I listed different Mexican foods. Today, I’m going to dive a little deeper into different styles of tacos.

We’ll notice that there are common patterns and many dishes are related in technique and ingredients, despite their names. We can appreciate the nuances and what makes the dishes distinct. It’s no different than understanding what makes a burger a burger: a chicken sandwich isn’t a burger and neither is a meatloaf sandwich.

Meat-Forward Dishes

These are dishes where the primary flavour comes from the meat. Grilling and frying are common methods here, as is the choice of meat cuts. Carne asada, carnitas, and barbacoa are examples of dishes in this category.

These meats tend not to come with their own sauce, allowing use of other salsas and condiments to balance the dish.

Orange Juice

These are dishes that are flavoured with oranges.

Cochinita pibil and carnitas are two dishes. In cochinita pibil, pork is marinated and braised. With carnitas, the orange juice is part of the confit/stew liquid.

Chile Verde

This dish is meat stewed in a tomatillo sauce, essentially in salsa verde. Commonly cooked with pork, you can also use chicken.

The tartness adn vegetal freshness of the dish allows use of crema or cheeses, as toppings.

Adobada

These dishes rely on marinating in a spice mixture composed of dry chili peppers. Examples are pollo asado (grilled), chicken tinga (stewed), al pastor, and birria.

The spice mix will basically make a faux salsa, so these dishes can be topped with crema, a different salsa, or vegetable garnishes.

Birria vs. Barbacoa

Barbacoa is a style of pit cooking, like Hawaiian kālua. Meats are traditionally slow roasted in an underground pit, covered with agave leaves. In modern times, meats can be roasted low and slow, much like in BBQ.

Birria is a regional specialty of Jalisco. Similar to barbacoa except the meat is stewed in a pot.

You can see how there can be a lot of similarity and overlap. If you make barbacoa but in a slow cooker and the juices accumulate, are you roasting anymore? If you make birria as a braise but it’s really dry and barely a stew, is that barbacoa? I think this is a good example of how “words have meaning” and you wouldn’t call a meatloaf sandwich a burger.

Adobada vs. Al Pastor

These are similar dishes, where pork is marinated, sliced thin, and formed into a new meat product. With al pastor, the meat is put onto a vertical spit. With adobada, the meat is grilled or pan fried.

Adobada means “marinated” so you can see how al pastor tacos are also adobada tacos.

There also seems to be a regional preference for nomenclature, with Northern Mexico preferring adobada and South Mexico preferring al pastor.

Taquitos vs. Rolled Tacos vs. Tacos Dorados

This dish is a rolled-up and filled taco, that is deep-fried. It goes by many difference names, mostly a regional terminology.

Taquitos means little tacos, which accurately describes this dish. This is commonly seen in national frozen food brands. I am unsure but I would guess this name is common in Texas, due to Tex-mex’s boom in popularity in the 80’s and 90’s.

Rolled taco is the common name in Southern California. Again, it aptly describes the dish.

Taco dorado means golden taco, golden as in golden, brown, delicious. It refers to the deep-fried nature. Confusingly, you can find crunchy, hard-shelled tacos named as this. It really depends on region or where the proprietor hails from. Both of these dishes are very similar in composition, such as being topped with iceberg lettuce, sour cream, and pico de gallo. They differ only in their shape, which changes how you’re supposed to eat them.