Rajas con crema

Rajas con crema is a dish of roasted poblano chile strips cooked with onion and cream, often with corn and sometimes potato. A staple of Puebla and Mexico City home cooking, it is a common vegetarian filling for tacos de guisado, quesadillas and flautas.

Rajas

Raja means strip or slice, and in Mexican cooking rajas are chiles cut into strips. The Larousse encyclopedic dictionary notes that the word usually refers to poblano chiles, although chilaca, jalapeño and chile de agua rajas also exist, each with its own uses. For poblano rajas, the chiles are charred over a flame, left to sweat so the skin loosens, peeled, seeded and cut into strips. They are then typically fried in oil or lard with garlic and onion and, depending on the cook, potato, corn and cream.

Larousse records that poblano rajas in Mexico City are eaten in tacos and quesadillas or as a side to grilled meat and fried chicken, and that in Puebla the same chicken-and-corn rajas used to fill crepes are served with cream as the main course of the midday meal.

As a taco filling

Rajas con crema is one of the standard vegetarian stews of the taco de guisado, listed by El Universal alongside chiles rellenos, chicharrón and tinga. The cream softens the chile's heat and binds the strips into a spoonable filling, while corn adds sweetness. Larousse also counts rajas among the most common fillings of flautas, and El Diario NY lists rajas con crema among the fillings used for fried tacos.

Cooks vary the dish freely: some add cubes of boiled potato to stretch it, others finish it with melting cheese so that it becomes stringy, and many use Mexican crema, which is thinner and tangier than sour cream.

Related preparations

Larousse describes several other uses of poblano rajas in Puebla: a cold salad dressed with vinegar, oil, garlic and oregano; additions to guacamole and to broths and soups such as squash-blossom or huitlacoche soup; and raw rajas marinated in lime as a relish for tacos.

Choosing chiles

Poblanos vary in heat from mild to fairly hot, so cooks often taste a strip before deciding how much cream to add. Fresh, glossy chiles with smooth skin char and peel most easily. Larousse points out that rajas made from other chiles have their own traditions: chilaca rajas are scrambled with eggs or added to stews, jalapeño and serrano rajas fill tamales, and in Oaxaca strips of grilled chile de agua marinated in lime, salt and oregano are served as a condiment. Only poblano rajas are normally finished with cream.

Recipe

Where to try it

• Gabbi's Mexican Kitchen, Orange, California
• La Super-Rica Taqueria, Santa Barbara, California
• Los Consentidos del Barrio, Mexico City
• Safari Tacos al Carbón, Mexico City
• Tacos Hola El Güero, Mexico City
• Tacos Neza, Los Angeles, California

Reviews

See also

• Tacos de guisado
• Flautas
• Tacos de chile relleno
• Tacos de huitlacoche

References

1. "Rajas". Larousse Cocina. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
2. "¿De dónde son los tacos de guisado?". El Universal. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
3. "Flauta". Larousse Cocina. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
4. "¡El auténtico sabor mexicano! Irresistibles tacos de papa con chorizo". El Diario NY. Retrieved 2026-10-10.