Sonoran tacos in Arizona
Sonoran tacos in Arizona are the tacos of the state's Mexican food tradition, rooted in the cattle country and flour-tortilla cooking of neighboring Sonora and best represented by mesquite-grilled carne asada from Tucson's asaderos.
Background
Tucson residents call their Mexican food Sonoran, after the northern Mexican state across the border where the cooking originated. Writing for NPR in 2018, Gustavo Arellano noted that Sonoran migration has flowed almost entirely to Arizona, which helps explain why the style is less known nationally than the food of other Mexican regions. He also argued that Sonora's cattle industry helped shape American enthusiasm for carne asada.
Tucson's Mexican restaurant culture is old. El Charro Café and Lerua's have served Sonoran dishes since 1922, and El Charro claims to have invented the chimichanga. In December 2015 UNESCO named Tucson the first City of Gastronomy in the United States, recognizing a food heritage that the city's tourism office says blends Mexican and Native traditions and draws on desert ingredients such as chiltepín, cholla buds, mesquite flour, tepary beans and White Sonora wheat.
Characteristics
The signature taco is carne asada cooked at an asadero, a taco stand built around a grill where beef is cooked over open mesquite flame. Tacos Apson, a Tucson asadero run by a member of the 1960s rock group Los Apson, began with nothing but a carne asada taco before adding barbacoa, al pastor and fish. Other local staples include carne seca, beef dried in the sun, and lengua and carne asada served at places like El Taco Rustico, sometimes on crisp flour tortillas.
Sonoran flour tortillas, large, thin, translucent and buttery, are a hallmark of the region and have become fashionable in Southern California restaurants. Heat often comes from chiltepín, the tiny wild chile of the Sonoran Desert, which flavors the Segura family's Poblano Hot Sauce, made in Tucson since 1924.
Related foods
Tacos share the stage with the Sonoran hot dog, a bacon-wrapped frank with beans and condiments in a bolillo roll. El Güero Canelo, the best-known maker, was named an America's Classic by the James Beard Foundation in 2018. Northern Mexico's Chinese influence also shows in dishes like bacon-wrapped, shrimp-stuffed chiles toreados dipped in soy sauce.
Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 kg thin-cut beef (flap meat, skirt or chuck cut for asada)
- Coarse salt
- Juice of 2 limes
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- Mesquite charcoal or wood
- 16 corn or small flour tortillas
- 1 white onion, halved and sliced thick
- 4 green onions
- Guacamole and salsa roja to serve
- Crushed chiltepín (optional)
Steps
- Rub the beef with the garlic and lime juice and refrigerate 1 to 4 hours.
- Light a mesquite charcoal or wood fire and let it burn down to hot coals.
- Pat the beef dry and salt it generously just before grilling. Grill 2 to 3 minutes per side until charred at the edges.
- Grill the onions alongside until soft and blackened in spots.
- Rest the meat 5 minutes, then chop it finely.
- Warm the tortillas on the grill. Fill with beef and serve with grilled onions, guacamole, salsa and a pinch of chiltepín.
Traditional Sonoran asada is seasoned with little more than salt so the mesquite smoke comes through.
Where to try it
- Tacos Apson, Tucson: Asadero that began with a single carne asada taco.
- El Charro Café, Tucson: Serving Sonoran food since 1922.
- El Güero Canelo, Tucson: Sonoran hot dog specialist; James Beard America's Classic, 2018.
Reviews
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See also
References
- "Why Doesn't Tucson's Mexican Food Scene Get More National Attention?". GBH News (NPR). Retrieved 2026-10-10.
- "Tucson: UNESCO City of Gastronomy". Visit Tucson. Retrieved 2026-10-10.