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Tacos de camarón

From WikiTacos, the taco encyclopedia · Taco type
Also known as: Shrimp tacos, Tacos de camarón capeado

Tacos de camarón are shrimp tacos, made Baja-style with battered, fried shrimp and cabbage, or with shrimp sautéed in a seasoned sauce, as in Sinaloa's taco gobernador and inland versions with nopales.

Contents
  1. Baja style
  2. Sautéed and stewed versions
  3. Recipe
  4. Where to try it
  5. Reviews
  6. See also
  7. References

Baja style

The best-known shrimp taco is the Baja version, which grew up alongside the fish taco in Ensenada. Mexico News Daily, tracing the history of the fish taco to the city's Mercado Negro market around 1960, notes that shrimp versions are also popular in Ensenada. They use the same approach as the fish taco: shrimp dipped in a thin flour batter, often made with beer, fried until crisp and placed on a corn tortilla.

The toppings also follow the fish taco. Cooks commonly add shredded cabbage or lettuce, a fresh salsa of tomato, onion and chile, avocado, and a sauce of mayonnaise or sour cream thinned with citrus, with a squeeze of lime at the end. Grilled shrimp is a common lighter alternative to fried. Mexico News Daily notes that a corn tortilla and lime are considered essential to the Baja style, while lettuce may stand in for cabbage.

Sautéed and stewed versions

Away from the batter-and-fry tradition, shrimp tacos are often made with shrimp quickly cooked in a seasoned sauce. In Sinaloa, chopped shrimp sautéed with onion, tomato and poblano and folded with melted cheese becomes the taco gobernador, a specialty of Mazatlán.

Inland, shrimp is paired with local produce. The food writer Karen Hursh Graber, in a MexConnect article filed under Querétaro, gives a recipe for tacos de camarón y nopalitos in which small shrimp are tossed with adobo from canned chipotles, seared in hot oil, combined with cooked cactus paddles and served under a chunky salsa of charred tomatillo, onion, garlic and serrano blended with avocado and cilantro. She notes that nopales are a common way to stretch taco fillings, soups and stews in the Bajío, where fresh cactus is plentiful.

Recipe

Makes 8 tacos · Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients

  • 12 tomatillos, husked
  • 1/2 white onion
  • 4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
  • 2 serrano chiles
  • 1 ripe avocado
  • 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
  • Juice of 1 lime and salt
  • 250 g small or medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
  • 1 teaspoon adobo sauce from canned chipotles
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 2 cups cooked, drained nopalitos (diced cactus paddles)
  • 8 corn tortillas

Steps

  1. Char the tomatillos, onion, garlic and serranos on a dry comal or skillet until blistered. Peel the garlic.
  2. Blend the charred vegetables until chunky, add the avocado and cilantro and pulse briefly. Season with lime juice and salt.
  3. Toss the shrimp with the adobo sauce.
  4. Heat the oil in a skillet over high heat and cook the shrimp until pink, about 2 minutes. Add the nopalitos, heat through and season with salt.
  5. Warm the tortillas until pliable, fill with the shrimp mixture and spoon salsa over the top. Serve at once.

For Baja-style shrimp tacos, use the batter from the tacos de pescado recipe and fry peeled shrimp for 2 to 3 minutes.

Where to try it

Reviews

Reviews and tips open at launch. Readers will be able to share where they found the best version of this and how they make it at home.

See also

References

  1. "Shrimp and nopal tacos: Tacos de camarón y nopalitos". MexConnect. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
  2. "The mystery behind the invention of the Baja fish taco". Mexico News Daily. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
  3. "Tacos Gobernador Recipe - Sinaloan Shrimp Tacos". Hunter Angler Gardener Cook (Hank Shaw). Retrieved 2026-10-10.
  4. "Taco". Wikipedia. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
Categories: Baja California cuisine Seafood tacos Shrimp tacos Taco types