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Tacos de camarón enchilado

From WikiTacos, the taco encyclopedia · Taco type
Also known as: Chilied shrimp tacos, Camarones enchilados para tacos

Tacos de camarón enchilado are tacos filled with shrimp cooked in a hot, garlicky dried-chile sauce, a Baja California preparation that is eaten over rice or folded into corn tortillas, often with melted cheese.

Contents
  1. Overview
  2. Preparation
  3. Related dishes
  4. Recipe
  5. Where to try it
  6. Reviews
  7. See also
  8. References

Overview

Enchilado simply means seasoned or coated with chile, and camarones enchilados is a broad name for shrimp cooked in a chile-based sauce. In Baja California the dish is a simple sauté: a guide to Ensenada's food describes it as shrimp pan-fried in olive oil with garlic, pequín chile and salt, served either over white or fried rice or inside a taco. It belongs to the same coastal repertoire as the battered Baja shrimp taco but takes the opposite approach, swapping the crisp coating and creamy sauces for a direct hit of toasted chile.

Preparation

Rick Bayless featured camarones enchilados para tacos in the Baja season of his television series Mexico: One Plate at a Time. His version toasts and crumbles dried árbol chiles, simmers them with butter, garlic, black pepper, Mexican oregano and chicken broth until the liquid reduces to a glaze, then cooks small pieces of shrimp in it for just a few minutes. The shrimp is piled onto doubled corn tortillas that have been topped with melting cheese such as Chihuahua or asadero on the griddle, and finished with salsa.

The principle is the same in most homes: a small amount of intense sauce clings to the shrimp rather than drowning it, so the filling stays dry enough to hold in a soft tortilla. Cutting the shrimp into small pieces helps the sauce coat every bite and makes the taco easier to eat.

The dish sits close to camarones a la diabla, shrimp in a fiery red sauce served as a plated main course, and to Sinaloa's taco gobernador, in which shrimp is sautéed with vegetables and folded with melted cheese. Unlike the gobernador, camarón enchilado relies almost entirely on dried chile and garlic for its flavor.

Recipe

Makes 12 tacos · Time: About 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 3 dried chiles de árbol, stemmed (or 1 tsp crushed chile pequín)
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 1/2 tsp dried Mexican oregano
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 2/3 cup chicken or shrimp broth
  • 550 g medium shrimp, peeled and cut into 1 cm pieces
  • Salt
  • 12 corn tortillas
  • 120 g shredded Chihuahua, asadero or Monterey Jack cheese
  • Salsa and lime wedges to serve

Steps

  1. Toast the chiles in a dry skillet over medium heat for about a minute, until darker and fragrant. Cool and crumble finely.
  2. In the same skillet melt the butter with the oil. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute without browning.
  3. Add the crumbled chile, oregano, pepper and broth. Boil over medium-high heat until reduced to a few spoonfuls of glossy sauce, 6 to 8 minutes.
  4. Add the shrimp and cook, stirring, 3 to 4 minutes until just pink. Season with salt.
  5. Heat a comal. Warm the tortillas in pairs, scatter cheese over the top tortilla and let it melt.
  6. Spoon shrimp onto the cheese and serve with salsa and lime.

For a non-cheese version, serve the shrimp in single tortillas with shredded cabbage and avocado.

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. "Chilied Shrimp for Tacos". Rick Bayless. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
  2. "Top 10 Things to Eat in Ensenada". Carnival Cruise Line (Away We Go). Retrieved 2026-10-10.
Categories: Baja California cuisine Seafood tacos Shrimp dishes Taco types