Tacos de queso relleno
Tacos de queso relleno are Yucatecan tacos filled with the spiced pork picadillo and melted Edam cheese of queso relleno, dressed with a white kol sauce and a tomato sauce touched with habanero.
Origins of queso relleno
Queso relleno, literally stuffed cheese, is a whole ball of Edam hollowed out, filled with a richly spiced meat picadillo and steamed. Spanish-language Wikipedia traces its roots to seventeenth-century Curaçao, where enslaved Africans filled the discarded rinds of Dutch Edam cheese with scraps of meat and vegetables, creating keshi yena, Papiamento for stuffed cheese.
How the idea reached Yucatán is debated. Stories range from a Dutch ship wrecked on the Caribbean coast to cheese smuggled from Suriname, but the most likely explanation is trade through British Honduras, today Belize: from the mid-nineteenth century Yucatecans bought Edam in Chetumal, which traded heavily with the British colony. Edam caught on because it tasted good and resisted the region's heat and humidity in an era with little refrigeration.
Filling and sauces
The picadillo is usually pork, cooked with capers, raisins, olives, almonds, chopped hard-boiled egg, sweet pepper and a pinch of saffron, and seasoned with allspice, black pepper, cinnamon, clove, cumin, oregano, onion and garlic. Two sauces finish the dish and set it apart from its Caribbean ancestor. The first is kol, a pale, gravy-like sauce of turkey broth and epazote thickened with masa or flour. The second is a red tomato sauce made with mild chiles and a little habanero.
As a taco
Queso relleno is traditionally a festive plated dish, but Por Esto! notes that it has become popular as a taco filling in Yucatán. At stands and in markets the picadillo and melted cheese are spooned into corn tortillas and bathed in the same two sauces, making a rich, sweet-savory taco that sits alongside cochinita, lechón and relleno negro. Spanish-language Wikipedia observes that although it is less famous outside the peninsula than cochinita pibil or panuchos, Yucatecans count it among their most popular dishes.
Recipe
Ingredients
- 400 g ground pork
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1/2 white onion, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 sweet pepper, finely chopped
- 2 tomatoes, chopped
- 1/4 teaspoon each ground allspice, cinnamon, cumin and clove
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- Pinch of saffron
- 2 tablespoons capers
- 2 tablespoons raisins
- 8 green olives, chopped
- 2 tablespoons slivered almonds
- 2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
- Salt and pepper
- 200 g Edam cheese, grated
- Kol: 500 ml turkey or chicken broth, 2 tablespoons masa harina, 1 sprig epazote, salt
- Tomato sauce: 3 tomatoes, 1/4 onion, 1/2 habanero, 1 tablespoon oil, salt
- 12 corn tortillas
Steps
- Brown the pork in the oil. Add onion, garlic and sweet pepper and cook 5 minutes.
- Add tomatoes, spices, oregano and saffron and cook until saucy. Stir in capers, raisins, olives and almonds; simmer 10 minutes. Fold in the egg and season.
- Make the kol: whisk the masa into the cold broth, add epazote and simmer, stirring, until it thickens to a light gravy, about 8 minutes. Salt to taste.
- Make the tomato sauce: blend tomatoes and onion, fry in the oil with the habanero for 8 minutes, season and remove the chile.
- Warm the tortillas, add a spoonful of picadillo and a little grated Edam and fold. Cover briefly so the cheese melts.
- Spoon kol over the tacos, then tomato sauce, and serve.
For the traditional plated dish, the picadillo is packed into a hollowed Edam ball and steamed.
Where to try it
- Terraza Amarilla, Mérida
Reviews
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See also
References
- "Queso relleno". Wikipedia (Spanish). Retrieved 2026-10-10.
- "Día del Taco 2026: estos son los que más antojo provocan en Yucatán". Por Esto!. Retrieved 2026-10-10.