Tacos in Sonora

Sonora, in Mexico's far northwest, is cattle country, and its taco culture rests on carne asada grilled with little more than salt and coals and eaten in large wheat-flour tortillas, a staple the state claims as its own.

Beef and the asada

Larousse's gastronomic dictionary describes Sonora as the national leader in raising beef cattle and credits the state's culinary fame to its beef. Typical preparations include machaca, arrachera and carne asada, served with frijoles maneados and flour tortillas, and the dictionary also names tacos caramelo among the regional dishes.

The carne asada is as much a social ritual as a dish. In a 2021 report from Hermosillo, El Imparcial cited anthropologist Guillermo Núñez Noriega, who traces the custom to the cattle ranches founded under the Jesuits. Without refrigeration, most of a slaughtered animal was salted and dried, but a fresh piece was grilled the same day while the rest was butchered. From the 1950s, migration from ranches to cities such as Hermosillo, Obregón, Nogales and Guaymas turned the backyard grill into a reminder of home, and shops began selling meat with grilling service. Sonoran asada is traditionally seasoned only with salt and cooked over coals, with grilled onions, green chile and tomato on the side.

Flour tortillas

Wheat arrived in Sonora with Spanish expeditions in the sixteenth century. According to México Desconocido, settlers who had come to bake bread adapted the corn tortilla of central Mexico to wheat flour, and the large, thin sobaquera of Sonora is probably the oldest form of flour tortilla in the country. Sonorans tend to wrap almost everything in flour tortillas, from small morning burritos filled with machaca or chilorio to the giant percherones of Hermosillo and Guaymas, which El Imparcial describes as stuffed with carne asada and whole avocados. Local custom often serves the tortillas cold.

History of the taco stand

A Hermosillo chronicle published by El Imparcial in 2021 traces the city's tacos back to 1882, when fried tacos dorados were sold beside the railway tracks. Tacos of machaca or grilled tripe with salsa borracha appeared by 1911, and turtle tacos were sold from about 1940 until sea turtles were protected. Carnitas dominated the 1950s and 1960s, tacos of roasted head arrived in the 1960s, and the first carne asada stands opened in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Since then, carts selling asada, along with the caramelo and the quesadilla, have dominated the city's taco scene. Al pastor arrived in the 1980s without much success.

Seafood and other dishes

Along the Gulf of California coast, Larousse lists clams, shrimp, squid, stingray and oysters as common, and notes that caguama (sea turtle) and totoaba have disappeared from the table because both are endangered. Other regional foods include caldo de queso, chivichangas, coyotas and the agave spirit bacanora. The state's Indigenous peoples, including the Yaqui and Mayo, have shaped many traditional dishes.

Signature tacos

• Tacos de carne asada
• tacos-caramelo
• Tacos de machaca
• Tacos de cabeza
• Tacos de carnitas

Reviews

See also

• Tacos in Hermosillo
• Tacos de carne asada
• Tacos de machaca
• Tacos de cabeza
• Tacos de carnitas
• Tacos in Chihuahua
• Tacos in Sinaloa

References

1. "Sonora". Larousse Cocina (Diccionario enciclopédico de la Gastronomía Mexicana). Retrieved 2026-10-10.
2. "Carne asada, una celebración de identidad". El Imparcial. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
3. "Tacos dorados, los primeros que se vendieron en Hermosillo". El Imparcial. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
4. "En Sonora la tortilla de harina y la carne se convierten en “burrito” de día y “perche” de noche". El Imparcial. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
5. "Historia de las tortillas de harina, producto mexicano que va por 500 años de existencia". México Desconocido. Retrieved 2026-10-10.