The dish is a starting point for exploring a wider food story. The guide below looks more closely at its background and different forms. When you want to cook, visit the recipe collection for ingredient quantities and step-by-step methods.

In this storyOverviewTraditional variationsHard-shell tacosSoft-shell tacosBreakfast tacoIndian tacoPuffy tacos, taco kits, and tacodillas

Overview

A taco is a traditional Mexican dish consisting of a small hand-sized corn- or wheat-based tortilla topped with a filling. The tortilla is then folded around the filling and eaten by hand. A taco can be made with a variety of fillings, including beef, pork, chicken, seafood, beans, vegetables, and cheese, and garnished with various condiments, such as salsa, guacamole, or sour cream, and vegetables, such as lettuce, coriander, onion, tomatoes, and chiles. Tacos are a common form of antojitos, or Mexican street food, which have spread around the world.

Tacos can be contrasted with similar foods such as burritos, which are often much larger and rolled rather than folded; taquitos, which are rolled and fried; or chalupas/tostadas, in which the tortilla is fried before filling.

Traditional variations

Tacos al pastor ("shepherd style"), tacos de adobada, or tacos árabes ("arab tacos") are made of thin pork steaks seasoned with adobo seasoning, then skewered and overlapped on one another on a vertical rotisserie cooked and flame-broiled as it spins like shawarma. This variation has roots in Mexico's Lebanese immigrant population.

Tacos de asador ("spit" or "grill" tacos) may be composed of any of the following: carne asada tacos; tacos de tripita ("tripe tacos"), grilled until crisp; and, chorizo asado (traditional Spanish-style sausage). Each type is served on two overlapped small tortillas and sometimes garnished with guacamole, salsa, onions, and cilantro (coriander leaf). Also, prepared on the grill is a sandwiched taco called mulita ("little mule") made with meat served between two tortillas and garnished with Oaxaca style cheese. Mulita is used to describe these types of sandwiched tacos in the Northern States of Mexico while they are known as gringas in the Mexican south and are prepared using wheat flour tortillas. Tacos may also be served with salsa.

Tacos de cabeza ("head tacos"), in which the cow's head is cooked using steam from a flat, perforated metal plate. These include: Cabeza, a serving of the muscles of the head; Sesos ("brains"); Lengua ("tongue"); Cachete ("cheeks"); Trompa ("lips"); and, Ojo ("eye"). Tortillas for these tacos are warmed on the same steaming plate for a different consistency. These tacos are typically served in pairs, and also include salsa, onion, and cilantro (coriander leaf) with occasional use of guacamole.

Hard-shell tacos

The hard-shell or crispy taco is a tradition that developed in the United States. This type of taco is typically served as a crisp-fried corn tortilla filled with seasoned ground beef, cheese, lettuce, and sometimes tomato, onion, salsa, sour cream, and avocado or guacamole. Such tacos are sold by restaurants and by fast food chains, while kits are readily available in most supermarkets. Hard shell tacos are sometimes known as tacos dorados ("golden tacos") in Spanish, a name that they share with taquitos.

Various sources credit different individuals with the invention of the hard-shell taco, but all of those credited seem to have been reproducing a dish that already existed. Beginning from the early part of the twentieth century, various types of tacos became popular in the US, especially in Texas and California but also elsewhere. By the late 1930s, Ashley Mexican Food and Absolute Mexican Foods were selling appliances and ingredients for cooking hard shell tacos, and the first patents for hard-shell taco cooking appliances were filed in the 1940s. The first US-published cookbook to provide a recipe for a hard-shell taco was The Good Life: New Mexican food by Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Gilbert, published in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1949.

Soft-shell tacos

Traditionally, soft-shelled tacos are made using corn tortillas cooked to a softer state than a hard taco – usually by grilling or steaming. More recently, the term has come to include flour-tortilla-based tacos mostly from large manufacturers and restaurant chains. In that context, soft tacos are tacos made with wheat flour tortillas and filled with the same ingredients as a hard taco.

Breakfast taco

The breakfast taco, found in Tex-Mex cuisine, is a soft corn or flour tortilla filled with meat, eggs, or cheese, which can also contain other ingredients. Some have claimed that Austin, Texas, is the home of the breakfast taco. However, food writer and OC Weekly editor Gustavo Arellano responded that such a statement reflects a common trend of "whitewashed" foodways reporting, noting that predominantly Hispanic San Antonio, Texas, "never had to brag about its breakfast taco love—folks there just call it 'breakfast'.

Indian taco

Indian tacos, or Navajo tacos, are made using frybread instead of tortillas. They are commonly eaten at pow-wows, festivals, and other gatherings by and for indigenous people in the United States and Canada.

This kind of taco is not known to have been present before the arrival of Europeans in what is now the Southwestern United States. Navajo tradition indicates that frybread came into use in the 1860s when the government forced the tribe to relocate from their homeland in Arizona in a journey known as the Long Walk of the Navajo. It was made from ingredients given to them by the government to supplement their diet since the region could not support growing the agricultural commodities that had been previously used.

Puffy tacos, taco kits, and tacodillas

Since at least the late 1930s, a variation called the "puffy taco" has been popular in the Lower Rio Grande Valley and the surrounding area. Henry's Puffy Tacos, opened by Henry Lopez in San Antonio, Texas, popularized the variation, in which uncooked corn tortillas (flattened balls of masa dough) are quickly fried in hot oil until they expand and become "puffy". Fillings are similar to hard-shell versions. Restaurants offering this style of taco have since appeared in other Texas cities, as well as in California, where Henry's brother, Arturo Lopez, opened Arturo's Puffy Taco in Whittier, not long after Henry's opened. Henry's continues to thrive, managed by the family's second generation.

Kits are available at grocery and convenience stores and usually consist of taco shells (corn tortillas already fried in a U-shape), seasoning mix and taco sauce. Commercial vendors for the home market also market soft taco kits with tortillas instead of taco shells.

The tacodilla contains melted cheese in between the two folded tortillas, thus resembling a quesadilla.

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