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The Infamous Gringas Tacos

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Gringas Tacos Recipe Card

Gringas Tacos are Mexican street vendor tacos with a complex palette of flavor. This culinary delight is made with flour tortillas filled with marinated pork, cheese, pineapple slices, onions, Chamoy Sauce, with a Guacamole Topping.

The combination of these ingredients is then grilled in the same manner as a quesadilla. The tortillas are usually folded in half and consumed like a taco. This Mexican recipe is to die for!

Who Invented the Gringas Taco?

  • Some attribute the name to the use of white flour tortillas.
  • Some attribute its origin to two young American women, Sharon Smith and Jennifer Anderson, who studied Spanish at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1969. The women would eat in a small taqueria on Leibnitz Street in the Anzures district of Mexico City. Because they did not like corn tortillas, they asked the owner to prepare their tacos with white flour tortillas.
  • Some say it was four American men who suffered from a mid-life crisis, divorced their wives, and moved to Mexico City to start a Taco Truck business. It is rumored they invented this Gringas Taco recipe in honor of their lost wives who got the car, house, and bank account.
4 Gringos Taco Truck
Kjetil Ree, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons – The 4 Gringos Taco Truck pictured above is NOT the 4 American men in the story above

How the Gringas Taco came about may never be known, you be the judge. It’s just one more Mystery of Mexico. What is known, diners who frequent Mexican taquerias love this taco. Regardless of how you slice it, these Gringas Tacos are a tasty treat.

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Gringas Tacos

Gringas Tacos are filled with braised meat and cheese that oozes out and gets all crispy and wonderful, then piled with pineapple slices, onions, and Chamoy Sauce and topped with Guacamole.
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Mexican
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Resting Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 35 minutes
Servings 12 Tacos
Author Mike Gonzalez

Ingredients

Gringa Tacos

  • 1 cup Pastor Marinade* ingredients and instructions below
  • 3 lbs pork shoulder cooked and thinly shaved
  • 12 flour tortillas
  • ½ cup white onions julienned
  • ¼ cup cilantro chopped
  • ½ cup Chamoy Sauce* ingredients and instructions below
  • ½ cup chihuahua cheese
  • ½ cup pineapples diced
  • ½ cup canola oil divide half into a shallow bowl

Pastor Marinade

  • ¾ cup chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
  • ¼ cup achiote paste
  • cup salt
  • ¾ cup water

Chamoy Sauce

  • ¾ cup water
  • 3 dried ancho chili peppers
  • 1 cup apricot jam 10 oz jar
  • ½ cup lime juice from 4-5 large limes
  • 3 tbsp sugar
  • ¾ tsp salt

Guacamole Topping

  • 2 large avocados halved and pitted
  • ½ cup cilantro lightly packed
  • cup lime juice (from about 2 ½ limes)
  • 1 small jalapeño seeds and ribs removed, roughly chopped
  • 2 tbsp water more as needed to thin
  • ½ tsp salt

Instructions

Pastor Marinade (makes approx. 2 cups)

  • Blend all ingredients on high until smooth.

Chamoy Sauce (makes approx. 2 ¼ cups)

  • Add the water to the blender. Wipe the chili peppers to remove any dust. Pull off the stem and shake out the seeds. Place the whole pepper in the blender along with the apricot jam, lime juice, sugar, and salt.
  • Blend on high speed until extremely smooth.

Guacamole Topping (makes approx. 1½ cups)

  • Using a spoon, scoop the flesh of the avocados into a food processor or blender. Add the cilantro, lime juice, jalapeño, water, and salt.
  • Process, stopping to scrape down the sides as necessary, until the sauce is smooth and creamy. (If the mixture refuses to blend, add additional water in 1-tablespoon increments, as necessary.)
  • If you would like a thinner, more drizzly sauce, add water in 1-tablespoon increments until it reaches your desired consistency. Taste, and add more salt if it’s not quite flavorful enough.
  • Transfer the avocado sauce to a small serving bowl.

Gringa Tacos

  • Mix shaved pork shoulder and pastor marinade. Allow to sit at least an hour (ideally overnight).
  • Heat a large, heavy-bottomed skillet or cast-iron pan over medium high heat.
  • Add in 1/4 cup canola oil and sear the pastor meat.
  • As the meat sears, heat two additional large cast iron pans.
  • Gently roll the outer edges of the tortillas in the bowl of canola oil, and begin to warm them in one cast iron pan.
  • Once the tortillas are cooked, transfer them to a plate and keep covered with a warm, damp paper towel.
  • In the other pan, sear half the onions and top with the cooked pastor meat.
  • As the onions brown, add in the chihuahua cheese and allow to melt.
  • Scoop the filling inside the tortillas (use one tortilla per taco).
  • Top with Chamoy sauce, Guacamole, onions, cilantro, and pineapple.

Notes

  • Prepare the Pastor Marinade first to season the pork.  
  • Prepare the Chamoy Sauce and the Guacamole Topping while the pork is marinating.

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1 COMMENT

5 from 1 vote

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