Mexican-Style Recipes: Beef, Pork, Chicken & Seafood
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Get ready to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with a fiery twist. Dive into a tantalizing array of Mexican-style recipes, infused with bold flavors and cooked to perfection on the Traeger. While these dishes pay homage to the vibrant culinary heritage of Mexico, they come with a unique Traeger twist, offering a fusion of tradition and innovation that's perfect for your festive celebrations. Get ready to dive into this flavorful list of Mexican-inspired recipes.
What are Mexican Style Recipes?
Mexican-style recipes ignite the taste buds with a lively fusion of robust flavors, fresh ingredients, and aromatic spices inspired by the vibrant essence of traditional Mexican cuisine. Crafted with passion and precision, our Mexican-inspired recipes showcase a medley of corn products, fiery chili peppers, and a tantalizing blend of spices that infuse every dish with depth and character.
Embracing the time-honored techniques of Mexican culinary tradition, including grilling, roasting, and simmering, our recipes exude an authentic essence that pays homage to the roots of this rich culinary heritage. From tangy salsas to rich, velvety sauces, each component creates an epic and unforgettable combo of flavors that epitomize the spirit of Mexican-style cooking on the Traeger.
Beef Recipes
Flat Top Skirt Steak Fajitas
The key to an epic fajita is a delicious marinade. Before you get that sizzling sear on your meat marinate the steak in a combination of cilantro, jalapeño, garlic, lime juice, olive oil, salt, cumin, and black pepper so you can channel all the traditional flavors in this Traeger Mexican recipe.
Use your Flatrock Grill for more than just your steak though. Take your tortilla and put it directly on the griddle surface and let the tortilla cook for about 30 seconds to 1 minute on one side until you see small brown spots or char marks and then repeat on the other side.
BBQ Beef Tamale Casserole
Savor the essence of Mexican-inspired cooking with our BBQ Beef Tamale Casserole. Tender Traeger-grilled brisket meets a hearty blend of corn masa, spices, and cheese, creating a symphony of flavor that's both bold and comforting. Topped with tangy barbecue sauce and fresh cilantro, this dish is a crowd-pleaser that captures the spirit of tradition with every bite.
BBQ Brisket Breakfast Tacos
Get your Cinco de Mayo started off right with breakfast Mexican-style recipes. Our suggestion? Melt-in-your-mouth brisket breakfast tacos.
Use your leftover brisket to make this Mexican-style dish and incorporate other Mexican flavors into your breakfast taco like smoked salsa and guacamole.
Traeger BBQ Double Decker Taco
If you love tacos, then you’ll be head over heels for this epic Traegered Tex-Mex creation. Starting with tender slow-smoked brisket, combine creamy refried beans, melty cheese, and zesty salsa on two layers of tacos for a flavor-packed meal. This indulgent twist on a classic taco will be a Cinco de Mayo favorite this year.
Carne Asada Tacos****
No list of Mexican-style recipes is complete without classic carne asada tacos. Crafted with fresh cilantro, zesty lime, aromatic garlic, and savory spices, marinate your steak for at least two hours so that every bite is met with a burst of brightness and tanginess. Pair this grilled steak with warmed corn tortillas for an epic Tex-Mex feast.
Learn how to make carne asada like a pro by reading our article.
Steak Taco Salad
Mexican flavors are all about combining fresh ingredients with spicy flavors. For a Traeger take on this combo, try our steak taco salad. Take juicy sirloin steak, corn, black beans, and lettuce and coat it in our creamy homemade avocado dressing. The trick? Adding egg yolk to the dressing to act as an emulsifier and bind the ingredients in the dressing together.
Mexican Machaca Shredded Beef
To experience the bold flavors of Northern Mexican cuisine, try Machaca shredded beef on the Traeger. Machaca, a cherished tradition, showcases tender shredded beef infused with aromatic spices like chile powder and cumin, and slow cook it to perfection. Once the brisket reaches 160°F you will shred it and add the shredded beef to the skillet, along with diced tomatoes, green chiles, and spices.
Pork
Momias
For a Traeger twist on a traditional Mexican snack, try Fernando Carrillo’s momias (bacon-wrapped meat and cheese tortillas). Coming from the Mexican word for “mummies,” momias is a classic snack that combines meat and cheese that’s double wrapped in a flour tortilla and bacon and then cooked on the grill until it’s crispy and melty. While traditional momias typically have a football team, in our version we used leftover pulled pork.
Chipotle Smoked Pork Butt
For fans of spice, chipotle smoked pork butt is a delicious wood-fired treat for Cinco de Mayo. Slow-roasted on your grill, the pork absorbs the smoky richness of the chipotle marinade, rendering it fork-tender and bursting with bold, zesty taste. While the pork shines solo, it also makes a mouthwatering addition to rice dishes, tacos, or nestled within a cheesy quesadilla.
Pork Chile Verde****
Another pork dish to add to your Mexican-style recipes catalog is flavorful pork chili verde. Featuring slow-cooked pork shoulder, this succulent meat is infused with vibrant flavors of green chilies, tomatillos, and aromatic spices before being served with corn tortillas. For a hint of freshness, top with red onion and avocados.
Braised Pork Carnitas
Braised pork carnitas capture the essence of traditional Mexican meat grilled slowly, and when cooked on your Traeger, each bite is infused with rich, smoky goodness. Include this epic meat in tacos, burritos, or as a standalone meal.
Baked Pulled Pork Enchiladas
Indulge in the ultimate comfort food with our pulled pork enchiladas recipe, featuring tender, Traeger-smoked pulled pork wrapped in warm tortillas and smothered in zesty enchilada sauce. Enchiladas, a beloved staple of Mexican cuisine, has a rich history dating back to ancient Mayan and Aztec civilizations, where corn tortillas were rolled around fillings and covered in chili pepper sauce. With Traeger, you can give this traditional dish a wood-fired twist by baking the enchiladas over hickory wood pellets.
Chicken
Flat Top Spicy Chicken Tortillas
Elevate your Tex-Mex game with our spicy chicken fajitas recipe, featuring tender chicken marinated in zesty spices and grilled to perfection on your Traeger. These sizzling fajitas are bursting with bold flavors, making them a crowd-pleasing favorite for any fiesta or weeknight dinner.
Chicken Tortilla Soup
Soup has just been taken to another level with this smoked chicken tortilla soup. Give your chicken some wood-fired flavor by smoking it over our Signature blend wood pellets and combine with vegetables and zesty spices. Perfect for chilly evenings or casual gatherings.
Loaded Grilled Chicken Tacos
These colorful chicken tacos from Dennis the Prescott are perfect for Cinco de Mayo (or game day for that matter). For your grilled chicken breast, make sure it is seasoned for at least four hours before grilling them for 25-30 minutes. No taco is complete without its toppings. Pico de gallo and guac are an obvious must, but this loaded taco is made finger-lickin’ good when you add zesty spiked sour cream.
Roasted Habanero Wings****
Speaking of food you can serve on Cinco de Mayo and game day, these spicy habanero wings are a must-try. To give these wings a punch of spicy flavor, marinade them over night in a combination of onions, soy sauce, hot pepper sauce, and of course, a habanero pepper (whole or half depending on your spice preference).
Take a look at our expert chicken wings guides while you’re here:
- How to Grill Chicken Wings on a Pellet Grill
- Smoked Chicken Wings Guide
- Top 10 Traeger Chicken Wing Recipes
- Chicken Wing Brine: How & Why
BBQ Chicken Nachos****
Nachos have been a popular Tex-Mex dish since the 1940s when Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya melted cheese on tortilla chips with slice jalapeños in the town of Piedras Negras. Since then, while nachos have Mexican roots, it’s become a popular Americanized dish.
Our elevated Traeger take on this time-honored snack is BBQ chicken breast (covered in our Traeger ‘Que BBQ Sauce of course), on top of tortilla chips with cheese, jalapeños, olives, guac, sour cream, and halved cherry tomatoes.
Seafood
Baja Style Fish Tacos
Savor the vibrant flavors of Mexican-American cuisine with our epic Traeger Baja style fish tacos, inspired by the coastal flavors of Baja, California. Featuring grilled fish nestled in warm tortillas and adorned with crisp cabbage, creamy sauces, and zesty salsa, these tacos embody the essence of Mexican- style cuisine with a delicious wood-fired twist.
Flat Top Seared Shrimp Tacos
For a fresh and flavorful taco during Cinco De Mayo, try Diva Q’s seared shrimp tacos. You’ll start by marinading the shrimp for no more than 15-30 minutes (too much longer and the acid from your limes will start to “cook” the shrimp) and then flash sear the shrimp to lock in the flavors. You’ll then serve them in lightly toasted tortillas with homemade slaw.
Grilled Salmon Tacos with Smoked Tomato Salsa
Get ready to go overboard for these delicious salmon tacos. While salmon is not traditionally associated with Mexican cuisine, this Mexican-style recipe still plays homage to Mexican flavors with its use of ancho chile powder, paprika, garlic, cilantro, and jalapeño.
Pro tip: Serve these elevated grilled tacos with corn tortillas and cilantro to channel more of that traditional Mexican flavor.
Shrimp Tacos with Garlic Lime Cilantro
Experience the ultimate seafood taco with our Traeger grilled shrimp tacos with cilantro lime slaw—a perfect blend of smoky allure and refreshing zest. Grilled to juicy perfection, the succulent shrimp, infused with tangy lime and spices, creates a disgusting taste journey. Wrapped in warm tortillas and crowned with a crisp cilantro lime slaw, these tacos offer a symphony of textures and flavors, evoking the coastal charm of Mexico with every bite.
If you’re wanting to heat up your Traeger this Spring, make sure to try these Mexican-style recipes, where Traeger wood-fired flavor is combined with the bold spices, fresh ingredients, and traditional cooking techniques from Mexico.
Smoked Beef Cheek Tacos
by Matt Pittman
Prep Time
20 Min
Cook Time
6 Hr
Serves
8
Pellets
Mesquite
Forget boring tacos and go BOLD. These beef cheek tacos are smoked, then slow braised for an ultra-tender finish. Load up your tortillas and pile on the toppings for the ultimate taco Tuesday feast.
Ingredients
Beef Cheeks
| 3 Pound | beef cheeks, trimmed |
| To Taste | Meat Church Holy Cow BBQ Rub |
| 1 | head of garlic, halved crosswise |
| 1 Medium | white onion, quartered |
| 18 Ounce | beef stock |
Tacos
| 20 Small | corn tortillas, 6" |
| 1 | bunch of fresh cilantro, chopped |
| 1 Small | white onion, chopped |
| Cotija cheese, for serving (optional) | |
| Lime wedges, for serving (optional) |
1
Trim the fat off the beef cheeks. Season the trimmed cheeks moderately with Meat Church Holy Cow BBQ Rub. Let sit for least 15 minutes.
2
When ready to cook, set the Traeger temperature to 275°F and preheat wit the lid closed for 15 minutes.
3
Place the beef cheeks directly on the grill grates. Insert the probe into the center of one of the cheeks. Close the lid and smoke until the internal temperature reaches at least 160°F and the cheeks are nicely browned, 2-2 1/2 hours.
4
Transfer the beef cheeks to a half-size steam pan. Add the garlic and onion to the pan, then pour the beef stock over the cheeks; you should have about 1 inch of liquid in the pan. Cover the pan with foil.
5
Place the steam pan to the grill grates, close the lid, and cook, flipping once, until very tender, 4-5 hours. (Pro Tip: If you want to smoke the cheeks overnight, set the Traeger temperature to 200°F and check back the next morning.)
6
Shred the beef cheeks, then serve in corn tortillas with cilantro, onion, and Cotija cheese, if desired, on top and lime wedges alongside. Enjoy!
