Sizzling Mexican and Tex-Mex Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What are 3 common Tex-Mex dishes? ›

For many us, Tex-Mex comfort foods such as tamales, tacos, and fajitas are filled with nostalgia.

Other tell-tale differences between Tex-Mex vs. Mexican food include sweet corn, which is a Tex-Mex thing. In contrast, Mexican food features whole corn cobs or corn tortillas. Yellow cheese is an American influence that indicates Tex-Mex, while chefs creating Mexican dishes use white cheese.

Today, Tex-Mex can be found in nearly any Mexican restaurant throughout the country. If the restaurant serves chimichangas, fajitas, nachos, chili, hard shell tacos, and ingredients such as black beans, yellow cheese, cumin, and wheat flour, it's Tex-Mex.

Dishes such as enchiladas can be authentic or of the Tex-Mex variety. Authentic Mexican enchiladas have a variety of ingredients wrapped and often fried. They can be topped with cheese, chicken, lettuce, or sauces. Tex-Mex enchiladas are typically baked and are made with beef and cheese.

The Mexican restaurants in Texas started adding more ingredients preferred by Texans to accommodate their tastes, resulting in what we call today “Tex-Mex.” Examples of Tex-Mex food include fajitas, nachos, and any dish that uses beef, black beans, canned vegetables, wheat flour, or yellow cheese.

Condiments. Tex-Mex opts for shredded yellow cheese, sour cream, and jarred salsa, while Mexican cuisine features crumbly queso fresco, Mexican crema, and freshly made salsas. The contrast in dairy choices and condiments reflects the distinct flavor profiles of each culinary tradition.

Steak Flautas

Spanish for “flutes”, flautas in traditional Mexican cuisine are made with corn tortillas, filled with a variety of ingredients, then rolled and fried. In Tex-Mex cuisine, flour tortillas are used and at Tijuana Flats we offer the option of flour or wheat tortillas.

Even fajitas are a Tex-Mex invention (offered to tourists in Mexico now because so many Americans associate fajitas as authentic). Tex-Mex is a cuisine only very loosely related to Mexican cuisine.

Authentic Mexican food tends to use corn tortillas rather than wheat tortillas. It also uses chili peppers, wild game, and fish. Onion is a staple ingredient in many dishes, as is cilantro.

A staple at most Mexican meals and a key ingredient in many traditional dishes, tortillas are round flatbreads made of corn or wheat flour.

Which special tool is used in making Tex Mex food? ›

A mortar and pestle—also known as a molcajete—is a great tool for crushing garlic, herbs and other soft veggies to make guacamole, salsa, purees and sauces.

While sour cream has become a favorite of many taco fans for adding a refreshing creaminess to temper the spiciest salsas as well as savory pork and beef, we want to reiterate that it is not a traditional Mexican topping.

Fajita is a Tex–Mex, Texan–Mexican American or Tejano, diminutive term for little strips of meat cut from the beef skirt, the most common cut used to make fajitas. The word fajita is not known to have appeared in print until 1971, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

The end result is a delicious and satisfying dish that is popular in Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisine. While there are many variations of the quesadilla with different fillings and cooking methods, the use of a tortilla and cheese remains the defining characteristic of this beloved dish.

Tex-Mex cuisine leans on yellow cheese, beef, canned tomatoes, and flour tortillas, creating a hearty and flavorful combination. In contrast, authentic Mexican cuisine emphasizes fresh, locally sourced ingredients such as corn, diverse chilies, and indigenous vegetables, capturing the essence of regional flavors.