Chef Lupita
Alitas al Chiltepín Estilo Sonora
Sonora's roasted chicken wings tossed in clarified butter heavy with crushed wild chiltepín, garlic, and fresh lime. Sharp clean heat, no vinegar burn, no Tex-Mex shortcuts. The desert north on a plate.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Alambres de Carne Asada Sonorenses
Created by
Sonora's mesquite-grilled alambre of ribeye and arrachera with bacon, bell pepper, and onion, blanketed in melted asadero and rolled into thin flour tortillas at the rancho table.
Appetizers & Snacks
Mexican
BBQ
Outdoor Dining
Game Day
30 min
Active Time
25 min cook•55 min total
Yield6 servings
This is Sonora. The northwest, the desert, cattle country. Forget what you know about Mexican food being corn and chile. Up here, the staple is wheat, the meat is beef, and the smoke is mesquite. The alambre is what a Sonoran family puts on the grill on a Saturday afternoon when the cousins come over and the carne asada turns into something more.
The word alambre means wire, and traditionally the meat went on a metal skewer over the coals. The modern Sonoran version, the one I learned in a backyard outside Hermosillo, builds on a cast iron skillet set straight on the grill so the bacon fat, the beef juices, and the mesquite smoke have somewhere to gather. The vegetables sear in that fat. The cheese melts over the top. The tortilla picks it all up.
Flour tortillas are not a Tex-Mex invention. They are northern Mexican, period. The wheat came with the Spanish in the 1600s and Sonora's dry climate made it grow better than corn. The tortillas de harina sonorenses, thin enough to read through, paper-soft, the size of a dinner plate, are the bread of an entire region. If anyone tells you flour tortillas are not Mexican, they have never been north of San Luis Potosi.
My mother was from Jalisco and she did not make alambres. I learned this dish from a woman named Dona Esperanza in a rancho outside Magdalena de Kino, working a comal over a mesquite fire with her two grown sons turning the meat. She told me three things and I am telling them to you now: good beef, real mesquite, and asadero that pulls. No me vengas con atajos.
Sonora's beef and wheat tradition was established in the colonial period through the Jesuit missions, which introduced cattle ranching and wheat cultivation to the region's indigenous Yaqui, Mayo, and Opata peoples in the 17th century. The state's flour tortilla, distinct in size and thinness from any other regional Mexican tortilla, evolved as the daily bread of ranching families and was codified as a regional identity marker through the 19th and 20th centuries; the largest, called tortilla sobaquera or tortilla de agua, can exceed two feet in diameter. The alambre format itself is Mexican in origin and predates its incorporation into Sonoran rancho cooking, but the combination of mesquite smoke, asadero cheese (a stretched-curd cheese developed in northern Mexico), and bacon reflects the specific influence of the Sonoran-Sinaloan-Chihuahuan beef belt and its proximity to U.S. cattle markets without surrendering the regional Mexican character of the dish.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
ribeye
Quantity
1 1/2 pounds
trimmed and cut into 3/4-inch cubes
arrachera (skirt steak)
Quantity
1 pound
trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
thick-cut bacon
Quantity
8 ounces
cut into 1-inch pieces
green bell pepper
Quantity
1 large
cut into 1-inch squares
red bell pepper
Quantity
1 large
cut into 1-inch squares
white onion
Quantity
1 large
cut into 1-inch squares and separated into layers
fresh lime juice
Quantity
1/3 cup (about 4 limes)
Worcestershire sauce
Quantity
1/4 cup
soy sauce
Quantity
2 tablespoons
garlic cloves
Quantity
4
finely minced
freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
1 teaspoon
kosher salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon, plus more to taste
queso asadero
Quantity
12 ounces
shredded
large flour tortillas (tortillas de harina sonorenses)
Quantity
12
warmed
salsa de chile chiltepin or salsa bandera (optional)
Quantity
for serving
lime wedges (optional)
Quantity
for serving
guacamole (optional)
Quantity
for serving
frijoles puercos or frijoles maneados (optional)
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| ribeyetrimmed and cut into 3/4-inch cubes | 1 1/2 pounds |
| arrachera (skirt steak)trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces | 1 pound |
| thick-cut baconcut into 1-inch pieces | 8 ounces |
| green bell peppercut into 1-inch squares | 1 large |
| red bell peppercut into 1-inch squares | 1 large |
| white onioncut into 1-inch squares and separated into layers | 1 large |
| fresh lime juice | 1/3 cup (about 4 limes) |
| Worcestershire sauce | 1/4 cup |
| soy sauce | 2 tablespoons |
| garlic clovesfinely minced | 4 |
| freshly ground black pepper | 1 teaspoon |
| kosher salt | 1 teaspoon, plus more to taste |
| queso asaderoshredded | 12 ounces |
| large flour tortillas (tortillas de harina sonorenses)warmed | 12 |
| salsa de chile chiltepin or salsa bandera (optional) | for serving |
| lime wedges (optional) | for serving |
| guacamole (optional) | for serving |
| frijoles puercos or frijoles maneados (optional) | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •Charcoal or wood-fire grill, ideally with a lid
- •Mesquite chunks or mesquite lump charcoal
- •12-inch heavy cast iron skillet that can go directly on the grill
- •Slotted spoon or kitchen spider
- •Hand-woven cotton servilleta for the tortillas
Instructions
- 1
Marinate the beef
Combine the cubed ribeye and the arrachera in a large bowl. Add the lime juice, Worcestershire, soy sauce, minced garlic, black pepper, and salt. Mix with your hands until every piece is coated. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, no longer than 2 hours. Sonoran beef is good beef. You are seasoning it, not curing it. Lime that sits too long will turn the meat mealy.
Sonora is cattle country. The northwest raises some of the best beef in Mexico. Buy the best ribeye your butcher carries. A weak cut will give you a weak alambre and there is no fixing it later. - 2
Build the fire
Light a charcoal grill or wood fire. Mesquite is the wood of Sonora and it is what gives the alambres their character. The mesquite grows wild across the Sonoran desert and the smoke is sweet, dry, and unmistakable. If you cannot find mesquite chunks, use mesquite lump charcoal. Build a hot bed of coals, two-zone if your grill allows it, with a hotter side and a medium side. The grill grate should be just hot enough that you can hold your hand over it for two seconds, no longer.
- 3
Render the bacon
Place a heavy cast iron skillet or a comal directly on the grill grate over the hot zone. Add the bacon pieces. Cook, stirring, until the fat renders and the bacon turns golden but is not yet crisp, about 6 minutes. Lift the bacon out with a slotted spoon and set aside. Leave 2 tablespoons of the rendered bacon fat in the skillet. Discard the rest or save it for beans. Bacon fat is the second seasoning of this dish, after the mesquite smoke.
- 4
Sear the vegetables
Add the bell peppers and onion to the skillet with the bacon fat. Spread them in a single layer over the hot grill. Sear without stirring for 2 minutes, then toss and sear another 2 minutes. You want char marks on the edges and the centers still firm, not soft. The pepper should bend, not collapse. Slide the skillet to the medium zone and push the vegetables to one side.
- 5
Sear the beef
Lift the marinated beef out of the marinade and let the excess drip off. Add the meat to the empty side of the hot skillet in a single layer. Do not crowd it. If your skillet is too small, work in two batches. Sear hard for 90 seconds, untouched. Toss once and sear another minute. The cubes should be deeply browned on the outside and still pink in the middle. Sonoran cooks do not overcook beef. Cada estado, su propia cocina, and this state takes its meat seriously.
- 6
Combine and blanket with cheese
Return the bacon to the skillet and toss everything together with the meat and vegetables. Pull the skillet off the heat for one moment and scatter the shredded asadero evenly over the top. Slide the skillet back over the medium zone and close the grill lid for 90 seconds, just until the cheese melts into a glossy white blanket. Asadero is the cheese of the north and it is what binds an alambre. Substitute Oaxaca or Chihuahua if you must, but never cheddar or jack. Asi se hace y punto.
The cheese melts, it does not brown. The moment you see it pull and stretch, take the skillet off the heat. Browned asadero turns rubbery and you lose the silky pull that makes the alambre what it is. - 7
Warm the tortillas and serve
Warm the flour tortillas directly on the grill grate, 20 seconds per side, until they puff slightly and pick up a few char spots. Stack them in a hand-woven servilleta to keep them soft. Bring the skillet straight to the table set on a wooden board. Each diner pulls a tortilla, spoons in the alambre with a generous tangle of cheese, and finishes with salsa and lime. Eat with your hands. This is rancho food, not restaurant food.
Chef Tips
- •The wood matters. Mesquite is non-negotiable for a real Sonoran alambre. The mesquite grows across the Sonoran desert and ranchers have cooked over it for centuries. Oak or hickory will give you a different dish, a fine dish, but not this dish. If you cannot find mesquite chunks, mesquite lump charcoal is the next best thing.
- •Asadero is the cheese of the north and it is what makes an alambre an alambre. Oaxaca string cheese will work in a pinch because it is the same family of stretched-curd cheese. Chihuahua melts well too. Cheddar, jack, and yellow American cheese have no place here. That is Tex-Mex and this is Sonora.
- •Buy the flour tortillas from a Sonoran or northern Mexican source if you can, or make them yourself with manteca, not vegetable shortening. The good ones are thin enough to read through, paper-soft, and big enough to wrap a generous portion. La manteca es el sabor, even in the tortilla.
- •Do not marinate the beef longer than two hours. Sonoran beef is good beef and lime that sits too long breaks down the meat into a mealy texture. You are seasoning, not curing.
Advance Preparation
- •The beef can be cut, the marinade mixed, and the vegetables chopped up to 6 hours ahead and held separately in the refrigerator. Combine the meat and marinade no more than 2 hours before grilling.
- •The flour tortillas are best made the day they are eaten. If you are making them yourself, mix and rest the dough up to 4 hours ahead and roll and cook just before serving.
- •Alambres do not reheat well. The cheese seizes and the meat overcooks. Make what you will eat at the table.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 450g)
Calories
1215 calories
Total Fat
70 g
Saturated Fat
28 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
38 g
Cholesterol
205 mg
Sodium
2200 mg
Total Carbohydrates
79 g
Dietary Fiber
5 g
Sugars
4 g
Protein
68 g
Where cooking meets culture.
Culinary guides, cultural storytelling, and the editorial depth that makes cooking meaningful.
Discover Culinary ExplorerMore from Noroeste Appetizers & Snacks
Browse the full collection
Chef Lupita
Alitas Estilo Mexicali con Soya y Miel
Mexicali's Chinese-Mexican wings, double-fried until the crust crackles, glazed sticky in soy, honey, ginger, and garlic, served with chiles toreados blistered in soy and lime.
Chef Lupita
Almejas Chocolatas en su Jugo de La Paz
La Paz's chocolate clams shucked to order and served raw on the half-shell with their own briny liquor, cold Clamato, fresh lime, and Salsa Huichol. Spooned straight from the shell at the table, the way they eat them on the malecon.
Chef Lupita
Almejas Rellenas de Loreto
Loreto's chocolate clams stuffed with their own chopped meat, sauteed with garlic, butter, tomato, and chile serrano, broiled until the shells come off the fire blistered with golden cheese.