Chef Lupita
Cemita Árabe Poblana
Puebla's domed sesame cemita stacked with thin-sliced árabe pork, quesillo, avocado, pápalo, and chipotle en adobo. The Lebanese-Mexican handshake, all on one roll.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Tacos de Chicharrón en Salsa Verde
Created by
The fonda guisado of central Mexico: real puffed chicharrón simmered tender in a charred tomatillo and serrano salsa verde, ladled from the cazuela onto warm corn tortillas with raw white onion and a squeeze of lime.
Sandwiches & Wraps
Mexican
Weeknight
Budget Friendly
Comfort Food
15 min
Active Time
30 min cook•45 min total
Yield4 to 6 servings (about 12 tacos)
This is a guisado from central Mexico. From Ciudad de México, from the State of Mexico, from Hidalgo, from Puebla. It lives in the fondas, those small family-run lunch counters where a woman cooks five or six guisados every morning and ladles them out of clay cazuelas into corn tortillas until the pots are empty. Chicharrón en salsa verde is almost always one of those pots.
The salsa is tomatillo, charred on the comal until the skins blister and the flesh turns olive. Serrano, garlic, onion, cilantro, all blended with texture and then fried in lard until the color deepens and the kitchen smells like a fonda at noon. The chicharrón goes in last and drinks the salsa for ten minutes until it is tender but still holding its shape. That balance, soft but not mush, is the whole technique.
Real chicharrón matters. I mean the kind sold by the kilo at the carniceria, light and puffed and golden, with the air pockets that let it drink the salsa. The hard, dense cracklings sold in supermarket bags are a different product. They will not soften. They will not surrender. If you cannot find real chicharrón, go to a Mexican butcher and ask, or wait until you can. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
My mother kept this recipe in her notebook from her years working a comida corrida in Colonia Roma before I was born. Twenty pesos for soup, a guisado over rice, beans, tortillas, and a small dessert. The chicharrón en salsa verde was the Wednesday guisado. She wrote in the margin: 'epazote, sí o sí.' She was right. Without the epazote, the dish is fine. With it, the dish is from here. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
Chicharrón en salsa verde belongs to the guisado tradition of central Mexico, a category of stewed dishes that developed in the post-revolutionary expansion of urban working-class fondas during the early 20th century, when home cooks turned the morning's market chiles, tomatoes, and tomatillos into mid-day meals for laborers and clerks who ate away from home. Chicharrón itself predates the conquest in concept, since pre-Columbian peoples rendered animal fats and crisped skins, but the pork version that defines the dish today emerged after the Spanish introduction of pigs in the 16th century and became a butcher-shop staple across the Bajío and the Valley of Mexico. The pairing of chicharrón with salsa verde took hold as a fonda specialty because it solved a practical problem elegantly: a humble, shelf-stable ingredient transformed in twenty minutes into a substantial hot dish for the lunch rush.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
chicharrón de cerdo (puffed pork rind)
Quantity
1 pound
broken into large bite-sized pieces
fresh tomatillos
Quantity
1 1/2 pounds
husked and rinsed
fresh chile serrano
Quantity
3 to 4
stemmed (or 2 chile jalapeño for less heat)
white onion
Quantity
1/2 medium, plus 1/4 cup diced for serving
garlic cloves
Quantity
3
unpeeled
fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems
Quantity
1/2 cup, packed, plus more for serving
manteca de cerdo (pork lard)
Quantity
2 tablespoons
fresh epazote
Quantity
1 sprig (about 6 leaves)
kosher salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon, plus more to taste
water or unsalted chicken broth
Quantity
1/2 cup
hand-pressed corn tortillas
Quantity
12
warmed on a comal
lime wedges (optional)
Quantity
for serving
crumbled queso fresco (optional)
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| chicharrón de cerdo (puffed pork rind)broken into large bite-sized pieces | 1 pound |
| fresh tomatilloshusked and rinsed | 1 1/2 pounds |
| fresh chile serranostemmed (or 2 chile jalapeño for less heat) | 3 to 4 |
| white onion | 1/2 medium, plus 1/4 cup diced for serving |
| garlic clovesunpeeled | 3 |
| fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems | 1/2 cup, packed, plus more for serving |
| manteca de cerdo (pork lard) | 2 tablespoons |
| fresh epazote | 1 sprig (about 6 leaves) |
| kosher salt | 1 teaspoon, plus more to taste |
| water or unsalted chicken broth | 1/2 cup |
| hand-pressed corn tortillaswarmed on a comal | 12 |
| lime wedges (optional) | for serving |
| crumbled queso fresco (optional) | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for charring
- •Wide 10 to 12-inch clay cazuela or heavy skillet for the guisado
- •Standard blender (the salsa should not be over-pureed)
- •Hand-woven cotton servilleta for the tortillas
Instructions
- 1
Char the salsa base on the comal
Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium-high. Place the husked tomatillos, the half onion, the unpeeled garlic, and the serranos directly on the hot surface. Turn them as the skin blackens in patches and the tomatillos soften and start to weep their juice. About 8 to 10 minutes. The tomatillos should be slack and olive-colored, not raw green. The char is not a garnish. It is the flavor that makes salsa verde taste like a guisado and not like a smoothie.
Do not skin the tomatillos or peel the garlic before charring. The skin holds the heat against the flesh and produces the smoky edge that defines this salsa. - 2
Blend the salsa cruda-cocida
Slip the garlic out of its papery skin. Transfer everything from the comal, tomatillos, onion, garlic, and chiles, to the blender along with the cilantro and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Blend in short pulses. You want texture, not a puree. The salsa should still have small flecks of tomatillo and cilantro visible. A blender works fine here. No me vengas con atajos, but this is not one of them.
- 3
Fry the salsa in lard
Heat the lard in a wide clay cazuela or heavy skillet over medium-high until it shimmers. Pour the blended salsa in all at once. It will sputter and hiss. Stand back. Cook for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring often, until the color deepens from pale green to a darker olive and the salsa thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. La manteca es el sabor. This step is what turns raw salsa into guisado. Skip it and the chicharrón will float in a thin broth that tastes flat.
- 4
Loosen the salsa and add the epazote
Pour in the water or chicken broth and stir to combine. Tear the epazote leaves and drop them in. Bring to a gentle simmer. Taste for salt now. The salsa should be aggressive, a little sour, a little smoky, a little hot, because the chicharrón is going to soak up a lot of it and tame everything down.
- 5
Add the chicharrón
Lower the chicharrón pieces into the simmering salsa, pushing them down so the salsa coats every piece. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover partially and cook for 8 to 12 minutes. The chicharrón will drink the salsa and soften. You are looking for the moment when the pieces are tender enough to bite through cleanly but still hold their shape. A few minutes too long and they collapse into mush. Watch the pot.
Good chicharrón puffs and absorbs liquid like a sponge. If yours stays hard and chewy after 15 minutes, it is the wrong product, what you have is pork cracklings, not real chicharrón. Look for chicharrón that is light, airy, and golden, sold by the kilo at a Mexican carniceria. - 6
Warm the tortillas on the comal
While the chicharrón finishes, heat the comal over medium-high. Warm each corn tortilla for about 20 seconds per side. They should puff slightly and pick up a few light char spots. Stack them in a hand-woven servilleta to keep them warm and pliable. A cold tortilla ruins a hot taco. Así se hace y punto.
- 7
Build the tacos at the table
Bring the cazuela to the table on a wooden trivet. Set out the warm tortillas, the diced onion, extra cilantro, lime wedges, and queso fresco if you are using it. Each person spoons the chicharrón en salsa verde down the center of a tortilla, tops it with onion and cilantro, squeezes a little lime, and eats it standing up if they want to. This is a fonda dish. It is meant to be eaten the moment it hits the tortilla, before the salsa can soak through. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.
Chef Tips
- •Buy your chicharrón the same day you cook it, from a Mexican carniceria that fries its own. It should crack lightly when you break it and feel almost weightless in your hand. The bagged supermarket version is dehydrated cracklings and will stay rubbery in the pot.
- •Tomatillos must be firm and the husks should peel away from sticky fruit. If the tomatillo underneath is soft or yellowing, it is past its moment and the salsa will taste musty. Pregúntale a las señoras del mercado. They will hand you the right ones.
- •Do not skip the epazote. It is not optional Mexican parsley. It is a distinct, gasoline-and-mint herb that grows wild across central Mexico and it is what makes this dish taste like a fonda and not like a generic green stew. Most Mexican grocers carry it fresh. Dried is a poor substitute but acceptable in winter.
- •If your salsa tastes flat after frying, add salt before you reach for anything else. Tomatillos need more salt than people expect because the acid masks the seasoning.
Advance Preparation
- •The salsa verde can be charred, blended, and fried up to two days ahead. Refrigerate covered. Reheat in the cazuela before adding the chicharrón.
- •Do not add the chicharrón until you are ready to serve. Once it soaks the salsa, it does not hold well, the texture turns soft and the tacos lose their reason for being.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 300g)
Calories
760 calories
Total Fat
37 g
Saturated Fat
10 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
27 g
Cholesterol
90 mg
Sodium
1850 mg
Total Carbohydrates
44 g
Dietary Fiber
7 g
Sugars
6 g
Protein
62 g
Where cooking meets culture.
Culinary guides, cultural storytelling, and the editorial depth that makes cooking meaningful.
Discover Culinary ExplorerMore from Central Mexican Tacos, Cemitas & Handhelds
Browse the full collection
Chef Lupita
Cemita Poblana de Milanesa
Puebla's round sesame cemita, stacked with crisp milanesa, strings of Oaxacan quesillo, ripe avocado, smoky chipotle adobado, and the herb that makes it real, pápalo. Anybody who calls this a torta has not been to Puebla.
Chef Lupita
Chanclas Poblanas
Puebla's chanclas: oval rolls toasted in lard, filled with braised pork and avocado, drowned in a warm guajillo and pasilla salsa, finished with vinegared onions and crumbled queso fresco. Eaten with a fork.
Chef Lupita
Gringas de Pastor
Mexico City's al pastor pork and stringy Oaxaca quesillo pressed between two flour tortillas and griddled on the comal until the cheese pulls in long strings. The taqueria's richer cousin, born on a Roma sidewalk after midnight.