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
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Tacos de Longaniza
Created by
Central Mexico's longaniza taco: spiced pork sausage crisped on the comal in its own red fat, doubled up on hand-pressed tortillas with raw onion, cilantro, salsa roja, and lime.
Sandwiches & Wraps
Mexican
Weeknight
Budget Friendly
15 min
Active Time
25 min cook•40 min total
Yield4 servings (about 12 tacos)
Longaniza belongs to central Mexico. Hidalgo, Tlaxcala, Puebla, the State of Mexico. Every town has its own version and every carniceria its own spice blend, but the bones of the sausage are the same: pork shoulder, vinegar, garlic, chile ancho, chile guajillo, sometimes achiote for color, sometimes clove or cumin for depth. This is not chorizo. Do not buy chorizo and call it longaniza. They are cousins, not twins. Longaniza is longer, leaner, more vinegared, and the spice profile leans into chile rather than paprika.
The taco itself is a weeknight dish. A working person's dinner. You buy the longaniza from the carniceria that morning, you fry it on the comal in the evening, you eat it standing at the counter with the radio on. The technique is almost nothing: crumble, render, crisp, spoon onto a doubled tortilla. But the dish lives or dies at the carniceria. Bad longaniza is dry and grainy and tastes like nothing. Good longaniza weeps red fat the moment it hits the iron and that red fat is the entire reason you are making this. Do not pour it off. Do not blot the tortilla. The grease-stained bottom tortilla is the signature.
My mother made longaniza tacos on Tuesdays when she did not have time for anything else. She had a carnicero in the Mercado Medellin who knew her by name and would slide an extra sausage across the counter without charging her. She would render it in a black cast iron skillet that had belonged to her own mother, double the tortillas without thinking about it, dice the onion small, and call my brother and me to the table without ceremony. Saber cocinar es saber vivir. Some of what you know how to cook is for company. This is what you cook on Tuesday.
Longaniza descends directly from the longaniza of the Iberian peninsula, brought to Mexico by Spanish colonists in the 16th century and reshaped almost immediately by the chiles, vinegars, and grinding traditions of central New Spain. By the 18th century, regional Mexican longaniza had diverged sharply from its Spanish parent, with Hidalgo, Tlaxcala, and Yucatan each developing distinct spice blends; the Yucatecan version uses achiote and sour orange and is closer to a recado, while the central Mexican version leans on dried chile and white vinegar. The town of Tulancingo, Hidalgo, has been recognized for over a century as the longaniza capital of central Mexico, and an annual longaniza festival there draws cooks who measure the sausage by the meter rather than by the kilo.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
fresh longaniza from a Mexican carniceria
Quantity
1 1/2 pounds
casings removed
manteca de cerdo (pork lard)
Quantity
1 tablespoon
hand-pressed corn tortillas
Quantity
24
two per taco, stacked
white onion
Quantity
1 medium
finely diced
fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems
Quantity
1 cup
chopped
limes
Quantity
3
cut into wedges
dried chile guajillo
Quantity
6
stemmed and seeded
dried chile de arbol
Quantity
3
stemmed
roma tomatoes
Quantity
3 medium
garlic cloves
Quantity
2
unpeeled
white onion (for the salsa)
Quantity
1/4 medium
kosher salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon, plus more to taste
cumin seeds
Quantity
1/4 teaspoon
toasted
manteca de cerdo, for the salsa
Quantity
1 tablespoon
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| fresh longaniza from a Mexican carniceriacasings removed | 1 1/2 pounds |
| manteca de cerdo (pork lard) | 1 tablespoon |
| hand-pressed corn tortillastwo per taco, stacked | 24 |
| white onionfinely diced | 1 medium |
| fresh cilantro leaves and tender stemschopped | 1 cup |
| limescut into wedges | 3 |
| dried chile guajillostemmed and seeded | 6 |
| dried chile de arbolstemmed | 3 |
| roma tomatoes | 3 medium |
| garlic clovesunpeeled | 2 |
| white onion (for the salsa) | 1/4 medium |
| kosher salt | 1 teaspoon, plus more to taste |
| cumin seedstoasted | 1/4 teaspoon |
| manteca de cerdo, for the salsa | 1 tablespoon |
Equipment Needed
- •Cast iron comal or 12-inch heavy skillet
- •Wooden spoon or spatula for breaking up the sausage
- •High-powered blender for the salsa
- •Tortilla warmer or clean cotton servilleta
- •Small skillet for frying the salsa
Instructions
- 1
Char the salsa ingredients
Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium-high. Lay down the roma tomatoes and the unpeeled garlic cloves. Turn them as the skin blackens in patches, about 8 to 10 minutes for the tomatoes, 4 minutes for the garlic. You want the tomato skin blistered and split, the garlic soft inside its papery jacket. Pull everything off and set aside. Charring is not a step you skip. It is the smoke that gives the salsa its backbone.
Do not peel the tomatoes after charring. The blackened skin goes into the blender. That is where the depth lives. - 2
Toast the chiles
On the same comal, lower the heat to medium. Toast the guajillo and arbol chiles for about 20 to 30 seconds per side. Press them lightly with a spatula. They should puff and turn fragrant, never blacken. Move them off as soon as the kitchen smells like a chile vendor's stall. Burned chile is bitter chile and there is no recovering from it later.
- 3
Soak and blend the salsa
Place the toasted chiles in a heatproof bowl and cover with hot tap water. Hot, not boiling. Let them soften for 15 minutes. Drain the chiles and transfer to a blender with the charred tomatoes, peeled garlic, the quarter onion, toasted cumin, salt, and about 1/4 cup of fresh water. Blend until smooth but with some texture left. Strain through a medium sieve if you want it cleaner. I do not strain. The texture is part of the salsa.
- 4
Fry the salsa
Heat the tablespoon of lard in a small skillet over medium. When it shimmers, pour in the blended salsa. It will sputter. Step back. Cook for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring, until the salsa darkens a shade and the fat starts to separate at the edges. La manteca es el sabor. A raw salsa tastes like a sauce. A fried salsa tastes like food.
- 5
Render the longaniza
Heat your comal or a wide cast iron skillet over medium. Add the tablespoon of lard, then crumble in the longaniza, breaking it into small uneven pieces with the back of a wooden spoon. As the sausage warms, it will release its own deep red fat. Do not drain it. That red fat IS the dish. You are not browning ground meat. You are coaxing the chiles and the achiote and the spice in the longaniza to bloom in their own grease.
If your longaniza is dry and releases no fat, the carniceria sold you a poor version. A good longaniza weeps red the moment it hits the heat. - 6
Crisp the edges
After about 10 minutes, when most of the liquid has cooked off and the longaniza is bubbling in its own fat, raise the heat to medium-high. Spread the meat in a single layer and leave it alone for 2 to 3 minutes at a time, stirring only to flip. You are after small crisp edges where the meat has caramelized against the iron. Cook another 8 to 10 minutes total, until you see dark mahogany pieces mixed with softer ones. Both textures belong on the taco.
- 7
Warm the tortillas
Push the longaniza to one side of the comal or move it to a warm bowl. Warm the corn tortillas directly on the hot iron, about 20 seconds per side, stacking them two by two on a clean cloth as they come off. The double tortilla is not optional on a longaniza taco. The bottom tortilla soaks up the red fat. The top tortilla holds everything together. One tortilla and the taco falls apart in your hand.
- 8
Build the tacos
Spoon a generous mound of longaniza onto each stack of two tortillas, dragging the spoon across the comal to pick up some of the red fat with the meat. Top with raw white onion, chopped cilantro, a spoonful of salsa roja, and a hard squeeze of lime. Eat them standing up, the way they are eaten at the taquerias in Tulancingo and Atlixco. Así se hace y punto.
Chef Tips
- •The whole dish rests on the longaniza. Find a Mexican carniceria that makes it in-house. If the package says 'longaniza-style' or comes shrink-wrapped from a supermarket, that is a compromise, not the dish. A good longaniza should look deep red, smell of chile and vinegar, and feel slightly tacky between your fingers.
- •If you cannot find longaniza, you can make a working version by mixing ground pork shoulder with toasted ground chile guajillo, chile ancho, garlic, white vinegar, oregano, cumin, clove, and salt, then resting it overnight in the refrigerator. It is not the same. It is closer than supermarket chorizo.
- •The red fat is not a problem to be solved. It is the seasoning for the tortilla. If you find yourself reaching for paper towels, stop. You are about to ruin the taco.
- •Double the tortillas. Always. One tortilla on a longaniza taco is a structural failure waiting to happen.
Advance Preparation
- •The salsa roja can be made 3 days ahead and refrigerated. The flavor deepens overnight. Reheat gently in a small skillet before serving.
- •The longaniza itself should be cooked just before eating. Reheated longaniza loses the crisp edges that make the taco worth making.
- •If buying tortillas, do so the day you cook. Day-old tortillas crack on the comal. If you must store, wrap tightly in a cotton cloth inside a sealed bag.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 400g)
Calories
1010 calories
Total Fat
62 g
Saturated Fat
20 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
38 g
Cholesterol
115 mg
Sodium
1980 mg
Total Carbohydrates
79 g
Dietary Fiber
8 g
Sugars
3 g
Protein
32 g
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