Chef Lupita
Burrito de Chicharrón Sonorense
Sonora's working morning burrito: chicharrón de cáscara stewed in chile colorado with diced potato, rolled tight in a paper-thin tortilla sobaquera and eaten standing up at the carreta.
Culinary Explorer
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Tacos de Marlin Ahumado
Created by
La Paz's smoked marlin taco, the fish shredded by hand and sauteed with onion, tomato, chile guero, olives, and capers, served warm in thin sudcaliforniana flour tortillas.
Sandwiches & Wraps
Mexican
Weeknight
Outdoor Dining
Quick Meal
15 min
Active Time
20 min cook•35 min total
Yield4 to 6 servings (about 12 tacos)
This is a Baja California Sur taco. Specifically from La Paz, the capital, where the marlin comes off the boats in the bay and the fishermen have been smoking the leftover catch over mesquite and palo de arco for generations. The flour tortilla here is not a Tex-Mex shortcut. It is a Noroeste birthright, and in Baja Sur it is thin, supple, and the natural wrapper for fish.
The filling is a sofrito of onion, garlic, tomato, and chile guero, with the smoked marlin folded in at the end and warmed through, never overcooked. The olives and capers tell you something about this dish that the casual eater misses: La Paz sits at the southern end of a long peninsula with a Mediterranean climate and a Spanish maritime memory, and the cooking shows it. Olives belong here. Capers belong here. This is not a pretender to peninsular Mexican cooking. It is its own thing, and the geography wrote the recipe.
The chile is the chile guero, the yellow wax chile, and that is not negotiable. It is fruity, mildly hot, and the visual signature of the dish. Replace it with jalapeno and you have a different taco. La cocina no es decoracion, es trabajo, and getting the chile right is part of the work. Cada estado, su propia cocina, and Baja Sur's kitchen does not ask permission from anyone else's.
Smoked marlin entered La Paz's culinary repertoire as a practical solution to the abundance of billfish landed in the Sea of Cortez during the 20th century, when commercial and sport fishing brought in more marlin than the fresh market could absorb. Local fishermen and their families adapted Mediterranean smoking and curing techniques carried over by Spanish and later Italian and Sicilian immigrants who settled the southern peninsula, producing a smoked fish that could be stored without refrigeration in a region where ice was historically scarce. The taco itself emerged as a beach-shack and palapa staple in the second half of the 20th century, with the sofrito-style filling, including olives and capers, reflecting the strong Mediterranean influence on Sudcaliforniana cooking that distinguishes it from the rest of northwest Mexico.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
smoked marlin
Quantity
1 pound
skin and dark bloodline removed, shredded by hand
manteca de cerdo (pork lard) or good olive oil
Quantity
3 tablespoons
white onion
Quantity
1 medium
finely chopped
garlic cloves
Quantity
3
finely minced
ripe Roma tomatoes
Quantity
3 medium
finely chopped
chiles gueros (yellow wax chiles)
Quantity
3 to 4
stemmed and finely chopped
chile serrano (optional)
Quantity
1
finely chopped (optional, for more heat)
green olives
Quantity
1/4 cup
pitted and chopped
capers
Quantity
2 tablespoons
rinsed and roughly chopped
dried Mexican oregano
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
crumbled
bay leaves
Quantity
2
fresh cilantro
Quantity
1/4 cup
chopped
kosher salt
Quantity
to taste
black pepper
Quantity
to taste
freshly cracked
small flour tortillas (tortillas de harina sudcalifornianas)
Quantity
12
warmed
salsa de chile guero (optional)
Quantity
for serving
lime wedges (optional)
Quantity
for serving
sliced avocado (optional)
Quantity
for serving
pickled red onion (optional)
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| smoked marlinskin and dark bloodline removed, shredded by hand | 1 pound |
| manteca de cerdo (pork lard) or good olive oil | 3 tablespoons |
| white onionfinely chopped | 1 medium |
| garlic clovesfinely minced | 3 |
| ripe Roma tomatoesfinely chopped | 3 medium |
| chiles gueros (yellow wax chiles)stemmed and finely chopped | 3 to 4 |
| chile serrano (optional)finely chopped (optional, for more heat) | 1 |
| green olivespitted and chopped | 1/4 cup |
| capersrinsed and roughly chopped | 2 tablespoons |
| dried Mexican oreganocrumbled | 1/2 teaspoon |
| bay leaves | 2 |
| fresh cilantrochopped | 1/4 cup |
| kosher salt | to taste |
| black pepperfreshly cracked | to taste |
| small flour tortillas (tortillas de harina sudcalifornianas)warmed | 12 |
| salsa de chile guero (optional) | for serving |
| lime wedges (optional) | for serving |
| sliced avocado (optional) | for serving |
| pickled red onion (optional) | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •Wide heavy skillet or shallow cazuela
- •Sharp knife for fine chopping
- •Cast iron comal for warming tortillas
- •Wooden spoon
- •Cotton servilleta for the tortilla stack
Instructions
- 1
Prepare the marlin
Pull the smoked marlin apart with your hands into thin, irregular shreds. Pick out any bones and discard the dark bloodline along the spine. The bloodline is bitter and metallic, and a careless cook leaves it in. Set the shredded fish aside in a bowl. You should have about three loose cups.
Smoked marlin in La Paz is cured and smoked over palo de arco or mesquite. If you cannot find true smoked marlin, smoked swordfish or hot-smoked tuna will get you close. Smoked salmon is wrong for this dish. The flavor profile is different and the texture is too soft. - 2
Build the sofrito
Heat the lard in a wide skillet or cazuela over medium heat until it shimmers. Add the chopped onion and a generous pinch of salt. Cook for five to six minutes, stirring, until the onion softens and turns translucent at the edges. Do not let it brown. You want the sweetness, not the caramel.
- 3
Add garlic and chile
Add the minced garlic and the chopped chile guero. Cook for one minute more, just until the garlic is fragrant and the chile softens. The chile guero is the signature of this taco. Yellow, slightly fruity, with mild heat that builds. If you replace it with jalapeno, you have changed the dish. Asi se hace y punto.
- 4
Cook down the tomato
Add the chopped tomato, bay leaves, and oregano. Raise the heat to medium-high. Cook for eight to ten minutes, stirring often, until the tomato breaks down completely and the mixture thickens into a loose paste. The liquid should mostly cook off. You should be able to drag a spoon across the bottom of the pan and see a clear path for a second before it closes.
- 5
Fold in the marlin
Lower the heat to medium. Add the shredded marlin, the chopped olives, and the capers. Fold gently with a wooden spoon to coat every shred in the sofrito. Cook for three to four minutes, just to warm the fish through and let it absorb the flavor of the base. Do not cook longer. The marlin is already cooked from the smoking, and overcooking it now turns the texture chalky and dry.
- 6
Taste and finish
Pull out the bay leaves. Taste for salt. The smoked marlin and the olives are already salty, so you may not need to add much. Crack in the black pepper. Stir in the chopped cilantro off the heat. The filling should be moist but not wet, glossy from the lard, with the marlin holding its shred and the tomato clinging to it.
If the filling looks dry, add a tablespoon of olive oil at the end. If it looks wet, cook it down another minute. The right consistency holds together when you scoop it into a tortilla and does not slide out the bottom. - 7
Warm the tortillas
Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium-high. Warm each flour tortilla for about 20 seconds per side, until it puffs in spots and develops a few brown freckles. Stack them in a clean cotton servilleta as you go to keep them soft and pliable. Sudcaliforniana flour tortillas are thin and supple, not the thick chewy kind from the supermarket. If you can buy fresh from a tortilleria, do.
- 8
Assemble at the table
Spoon a generous portion of the marlin filling down the center of each warm tortilla. Top with sliced avocado, a few rings of pickled red onion if you have them, and a spoonful of salsa de chile guero. Squeeze fresh lime over the top. Eat them immediately, standing at the counter or under a palapa, the way they eat them in La Paz. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.
Chef Tips
- •The marlin must be properly smoked, not just cured. In Baja Sur the fishermen smoke it over mesquite or palo de arco, and the flavor of the smoke is half the dish. If your marlin tastes like nothing, no amount of sofrito will save it. Buy from a vendor who can tell you who smoked it.
- •Use lard if you have it. Olive oil is acceptable here because of the Mediterranean lineage of the dish, and many cooks in La Paz use it. Vegetable oil is wrong. La manteca es el sabor, but in this case good olive oil is also part of the recipe's history.
- •The flour tortilla matters. Thin, soft, and warm. If you only have thick supermarket flour tortillas, do not make this taco today. Find a tortilleria or wait until you can. A bad tortilla ruins the dish faster than any other shortcut. No me vengas con atajos.
Advance Preparation
- •The marlin filling can be made one day ahead and refrigerated. Reheat gently in a skillet with a splash of water or oil, just until warmed through. Do not microwave it. Microwaving makes the marlin rubbery.
- •The sofrito base (onion, garlic, tomato, chile) can be made up to two days ahead. Add the marlin only at serving time for the best texture.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 350g)
Calories
685 calories
Total Fat
29 g
Saturated Fat
7 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
22 g
Cholesterol
55 mg
Sodium
1970 mg
Total Carbohydrates
69 g
Dietary Fiber
7 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
37 g
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