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 Gobernador Sinaloenses
Created by
Sinaloa's signature taco from Mazatlan: garlic shrimp and charred poblano folded into a flour tortilla with melting queso Chihuahua, toasted golden on the comal and eaten the moment it leaves the heat.
Sandwiches & Wraps
Mexican
Dinner Party
Weeknight
Outdoor Dining
25 min
Active Time
20 min cook•45 min total
Yield4 servings (about 8 tacos)
This is from Sinaloa. Specifically from Mazatlan, where the dish was invented in the early 1990s at a marisqueria called Los Arcos. The story goes that the governor of Sinaloa was visiting and the kitchen built him something off the menu: shrimp, poblano, cheese, folded into a flour tortilla and toasted on the plancha. They named it after him. The taco gobernador belongs to that restaurant, to that city, and to the Pacific coast tradition of cooking with what came off the boat that morning.
The flour tortilla is not optional and it is not a Tex-Mex import. The Noroeste, Sinaloa, Sonora, Baja, has cooked with flour tortillas for over a century. This is wheat country, not corn country, and the tortilla de harina is a regional birthright. A taco gobernador on a corn tortilla is not a taco gobernador. It is something else, and whoever served it to you was wrong.
The poblano has to be charred. Not sauteed, not roasted in the oven without color, charred. The smoky bitterness of a blackened poblano is half of what makes this dish taste like Mazatlan and not like a generic shrimp quesadilla. The shrimp should be small to medium, chopped, and barely cooked before it goes into the taco. It will finish in the heat of the cheese.
My mother never made this. The taco gobernador is younger than I am. But I have eaten it at Los Arcos, at half a dozen marisquerias along the Mazatlan malecon, and at carts in Culiacan, and what every good version has in common is restraint: good shrimp, properly charred chile, real cheese, and a flour tortilla toasted to the right shade of gold. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.
Tacos gobernador originated in 1987 at Los Arcos in Mazatlan, Sinaloa, when chef Francisco Labastida Ochoa, who would later become governor of Sinaloa and a presidential candidate, requested a custom dish during a visit; the kitchen's response, shrimp with poblano and melted cheese in a folded flour tortilla, was named in his honor and entered the marisqueria's regular menu. The dish reflects two distinct northwestern Mexican traditions: the Sinaloa coast's century-old shrimp fishing industry, which made the state Mexico's leading shrimp producer, and the Noroeste's wheat-farming heritage, which established the flour tortilla as the regional staple from the colonial period onward. Despite its relative youth as a named dish, the taco gobernador has become so identified with Sinaloan cuisine that it now appears on marisqueria menus across Mexico and the U.S. Pacific coast.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
medium raw shrimp
Quantity
1 pound
peeled, deveined, and chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
fresh chile poblano
Quantity
3
white onion
Quantity
1 medium
diced small
tomatoes
Quantity
2 medium
seeded and diced small
garlic cloves
Quantity
4
finely minced
fresh chile serrano (optional)
Quantity
1
finely minced
unsalted butter
Quantity
2 tablespoons
olive oil
Quantity
1 tablespoon
kosher salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon, plus more to taste
dried Mexican oregano
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
to taste
fresh lime juice
Quantity
1 tablespoon
flour tortillas (tortillas de harina)
Quantity
8 medium
queso Chihuahua
Quantity
12 ounces
shredded
lime wedges (optional)
Quantity
for serving
salsa de chile de arbol or salsa verde (optional)
Quantity
for serving
sliced avocado (optional)
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| medium raw shrimppeeled, deveined, and chopped into 1/2-inch pieces | 1 pound |
| fresh chile poblano | 3 |
| white oniondiced small | 1 medium |
| tomatoesseeded and diced small | 2 medium |
| garlic clovesfinely minced | 4 |
| fresh chile serrano (optional)finely minced | 1 |
| unsalted butter | 2 tablespoons |
| olive oil | 1 tablespoon |
| kosher salt | 1 teaspoon, plus more to taste |
| dried Mexican oregano | 1/2 teaspoon |
| freshly ground black pepper | to taste |
| fresh lime juice | 1 tablespoon |
| flour tortillas (tortillas de harina) | 8 medium |
| queso Chihuahuashredded | 12 ounces |
| lime wedges (optional) | for serving |
| salsa de chile de arbol or salsa verde (optional) | for serving |
| sliced avocado (optional) | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet
- •Wide saute pan for the filling
- •Tongs for charring the poblanos
- •Sharp knife for chopping shrimp and dicing chile
- •Box grater for the cheese
Instructions
- 1
Roast the poblanos
Set the chiles poblanos directly over an open gas flame or under a hot broiler. Turn them with tongs every minute or so until the skin is blistered and blackened on all sides, about six to eight minutes. Drop them into a bowl and cover with a plate or a kitchen towel for ten minutes. The trapped heat finishes the work and loosens the skin. Rub the charred skin off with your fingers, then stem, seed, and dice the flesh into 1/2-inch pieces. Do not rinse the chiles under water. You will wash away the smoky flavor that defines this taco.
Poblano is the chile. Not Anaheim, not bell pepper, not green pepper. The smoke and the slight bitterness of a properly charred poblano is half of what makes a taco gobernador taste like a taco gobernador. - 2
Pat the shrimp dry
Spread the chopped shrimp on a paper towel and press another paper towel on top. Wet shrimp will steam in the pan instead of searing, and a watery filling makes a soggy taco. The shrimp should be dry enough that they no longer leave a wet print on the towel. Season lightly with salt and a pinch of black pepper.
- 3
Build the sofrito
Heat the olive oil and one tablespoon of the butter in a wide skillet over medium-high heat. Add the diced onion with a pinch of salt and cook for three to four minutes until the edges turn translucent. Add the garlic and the serrano if you are using it. Stir for thirty seconds until you can smell the garlic but before it browns. Add the tomato and cook for two minutes more, until the tomato softens and most of its water cooks off.
- 4
Sear the shrimp
Push the sofrito to one side of the pan. Add the remaining tablespoon of butter to the cleared side and let it melt. Add the shrimp in a single layer. Do not crowd them. Cook undisturbed for one minute, then stir everything together. The shrimp should be just turning pink at the edges. They will finish cooking inside the taco. Overcooked shrimp turn rubbery and there is no recovering from it.
- 5
Fold in the poblano
Add the diced poblano, the oregano crumbled between your palms, the lime juice, and the rest of the salt. Stir for thirty seconds to bring everything together. Taste and adjust salt now. The filling should taste assertive on its own because the cheese and tortilla will mute it. Pull the pan off the heat. The filling is done.
- 6
Heat the comal
Wipe out a clean cast iron comal or heavy skillet and set it over medium heat. No oil. The flour tortilla wants a dry surface so the cheese inside can melt before the outside scorches. Have your filling, your cheese, and your tortillas within reach. Once you start assembling, you do not stop.
- 7
Build the taco gobernador
Lay one flour tortilla flat on the warm comal. Scatter a generous handful of shredded queso Chihuahua across half the tortilla. As soon as the cheese begins to melt at the edges, about thirty seconds, spoon two heaping tablespoons of the shrimp and poblano filling over the cheese. Fold the empty half of the tortilla over the filling like a quesadilla. Press gently with a spatula.
Queso Chihuahua melts into long strings the way the dish demands. Queso asadero or Monterey Jack will get you close. Cheddar will not. No me vengas con atajos. - 8
Toast and serve
Cook the folded taco for one to two minutes per side, until the tortilla is golden brown with darker spots and the cheese has melted into the filling. Slide it onto a warm plate. Repeat with the remaining tortillas. Serve immediately with lime wedges, salsa de chile de arbol, and avocado if you like. A taco gobernador eaten ten minutes after it leaves the comal is not the same taco. Asi se hace y punto.
Chef Tips
- •The shrimp must be small or medium and chopped, not whole and not jumbo. Whole shrimp turn the taco into a wrestling match and the proportion is wrong. The shrimp should be one element among several, not the headliner.
- •Char the poblano over open flame if you have a gas burner. The broiler works but does not give you the same depth. If your only option is electric, do it on a cast iron comal turned all the way up, and accept that you will have to go a little longer.
- •Use a real Mexican flour tortilla. The thin, soft, slightly elastic kind from a sonorense or sinaloense bakery, not the thick, dry supermarket version. If you cannot find good ones, make your own with manteca. The tortilla matters as much as the filling.
- •Queso Chihuahua is the right cheese. Queso asadero is the acceptable substitute. Monterey Jack will get you 80 percent of the way there. Pre-shredded bagged cheese with anti-caking agents will not melt the same. Shred your own.
- •If you cannot find fresh poblano, do not substitute green bell pepper. Wait until you can find poblano. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
Advance Preparation
- •The poblanos can be charred, peeled, and diced one day ahead. Store covered in the refrigerator. Their flavor actually deepens overnight.
- •The shrimp filling can be made up to four hours ahead and refrigerated, but the tacos must be assembled and toasted to order. A taco gobernador does not survive being held.
- •Shred the cheese ahead of time and keep it covered in the refrigerator. Cold cheese on a warm tortilla melts more evenly than room-temperature cheese.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 445g)
Calories
830 calories
Total Fat
41 g
Saturated Fat
22 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
17 g
Cholesterol
285 mg
Sodium
1780 mg
Total Carbohydrates
55 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
3 g
Protein
56 g
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