11 Types Of Taco Meat To Try At Your Next Taco Tuesday

As easily as you can put most ingredients on top of a pizza, you can stuff just about anything into a taco. While pineapple on pizza may be a seriously divisive issue, though, it's far more accepted as a critical ingredient of tacos al pastor. Traditionally, tacos al pastor were made with lamb but, as MexConnect reports, they're more commonly made with thinly sliced pork today. On street carts and in taco shops in Mexico, you'll find this marinated meat served on a vertical spit, called a trompo, and that's because of its origin within the Lebanese community that emigrated to Mexico in the 1930s (via Historical Mexico), bringing shawarma with them. Over generations, the lamb was swapped for pork and pita for tortillas, and tacos al pastor were born.

But back to the pineapple. Atop any trompo of al pastor meat, you'll find pineapple slowly dripping its sticky juices into the rotating meat below. It certainly adds a slightly sweet and tangy profile to the meat, but it's also a natural tenderizer, so its initial inclusion was more likely a matter of practicality than flavor inspiration. Today, you'll typically find a few chunks of pineapple in your prepared tacos, too, so it's fair to say the added taste of pineapple is now an integral flavor factor of these tacos. Give them a try with this tacos al pastor recipe.

Unless you never use social media and haven't gone out for tacos in a couple of years, you're already very familiar with birria tacos. But you're probably only familiar with one of many versions of birria taco, and that's the fried beef and cheese birria, quesabirria, served alongside a dipping consommé. But The New York Times reports there's really no set recipe for birria across Mexico, or even within a single region, and that means there's probably a lot you didn't know about birria tacos, even if you've had dozens.

According to Vallarta Eats, birria originated in the Mexican state of Jalisco, best known as the place where tequila is made. It was originally made with goat meat, but can also be made from veal, lamb, pork, or the beef that took social media by storm. But it's that original, gamey goat meat that caused so many strong spices to be introduced to birria and, while recipes may vary, a good birria will always come with that signature spiced quality that makes it such a hearty and satisfying snack or meal. And hey, since it hails from the land of tequila, you have an authentic excuse to pair your favorite spirit with a birria recipe on your next Taco Tuesday. Salud!

Like several of the meats on this list, that which makes a carne asada taco is less about the specificity of the meat, and more about the way it's cooked. In this case, it's almost completely about how it cooks, since carne asada translates simply to grilled meat. Still, as Backyard Taco reports, carne asada is commonly understood to be a style of cooking beef, often skirt steak or flank steak.

According to Backyard Taco, there are generally three main tenets required for a true carne asada: the meat must be thinly sliced, cooked quickly at very high heat, and flavored with either a marinade or rub. Because there's no specific collection of herbs and spices required in a carne asada marinade or rub, the finished flavor potential is nearly limitless. You'll have plenty of opportunity to put your personal spin on these if you try them on your next Taco Tuesday with this carne asada recipe as a base. 

If you'll be entertaining, feel free to impress your guests with this fun nugget of culinary history: According to The New York Times, cows were once considerably thinner and their meat, therefore, much tougher, so thin slices of meat cooked and crisped quickly at high heat helped prevent the beef from becoming any tougher while cooking.

Stick with us here. You're the one who asked for more meat options for your tacos. Chapulines are grasshoppers, and they're an exciting option for a Taco Tuesday filling you probably haven't tried before. The Institute of Culinary Education reports that grasshoppers have been common fare in Mexico since the 16^th century, serving as a solid source of protein before the Spanish brought domesticated animals to the area, and the culture of eating them hasn't waned. Like most meats, they're best enjoyed cooked, when their skin becomes crunchy and there's none of the mush that may have populated your mind when considering eating bugs. They're also seasoned, because toasted or fried grasshopper has inherently little flavor, proving that there's nothing to dislike here. If you're struggling, it's all about mind over matter.

More recently, grasshoppers have made their way to certain US circles. As Texas Monthly reports, chapulines have popped up on US menus ranging from taco shops to serious fine dining, and gold-covered grasshoppers have appeared on at least one cooking competition show. Still, you're most likely to find these critters in the US bagged and seasoned as a snack food for those looking for healthier and more sustainable protein bites. For your next Taco Tuesday, feel free to stuff a tortilla with a handful of toasted chapulines to really dive into the culture, but it's also fine to just sprinkle a couple on top of your favorite other taco meat if this is your first time.

We know we already said this about carnitas, but cochinita pibil is like pulled pork to Americans. Even more than carnitas. As AFAR reports, this treasure of the Yucatán is also prepared by slow-cooking pork and shredding the finished product, but it's marinated in citrus juice with a seasoning mix that includes paste made from red achiote seeds. This deep-colored marinade is what really gives the finished dish an even stronger resemblance to pulled pork in barbecue sauce. The primary reason you haven't seen this preparation on as many US taco menus as carnitas, though, probably rests in its more complicated preparation.

As we've seen before, this dish is named for how it's prepared. Explorando Mexico notes that cochinita pibil is traditionally cooked in an underground Maya oven called a pibil, and there aren't many US restaurants, or even homes, that have one of these subterranean caves on their properties. But don't fret — you can still prepare cochinita pibil in your kitchen, no matter how small or American it may be. Hola Jalapeño says you can cook a comparable cochinita pibil in your oven and recommends likely places to find less common ingredients like achiote and banana leaves.

Tinga tacos are almost always prepared with shredded chicken, but it's the sauce that truly makes a tinga a tinga. As The Home Chef Institute describes, tinga can be prepared with any shredded meat, as long as the accompanying tomato-based sauce is used to cook it. Digging further into the sauce ingredient list, you may think you're preparing an Italian dish as you add garlic and onion to your base, but the final ingredient is what truly sets this sauce apart as Mexican: chipotle peppers. These peppers give tinga tacos the kick that balances the sweeter tomato flavor of their signature sauce, and are an essential inclusion.

Of course, as with most tacos and most dishes in general, following an exact recipe is only recommended for beginners, so feel free to customize your chicken tinga tacos however your taste buds see fit. This shredded chicken tinga recipe calls for adding Mexican oregano to your sauce, for example, and you may also want to include cilantro, lime, and even Mexican crema if you need to counter some of the heat of the peppers a bit. And if you've made it all the way to the end of this list in hopes of finding a vegetarian option, here it is: use jackfruit instead of chicken in your tinga sauce for a vegetarian taco that holds up against, and maybe even surpasses, any meaty alternative.