35 Tex Mex cuisine

Tex-Mex cuisine is an American regional cuisine that derives from the culinary creations of the Tejano people of Texas. It has spread from border states such as Texas and others in the Southwestern United States to the rest of the country as well as Canada. Tex-Mex is most popular in Texas and neighboring areas, especially nearby states in both the US and Mexico. It is a subtype of Southwestern cuisine found in the American Southwest.

A burrito is a dish in Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisine consisting of a flour tortilla wrapped into a sealed cylindrical shape around various ingredients. The tortilla is sometimes lightly grilled or steamed to soften it, make it more pliable, and allow it to adhere to itself when wrapped. Burritos are often eaten by hand, as their tight wrapping keeps the ingredients together. Burritos can also be served "wet", that is to say covered in a savory and spicy sauce, where they would be eaten with a fork and knife.

Carne asada is a dish of grilled and sliced beef, usually skirt steak, sirloin steak, tenderloin steak, or rib steak. It is usually cooked with a marinade and some searing to impart a charred flavor. Carne asada can be served as a main dish or as an ingredient in other dishes.

A chalupa is a specialty dish of south-central Mexico, including the states of Hidalgo, Puebla, Guerrero, and Oaxaca.

Chili con carne, meaning 'chili with meat', is a spicy stew containing chili peppers, meat, and often tomatoes and beans. Other seasonings may include garlic, onions, and cumin. The dish originated in northern Mexico or southern Texas.

Chile con queso, sometimes called simply queso, is an appetizer or side dish of melted cheese, and chili peppers, typically served in Tex-Mex restaurants as a dip for tortilla chips.

Chimichanga is a deep-fried burrito that is common in Tex-Mex and other Southwestern U.S. cuisine. The dish is typically prepared by filling a flour tortilla with various ingredients, most commonly rice, cheese, beans, and a meat such as machaca, carne adobada, carne seca, or shredded chicken, and folding it into a rectangular package. It is then deep-fried, and can be accompanied by salsa, guacamole, sour cream, or carne asada.

An enchilada is a corn tortilla rolled around a filling and covered with a savory sauce. Enchiladas can be filled with various ingredients, including meats, cheese, beans, potatoes, vegetables or combinations. Sauces can also be used to cover enchiladas, including chili-based sauces, such as salsa roja, various moles, or cheese-based sauces, such as chile con queso. Originating in Mexico, enchiladas are a common dish in Mexican cuisine.

A fajita in Tex-Mex is any grilled meat that is usually served as a taco on a flour or corn tortilla. The term originally referred to skirt steak, the cut of beef first used in the dish. Popular meats used include chicken and other cuts of beef, as well as vegetables instead of meat. In restaurants, the meat is usually cooked with onions and bell peppers. Popular condiments include shredded lettuce, sour cream, guacamole, salsa, pico de gallo, shredded cheese, refried beans, and diced tomatoes. Arrachera is a northern Mexican variant of the dish.

Frito pie is a dish popular in the Midwestern and Southwestern United States, whose basic ingredients are chili, cheese, and corn chips. Additions can include salsa, refried beans, sour cream, onion, rice, or jalapeños. There are many variations and alternative names used by region. Frito pie can be prepared in a casserole dish, but an alternate preparation can be in a single-serve Fritos-type corn chip bag with various ingredients as toppings. In Mexico, a similar type of dish is chilaquiles.

Guacamole is an avocado-based dip, spread, or salad first developed in Mexico. In addition to its use in modern Mexican cuisine, it has become part of international and American cuisine as a dip, condiment and salad ingredient.

Tex-Mex cuisine is very popular in Houston. Many Mexican cuisine restaurants in Houston have aspects that originate from Texas culture. Katharine Shilcutt of the Houston Press said in 2012 that "Tex-Mex has been a vital part of our city for more than 100 years" and that it "never waned in that century." She added that "[t]he cultural significance of Tex-Mex as a vital touchstone between generations and an expression of our roots cannot be denied."

Jalapeño poppers, or jalapeño bites, are jalapeño peppers that have been hollowed out, stuffed with a mixture of cheese, spices, and sometimes ground meat, and sometimes breaded and deep fried. They are sometimes called armadillo eggs, especially if wrapped in bacon or sausage meat to give the appearance of an armadillo shell. The term has been used since around 1972 in Texas, antedating the trademark on "Jalapeño Poppers". As chile relleno can be made with jalapeño, the jalapeño popper is probably a Tex-Mex version of that dish. The name Armadillo Eggs likely comes from the perceived similarity to Scotch eggs.

King Ranch chicken is a popular Tex-Mex casserole. Its name comes from King Ranch, one of the largest ranches in the United States, although the actual history of the dish is unknown and there is no direct connection between the dish and the ranch. Recipes vary, but generally it has a sauce made of canned diced tomatoes with green chiles, cream of mushroom soup, cream of chicken soup, diced bell pepper, onion, and chunks or shreds of chicken. The bottom of the casserole is lined with corn tortillas or tortilla chips, then layered with sauce and topped with cheese. Although it is blander than most Tex-Mex dishes, it has long been a favorite dish in Texas club cookbooks and lunchrooms.

Migas is a dish in Spanish and Portuguese cuisines. Originally introduced by shepherds, migas are very popular across the Iberian Peninsula, and are the typical breakfast of hunters at monterías in southern Spain.

Monterey Jack, sometimes shortened to Jack, is an American white, semi-hard cheese made using cow's milk. It is noted for its mild flavor and slight sweetness.

Nachos are a Mexican regional dish from northern Mexico that consists of heated tortilla chips or totopos covered with melted cheese, often served as a snack or appetizer. More elaborate versions of the dish include other ingredients, and may be substantial enough to serve as a main dish. Ignacio "El Nacho" Anaya created the dish in 1940. The original nachos consisted of fried corn tortilla chips covered with melted cheese and sliced jalapeño peppers.

Old El Paso is a brand of Tex-Mex-style foods from American food producer General Mills. These include dinner kits, tacos and tortillas, taco seasoning, sauces, condiments, rice, and refried beans.

Pan de campo is a flatbread with a name that is thought of as country bread, camp bread, or cowboy bread. The bread was a regional staple of cowboy and vaqueros of southern Texas. Celebrated in several southern Texas festivals, it was named an official symbol of Texas in 2005.

Pico de gallo, also called salsa fresca and salsa cruda, is a type of salsa commonly used in Mexican cuisine. It is traditionally made from chopped tomato, onion, serrano peppers, with salt, lime juice, and cilantro.

A quesadilla is a Mexican dish and type of sandwich, consisting of a tortilla that is filled primarily with cheese, and sometimes meats and spices, and then cooked on a griddle. Traditionally, a corn tortilla is used, but it can also be made with a flour tortilla, particularly in northern Mexico and the United States.

Refried beans is a dish of cooked and mashed beans and is a traditional staple of Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisine, although each cuisine has a different approach when making the dish. Refried beans are also popular in many other Latin American countries.

Chuy's is a Tex-Mex restaurant chain established in 1982 in Austin, Texas by Mike Young and John Zapp. As of March 2019, Chuy's had close to 100 restaurants in 19 states to include: Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee, Oklahoma, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Missouri, with the most recent opening occurring in Columbus, Ohio in October 2019.

Salsa is a variety of sauces used at table as condiments for tacos and other Mexican and Mexican-American foods, and as dips for tortilla chips. They may be raw or cooked, and are generally served at room temperature.

A seven-layer dip is an American appetizer based on ingredients typical of Tex-Mex cuisine. The first widely published recipe called it Tex-Mex Dip without reference to any layers. The dish was popular in Texas for some time before the recipe first appeared in print.

Sopa de fideo, also referred to as sopita de fideo, is a stock-based noodle soup that is a part of the cuisines of Spain, Mexico, Tex-Mex cuisine, and Cavite, a province in the Philippines. It has been suggested that the dish may have originated in Spain.

A sopaipilla, sopapilla, sopaipa, or cachanga is a kind of fried pastry and a type of quick bread served in several regions with Spanish heritage in the Americas. The word sopaipilla is the diminutive of sopaipa, a word that entered Spanish from the Mozarabic language of Al-Andalus. The original Mozarabic word Xopaipa was used to mean bread soaked in oil. A similar word exists in Hebrew, "copaiba", as this was brought to Northern New Mexico by the Ladino-speaking crypto-Jews who first settled there and laid the foundation for the unique dialect of New Mexican Spanish. The word is derived in turn from the Germanic word suppa, which meant bread soaked in liquid.

A sope, also known as picadita is a traditional Mexican dish originating in the central and southern parts of Mexico, where it was sometimes first known as pellizcadas. It is an antojito, which at first sight looks like an unusually thick tortilla with vegetables and meat toppings. The base is made from a circle of fried masa with pinched sides. This is then topped with refried beans and crumbled cheese, lettuce, onions, red or green sauce, and sour cream. Sometimes other ingredients are also added to create different tastes and styles of sopes; they are roughly the size of a fist.

Spanish rice, also known as Mexican rice, red rice, or arroz rojo, is a Mexican side dish or an ingredient in other dishes made from white rice, tomatoes, garlic, onions, etc. It is traditionally made by sautéing the rice in a skillet with oil or fat until it is colored golden brown. Water or chicken broth is then added, along with tomatoes in the form of chopped tomatoes or tomato sauce.

A taco is a traditional Mexican dish consisting of a small hand-sized corn or wheat tortilla topped with a filling. The tortilla is then folded around the filling and eaten by hand. A taco can be made with a variety of fillings, including beef, pork, chicken, seafood, beans, vegetables, and cheese, allowing for great versatility and variety. They are often garnished with various condiments, such as salsa, guacamole, or sour cream, and vegetables, such as lettuce, onion, tomatoes, and chiles. Tacos are a common form of antojitos, or Mexican street food, which have spread around the world.

A taco salad is a Tex-Mex dish that combines ingredients used in Tex-Mex tacos. The dish originated in Texas during the 1960s.

A taquito, tacos dorados, rolled taco, or flauta is a Mexican food dish that typically consists of a small rolled-up tortilla that contains filling, including beef, cheese or chicken. The filled tortilla is then crisp-fried or deep-fried. The dish is often topped with condiments such as sour cream and guacamole. Corn tortillas are generally used to make taquitos; the dish is more commonly known as flautas when they are larger than their taquito counterparts, and can be made with either flour or corn tortillas although using corn is more traditional.

Texas caviar is a salad of black-eyed peas lightly pickled in a vinaigrette-style dressing, often eaten as a dip accompaniment to tortilla chips. Texas caviar was created in the U.S. state of Texas around 1940 by Helen Corbitt, a native New Yorker who later became director of food service for the Zodiac Room at Neiman Marcus in Dallas, Texas. She first served the dish on New Year's Eve at the Houston Country Club. When she later served it at the Driskill Hotel in Austin, Texas, it was given its name, "Texas caviar," as a humorous comparison to true caviar, an expensive hors d'oeuvre of salt-cured fish roe. It has also been called cowboy caviar.

A tortilla chip is a snack food made from corn tortillas, which are cut into triangles and then fried—or baked. Corn tortillas are made of corn, vegetable oil, salt and water. Although first mass-produced commercially in the U.S. in Los Angeles in the late 1940s, tortilla chips grew out of Mexican cuisine, where similar items were well known, such as totopos and tostadas.

The Whopperito is a Burger King menu item that was introduced in 2016. It consists of most of the ingredients of the Whopper wrapped inside a tortilla. Instead of the ketchup, mayonnaise, or mustard, the Whopperito contains queso sauce. Burger King originally introduced it only at several of their Pennsylvania locations in June; on August 15, they began selling it nationwide. Leslie Patton of Bloomberg News speculated that the Whopperito represented an attempt by Burger King to compete with Chipotle Mexican Grill. In a statement, Burger King said that they decided to introduce it nationally after testing the item at local franchises "sparked widespread demand from guests" on social media. Alex Macedo, the president of Burger King North America, said of the item, "It’s just to get peoples' attention to come in to the restaurants," adding that limited-time menu items like the Whopperito are not just important to boost sales, but "also important for keeping the brand relevant."