# Fajita's which kind of tortilla?



## larry_stewart (May 14, 2020)

Planning on grilling up some veggies and making fajitas ( probably going to use some kind of meat ( chicken) substitute in addition.

Question is, for fajitas, is corn or flour tortillas considered more traditional?   or just a matter of taste ?

So far, all but one recipe I found online called for flour.

Ive made them at home in the past, never ordered them while out, so I have nothing to go by.

I have both in the house, so access is not a problem, just looking for guidance


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## DaveSoMD (May 14, 2020)

I usually see flour ones served for fajitas. They are what I use myself when I make them. I use the corn when I am doing more of an open street taco with beef, chicken, pork or seafood. 

Well except for ground beef tacos. For those I do use flour tortillas. [emoji849]


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## Just Cooking (May 14, 2020)

What Dave said..  +1

Ross


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## GotGarlic (May 14, 2020)

If you're talking about traditional Mexican, fajitas are not a Mexican food. They are a Tex-Mex dish were invented in the 1930s in Texas and are generally made with flour tortillas. I don't think I've ever seen them offered with corn tortillas. To be really authentic, they're made with skirt steak.


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## Kayelle (May 14, 2020)

Flour is what I always use for all Mexican dishes with the exception of beef or pork enchiladas ..then it's corn tortillas. I also always use corn tortillas for all of my pan fried tacos. I don't like uncooked corn tortillas at all, but they're muy delicioso when  fried.  "ole! On the other hand I don't like fried flour tortillas, but I love them fire toasted on my gas stove burner.  Sorry for the "jabber-mouth" details. 

 The shorter answer from me would be fire toasted flour for fajitas and I like to use butter on them, bad girl that I am.


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## Kayelle (May 14, 2020)

GotGarlic said:


> If you're talking about traditional Mexican, fajitas are not a Mexican food. They are a Tex-Mex dish were invented in the 1930s in Texas and are generally made with flour tortillas. I don't think I've ever seen them offered with corn tortillas. *To be really authentic, they're made with skirt steak.*




Personally my favorite fajitas are shrimp ...hmm, I know what's for dinner sometime soon!!


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## GotGarlic (May 14, 2020)

Kayelle said:


> Personally my favorite fajitas are shrimp ...hmm, I know what's for dinner sometime soon!!


My favorite for making at home is chicken, although I make skirt steak ones sometimes. It's only since Aldi opened near us about five years ago that I ever even saw skirt steak in a grocery store.

My absolute favorite is the tempura-fried shrimp tacos made at our favorite local seafood restaurant, which unfortunately closed its location near us because of the virus situation [emoji24]


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## Kayelle (May 14, 2020)

GotGarlic said:


> My favorite for making at home is chicken, although I make *skirt steak *ones sometimes. It's only since Aldi opened near us about five years ago that I ever even saw skirt steak in a grocery store.
> 
> My absolute favorite is the *tempura-fried shrimp tacos *made at our favorite local seafood restaurant, which unfortunately closed its location near us because of the virus situation [emoji24]




Interesting about the *skirt steak*..I grew up with it although I don't recall  what my Dad called it back in the day. It's always been in the meat cases around here.
Those *tempura-fried shrimp tacos * sound *fabulous!  *We could both do them for a fraction of the cost! Ymmmm Yummm


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## dcSaute (May 14, 2020)

lucky if you have a choice.
my Giant has half an aisle for "ethnic" stuff - and there's not a thin flat corn thing to be found....  hence it's a flour wrap or it's not.


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## Kayelle (May 14, 2020)

dcSaute said:


> lucky if you have a choice.
> my Giant has half an aisle for "ethnic" stuff - and there's not a thin flat corn thing to be found....  hence it's a flour wrap or it's not.




*Ykies dcSaute.*...where in the world do you live anyway? I sure wouldn't be happy.


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## Kaneohegirlinaz (May 14, 2020)

larry_stewart said:


> Planning on grilling up some veggies and making fajitas ( probably going to use some kind of meat ( chicken) substitute in addition.
> 
> Question is, for fajitas, is corn or flour tortillas considered more traditional?   _or just a matter of taste ?_
> 
> ...



*Larry*, I feel it is a matter of taste.
Some folks do not care for Flour Tortillas and visa versa, so I say, go with your gut and what your family likes to eat.

We prefer Flour over Corn any day.
I do keep both on hand.  I mostly use the Corn Tortillas for Tortilla Soup and fresh Chips & Salsa; like *K-L*, I flame toast Flour for Burritos and Tacos.  For Enchiladas though, I stick with the Flour too, that's just our house though. 
AND, since stumbling upon our local Carniceria, they make THE best Flour Tortillas... come to think of it, they don't sell Corn.


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## pepperhead212 (May 14, 2020)

I'm one of those that likes the corn over flour tortillas.  Flour tortillas are what restaurants usually use for fajitas,  but I really don't use flour tortillas for anything - it's corn, or nothing (except for the extremely rare occasions when I've made some flour tortillas, using lard).  I usually fire toast them on my gas range - just a few of them, when making various tacos,  or layered dishes.  When making things with fried corn tortillas, I usually use a method I learned from Bayless, that gets less oily - I spray them, before baking them, laid out on a sheet, or cooking them in a NS skillet.

Years ago, when I was finally able to buy corn tortillas, a tortilla factory opened over in Avondale, PA, and the first time I discovered it, I knew what it was, as soon as we drove by it!  That aroma of the nixtmal is like nothing else!  Right down the road was a Mexican Grocery, which is where I had to go back in those years (back in the 90s to mid 2000s), to stock up on ingredients, and before the factory opened, friends and I had to make the tortillas from masa harina.  We would make a lot at a time, and freeze them - the rare times when I would have all 6 burners on my range going at once!  Now, there is a Mexican grocery here in town, with several thicknesses of corn tortillas always available.  How times change, and for the better!


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## GotGarlic (May 14, 2020)

Kayelle said:


> Interesting about the *skirt steak*..I grew up with it although I don't recall  what my Dad called it back in the day. It's always been in the meat cases around here.
> Those *tempura-fried shrimp tacos * sound *fabulous!  *We could both do them for a fraction of the cost! Ymmmm Yummm


The shrimp tacos are *fabulous*!  I did make them once. It was a pain, probably because I don't have much experience cooking tempura style and because I don't like deep-frying, so I probably tried to make it in the 3.5-quart sauté pan we both have. I might try it again soon, since we won't be able to get it at the restaurant anymore.


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## dcSaute (May 14, 2020)

Kayelle said:


> *Ykies dcSaute.*...where in the world do you live anyway? I sure wouldn't be happy.




central PA.  a wasteland of Giant intelligence.
I've got a very very long list of their 'our management today is:" shortcomings.  wrote the ownership in Holland.  answer:  talk to the local idiots we put in charge.  they don't care - I've been shopping at Weis and Wegman.


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## Chief Longwind Of The North (May 14, 2020)

GotGarlic said:


> If you're talking about traditional Mexican, fajitas are not a Mexican food. They are a Tex-Mex dish were invented in the 1930s in Texas and are generally made with flour tortillas. I don't think I've ever seen them offered with corn tortillas. To be really authentic, they're made with skirt steak.



i+1  fajita means little strips of meat.  Originally, it was made with skirt ateak AS GG stated.  Bit like most foods, fajitas halve evolved into any taco style food, made with strips of meat, be they beef, pork, fowl, or even fish.  Though flour tortillas are normally used, fresh corn tortillas can be substituted.  Strips of veggies are often added, especially peppers, and onions.  A good sauce is also often used to enhance the flavor.

My thinking used to be - if it's not on a corn tortilla, it's a fajita.  But I now understand that a fajita is a taco made with strips of meat, rather than ground, shredded, or diced meat.  Its like pepperoni.  Pepperoni is always a type of salumi.  However, salumi isn't always pepperoni.  Salumi includes sopersetta, salami, and other sausages.  Tacos are folded tortillas over some kind of filling, be they meat, veggie, or some combination of both.

The most important lesson from all of this is to use strips of meat, and make it taste like you want it to taste.

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of thee North


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## skilletlicker (May 15, 2020)

In my world, fajitas are made with strips, larger chunks, or pieces of meat, shrimp for example, and flour tortillas.
Tacos could be made with ground, stripped, or chunks of meat but would always be corn tortillas.

Not sayin' this is a rule.
Just sayin' it's what I grew up with.

Anyway, I find distinctions between Tex-Mex and traditions in Northern Mexico, make more sense the farther one's roots are from the border.


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## skilletlicker (May 15, 2020)

Got to thinkin' more about this. I never heard of Fajitas as a kid. Don't remember exactly when they showed up in my world; guessing in my late twenties, so mid-1970s maybe?

In the late 50s-early 60s my Mexican food experiences were shaped by various neighborhood joints. Not TacoBells mind you. More like home businesses operating in a screened-in back porch. Specifically, remember a few of these. The first was in Redondo Beach run by best-friends parents. The others were similar, discovered later, and differed mainly in that I had to pay for the grub.


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