Beef Taco with Mango Salsa, Lime & Cilantro

I keep making tacos, this time I’ve made a very simple and delicious Beef Taco with Mango Salsa some fresh lime and cilantro, learn how to make it.

This Beef Taco with Mango salsa is a simple one, the only parts that need cooking is the beef. The mango salsa and the tortilla. And those you can choose to buy if you want to. What I like about this taco is the simple and fresh flavors. A light corn tortilla, some cooking sour cream, seared beef, sweet mango salsa, fresh lime and cilantro. Add a little bit of heat with the Tapatio sauce and some crunch with sliced salad.

As usual I’ll go through each part of this taco starting with everything that is put on it and a separate recipe for those toppings that need it. But before we begin just a quick note on the tortilla. I’m using a homemade corn tortilla. I highly recommend you trying to make your own tortillas, it’s not hard and I have a full recipe for tortillas here. That recipe works great for both regular corn tortillas or blue corn tortillas.

But I’m not being snobby about this, if you rather buy your tortillas or use wheat tortillas I’m not judging, just make it work for you. Now let’s make some tacos. The recipe below is for just one taco so double up as much as you want.

Beef Taco with Mango Salsa, Lime & Cilantro

1 taco

1 tortilla
1 tsp sour cream
2 tbsp thin sliced salad
2-3 slices seared beef (more on beef below)
1 tbsp mango salsa (recipe below)
A few drops of Tapatio sauce (or any other hot sauce you like)
1 wedge of lime
Fresh cilantro

So as you see it’s simple stuff. Just heat the tortilla, put the sour cream on top. The sour cream is store bought so no recipe needed there. Then I add about two spoonfuls of thin sliced salad, this gives the taco some filling and some nice crunch.

The beef is seared and you can read more about that below. By the side of the meat I add some mango salsa, the recipe for that is below. Then I splash a few drops of Tapatio sauce, this can be replaced with any hot sauce you like.

Finally I add fresh cilantro and a squeeze of lime, this is crucial and really is what makes the taco great. Fresh cilantro and lime takes any taco from good to great, at least in my opinion. Below you can watch a clip on how I put the taco together.

Grilled or seared sirloin beef for tacos

Meat is always great for tacos and there are plenty of things to choose from out there. One of my favorites is a slice of sirloin. Usually it is reasonably priced and available in most shops. It’s also quick to cook which is a good thing, you don’t always have the time to get started on those eight hour ribs.

Now I’m not sure how many tacos you usually eat but I often end up at around 3-4. But that is for rather small tacos which mean that you don’t need that much meat. So a normal sized slice of sirloin is about 200g / 7 oz which and that is enough for at least four tacos, often more. So when you calculate on meat you can use slightly less than what you would serve if it was a sirloin for a normal meal.

What I do then is to simply season it with salt and pepper and either grill it or sear it in some oil and or butter. The perfect taco steak for me is between medium and medium rare. Then leave the steak to rest for at least 5-10 minutes and the slice thin.

Oh, it doesn’t need to be sirloin either. All you need is a similar cut that is tender enough to put in a taco without being chewy. A tenderloin, flank steak or why not a ribeye. They all work great as long as the quality is good.

Mango Salsa with chili and cilantro

Enough for 6-8 tacos

1 big fresh mango
2 tbsp sweet chili sauce
1 tsp dried crushed chili
1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1 tsp salt
Black pepper

Peel and cut the mango in cubes, add the chili sauce, crushed chili, salt and black pepper. Chop the cilantro and add. Done!

About Tacos at Ateriet

I love tacos. This means I keep making tacos and eating them and also posting them here for everyone who shares this love. I try to step away from the classic tex mex stuff and creating sort of my own twist on things. This is not easy in the world of tacos but that is part of the fun, for all tacos at Ateriet you can check the tag The Taco Gringo, eventually these will be posted on a separate site dedicated to only tacos as well.