Smoked Pork Chop Tacos

History & Origin

Smoked pork chop tacos are part of the taco world of northern Mexico, a region where pig and cattle farming has deeply shaped local gastronomy. The smoking of meats - especially pork - has roots in the preservation techniques that northern ranchers and cowboys developed during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to keep meat edible on long desert journeys. The commercial smoked chops sold in the markets of Sonora, Chihuahua and Sinaloa are heirs to this artisan tradition, adapted to the industrial production that supplies taco stands. The flour tortilla, a distinctive element of northern cuisine, was adopted by the border states of northern Mexico from the colonial period, when the Spanish colonisers introduced wheat to the arid northern lands unsuitable for maize cultivation. Today, the flour tortilla is as symbolic of the north as the northerner themselves: large, elastic and with that slight lard flavour that makes it irresistible. Smoked pork chop tacos are completed with spring onions griddled on the same surface, sliced avocado or guacamole, and a generous squeeze of lime.