Monterrey and northern Mexico: carne asada and cabrito

Northern Mexico eats differently. It is cattle country, desert country and a land of great distances, and its cooking revolves around charcoal-grilled carne asada, the flour tortilla and preserving methods such as machaca. Monterrey, capital of Nuevo León, is its emblematic city, with cabrito (kid goat) as its festive dish, but the north also includes Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila and Durango, each with its own specialities. In this guide we explain what to eat, how the carne asada culture works and when it is worth going.

For the history of this cuisine, see our article northern cooking: carne asada, machaca and desert flavors. Here we focus on the trip.

Monterrey: cabrito and carne asada

Cabrito

Cabrito al pastor is the dish Monterrey introduces itself with: a young goat opened out, skewered on rods and slowly roasted beside wood or charcoal embers until the skin is crisp. It is served in portions — leg, kidney section, shoulder — with flour tortillas, salsa and guacamole. A widespread tradition attributes the custom to the region's first settlers, who included families of Sephardic Jewish origin; historians present this as a hypothesis, and agree that today's dish is the product of several cultures.

Cabrito also gives rise to fritada, stewed in its own blood, and cabrito en sangre, two home and festive recipes.

Carne asada as a ritual

In Monterrey, carne asada is not just a dish: it is how people get together at the weekend. Beef cuts — skirt, chuck, rib-eye — are grilled with chorizo, green onions, chiles toreados and cheese, and served with flour tortillas, frijoles charros, guacamole and salsas. If you are invited to a carne asada at someone's home, go: few things explain life in Monterrey so well.

In the city's restaurants and taquerías you will also find carne asada tacos, beef rib strips (agujas) and carne seca.

Machacado con huevo

Machaca con huevo, or «machacado», is the northern breakfast par excellence: beef that has been salted, sun-dried and pounded into shreds, cooked with egg, tomato, onion and chile. It began as a way of preserving meat in the desert, and in Nuevo León and Coahuila it is eaten with freshly made flour tortillas.

Sweets from Nuevo León

In the state's towns people make sweets from caramelized milk and pecans, such as the glorias associated with Linares, and wafers with cajeta.

The flour tortilla

In the north, the wheat-flour tortilla is as important as the corn tortilla is in the south. It is made with flour, lard or vegetable fat, water and salt, and cooked on a comal. Sonora's are famous for their size and thinness: «sobaquera» tortillas can be enormous. They are used to make burritos, typical of Chihuahua and Sonora and much simpler than Tex-Mex ones: a large tortilla with a single stew inside.

If you want to make them at home, see our guide to northern flour tortillas and the recipe for flour gorditas.

What goes with the meat in the north

A northern carne asada is recognized as much by what surrounds the grill as by the meat. Frijoles charros, cooked with bacon, chorizo, chile and tomato, are served in a pot for everyone to help themselves; chiles toreados are grilled or fried whole until the skin blisters; green onions are grilled next to the meat with salt and lime; and there is always guacamole and a molcajete salsa of charred tomato and chile.

With the meat chopped on the board and the flour tortillas warm, each diner builds their own tacos. It is a long, leisurely meal that usually starts early on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and goes on until nightfall. In the city's steak restaurants the same pattern is repeated, with the meat served on a board or in a hot molcajete.

Another classic of the Monterrey table is carne a la tampiqueña, a combination plate of grilled steak with enchiladas, rajas (chile strips), beans and guacamole, found on many menus in the north and center of the country.

Sonora, Chihuahua and Coahuila

• Sonora: carne asada from grain-fed beef, coyotas (piloncillo-filled biscuits from Hermosillo), bacon-wrapped Sonoran hot dogs, cheese soup and wheat-berry broth. To drink, bacanora, the state's traditional agave spirit.
• Chihuahua: Mennonite cheese, made by the Mennonite communities around Cuauhtémoc; burritos, chile colorado and carne adobada; and chacales, dried maize cooked in broth.
• Coahuila and Durango: caldillo duranguense made with dried beef, caramelized-milk sweets and the wine tradition of Parras, in Coahuila, with vineyards dating from colonial times.

How to organize the trip

The north is big and the distances are long: Monterrey, Chihuahua and Hermosillo are hundreds of kilometres apart. The most practical approach is to choose a base and take trips out:

• Monterrey (three days): the city, its cabrito and carne asada, a trip into the mountains and, if you like sweets, a visit to Linares.
• Sonora (three days): Hermosillo and the coast at Bahía de Kino, with seafood.
• Chihuahua (three days): the city, the Mennonite area of Cuauhtémoc and, if you have more time, the Copper Canyon by train.

If you are arriving from Baja California, it fits with our route through Baja California, fish tacos and the Valle de Guadalupe.

When to go

Summers in the north are very hot and winters cool, with frosts in the high parts of Chihuahua. For eating outdoors, spring and autumn are the most bearable seasons. The north has its own festive calendar too: the Independence celebrations in September, which in Monterrey are marked with a family carne asada.

Frequently asked questions

Is cabrito eaten all year round?

Yes. In Monterrey it is served all year in specialist restaurants.

What is the difference between machaca and carne seca?

Carne seca is meat salted and dried in strips; machaca is that same meat pounded until it breaks into fine shreds.

Are northern burritos like Tex-Mex ones?

No. In Chihuahua and Sonora they are simpler: a large flour tortilla and one stew, with no rice or sour cream.

Are there options for people who don't eat meat?

It is harder than in the center or south, but flour tortillas with beans, grilled cheese, Mennonite-cheese quesadillas, chiles rellenos and Sonoran cheese soup are common meat-free dishes. Always ask about the lard in the tortillas and beans.

What is bacanora?

A traditional agave spirit from Sonora, related to mezcal and made in the villages of the state's mountains.

Sources

• Prensa Latina, «El “cabrito al pastor”, una excelencia de la culinaria en Monterrey» (December 2025).
• Mexico News Daily, «State by Plate: Cabrito of Nuevo León».
• MVS Noticias, «La historia de cómo el cabrito se volvió el platillo típico de Monterrey» (2024).
• Spanish-language Wikipedia, «Mezcal» (bacanora and other agave spirits).