The Late-Night Mulita
Chapter 4 — Tortas & Sandwiches: The Bread-Based Menu
Past midnight, the plancha hisses as the taquero pulls tortillas off the griddle. This is a dish you order at one in the morning from a brightly lit food truck tucked into a Los Angeles strip mall—a sandwich made of corn tortillas blistered in fat, a heavy scoop of carne asada, and melting Oaxaca cheese. Pull the salsas from the fridge, heat the cast-iron skillet, build your components, watch the tortilla edges fry in the manteca, and stand at the comal until you take a bite and realize this is exactly what the place on Mission Street tastes like.
Before you start
Prepare the carne asada ahead of time.
Use the carne asada recipe on page X. Slice it thin across the grain, marinate it with citrus and acid overnight, and char it hard on a carbon-steel skillet to achieve a dark recado crust.
Ingredients
- corn tortillas16 med
- manteca3 tbsp
- Queso Oaxaca3 cup
- carne asada1 1/2 lb
- white onion1 large
- fresh cilantro1 large bunch
- taqueria guacamole1 cup
- salsa roja or verde1 cup
- limes2 med
Method
- 01
Revive the corn tortillas with a jolt of steam.
Wrap the stack of tortillas in a damp kitchen towel and microwave for 45 seconds to rehydrate the starches. They must be soft before they hit the fat, or they will shatter like glass.
- 02
Bring the comal to a shimmering heat.
Place a large carbon-steel skillet or traditional comal over medium-high heat, melting a half-teaspoon of manteca until it shimmers. It needs to sizzle immediately without burning the tortilla before the cheese melts.
- 03
Lay down the base and the waterproof cheese barrier.
Place one steamed tortilla onto the hot manteca and immediately scatter a generous handful of the shredded Oaxaca cheese across the entire surface. This barrier prevents the meat juices from destroying the tortilla's structural integrity.
- 04
Deliver the charred protein payload.
While the cheese just begins to melt, pile roughly a third of a cup of hot, chopped carne asada directly onto the center of the cheese layer.
- 05
Cap, compress, and let the heat do the work.
Sprinkle another small handful of cheese over the meat to act as glue, cap it with a second steamed tortilla, and press down firmly with a wide, flat spatula until you feel the sandwich compact into a tight, cohesive puck.
- 06
Execute the flip and crisp the exterior.
Let it cook undisturbed for two to three minutes until the bottom is deep golden-brown and crisped in the lard. Slide the spatula underneath, flip swiftly, and cook until the cheese violently bubbles out the sides to form a crispy skirt.
- 07
Pry it open and garnish like a local.
Transfer to a cutting board and gently peel back the crisp top lid just enough to expose the molten interior. Spoon in molcajete-pressed salsa, guacamole, and a heavy pinch of diced white onion and cilantro before closing it up to eat.
Notes
Respect the fats.
Do not swap the manteca for canola or olive oil. The savory depth and specific, shatter-crisp crunch of a true taqueria mulita depend entirely on rendered animal fat.
Don't blitz the salsa.
Press your salsa through a molcajete rather than throwing it in a blender; the bruised, uneven cellular structure makes all the difference for authentic taqueria mouthfeel.