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Originally Posted On: https://backyardtaco.com/blog/mexican-dips/
When I Dip, You Dip, We Dip
If you’re a fan of Mexican comida, you’re likely familiar with a few of the fabulous dip staples, like guacamole or salsa. But how much do you know about Mexican culture’s various dips, including their long history, their traditional uses, and their delectable ingredients? You may be surprised to learn just how diverse this category of Mexican dishes can be.
Join us as we take a peek at the wonderful world of Mexican dips, then hunt down your favorites at your local Backyard Taco. You’ll find a little guide on ordering like a maestro and keeping it auténtico!
(And then, make sure you get your hands upon our chips, because… when I dip, you dip, we dip!)
What You Should Know About Mexican Dips
Just as in other cuisines, Mexican dips are a type of condiment meant to be eaten alongside other foods to enhance your eating experience. They complement numerous sides, snacks, and main dishes by bringing in more textures and flavors. While many condiments can be used as a topping, spread, or ingredient within a dish, including crema or guacamole, dips are generally meant to be used as a form of “dipping sauce.”
The fun part of dips is that you can do just that: dip your food into them! This allows you to control whether you want to customize your snack or meal further, as well as how much you want to include in each bite. The best part, amigos? If you want to switch between multiple dips, you can!
Why Dips and Toppings?
Keep in mind that dips are one of the many side dishes, toppings, and flavor add-ons that support Mexican meals, including chopped cabbage, diced red onions, grilled onions and jalapenos, red sauce, and more.
As mentioned, these traditional garnishes can enhance your eating experience by introducing juxtaposing flavor profiles. For example, the unique yet traditional ingredient of cabbage brings a mild and crispy texture or flavor, which can be quite complementary to more savory or spicy flavors and chewy textures often found in authentic Mexican cuisine. Dips work in a similar way by reinforcing, complementing, or contrasting the various tastes and mouth-feels within a dish.
The Dipstory
Many Mexican dips can be traced back to ancient history within various native Mesoamerican civilizations, including the cultures of the Incas, Mayans, and Aztecs. Other dips, like bean dip, don’t come from a long traditional history but are no less delicious for it. In fact, bean dip can be made using several different beans, mashed or left whole, but perhaps most commonly, it is made with refried beans.
Types of Dip You’ll Find Here at Backyard Taco
You can often define a high-quality dip by the freshness of its ingredients, and that’s especially true here at Backyard Taco. The list of recipes and variations out there is endless, but here’s what you can expect to find at your local BYT (and some tips to dipping like a maestro):
Birria Soup or Consomé
Birria is a type of meat stew originating from the western Mexican state of Jalisco. Though it often includes beef here in the US, in Mexico, some recipes use lamb, pork, chicken, or goat meat. There are even vegetarian options for birria lovers. The meat of choice is marinated and cooked in a seasoned broth until juicy and tender. Birria stew can be eaten as is, but in recent years, removing the shredded meat from the stew has become more popular, and it has been used as a filling for birria tacos.
The remaining liquid from the stew is what is known as “soup,” consomé, or simply “dip.” All of these terms refer to the same delicious liquid gold (okay, it’s usually a deep red color). Birria soup has a wonderfully warm, slightly spicy, and earthy flavor, richly seasoned with chilis, garlic, cloves, cumin, and several other herbs and spices.
Backyard Taco Insider Tip: Get it Crispy…
Did you know that all you have to do is ask, and we’ll crisp up your birria tacos? Just a little time on the flat top is all it takes to elevate your faves. In fact, we recommend you crisp all the tacos on our menu – and burritos, too!
…Then Dip!
Once you’ve gotten crispy, it’s time to dunk your taco or burrito. The combination of crisp and consomé dip is out of this world. Be sure to ask for our consomé next time you’re in!
Pico de Gallo
Pico de gallo, translating to “rooster’s beak,” is an incredibly popular dip and topping that is another form of salsa. Unlike other salsa variations, the texture of pico de gallo is characteristically chunky.
The dip is meant to maintain a solid consistency by chopping the ingredients instead of blending them down. Pico de gallo is traditionally composed of diced tomatoes, jalapeno or Tlaola Serrano chili peppers, onions, lime juice, and cilantro. The dip is ready to serve after seasoning and gently mixing the ingredients.
Pico de Gallo is frequently included with our next category of dips: salsas.
Salsa
The majority of the US is most familiar with salsas, which strictly translates to “sauces.” Of course, most sauces can be used as dips, but when we refer to salsa, we’re talking about a dip or topping that consists mostly of tomatoes, chiles, seasonings, citrus, and a few other ingredients to make each unique. Salsa, when authentically made, is a traditional dipping sauce made only with the freshest ingredients.
Salsas can vary quite a bit depending on the recipe and your personal preferences. Most commonly, salsa is made with a base of tomatoes and chiles, preferably fresh and never frozen, canned, or dried. This helps to retain the full flavor profile, thus resulting in a vibrantly tasty dip.
Another salsa-like dip is red chile sauce, also called enchilada sauce. Red sauce is an incredibly versatile Mexican condiment that can be topped on nearly every dish or served as a dip on the side for even more control over the sauce in every bite. There’s also salsa verde, which is green in appearance due to the use of tomatillos, the Mexican “husk tomato,” as well as pineapple salsa, mango salsa, and everything in between.
Backyard Taco Insider Tip: Check Out Our Chips and Salsa
At Backyard Taco, we’re proud to make our salsas fresh in-house from authentic ingredients. They’re perfect when paired with salty, crunchy, house-made tortilla chips. Chips and salsa are the perfect complement to any of our authentic Mexican dishes.
Hit Up the Salsa Bar
When you dine in and visit our salsa bar, you’ll find not only traditional red salsa, but pico de gallo, salsa verde, and more. All salsas are made fresh and contain varying levels of that unique Mexican heat. Try one, try ‘em all!
Pictured above:
- Pico de Gallo
- Tatemada Salsa – Medium Hot
- Birria Salsa – Extra Hot
- Jalapeno Salsa – Hot
- Guacanmole – Mild
Guacamole
Guacamole is a type of dip that’s also a spreadable salad of sorts. Avocados are the primary ingredient in this world-famous dip, which has a history stemming from the Aztec empire. Not unlike salsa, guacamole dips can vary greatly in quality, spice level, textures, and ingredients.
Recipes for traditional guacamole use ripe avocados, either mashed into a creamy and smooth texture or left slightly unblended for a chunkier feel, as well as onions, garlic, various chili peppers, lime juice, salt, and other ingredients or seasonings of choice, such as cilantro or tomatillos. You may even make guacamole salsa, layering the two dips or mixing all the ingredients together to create a delicious dip.
Backyard Taco Insider Tip: Add Chips N’ Guac
Chips and guacamole are a classic snack, but this dish takes on a whole new meaning at Backyard Taco. Our house-made tortilla chips are perfect for dipping in our own version of guacamole. Add a batch to your next order.
Elevate El Taco!
Tacos, burritos, gorditas, oh my! Anything on our menu, including quesadillas, tastes better when dipped in a side of our fresh guacamole. You can even add guac to a Papa Loca, Bueno Bowl or tostada for a hit of creamy goodness.
Queso
Chile con queso, queso fundido, or simply queso as it’s sometimes called, is a type of melted cheese dip that comes in a wide range of variations. Queso dip is well-established in Mexican culture and is a staple in Tex-Mex cuisine.
For authentic Mexican queso fundido, the dip should be made using Mexican white melting cheese (queso blanco or queso fresco) and various other cheeses, such as cotija and chorizo (ground pork sausage). You may also choose to add onion, peppers, and other preferred ingredients.
While we’re not a Tex-Mex joint, we do love adding some melted Monterey Jack to our favorite dip category: bean dip.
Bean Dip
While refried beans are mashed, pureed beans hit with some delectable Mexican seasonings, bean dip is an even better version of this earthy flavor profile. You’ll find more whole pinto beans in bean dip, giving you a fresher, heartier addition to your favorite dishes. Best of all, bean dip is typically served topped with fresh, Mexican cheeses like cotija or Monterey Jack.
Backyard Taco Insider Tip: Order Bottomless Chips and Bean Dip
Did you know that when you order Backyard Tacos chips and beans, you get an endless supply of this Mexican staple? Pick your favorite authentic entree, then add a side of chips and beans to get unlimited refills!
What Foods Can You Eat With Dip?
The simple answer is: ¡Todos! However, if you manage to quell the urge to eat every dish covered with your favorite Mexican dip, it’s worth exploring the many fabulous foods that are traditionally meant to be eaten with dips.
Chips
Chips in Mexican restaurants are most often tortilla chips, which can be made from either corn or flour tortillas. Chips and dips are an essential side dish that also serves well as an appetizer or snack. Chips are not unique to Mexican culture, even tortilla chips, whose history is not as ancient or well-recorded as other popular dishes. The triangle-shaped chips were made popular by, and often credited to, tortilla factory and Mexican delicatessen owner Rebecca Webb Carranza, who used the leftover and misshapen tortillas rejected by the factory machines.
Other types of corn chips can be traced back to the culture of the native Aztec civilizations, who were considered the first to make corn tortillas. In the United States, corn chips were popularized by the brand Fritos (which eventually created Doritos). Both tortilla chips and corn chips are made using corn, but their differences in flavor and texture come from the distinct processes involved in making them. Tortilla chips tend to be larger and less fatty as they absorb less oil, are thinner, and are less salty than corn chips. They are also distinctly milder in flavor than the crunchier corn chip with a roasted corn flavor.
Birria Tacos
As mentioned, birria tacos are a popular Mexican food filled with tender, shredded meat from the traditional birria stew. The slow-cooked and marinated meat is placed within a corn tortilla topped with your fixings of choice, such as finely chopped red onion, fresh cilantro, and a slice of lime to garnish the dish.
Ideally, your birria tacos are served with a generous helping of the birria soup broth to dip your tacos into. As we mentioned, at Backyard Taco, we recommend requesting to get your birria tacos crisped up a bit, adding to the wonderful textures of this authentic Mexican food. We also offer on our menu: birria quesadillas, grilled gorditas, burritos, tostados, and birria-topped papas locas (crazy fries).
Quesadillas, Tostados, Burritos and More!
It’s hard to argue with including your favorite Mexican dip with whatever dish you eat. Guacamole, salsa, queso, and pico de gallo are all fantastic dips to include alongside (or inside) your burrito, taco, tostada, Bueno Bowl, Papas Locas, or any other dish. If you prefer, dips are also ideal to have on the side to better control the amount you’d like and ensure the dip is in every bite.
Find Authentic Mexican Food at Backyard Taco
Our familia at Backyard Taco has prioritized providing our guests and community with authentic Mexican cuisine for over a decade. This essential mission started all the way back in Mazatlan, Mexico, with our Backyard Taco founders, Ruben and Marisela, who would serve tacos to amigos and neighbors alike in their own backyard. The food they served was based on the unique flavors and recipes of traditional Mazatlan and Sinaloan cuisine.
Our food today still adheres to this humble source of inspiration at our proudly family-owned franchise.
Visit Backyard Taco Today!
At Backyard Taco, we say: mi casa es su casa. We’d love to have you and your friends at any of our locations! We currently have Backyard Taco locations in Chandler, Gilbert, Queen Creek, and throughout the city of Mesa. We’re also looking forward to our newest restaurant located in Laveen, which will open soon!
Come by and try out our authentic Mexican menu including our classic dips as well as our totally unique salsa bar. See you soon amigos!
