Panza Guisada para Tacos (Shredded Tripe for Tacos)

Central Mexico, with particular currency in Mexico City's taquería culture and the broader Bajío region (Guanajuato, Querétaro, Michoacán), where offal cookery has deep roots in everyday street food; closely related preparations appear throughout Jalisco and the Estado de México

A gutsy, aromatic Mexican taco filling built from cooked tripe cut into narrow strips and fried with white onion, serrano chiles, and epazote in two stages. The herb is added in two passes — half at the start to perfume the fat, half near the end to keep some brightness — giving the finished filling a layered herbal character that dried herbs simply cannot replicate. A splash of tripe or chicken broth loosens the pan and allows a brief covered cook that melds everything without stewing the tripe into mushiness. Finished in warm tortillas and topped with a raw salsa verde, this is the kind of market-stall cooking Diana Kennedy documented across Mexico: thrifty, direct, and genuinely delicious.

The tripe delivers a pronounced, faintly mineral richness — earthy and animal without being rank when properly cleaned and cooked — while the serrano chiles cut through the fat with clean, grassy heat. Epazote asserts itself in two registers: a resinous, almost medicinal depth from the early pass and a sharper, more volatile brightness from the late addition. The overall effect is bold and savoury with enough herbal lift to keep the filling from feeling heavy inside the tortilla.