Carne Asada Mulitas 101: Basically a Tortilla Quesadilla
Everyone likes Mexican food, right? Their dishes are meaty, tangy, spicy, and sweet. They combine the dishes and local flavor of Mexican natives with the European taste of Spain. That signature spiciness from this cuisine type will have people clamoring for more than just a small bite or a little taste.
You can enjoy Mexican food as it’s presented in Mexico or as a variant that incorporates Texas or American dishes with it, leading to a Tex-Mex kind of dish. The savory results will have your mouth watering and your stomach fulfilled regardless.
If you wish to try out your own carne asada mulitas, it’s important to learn more about them.
Table of Contents
What is a Mulita?
Originally from Mexico, a mula or mulita is similar to quesadillas but uses carne asada (grilled meat) as its filling instead of just cheese. It also has about two layers of tortillas for good measure. It’s a Mexican flavor version of grilled cheese with meat. Delicious al the same with that signature spicy taste.
They’re typically found in many a taco truck in Los Angeles areas as well as the nearest Mexican restaurants as an alternative to the usual burrito, taco, and nacho cheese plate options. It’s basically a quesadilla but corn tortilla is used. It’s a tortilla quesadilla with carne asada inside it, in other words.
Ingredients
This double-decker tortilla quesadilla with grilled meat or quesadilla-style taco is composed of the following ingredients.
- Sugar: It adds sweetness to the marinade.
- Salt & Pepper: For steak seasoning purposes.
- Garlic: Another must-have spice best used fresh.
- Skirt or Flank Steak: Make sure to stir-fry this steak for best results.
- Olive Oil: The oil is for brushing, stir-frying, and marinating the tortillas.
- Soy Sauce: It tenderizes the meat while at the same time increasing its flavorful state.
- Cider Vinegar: It’s another steak tenderizer. You can substitute lime juice or white vinegar for it.
- Ground Cumin: It adds to the rainbow of flavors that give it that classic signature Mexican taste.
- Monterey Jack Cheese: We recommend this, Mexican cheese, or cheddar cheese. Use them in shredded form.
- Avocado, Cilantro, and Onion: These add freshness and extra texture to the food. It’s optional to add diced bell pepper, guacamole, or tomatoes.
- Tortillas: 6-inch tortillas work the best. It’s okay whether it’s made at home or bought at the store. You can use flour tortillas or corn tortillas for this recipe.
How to Make Carne Asada Mulitas
Here’s a quality traditional original-flavor carne asada mulita we want to share.
- Prep Time: It takes about 15 minutes or so to prepare the ingredients needed to make the carne asada mulitas. You can take extra time soaking the steak in marinade until the flavor is locked in the meat, like in the previous recipe.
- Cook Time: It takes about 5 minutes to cook the steak by stir-fry and 30 minutes to cook everything. You should also take time to get the cheese melt for best results. Meanwhile, it takes a little over 45 minutes overall to make a mulitas from start to finish.
- Servings: One serving of fully cooked beef taco meat filling or carne asada is about 2 ounces. per serving This recipe and the recipe above can serve about 5 people.
1. Cut the Steak
Before marinating the steak, you should cut it into thin strips. This makes the steak much easier to marinate because the strips come in bite-sized goodness.
Be careful with the way you cut the steak to make them more digestible. Cut against the grain when cutting them up. Make the cuts as thin as possible too.
2. Create the Marinade
Whisk or mix together about â…“ cup of olive oil, minced garlic, soy sauce, sugar, cumin, and vinegar together in a large bowl.
The marinade is what defines the flavorful nature of this delectable Mexican dish. Without the marinade, your steak strips will end up chewy even after they’re cooked.
3. Marinade the Steak
Place the steak in your marinade. Coat it and let it soak. Cover the top with a lid or plastic Saran wrap to allow it to marinate for 30 minutes or even a whole hour.
If you intend on a longer marinade time, place it inside the refrigerator overnight. Marinades mainly soften the meat up to keep them from becoming tough or chewy.
4. Create Carne Asada
Now to grill the strips of steak for your mulitas filling. Get a large skillet and heat up oil on it with medium-high heat.
Put the steak strips from the marinade and add them to the skillet. Stir-fry for about 5 minutes until they’re perfectly cooked.
5. Put Together The Mulitas
On both sides, brush the tortillas with oil. Put a tortilla in the skillet then sprinkle cheese until its surface is covered. Afterward, add a layer of grilled meat and sliced onions over it. Add more cheese to the mix then put a tortilla on top of it.
6. Finishing Up the Mulitas
Cook the bottom of your mulitas for about 1-2 minutes until you get a golden brown tortilla. Carefully turn the mulitas on its side in order to cook the uncooked part until that’s golden brown too. Remove the dish from the skillet afterward.
7. Add the Toppings
Peel the top tortilla in order to add other toppings like cilantro, diced tomatoes, and mashed avocado as well. Repeat the process until you run out of filling, cheese, and tortillas. Serve the mulitas warm with your toppings of choice.
FAQs
Here are the most frequently asked questions regarding carne asada mulitas you should keep in mind.
Is There A Difference Between Asada And Carne Asada?
The Carne (meat) part probably. An asada refers to grilled food that could cover things like grilled vegetables or grilled seafood along with grilled meats. Carne asada specifically talks about grilled meat in particular.
Mulita vs. Quesadilla
A quesadilla doesn’t make use of double-decker tortilla. Mulita also makes use of carne asada or grilled meats instead of just grilled cheese.
Vampiros vs. Mulitas
Vampiros are similar to mulitas. Both feature tortillas that are grilled until they’re lightly crunchy. However, vampiros is a style of taco without a top tortilla. Mulitas make use of about double-decker tortillas.
Is Carne Asada Spicy?
It’s not so much spicy but more flavorful. There’s a bit of spiciness but there are also way spicier dishes from Mexico. Compared to them, carne asada is comparatively bland.
Where to Find the Tastiest Mulitas in Los Angeles?
We recommend you start hunting for taco trucks such as Tire Shop Taqueria, Tacos Tamix, and Tacos El Korita. That’s because the carne casa mulitas is kind of a taco. A quesadilla taco, to be exact.
Carne Asada Mulitas: Tortilla Quesadilla Recipe (L.A. Style)
Carne asada mulitas has an LA-style recipe that's slightly different from the original Mexican version favored by L.A. denizens. As for the Los Angeles style of carne asada, it's mainly made of diced onions and chopped carne asada.
Ingredients
- You need to use the following items in order to make your carne asada mulitas. It's the more streamlined version of the recipe featured above.
- Corn tortillas
- 1-4 teaspoons of oil
- ¼ finely diced onion
- Shredded Monterey Jack cheese
- Marinated carne asada chopped
Instructions
Here's how you go about making the more straightforward L.A.-style carne asada mulitas.
- Dice onions then set them aside.
- Chop up the carne asada into bite-sized pieces.
- Heat the skillet for about a teaspoon of oil then add the diced onion and carne asada.
- Keep everything on the pan until fully cooked. Afterwards, set them aside.
- Heat up another skillet with ½ teaspoon of oil.
- Afterwards, add your corn tortilla, cheese, and meat as well as more cheese and another tortilla into the mix.
- One the cheese has melted, flip the carne asada mulita and cook it on its other side.
- Make sure there's a nice, medium crunch to it. However, you can cook it to be as crunchy or as soft as you want.
Notes
- The best cheeses for mulitas include shredded Monterey Jack cheese, cheddar cheese, or Mexican cheese like Asadero. Aside from that, you can also use Colby Jack, and Mozzarella.Â
- Go for semi-hard cheese that melt superbly and give you great flavors when push comes to shove. Also, skirt steak, flank steak, and the like are used to make traditional carne asada used as filling for your mulitas.Â
- These are two quite similar cuts of steak, but they differ in certain aspects. Skirt steak offers tougher fibers compared to the softer flank steak. Marinate the steak before they're cooked for the best, most savory results.
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Nutrition Information
Yield 5 Serving Size 5Amount Per ServingCalories 680Total Fat 7gSaturated Fat 14gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 5gCholesterol 122mgSodium 992mgCarbohydrates 38gFiber 5gSugar 5gProtein 47g
Nutrition:
In terms of calories, the carne asada mulitas has about 365 calories. It’s easy to remember. Just remember that a serving of carne asada mulites has about the same amount of calories as there are days in a year.
- The traditional mulitas above has about 680 calories, 38 grams of carbohydrates, 47 grams of protein, 14 grams of saturated fat, 122 milligrams of cholesterol, 992 milligrams of sodium, 873 milligrams of potassium, 5 grams of fiber, and 5 grams of sugar.
- It also has 7 milligrams of Vitamin C, 449 milligrams of calcium, 5 milligram of iron, and 434IU of Vitamin A.
