Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Tlayuda Oaxaqueña
A large crisp corn tortilla spread with beans and stringy Oaxaca cheese, folded over grilled meat and salsa.
Mexican · medium · serves 4
prep 20 min · cook 20 min
~1228 cal · 78g protein · 80g carbs · 67g fat · 22g fiber · 7g sugars · 33g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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The tlayuda is Oaxaca's great street food, sometimes called a Mexican pizza though it is really its own thing. It starts with a tlayuda, an oversized corn tortilla the width of a dinner plate, cooked on a comal until it dries and crisps at the edges.
It is smeared with asiento, the unrefined pork lard from the bottom of the carnitas pot, then a layer of soft refried black beans, shredded Oaxaca string cheese (quesillo), cabbage, and avocado. Draped over grilled tasajo beef or chorizo, it is folded in half and charred over coals.
Sold late into the night from market stalls in Oaxaca City, it is eaten folded like a giant taco or open like a tostada. Smoky, crunchy, and generous, it is the flavour of an Oaxacan evening.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, egg- and nut-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
4 large corn tlayuda tortillas
2 cups refried black beans
2 cups Oaxaca string cheese (quesillo), shredded
Hard to find? 2 cups asadero, or fresh mozzarella pulled into strands - same stretched-curd family, so the melt is right; what you lose is the wound ribbon, which is why quesillo tears into layers by hand before it ever reaches the heat
12 oz grilled beef (tasajo) or chorizo, sliced
2 cups cabbage, finely shredded
2 avocado, sliced
1 cup salsa roja
2 tbsp asiento (unrefined pork lard)
Hard to find? 2 tbsp lard with a spoonful of the browned scrapings from a pan of fried pork - asiento is what settles at the bottom of the carnitas pot, so it carries browned meat with it; plain white lard gives you the fat but none of the flavour that makes a tlayuda taste of Oaxaca
Instructions
1
Warm each large tortilla on a dry comal or griddle until it starts to crisp and blister.
2
Spread with a thin layer of lard or oil, then the warm refried beans, right to the edges.
3
Scatter over the cheese and cabbage, then lay on the grilled meat and avocado.
✎ Chef’s note
Add the cheese while the tortilla is still on the heat so it half-melts into the beans and helps hold everything together.
4
Fold in half and press on the griddle until crisp and the cheese melts, then open, spoon on salsa, and serve.
Oaxaca City street tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Oaxaca. The ingredients are unusually specific to the ground. Chilhuacle chillies, grown almost entirely within Oaxaca, give mole negro its colour; hoja santa leaves scent the green one; and short, fat bolita corn is ground both for tortillas and for tejate, a cold maize and cacao drink whipped by hand until it foams.
🗺️
Mexico. Chillies are treated as a vocabulary rather than a heat setting, with the same pod carrying one name fresh and another dried, poblano becoming ancho and jalapeno becoming chipotle, each toasted before it is ground. The comal, a flat unglazed griddle, is the busiest surface in the kitchen, used in turn for tortillas, chillies, tomatoes and whole cloves of garlic.
🌍
North America. The most consequential technique on this continent is nixtamalisation, cooking maize with lime or wood ash. It loosens the skins, makes the dough that becomes tortillas and tamales, and frees up niacin the body cannot otherwise absorb, which is why maize spread around the world without the technique and took pellagra with it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Mexico
Cochinita PibilPork marinated blaze-orange in achiote and sour orange, wrapped in banana leaves and roasted until it shreds itself.
EnfrijoladasCorn tortillas bathed in silky black-bean sauce, folded and finished with cheese, crema, and onion.
BirriaJalisco’s chile-marinated slow braise, served as a rich consomé with tortillas, or griddled into dripping quesabirria tacos.
Browse all Mexico recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Griddle or flat pan.
Storing it: Best straight off the heat. Leftovers keep 2 to 3 days refrigerated and reheat well in a hot oven rather than the microwave.
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Pozole VerdeDinner
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Frequently asked questions
What is Tlayuda Oaxaqueña?
A large crisp corn tortilla spread with beans and stringy Oaxaca cheese, folded over grilled meat and salsa.
Where does Tlayuda Oaxaqueña come from?
Tlayuda Oaxaqueña is a Mexican dish from Oaxaca, Mexico.
Can Tlayuda Oaxaqueña be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Tlayuda Oaxaqueña recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Tlayuda Oaxaqueña safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Tlayuda Oaxaqueña take to make?
About 40 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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