14 Common Mistakes Everyone Makes When Cooking Tacos

It's hard to find folks who don't like tacos — but it's even harder to find folks who make them correctly every time. For such a simple-looking food, the humble taco is an item that's very prone to being made incorrectly. Throughout this popular Mexican food's history, people have been using the wrong fillings, tortillas, and flavors.

One of the main challenges with tacos is how compact they are: Their main selling point, which is that they're a food that offers a lot of flavor in a tiny package, is also their main stumbling block. Too often, people overfill their tacos, making what should be a small, handheld item into something unwieldy and clunky. Elsewhere, people use the wrong flavors entirely, or prepare their ingredients incorrectly, leaving their tacos underpowered, or with taste clashes that can't be rectified. An opposite issue can occur when people try to do too much with their tacos' flavors, putting in over-complicated versions of dishes that should be simple, leaving you with a handful of food that's just too intense. Luckily, with our top tips, you'll never make these mistakes again.

Tacos are all about balance. This is, unfortunately, something a lot of people have yet to learn — and this lack of understanding leads to countless people overfilling their tacos. This cardinal sin is the quickest way to ruin your hard work, as you'll find that the moment you bite into your taco, the toppings will spill out onto your hand and your plate.

The main thing to remember is that you should never add more than your tortilla can take, and to be as minimal as possible. Tacos fill up quickly, and you'll want to ensure you can fold your taco around your fillings completely, without them spilling out. One way to nail this is by making a "test taco," working with set measurements for each ingredient and seeing how it goes. If this test taco feels too full, reduce the ingredients you're putting into each one, and consider making a larger number of smaller tacos. Don't be tempted to leave certain ingredients out, though, as the key to an excellent taco is having an abundance of different flavors in one bite.

When to use a hard shell is one of the biggest questions novice chefs have when making tacos. If you want a hard shell, you should feel at liberty to use one — as long as you don't buy a premade one. While taco purists might turn their noses up at hard shells, they provide a deliciously crunchy flavor and a texture contrast to your soft ingredients. Granted, they may be impractical and less pliable, but they're fun.

The issue is that premade hard shells don't taste great. Too many of them have a flat, artificial flavor, which can ruin the hard work you've put into your fillings. They can also be too thin, meaning they shatter in your hands. So, if you want something crunchy, you should make your own crispy taco shells in the microwave. You just have to bend your tortillas around a round object, like a mug, and microwave them for a minute. Your tortillas will crisp up nicely. This is a great way to avoid using additional fat when making hard-shell tacos, and will give you a thick, sturdy, crunchy vessel.

Onions are everywhere in tacos. Not only are these vegetables used as ingredients in salsa and guacamole, but they're also used as a topping in themselves, often scattered over the meat to give the tacos a bright flavor and moreish crunch. If you're using yellow onions, though, you may be inadvertently ruining your meal. Yellow onions are commonplace in American cooking, but when raw (as they're often used on tacos) they can have a complex, somewhat overwhelming flavor. When cooked, they tend to turn gently sweet.

Instead, try to find white onions. White onions are the allium of choice in Mexican cooking, and they have a direct, clean flavor, which gives your food a slight astringency without overpowering things. Remember that yellow and white onions look very similar, particularly when they're peeled, so pay attention to their color. Yellow onions have a slightly brown, paper skin, and a gentle golden tinge to the edible part of the vegetable. White onions, on the other hand, will be white throughout, including on their exterior.

Tacos are a pretty versatile food, and you can place lots of ingredients inside them and still have them taste good. There are some ingredients, however, that just don't belong in tacos – or in Mexican cuisine in general. Cumin, for example, is a common spice that makes its way into tacos that shouldn't be there in the first place. It's not that cumin isn't present in Mexican cooking, but it's used far more sparingly than Americanized versions of the same recipes would have you believe. While it has a subtle flavor when mixed with other spices, too much of it can be overwhelming, and ruin the taste dynamics of your meal, so use it very sparingly.

Another ingredient you should watch out for is paprika. Again, paprika isn't absent from Mexican cuisine, but it can find its way into some recipes where it really shouldn't be used, like in guacamole or pico de gallo. When you add paprika to these foods, it takes away from all their freshness and gives them an unnecessarily spicy flavor that ruins them. Instead, use only fresh ingredients in your toppings, and save your paprika for your marinades.

For many people, cheese is the most important part of a taco. However, those people likely aren't following traditional recipes, or consuming tacos the way they were meant to be eaten. While mountains of cheese have become commonplace in American or Tex-Mex taco recipes, in traditional Mexican tacos, cheese doesn't feature at all. The focus is instead on the taco's fresh and zippy flavors, which come from the proteins, vegetables, and salsa. If cheese does feature, it's added to bring everything together and to add a touch of creaminess that balances the heat.

So, steer clear of covering your taco in cheese — not only will it distract from your other flavors, but it's not the traditional way. Having said this, adding cheese to your taco is a matter of personal preference, and if you want to throw some in, go for it. Just be mindful of how it might affect your other flavors. You should also remember that you can vary the type of cheese you use. Rather than sticking cheddar or mozzarella on your taco, go for cotija, a crumbly Mexican cheese that tastes like feta.

There's a reason why tacos are often served with a wedge of lime — and it's not just for appearances. Lime is one of the most important flavors in Mexican cuisine, and it adds a much-needed acidity to countless dishes, including tacos. You'll often find a lime wedge station at taco bars, and lime juice is used in guacamole, pico de gallo, other salsas, and meat marinades.

Make sure you're not skipping that lime wedge station, though. Lime juice has a slightly different flavor impact when it's squeezed over tacos instead of added to its core ingredients and hitting your food with a spritz before eating it will make all the difference. When you add fresh lime juice to food, it intensifies the flavors instantly, giving it a citrusy brightness that makes everything taste better. It also adds a pop of moisture, making your taco juicier and easier to eat. As everything is about balance when it comes to tacos, though, make sure you don't add too much fresh lime juice. You don't want to flood your taco with acidic liquid and make it unpleasant to eat, or risk altering the flavors produced by your hard work.

If you've ever wondered why tacos from a street food truck come with two tortillas layered on top of each other, it's not just because it looks good. Using two tortillas helps vendors give their food a little extra protection, and prevents the fillings from leaking everywhere if one of the tortillas splits. The second tortilla also gives you something a little more solid and concrete to hold onto and makes your meal that extra bit of filling. As a bonus, it also gives you an extra piece of bread to mop up any delicious juices that spill into your food container.

Somehow, though, this practice hasn't translated to homemade tacos — and we think that's a huge shame. Using two tortillas when making your tacos at home gives your food extra substance, costs very little, and requires virtually no effort. It's a particularly good idea if you're serving your tacos outside or at an event where people are standing up and walking around, to give them that extra sense of security in their food. It also allows you to add a little extra into each taco without fear of them splitting, and that can only be a good thing, right?