Beyond asada fries: El Tacoson brings a traditional Sonoran papa asada to Tucson

For Tucson residents looking for something beyond the familiar plate of carne asada fries, El Tacoson is serving a Sonoran take on the same broad combination of potatoes, grilled beef, cheese and chile. The food truck, located across from the rodeo grounds, has made papa asada one of its top-selling dishes. The meal begins with a baked potato rather than french fries, then adds cream, butter, grilled chuck steak, cheese and green chile. For customers who know carne asada fries, the dish provides a different way to experience flavors that are already popular on both sides of the border.

Papa asada is a traditional dish associated with the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora and Sinaloa. Its ingredients may sound familiar to Tucson diners, particularly those accustomed to carne asada fries, but the preparation gives the dish its own identity. At El Tacoson, the potato is baked and mixed with cream and butter before the grilled beef and toppings are added. That base creates a richer, softer dish than fries, while the chuck steak, melted cheese and green chile keep the flavors connected to the grilled meat and chile combination many local customers already recognize.

Inside the truck, Alejandro Leyva works the grill, preparing beef for tacos, salsa, burritos and other traditional offerings. Papa asada is part of a broader menu that El Tacoson describes as centered on typical Sonoran food. Rather than treating the potato dish as an isolated specialty, the food truck presents it alongside familiar Mexican street food and other traditional plates. The grill is therefore central to more than one menu item, with the same focus on prepared beef and regional flavors extending across tacos, burritos and the papa asada.

Leyva said the dish has become one of El Tacoson’s strongest sellers, and that customers have embraced it. The response matters because papa asada occupies a space between a recognizable Tucson favorite and a less familiar regional tradition. Diners may arrive knowing carne asada fries, then encounter a dish built around a baked potato and Sonoran preparation. For people who already know papa asada, El Tacoson offers a taste connected to home. For others, it provides an introduction to a food that may have been overshadowed by the more Americanized fries version.

That distinction is part of El Tacoson’s purpose in Tucson. Leyva said the business was created because people in the city enjoy Sonoran food, leading the owners to establish a taco stand that could bring typical flavors from the region to local customers. The truck’s location across from the rodeo grounds puts that regional cooking in a familiar Tucson setting, where residents and visitors can find it alongside the city’s broader food scene. Its menu reflects a connection between Tucson and northern Mexico, especially through dishes that carry traditions across the border.

The relationship between Tucson and Sonoran food is especially visible in the ingredients featured at El Tacoson. Grilled beef, green chile and cheese are not presented as unusual additions, but as parts of a meal that draws on the cooking traditions of northwestern Mexico. The baked potato changes the format without removing those familiar flavors. In that sense, papa asada helps show how a dish can be adapted to local tastes while still pointing back to its regional origins. The result is not simply another order of fries, but a traditional Sonoran dish with a distinct foundation.

El Tacoson’s menu also offers a reminder that foods commonly grouped together in Tucson can have different histories. Carne asada fries may be the better-known Americanized version of meat, cheese, chile and potatoes, while papa asada preserves a different approach rooted in Sonora and Sinaloa. At the food truck, that difference can be tasted in the potato itself, which is baked, softened with cream and butter, and topped with steak rather than replaced by fried strips. The familiar ingredients become a way to explore the regional dish behind a similar combination.

For Tucson diners, the papa asada is now one of El Tacoson’s central offerings, not a side note to its tacos or burritos. The truck continues to serve traditional plates while giving the baked potato dish a prominent place on its menu. Leyva said people have fallen in love with it, making the meal a successful example of the food truck’s effort to bring Sonoran flavors to the city. Whether it is a taste of home for someone from Sonora or a first encounter with the dish for another Tucson customer, papa asada offers a local alternative to the familiar asada fries.