Salsa Doña Is the Sauce Behind a Breakfast Taco Dynasty

Tacodeli's distinctive salsa has many imitators, but Austinites know the real thing when they taste it.

Breakfast tacos are a superior breakfast item. Part of it is their size, because I love that you can eat two (or three) of them for breakfast instead of just one and still not need to lie horizontally afterwards. They are warm blankets wrapped in foil, endlessly portable, versatile, comforting, and always, always delicious — especially when they're topped with Salsa Doña.

It’s my opinion that the salsa is what makes a breakfast taco. And I’ll even go as far as to say that your breakfast taco doesn’t have Salsa Doña (or some variation on it), I’m not eating it. OK, I’ll definitely, 100%, without fail, still eat it. But the whole time, I’ll be thinking about the missing sauce.

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You might think the popularity and magic of the breakfast taco has something to do with the tortilla, but it really doesn’t. It should be fresh-made flour, but there are ways to make a soggy tortilla suffice. The filling also isn’t what makes it, although the debate over whether one should order migas (scrambled eggs with peppers and tortilla chips that are still crunchy), or a classic bacon and egg, or even a simple bean and cheese is always fun to have. All of these components can be covered up — or enhanced — by the sauce. And Salsa Doña is the sauce behind a breakfast taco dynasty.

Austin, Texas, where I lived for several years, runs on them. They are sold at coffee shops, bars, gas stations, neighborhood markets and quite frankly, it is difficult to not eat one for breakfast. But the most recognizable breakfast taco spot — and I mean this in the sense that they have an airport location and 11 other locations sprawling through the state — is Tacodeli.

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While breakfast tacos existed in Austin prior, things really got going sauce-wise around 1999. Roberto Espinosa, founder of Tacodeli, which only had one location at the time, told me that he decided to host a salsa making contest among his staff to boost morale. Doña Bertha Gonzalez, who had a taco stand in Veracruz before working as a line cook at Tacodeli, brought in her salsa in (and this is important) a sour cream container.

Espinosa immediately knew by looking at it that it was something different. Its seafoam green color was rich, the sauce wasn’t drippy, but was instead thick, velvety, and it only tasted better than it looked. It was creamy (remember the sour cream container she brought it in?), thick enough that it wouldn’t squirt out from the end of the taco, and moist enough to fit into all of the nooks and crannies of the eggs and cheese. Plus, the heat built. It was a sneaky kind of heat, and once it got on a roll, it didn’t stop.

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And it still hasn’t. Despite Tacodeli having a tightly closed fist over the Salsa Doña recipe, variations started popping up around town. It’s at Veracruz, Torchy’s, Jo’s, and even at my favorite place that I am in all honesty not going to disclose here because I hate lines.  Even 2023 F&W Best New Chef Edgar Rico has one at Nixta Taqueria, although he tells me he uses habaneros because he likes a little more heat.

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It’s everywhere, as omnipresent as the tacos themselves. Espinosa isn’t upset. “Imitation is the highest form of flattery,” he tells me over the phone. Plus, everyone in Austin knows the real Doña when they taste it.

If you’re wondering if you really have to get the real Doña, I personally believe you should make every attempt to get your hands on some. But it’s not the end of the world if you don’t. The thing about breakfast tacos is that the best tacos are always the ones closest to you. Scratch that. They’re the ones closest to you that have something close to Salsa Doña. It doesn’t have to be the real thing. But if it is, that's even better.

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