How To Cook Tripas: Complete Guide & Awesome Recipes

“Tripas” is a Spanish word – and it translates to “small intestines,” in English. To be more specific, we are talking about cow’s small intestines here.

Tripas can refer to cow’s intestines (when raw) and to a dish (when cooked). Tripas dishes are very popular in Mexican and Asian cuisines – but people from other countries are already catching on.

If you are into exotic dishes, you will probably like Tripas. However, it’s important to understand that as intestines, Tripas need to be cleaned really well. The resulting dishes using Tripas as the main ingredient will actually depend on how well the intestines were cleaned and if they’re cooked properly.

In this post, I will show you how to cook Tripas. You see, Tripas dishes are really simple to prepare – you just need to know what you’re doing. Read on and you will know the many different ways on how to cook dishes using Tripas.

4 Ways to Cook Tripas

Method #1 – Fried Crispy Tripas Over the Stove

Frying is always an easy way to cook food – Tripas included. For such a recipe, you will need to boil and fry the intestines to achieve your goal (Crispy Tripas). Follow these steps:

Note: The Tripas are already cooked when they turn golden brown. At this point, their insides are still moist and soft. Cooking the food further will result in crunchier Tripas that are also dry and crispy inside.

Read Also: The Best Stove for Cooking Tripas

Method #2 – Grilled Crispy Tripas Over Grill or Open Fire

If you’re going to serve crispy Tripas, cooking the intestines over the grill (open fire is another option) would result in a delicious dish. Think barbecue and camping when you want to cook Tripas this way. Here are the steps to grilling Tripas:

Method #3 – Cook Tripas in a Disco

Cooking in a disco is actually one of the traditional ways of cooking Tripas. A disco is a disc-like cooking device that resembles a wok. Because of its design (and because Tripas have unpleasant smell), a disco is usually set up outside the house (in the backyard). Here’s a list of what you should do:

Method #4 – Cooking Tripas in the Oven

When you cook Tripas in the oven, you can skip the standard steps of having to boil the intestines to cook them. This dish will take a long time to cook in the oven (about 5 hours), but it’s a handsfree way to do it (the oven does most of the work for you). Here are the steps involved in cooking Tripas in the oven:

How to Cle​an Tripas

Since Tripas need to be cleaned thoroughly before you can cook and eat it, it’s best to do the cleaning part outdoors. This is especially true if you are making a lot of Tripas (they will shrink when cooked) as it can be really messy to clean a lot of intestines inside the house.

Top 3 Popular Tripas Dishes and Recipes

Top 1 – Tacos

Tripas dishes are really popular as taco fillings. And of course, you can also use tortilla in place of taco shells. The steps to making Tripas for tacos are as follows:

Top 2 – Tripas with Guacamole

You already know that you can cook Tripas in many different ways, right? Well, know that Tripas dishes can be perfectly combined with Guacamole (an avocado-based spread or dip or salad). To make a Guacamole recipe, you need to combine the following ingredients:

Tripas can also be partnered with Pico de Gallo (a tomato-based salsa) – that’s why it’s important to learn how to prepare this recipe, too. To make Pico de Gallo, the following ingredients need to be combined:

• Tomatoes
• Cilantro
• Jalapeno peppers
• Lime juice
• Salt and pepper (to taste)

I am really glad you came here – because now you know how to clean, prepare and cook Tripas. As a taco filling, you can use it to substitute for the traditional fillings you have grown accustomed to (now you have another option). You can also partner Tripas up with spreads and dips (like guacamole) and salsa recipes (like Pico de Gallo).

If you are now fond of eating Tripas, do let me know in the comment section below. Also, share this post with your friends and introduce them to this exotic dish.