Salbutes
Photo: Sharon Hahn Darlin · CC BY 2.0

Salbutes is a signature dish of Mexico; we have verified places to eat it in Cancún and Mérida.

Salbutes · Cancún

Salbutes are puffed, fried corn tortillas with no filling inside, topped with lettuce, tomato, pickled red onion, shredded turkey or chicken and avocado, with habanero salsa on the side.

The salbut takes its name from Yucatec Maya: sáal buutʼ, roughly light and stuffed. It is a Yucatán Peninsula dish of a corn tortilla fried in oil or, preferably, lard until it puffs a little and stays soft, then topped with lettuce, tomato, pickled onion, shredded turkey or chicken and avocado. Unlike the panucho it has no beans inside. Cooks also top it with cochinita pibil, relleno negro or chicken in escabeche. Salbutes are sold in the evening at panucherías, and in Cancún they are one of the plates the Mercado 23 fondas cook.

Where to eat in Cancún:

Where to eat Salbutes in Cancún: the editor picks

Salbutes · Mérida

Salbutes are lighter, unfilled cousins of panuchos: puffed and fried corn tortillas topped with shredded turkey, lettuce, tomato, avocado and pickled red onion.

Salbutes share roots with panuchos in early-1900s Yucatán market cookery. Where panuchos hide refried beans inside the fried tortilla pocket, salbutes are open-faced and lighter, sold as a quick breakfast or street snack at peninsula markets. The masa is patted thicker than a tortilla and fried until it puffs slightly; toppings are turkey or shredded chicken, pickled red onion, avocado, lettuce and tomato. Mercado de Santa Ana morning puestos and Lonchería El Recreo on Calle 62 are the canonical street counters in Mérida centro, selling salbutes from 7am until they run out by mid-morning. La Chaya Maya runs the reference sit-down version.

Where to eat in Mérida:

Where to eat Salbutes in Mérida: the editor picks

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