Let Backyard Taco Be a Part of Any and All of Your Catering Needs

We’ve got you covered in all your Mexcellent, Mexican Catering Needs via any of our six East Valley locations.

Why Did Backyard Taco Start Catering?

It all goes back to what got Backyard Taco started over a decade ago – Ruben and Marisela cooking up phenomenal tacos al carbon in their backyard – and others, when requested! That is how the three families met; the Alvarez family was catering an event for Tyler Robison where Steve Beck attended and offered to find them a brick-and-mortar restaurant location. Catering is what started the destiny that would be Backyard Taco becoming the best tacos in all the respective cities we are located in: Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, and Queen Creek, Arizona. We’ve also been voted Best of the East Valley for many years.

All three families love the opportunity to make occasions as special as possible, and what is more special than the most Mexcellent Tacos al carbon? Nothing, in our opinion. The mesquite taste is not easily forgotten and is often requested for events of all sizes.

The Most Mexcellent Catering Option There Is: The Taco Bar

Backyard Taco offers a variety of catering options to fit everyone’s needs. From our a la carte options to a full taco bar, we’ve got you covered.

The most popular option will come as no surprise – the Mexcellent Taco Bar. It comes with three tacos per person, beans, rice, chips and our secret chip salsa portioned out to your headcount.

Take your pick from any of our four delicious carnes al carbon; the pollo asada (chicken marinated in achiote and citrus), the al pastor (pork marinated with chilies, orange, and pineapple mixed in), the birria (shredded beef slow-cooked in guajillo and ancho chilies) and our most popular, carne asada, steak marinated in sea salt and spices so secret we just can’t tell you. Then, based on the meat, we provide you with taco toppings: cabbage and onion for pollo, carne asada or cilantro, and onion for birria and al pastor.

You also get the option to choose between corn and flour tortillas or a combination of the two with your taco bar. This allows for variety and flexibility for your guests, whether due to preference or even a gluten allergy – Backyard Taco catering has got you covered. Even for vegetarians, though they cannot have our carne al carbon, if you ask for a serving of whole pinto beans instead of our refried we will happily oblige and make sure it is available for you and your guests.

As an added flavor bonus, with every taco bar, you get asada veggies – grilled onions and jalapenos, made fresh for your catering order. You can use them as the perfect snack or even toppings to your tacos al carbon. Most of the grilled jalapenos are mild, but there will be one that sneaks up on your guests with a bit more heat than expected – but that’s okay because the guacamole from our salsa bar will help cool their mouths down. The blended avocado with lime and spices will be sure to both appease and cool down your tastebuds alike.

Speaking of our freshly made guacamole, that is not the only sauce you receive when you order Backyard Taco catering. When you order the Mexcellence Taco Bar, you also get a build-your-own salsa bar for your guests, perfectly portioned to your headcount, with a variety of spice levels for those who say they love heat and those who can handle the heat as well.

The mildest salsa option we have is our pico de gallo, a perfect mixture of chopped tomatoes, chilies, cilantro, and lime juice. Next comes the tatemada sauce, where the tomatoes and serrano chilies are roasted over the mesquite logs before being blended together. The Jalapeno Salsa and Birria Salsa are our two hottest options, with their different chiles: jalapeno and serrano for the jalapeno salsa and japones and arbol for the birria, boiled and blended together, packing more than enough heat to go around. You get less of these two salsas from us due to their heat level – but you will always have more than enough to go around for your guests!

And as if that list wasn’t long enough, there is more to our salsa bar than just these amazing sauces. Freshly cut cucumbers, limes and radishes are available as the perfect flavor enhancers and sides to your tacos al carbon. Then last, but certainly not least, our freshly pickled onions offer the perfect tang and crunch to top any and all of our mesquite grilled meat options.

Second, but Certainly Not Because of Lack of Flavor: The Burrito Trays

Perhaps the perfect accompaniment to any Mexcellent taco bar is our burrito trays. That’s not to say that this isn’t the perfect standalone catering option, either. Not only are burritos one of our most popular options inside the restaurants, but they easily rival tacos when it comes to catering. Like a sandwich and chips, you might order for your employees or guests, but much more flavorful.

Every burrito we have available in the restaurant can be a part of the burrito tray; even better, you can mix and match to offer the perfect variety to your guests. You can choose from the pollo and carne asada, al pastor, and the birria, which all get the perfect layer of beans along with the associated toppings based on the meat selection. As an added bonus, to enhance the flavor of the pollo and carne al carbon, they get a scrumptious scoop of our guacamole and pico de gallo added. Finally, let us not forget the OG, or the classic if you will, so simply and perfectly flavorful – our bean and cheese.

On top of the burritos, you get our chips and secret chips salsa to share amongst your group, leaving everyone full and likely with leftovers for later on in the day. And though they are not immediately included with the burrito trays, you are welcome to ask us for one or two of your favorites from our salsa bar and we will happily pack it up for you to enjoy with your already Mexcellent burrito tray.

We’ve Got Individually Packaged Options, Too: Our Mexcellent Boxed Meals

Whether you’re going with individual boxed meals due to space constraints or because you need a meal to be a quick grab-and-go option, we’ve got what you need – and as an added bonus, you won’t have to worry about controlling the portion sizes for your guests as we take care of that part for you! As long as you order for the proper headcount, each guest will get tacos or a burrito al carbon served with chips and various things to dip them in.

For our boxed meal options, there are three different options and they are all equally as popular. We have our two or three-boxed taco meals, which come with your choice of tortilla, meat, and then a hefty serving of chips with beans and our chip salsa for dipping. Though we typically only offer one meat per box for these online, if you have a special request that you submit via our catering contact form on our website or emailing catering@backyardtaco.com, we will happily do everything we can to give you the perfect individually boxed meal.

The final, but certainly not any less popular, boxed meal option is our Mexcellent burrito boxes. The same savory, overly stuffed burrito you would order at the restaurant is available as a boxed meal option. You can from all five of our burritos, from our birria and carne asada to our pollo asada and al pastor, and then, of course, let us not forget – the classic bean and cheese. To finish up these burrito boxes, we add in a large cup of our secret chip salsa and as many chips as the box will hold – without crushing them, of course.

For any and all of these meals, you also have the option to add on a variety of individually packed items from our salsa bar, like guacamole and jalapeno salsa. We’ll give you more than enough for your headcount, separately packed, so we aren’t taking away from giving you as many chips as we possibly can.

These individually boxed meals are always a hit for any office lunch, or especially when you have us deliver them to your construction or outdoor work site, where the tables and seating are minimal – at least your lunch flavor doesn’t have to be.

We Offer A-La-Carte Catering Items, Too

We offer a variety of a la carte catering items as the perfect add-ons or ways to customize your own group meal as well. A staple on our regular menu as well as our family packs! Each family pack comes with your choice of 1lb of meat as well as 16 tortillas and associated taco toppings. These are perfect for groups who want to add some extra tacos to their taco bar or who may want to forego the sides that come with our taco bar option. You can order as many as you’d like, and by the time you order at least two of our family packs, you’ll be able to order a taste of all four of our meats.

Next comes the trays of beans and rice. Maybe you want to add some sides to your burrito trays, or maybe you just need some extras. You can even order these from our restaurants, and we will happily prepare them for you! We most definitely have guests that order just trays of our beans and rice and make their entree items on their own at home because, well, they are just THAT good. Though the volume of rice and beans may be bigger than what you order on the regular menu, the flavor is just as big and authentic.

Let us not forget what comes next, or perhaps first, the perfect appetizer – our chips and secret chips salsa. We sell our chips by the pound or two and provide you with ample chip salsa for dipping as well. These chips, when warmed, make the best scooping mechanism to retrieve our secret salsa, full of tomatoes, cilantro, and spices. You’ll have to be careful not to fill up on these before you eat your meal – or maybe this is your meal; we don’t judge.

Last but certainly not least is what we like to call our flavor enhancers. As if all the salsa and toppings are not enough – you can add bountiful portions of cheese and sour cream to any of your catering selections to make your meal just that much more Mexcellent. Whether it’s cheese for the beans or sour cream to help cool guests’ mouths down when they had just a bit too much of one of our salsas, these two add-ons give everyone eating the ability to customize their meal just that much more.

Pro tip: We recommend getting the birria taco bar with corn tortillas and adding on cheese to make a copycat of quesabirria tacos in your home or office.

We’ve Got Drinks and Dessert For You, Too

Don’t want to go to the store for bottled water and sodas? We’ve got you there, and even better, there is no minimum or maximum number that you have to purchase. But we wouldn’t be the best Mexican catering around if we didn’t offer you a Mexican staple, the ever so tasty and refreshing Aguas Frescas. We sell them by the gallon but pack them by the half gallon to provide you with the opportunity to get as many flavors as you’d like.

The most popular, which comes as no surprise, is our Horchata option. This cinnamon rice drink is a staple in any authentic Mexican restaurant you’ll find, and we take pride in offering some of the best in Arizona. Then comes Jamaica and Limonada – in no particular order. Jamaica is our hibiscus drink, and the Limonada is the best limeade you will find. All made fresh, each and every day, at all six of our East Valley locations.

When it comes to desserts, we only make one for catering, but we’d like to think we’ve perfected it. Our housemade flan is a staple on our regular and catering menus alike. When you order it as catering, you get an entire flan with a surplus of the caramel flan sauce on the side.. It is the perfect way to end any Mexican meal – or to come back a few hours later because you’re already too full from all of our other delicious catering options.

What Kind of Catering Services Does Backyard Taco Offer?

From preparing your catering order for pickup in the restaurant to delivery with set up on disposable chafing dishes – we’ve got you covered. Not only do we provide the best Mexican catering, but we’d also like to think we provide the best customer service. Whether it’s helping you to your car because you didn’t realize how much food you were getting or setting up your meal in the office break room, we go above and beyond to give you the most Mexcellent experience we can.

We have no problem going the extra mile, and we’d like to think that’s why we get asked to do wedding catering so often. Depending on the happy couple’s needs, we can deliver and set up, host them on one of our beautiful patios, or even go to their location of choice, where we do full on-site catering services. Setting up a flat top to warm up tortillas as we go while serving you from professional chafing dishes with a smile on our faces – you might even catch us dancing and singing along to the music you’re playing because we just enjoy taking care of you and your guests so much.

We Do Everything To A Mexellent Standard

As you can tell – we can go on and on talking about the best Mexican catering in Arizona, but we’d rather show you the next time you have any catering needs. Whether it’s for our Mexcellent taco bar and burrito trays or our individual boxed meals and various a la carte items, we look forward to taking care of you and your guests in the near future.

If you know what you would like to order, you’re welcome to use our online form listed on our catering page, but if you need some help, you are always welcome to call your closest store or email us at catering@backyardtaco.com

‘Cause ain’t no party like a taco al carbon party.