You can make tacos any day of the week

only lessens the load in a pleasurable way but also allows you to get your kids excited about meal preparation, Ms. Jinich says, while managing conflicting tastes and needs.

She should know. Like so many of us, the Mexico Cityborn chef is currently on lockdown in her Bethesda, Md., home with her three sons and husband, and “it’s kind of crazy,” she admits.

“But it’s all good though,” she quickly adds, even if having everyone underfoot blurs the lines between work and home.

While hard and soft-shell tacos have been dished up at home for years — Old El Paso introduced its line of Mexican meals in American supermarkets in the late 1960s — it’s only in the last couple of decades that the humble tortilla has reached rock star status.

A lot has to do with sourcing. Twenty years ago, Ms. Jinich says, you couldn’t find all of the necessary ingredients for an authentic taco unless you had access to a Mexican grocery. “But that doesn’t apply anymore,” she says, because there are so many more Mexican immigrants and communities across the U.S., along with shops and markets that carry their favorite ingredients.

Here in Pittsburgh, Hispanic food stores such as Reyna Foods on Penn Avenue in the Strip District and Las Palmas, which has locations in Oakland and Brookline, offer a variety of products for cooking at home.

There’s also an increased awareness and respect for authentic Mexican food, she says, along with a hunger and appetite for eating it whenever, and wherever, you can.

“People really want to learn how to make it,” she says.

But let’s be clear. She’s not talking about the crunchy, ground beef-filled Taco Belltype tacos (those are absolutely “terrible” in terms of taste and authenticity, she says), but the good ones made with fresh corn or flour tortillas, with fillings like chicken tinga, carnitas, crispy potatoes, chorizo and charro beans, and garnished with a variety of toppings that include fresh salsa, chopped white onion, cilantro and guacamole.

“You put everything on the table, and then there’s a feast,” she says.

Flour tortillas are especially easy to make, requiring just four pantry ingredients — flour, salt, vegetable shortening or lard, and water — plus a rolling pin and a hot cast iron or heavy nonstick skillet. With a bit of practice, most home cooks can turn their kitchen into a tortilleria, fashioning freshly made corn tortillas out of masa flour, salt and water.

While flour tortillas rule in Northern Mexico, Ms. Jinich is a bigger fan of the corn tortillas she grew up eating in Mexico City.

Whichever you prefer, there are some unwritten rules about what you can stuff in them. For instance, you would not eat chicken tinga, a spicy shredded chicken dish, in a flour tortilla because the sauce would seep through and make it too messy. Tradition also calls for tacos el pastor to be served in a corn shell, with a cilantro and onion garnish.

“But that doesn’t mean rules aren’t meant to be broken,” she says.

Well, except for one: You would never, ever see a taco stuffed with American cheese.

She has other taco tips. Always soften the taco shell individually on a hot griddle or pan until it’s lightly toasted or it will break when you try to fold it. But steer away from the microwave, because heating tortillas in one will make them mushy and stick together.

Also, be sure to serve your salsas and other toppings at room temperature. If they’re straight from the fridge, you’ll get a flash of cold when you bite into the shell, “and there’s nothing worse than a cold taco,” Ms. Jinich says.

Pickled onion, raw white onion, avocado, cilantro, fresh pico de gallo, hot sauces and sliced radish are the other additions. If you like cheese, and want to expand your horizon past grated Monterey Jack or cheddar, opt for a Mexican variety like Oaxaca, Cotija or Anejo Enchilado.

Whatever you choose, don’t be afraid to experiment.

“Tacos are a friendly, accessible dish,” says Ms. Jinich, which is why making them always feels like a celebration. “You’re making something that is happy and special.”