State Fair of Texas, 2026 Big Tex Choice Awards Savory Finalist
A two step has two moves. Quick, quick, slow, slow.
This entry has two tacos. Sweet, then smoke.
Neither one dances around the other.
What This Thing Actually Is
Most taco entries at the Fair commit to one flavor and run it hard. Dickel’s Smokehouse built two completely different tacos and put them on the same plate as a single entry.
Taco one: a fire-roasted jalapeno stuffed with pineapple pork sausage and melted mozzarella, tucked into a blue corn tortilla charred for flavor.
Taco two: sliced brisket wrapped around a roasted jalapeno, more mozzarella, served in a yellow corn tortilla, topped with crisp purple pickled onion and a drizzle of barbecue sauce or a house hot sauce called Lone Star Habanero Fuego.
One taco tastes like a luau. The other tastes like a smokehouse. Somebody decided you shouldn’t have to pick.
The Part That’s Actually Funny
Barbecue brisket and pineapple pork sausage don’t usually show up on the same plate. They’re not enemies, they just run in different circles: one’s a backyard smoker food, the other leans tropical.
This entry stapled them together and called it a matched set. Blue corn next to yellow corn. Sweet next to smoke. A two step where each partner is doing a completely different routine and somehow it’s still one dance.
It didn’t win Best Taste, Savory this year. Burger Chop Tater Tacos took that one.
Losing to a cheeseburger wearing a tater tot costume is not exactly a loss anybody should feel bad about.
Fifteen dishes made the 2026 savory, sweet, and sipper finals out of a record 77 entries from 46 concessionaires. Getting a seat at that table already means judges thought this was one of the better ideas at the Fair.
Why Texas Keeps Doing This
Everything is bigger in Texas, and apparently everything gets a second option too.
One taco, one flavor, is the easy path. This entry doubled the workload on purpose: build two distinct tacos, sell them as a set, bet that fairgoers would rather choose both than pick a side.
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