-Hola, Tucson, I am back.

As if I could possibly stay away from the best 23 miles of Mexican food.

My last trip here was a whirlwind culinary tour of tacos, hot dogs, chimichangas, and giant burritos.

But I've come back to break bread with a new friend known to bread enthusiasts as one of the best bakers in America, known to friends as Don.

-Oh, I love this.

-Isn't it fun?

-These fresh-baked experiences, well... -And it's like...mmm.

-[ Chuckles ] -Heaven.

-And I need to know everything about the secrets to Don's success.

So, using Tucson as my gateway, I'm heading south across la frontera to Sonora, Mexico, where miles and miles of wheat fields blanket lush valleys, the source of Don's treasured grains.

In my kitchen... -So pretty!

-...recipes inspired by my cross-border journey into wheat worship.

-Oh, it smells so good!

An irresistible chile rellenos stuffed with picadillo, topped with a rich chili colorado sauce, wrapped in these soft and chubby tortillas gorditas harina.

-Mmm.

Mmm!

-[ Singing in Spanish ] ♪ ♪ -"Pati's Mexican Table" is made possible by... ♪ -La Costeña.

-♪ Avocados from Mexico ♪ -Fud brand cheese with traditional Mexican flavor.

-Stand Together, helping every person rise.

More information at standtogether.org.

-BanCoppel, your recipe for sending money to Mexico.

-Mahatma Rice lets you unite ingredients and flavors.

Mahatma Rice unites.

-Divine Flavor.

-Norson.

-It's almost 9:00 a.m. here in Tucson.

The line is down the block at Barrio Bread, and these die-hards are waiting patiently.

-So, how often do you guys come?

-One a week.

Jalapeño cheddar.

-Ooh!

I saw -- -Cranberry walnut.

-The quality of the flavor, the texture of it.

Chewy inside but it's kind of crunchy outside.

-It's not just the bread, it's the producer.

He's in love with his work, and you can taste it.

-Inside, our star of the moment is working tirelessly to get his shelves stocked for that hungry crowd.

It's a daily ritual that begins way before any of us get there.

But today, he's letting us interrupt.

We have Don Guerra.

First of all, this is very funny, but I've always called you Don Guerra... -Mm-hmm.

-...as in "Don" like as in "mister..." -Right.

-...then I realized that your name is Don.

-It is.

[ Laughs ] -As in Don.

-Mexican-Irish.

-Oh, really?

I love that combination.

-Whether you call him Don or Don, you're talking to quite simply one of America's best bakers.

-Ah.

-Ohh.

Spongy on the inside... -Mm.

-...and so crusty on the outside!

-Yeah, that's it.

Flour, water, salt, but inside flour, water, salt, you have texture.

-[ Mmm'ing ] -Crispy outside but tender inside.

So, you taste the soil.

You taste what grows.

And that's special to me.

-After working for years as an elementary school teacher, Don decided to give it up in pursuit of his lifelong passion.

He started Barrio Bakery out of his garage, selling at farmers markets or out of the trunk of his car.

-So look at this one.

-Mmm.

Einkorn.

First wheat to domesticate.

-Mm!

-Ancient grain bread.

-Look at all the bubbles.

-A nice score in the bread to make it look rustic and beautiful.

-Tell me about the grain.

-This dates back thousands of years.

-Can I try this one?

-What you get is an amazing flavor.

-Okay, if you get a microphone and a camera guy, you can come into Barrio Bread and just start breaking apart bread and eating them.

-I could do this all day, but I don't think his biggest fans would love that.

-Can we all Don Guerra a round of applause.

-Aww, thank you.

Aww.

[ Cheers and applause ] -This is warming my heart, right here, all these people.

-But guys, like we need a louder -- like, all the line, round of applause!

Ready?

One, two, three.

[ Cheers and applause ] So, tell me, what do you want?

-A heritage... -Sourdough.

-This is wonderful.

-As the last loaves leave the shelves, Don's nice enough to show me a few of his secrets.

-This is some white Sonoran wheat, but look at the beauty of this.

-Yeah!

And so, you work with farmers in Sonora that grow these for you?

-I do.

-One of the keys to Don's success is his use of heritage grains.

-What do you love about the white Sonoran wheat?

-It has amazing flavor.

-Heritage grains are basically Asian grains that haven't been altered through modern agricultural methods.

Don gets his locally from the Tucson area and south of the border in Sonora, Mexico.

-What bread are we making now?

-Let's make this bread I make, a Pan de Kino.

This is some sourdough culture.

You can smell a little bit.

-Yes.

-So it has sort of a slight acidity... -Oh, my gosh, yeah.

-...but also sweet, nice bubbles on top.

So this is the magic.

This is the life force of the bakery.

Get in there.

-[ Speaking Spanish ] -Yeah, doesn't it feel so good on the hands?

-Ohh, this is so delicious!

-We're gonna add now 700 grams of the white Sonoran wheat.

Just like a kid in the mud, right?

-I know.

This is super fun.

-It's the best texture ever.

-You're like, "Stop playing, Pati."

-No, you keep playing.

You keep playing.

-Oh, wow.

-That's starting to develop.

-Oh, that's beautiful!

-After resting overnight, it's ready for the oven.

-Now, my question is... [whispering] do you have butter?

[ Laughter ] -Yeah.

-Mmm.

-Mmm!

-Most simple of foods.

And the most delicious, right?

-It is soaking that creamy butter.

And it's like...mmm.

-[ Chuckles ] -Heaven.

-As much as I love spending time in Don's bakery, we're in beautiful Tucson.

Where else can you experience this scenery?

So, we grabbed as much bread as we could and invited a few local friends to a picnic in the desert.

-He's a good cook.

-Hey, Don, here you go.

-Ay, this is great.

-Yay!

-Philippe, you're Mexican, but you live here in Arizona.

And here with the food and with the culture, it's such a shared experience.

How do you live that?

-It's amazing.

When you talk to individuals that are from this area, they feel that you're from both countries and both states.

And again, we share the desert, we share this landscape, but the culture, the people -- I mean, it's something fascinating.

One of the best samples is through food.

And the bread that you're making, that it's again those grains going back and forward.

-The combination, you know -- everything coming together, sitting at the same table, right?

It's experience.

-That's amazing.

-Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-And it's like you belong here.

-You belong here.

-There's this constant, like, ebb and flow and enriching from one side to the other, which is a beautiful thing and a tasty thing.

Salud.

-Salud, salud.

-Salud, salud.

-[ Speaks Spanish ] -Today we're going to super indulge.

We're going to make some over-stuffed chile rellenos, the tastiest colorado salsita, and then we're gonna dress all that up inside of one of the most outrageous tacos ever.

You're going to see a dish that makes Sonora and Arizona come together as the unified region that they gastronomically are.

And we're gonna start by making some flour tortillas.

And I know we all know flour tortillas, but I didn't even know flour tortillas until I went to northern Mexico, and then I realized that not only is northern Mexico, like, the country of flour tortillas, but there are flour tortillas of all kinds.

So I'm going to start by making tortillas gorditas.

They're called gorditas not only because they are chubbier than other flour tortillas, but also because they're typically made with a lot of fat.

I'm going to add in here 3 cups and 2/3 of all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, 1 cup and 2 tablespoons of vegetable shortening.

And whenever I add a lot of fat to things, I always give an excuse, like, "Oh, but we're gonna split it up into this many, you know, pieces or servings."

No, let's just be direct and honest and blunt -- This is a lot of fat, but this is one of the reasons why these tortillas are so indulgent and delicious, and they are so worth it.

I'm gonna start breaking the vegetable shortening into the salted flour.

And we're now fully interacting with one of the products that Sonorans are the most proud about, which is their wheat and their wheat flour.

The wheat in Sonora is truly extraordinary.

So, I'm adding what would be a full can of evaporated milk and I'm gonna start adding it little by little.

This makes these tortillas be sweeter and creamier, and, I mean, truly, these tortillas end up being like flattened biscuits.

All flour tortillas are made with flour, a liquid, and fat, but not all flour tortillas are the same because not only do the ratios change, but also which fat and which liquid.

Some are made with beef lard, some with pork lard, some with butter, and some with vegetable shortening.

And you can see how the dough springs back when I push it down.

So, this is what I'm looking for.

I'm gonna let it rest for about 20 to 30 minutes and I'm gonna make myself stop because if I don't cover this bowl I'm just going to keep on doing this because this is so satisfying.

♪ I'm still thinking about Don Guerra and his bread.

Tucson is so lucky to have him.

One of the secrets to his success is his use of Sonoran wheat.

I wanted to see for myself what makes the wheat of Sonora, Mexico, so special.

-Mm-hmm!

-My curiosity led my crew and I south of the border, just outside of Ciudad Obregón, where miles and miles of farms supply Mexico and the U.S. with the same wheat that Don uses in his breads.

In Sonora, wheat is big business, and this is the epicenter.

-How important is wheat to Sonora?

-Sonora is the grain city in the whole country.

This is the main... -Provider of wheat?

-...provider of wheat.

-My new friends Belin and Carlos, who have been farming these fields for decades, were proud to show me their crop.

-We have two kinds of wheat, the durum and the soft -- this is for bread.

-Uh-huh.

-And the durum, it can work for pasta.

-This soft white Sonoran wheat, grown in fields like the one I'm standing in, has become beloved by bakers like Don Guerra for its unique, sweet, almost nutty flavor.

-Each one of these hairs is going to give a wheat grain.

-Yeah.

It's raining.

It's raining.

-[ Chuckles ] Yeah, I know.

So I know the wheat must be so happy because Sonora doesn't have that much rain.

-Yeah, that much rain.

This year -- -I came to visit and it's raining, so I'm gonna come visit often.

-This white Sonoran wheat has truly shaped the culinary landscape here in northern Mexico.

This is Belin's favorite tortilleria.

It's busy every day making thousands of tortillas.

Owner Lupita can barely keep up.

-Growing up in Mexico City, I only knew one kind of tortilla and that's the packaged tortilla in the store.

I come to Sonora, there's like dozens of different kinds of flour tortillas that are all so different, all so delicious.

So I'm gonna find out what makes these tortillas so special that Belin here tells me that they're the best tortillas in the whole state.

Lupita.

-Beatrice has been cooking with Lupita for 20 years, since she opened.

-In there, she's already mixed the vegetable shortening.

-I think I know why I like these tortillas.

These tortillas have a lot more fat.

So it's not beef or pork lard, but it's vegetable shortening, which makes it sweeter.

Look at the pop!

The pop is essential because you have air between the two layers of the tortillas, which makes it very malleable, and it also makes the tortilla be fully cooked inside and out.

Somebody should bottle this smell.

Mmm.

Mmm!

I can feel layers in the tortilla.

So soft and suave and sweet, and with that little bit of the rustic on the edges.

But then the chorizo filling... Aww!

-[ Chuckles ] ♪ Mmm.

Mm-hmm.

For Mexicans, a tortilla and beans wrapped together is an entire meal, but when it's this flour tortilla, and these beans and this chorizo, I mean, it's a feast.

Aww!

[ Laughs ] We have the dough resting to make those really chubby, chubby flour tortillas, and I'm going to stuff the flour tortillas with chile rellenos con picadillo.

So we're gonna make a meat picadillo.

So, I want to start with 2 to 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil, and I'm going to add 1 cup of onion that I already diced.

Picadillo translates to something that is cutely chopped.

3 garlic cloves that I peeled and finely chopped, a pound of ground pork.

And it is so versatile, that it can really play with all of the ingredients that go into a picadillo.

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon of ground allspice, and I'm gonna add 5 whole cloves, 1/2 teaspoon of freshly-ground black pepper, 3/4 teaspoons of salt.

We really want to brown the pork and release its juices like it just did.

1 pound of ripe Roma tomatoes.

And you really want tomatoes that are so ripe and so juicy that they're about to burst when you hold them with your hand, and they're so juicy that they're hard to slice into.

That's what you want.

Olives, 3 tablespoons of capers, and 1/4 cup of slithered almonds, 3 tablespoons of dark raisins, and I'm adding a 1/4 cup of diced pickled jalapeños, or jalapeños en vinagre.

These are going to make the picadillo have a nice vinegary kick.

The tomatoes have completely broken in there and this looks really, really moist.

So, this is ready.

I'm gonna turn this off.

I'm gonna prepare my chiles, and these are the very, very famous chiles verdes from the region of Sonora, Arizona.

We're gonna fire-roast them under the broiler and I'm gonna flip them once in between.

This is gonna be between 6 and 8 minutes.

And you saw how the dough came together, and now it rested, and the dough didn't need to rise 'cause it's not a yeast-based dough.

You just need it to settle.

I'm just pinching some of the dough through my hand like this, and I want balls of about 1 to 1/2 inch.

♪ I'm gonna flip them, but do you see how they're charring?

Another 4 minutes or so.

We have the balls that I tried to make even.

Then people in Sonora rub them with even more fat like I'm doing right now.

You guys, this is really fun.

Just rub fat in your hands.

We're going to cover them with flour.

And we're doing this so that the balls don't stick one with another as they rest.

So, these are perfect.

I'm gonna stick them in a bag so that they will go in a steam bath, and then they're gonna be so easy to peel.

And you have to put them in the bag while they're really, really hot so that you get more steam.

These are gigantic Anaheims, which is perfect.

I'm just gonna let these sit for another 20 minutes or 30 minutes, and this is very important for the dough to settle to make really soft, chubby flour tortillas.

We're doing all of this because we're making chile rellenos for chile rellenos tacos.

And if you have a taco, you need a salsita, so I'm gonna make a salsa roja but with chili colorado.

And this is ridiculously easy, but this salsa is so good, you're gonna want to make it, bottle it, and sell it.

I have 1 pound of tomatoes that I already cooked in this pot, covered with water, with 2 colorado chilies and 2 garlic cloves and cooked until the tomatoes were really mushy, falling apart with the two garlic cloves, the two chili colorados.

And you know your chili colorados because they look like they're guajillos.

Here we have a guajillo, which you know by now, and here we have a colorado, which has a little bit of a darker color.

It's just the guajillo is just as tasty, as pleasant, and as boldly flavored as the colorado, or also known as the New Mexico, but the guajillo tends to be spicier.

I'm going to add 1 teaspoon of salt, like 1/2 teaspoon of freshly-ground black pepper, and I'm going to add a piece of white onion.

And then we're gonna puree this until completely smooth.

And I'm heating my pan over medium to medium-high heat, and I'm adding 1 tablespoon or 2 of oil.

♪ And we're gonna let this cook for 2 to 3 minutes right in here.

Oh, just look at that color.

It is so beautiful!

So beautiful, so beautiful, so beautiful!

And I can already picture the taste 'cause this is what's gonna go in the chile rellenos.

2 to 3 minutes, and I'll turn it off.

My salsa roja with chili colorado is ready, and it is so beautiful, and I know that it is ready because it has tiny, little puddles of the oil on the top of the salsa.

We have these gorgeous, beautiful Anaheim chilies that I already charred and roasted and sweated and peeled and removed the seeds.

So, now we're gonna stuff them.

Oh, my gosh, so yum.

I love chile rellenos so much, so much!

So, you grab your toothpick, and you want to seal it like this.

We're making two with picadillo here and two with cheese.

Now our masa balls have had time to rest and now we're gonna roll them out.

And different from the normal flour tortillas, you don't need to roll them out until they're transparent and you can see through.

Like, these are thicker.

And it's going to be about 1 minute per side.

What I'm looking for is for the bottom of the tortilla to start getting speckles of brown, and over the top I want to see these little pockets of air, like these bubbles, see?

That's what you're looking for.

This is making me very happy.

Oh, it smells so good!

It smells like a tortilleria in Sonora.

We have almost everything we need for our taco with chile relleno.

I have my oil heating here.

Now I need my batter.

All that I'm using is 4 egg whites that I'm going to beat until they can hold stiff peaks, and then I'm gonna gently fold the egg yolks.

♪ Add a little bit of salt.

Once you add the egg yolks, you want to have your speed really low 'cause you just want to mix.

You don't want to lose all that volume.

And that's your capeado.

Grab your chili and you roll it over flour, and then you dunk it in the capeado, which I love doing.

Gently, gently, you put it in the oil.

Oh, so pretty!

So pretty!

The capeado is very, very delicate, so you don't want to flip it with tongs unless if the tongs are rubber, 'cause you don't want it to break.

Look at that tortilla.

[ Mmm'ing ] I'm gonna add some of the cabbage, some of the salsa roja, some of the crema, queso cotija.

You could do queso fresco, too.

So, look at this.

This is like a feast.

Mmm.

Mmm!

Mmm.

Mmmmm!

This is ridiculous.

It's like you're eating the entire gastronomy of Sonora, Arizona, in here.

You have the wheat flour tortilla that they're so proud about.

They're so proud about their wheat, their meat.

It is a taco that really packs all of my experiences from the Tucson/ Sonora adventure into one.

♪ For recipes and information from this episode and more, visit patijinich.com and connect -- find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest @PatiJinich -"Pati's Mexican Table" is made possible by... ♪ -La Costeña.

-♪ Avocados from Mexico ♪ -Fud brand meats for traditional Mexican flavor.

-Stand Together, helping every person rise.

More information at StandTogether.org.

-BanCoppel, your recipe for sending money to Mexico.

-Mahatma Rice lets you unite ingredients and flavors.

Mahatma Rice unites.

-Divine Flavor.

-Norson.

-Proud to support "Pati's Mexican Table" on Public Television.