Mexican recipes
These Mexican recipes are built on corn, chillies and slow-cooked sauces, and they go well beyond the takeaway version. Dried chillies are toasted and blended, meat is braised until it falls apart, and salsas are made at the last minute.
Cook birria tacos or tacos al pastor as the main event, put arroz rojo and elote on the side, and finish with flan mexicano, the richer, smoother cousin of the Spanish flan. The recipes spell out which chillies to buy, and whatever is missing from your kitchen goes onto a shared shopping list in one tap.
19 recipes
Birria Tacos馃嚥馃嚱 Mexican recipes 路 Dinner 路 4 h 10 min
Guacamole馃嚥馃嚱 Mexican recipes 路 Snack 路 10 min
Elote馃嚥馃嚱 Mexican recipes 路 Snack 路 25 min
Flan Mexicano馃嚥馃嚱 Mexican recipes 路 Dessert 路 10 h 15 min
Tacos al Pastor馃嚥馃嚱 Mexican recipes 路 Dinner 路 6 h 10 min
Chicken Enchiladas Rojas馃嚥馃嚱 Mexican recipes 路 Dinner 路 1 h 15 min
Calabaza en Tacha馃嚥馃嚱 Mexican recipes 路 Dessert 路 2 h 40 min
Agua Fresca馃嚥馃嚱 Mexican recipes 路 Drink 路 10 min
Arroz con Leche馃嚥馃嚱 Mexican recipes 路 Dessert 路 45 min
Arroz Rojo馃嚥馃嚱 Mexican recipes 路 Side dish 路 50 min
Horchata馃嚥馃嚱 Mexican recipes 路 Drink 路 10 h 15 min
Mexican Hot Chocolate馃嚥馃嚱 Mexican recipes 路 Drink 路 15 min
Nachos馃嚥馃嚱 Mexican recipes 路 Snack 路 30 min
Shrimp Tacos馃嚥馃嚱 Mexican recipes 路 Dinner 路 30 min
Chiles Rellenos馃嚥馃嚱 Mexican recipes 路 Dinner 路 1 h 10 min
Mole Poblano馃嚥馃嚱 Mexican recipes 路 Dinner 路 3 h
Pico de Gallo馃嚥馃嚱 Mexican recipes 路 Side dish 路 25 min
Salsa Roja馃嚥馃嚱 Mexican recipes 路 Side dish 路 25 min
Chicken Tinga馃嚥馃嚱 Mexican recipes 路 Dinner 路 50 min
Mexican food and Tex-Mex: what is the difference
Mexican cooking and Tex-Mex share a lot, but they lean on different things. Mexican home cooks reach for corn tortillas, dried chillies and fresh white cheese and use cumin sparingly, while Tex-Mex favours flour tortillas, melted yellow cheese and chili powder blends.
The guacamole here shows the Mexican approach, with the avocado crushed by hand and no cumin or garlic in sight. Chiles rellenos come in a thin tomato broth rather than under a thick sauce, so the puffed, cheese-filled poblanos stay the centre of the plate.
Which chillies to buy for Mexican cooking
Most of the depth in these dishes comes from dried chillies rather than raw heat. Guajillos give the enchilada sauce its brick-red colour and mild fruitiness, chipotles in adobo bring smoke to chicken tinga, and the al pastor marinade pairs dried chillies with achiote for its deep red colour.
Dried chillies keep for months in an airtight jar, so one bag stretches across several recipes. Toast them briefly in a dry pan until fragrant, since a few seconds too long turns them bitter.
Fresh produce matters as much: ripe avocados, limes, white onion, coriander and poblanos. Buy avocados a few days ahead and let them ripen on the counter, because a hard avocado will not crush into guacamole.
How to plan a taco night
A taco night works best with one slow dish made ahead and fresh things made at the last minute. Birria tacos and tacos al pastor both need several hours, most of it hands-off, so start them early in the day or braise the birria the day before.
Guacamole and agua fresca take about ten minutes each and belong at the very end, because avocado browns and blended watermelon separates as it stands. Arroz rojo can simmer while the meat rests, and flan mexicano is best made the day before, as it needs hours in the fridge to set. Arroz con leche is the quicker dessert, and it is good warm or cold.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the most popular food in Mexico?
- Tacos are the everyday dish most people would name, eaten at street stalls and at home all over the country. Tacos al pastor, with pork marinated in chilli and achiote and served with charred pineapple, are a fixture of taquer铆as, and birria, the braise behind birria tacos, comes from Jalisco. Both recipes are on this page.
- What is birria?
- Birria is meat, traditionally goat and here beef, braised in a broth of dried chillies and spices until it shreds. For birria tacos, the tortillas are dipped in the red fat from the pot, filled with meat and cheese, griddled until crisp and dunked in the cooking broth, called consomm茅, as you eat.
- What goes in authentic guacamole?
- At its simplest, avocado, lime, salt, white onion, coriander and fresh green chilli. That is the version on this page: the avocado is crushed rather than blended so it keeps some texture, and there is no garlic, no tomato pulp and no cumin. It is vegan and gluten-free, and ready in about ten minutes.
- What can I use instead of cotija cheese?
- Feta is the easiest substitute, because it is salty, crumbly and holds its shape on hot food, which is why the elote recipe here uses it. Ricotta salata works too. Cotija itself is an aged cow鈥檚 milk cheese named after a town in Michoac谩n, and it is worth buying if a Mexican grocer near you stocks it.