Not Just Tacos
Recipes
Our host mom always says it’s food “de antes,” as if knowing that this dish has been grown and eaten here for thousands of years wouldn’t make us love it more!
Pre-hispanic Mexicans didn't just develop recipes--they developed a science. To make tortillas or hominy, the puffed corn you'll find in pozole, the corn kernels have to be soaked in a solution with water and cal--or calcium hydroxide--which breaks down the kernel shell and allows the corn to puff up. Pozole rojo differs from pozole blanco in that its made with guajillo chiles, adding a bit of fruity heat to this hearty stew.
Imagine a mixture of an Italian rice ball and a traditional pork meatball. Now imagine that floating in a tangy tomatillo-serrano sauce with hints of cumin and cilantro. Yep—it’s bomb!
A very traditional Central Mexican dish, and especially popular during the holiday season, romeritos involves boiling seepweed (or spinach, if you prefer), and mixing it with mole, nopales, cooked potatoes, and shrimp. If you love mole, you're sure to love romeritos!
This recipe was passed down to our host sister's husband's sister when she was studying with nuns in rural Oaxaca. It is BY FAR the best condiment we've ever tried, and one of the most special recipes we have on this blog. We tried them for the first time in Christmas 2017 when Julio's sister came to visit and made them for us, and we've been talking about them ever since! Finally she came back a year later and taught us how to make them! Especially if you like heat, you will LOVE these.
Thinly sliced chicken breast + manchego cheese + ham + BACON rolled up and smothered in a poblano cream sauce. This is NO JOKE! And you wouldn't believe that it's actually super simple.
Ponche--essentially a fruit tea--is on every table from Christmas through New Years. Warm, sweet, and even better with a drop of whiskey, ponche is perfect for a winter night and super easy to make with any and all of your favorite fruits!
This stew has such deep and comforting flavor balanced by fresh green beans, spinach, and chayote. Perfect on a cold day or when you think you're coming down with something (both bone broth and spinach are some of the most nutrient-dense foods with inflammation-reducing properties).
Spicy and bright, this salsa/salad is the perfect hot topping to your tacos, soups, stews--everything really.
Perfect for a beautiful weekend brunch, the poblanos are blackened first, then the bitter skin is peeled off leaving the smokey and fresh pepper. It's then sauteed with onions and scrambled with eggs. Grab some tortillas or a crusty bread and Sunday brunch is ready!
This comforting pasta salad makes a great side dish for any lunch or dinner.
A great breakfast, lunch, or mid-day snack, molletes are simply halved rolls with refried beans and cheese broiled and topped with fresh pico de gallo salsa. Stupid easy and super delish!
Not your traditional guac! Tangier and more delicious, if you can believe that.
Eggs in chipotle salsa. Such a delicious way to prepare eggs! Perfect for breakfast, lunch, and dinner too! A crowd favorite in our host family.
Chicken simmered in salsa verde with hunks of fresh zucchini and potato
Simple, stupid easy, and far better than anything you can get from a can.
A classic late-summer/early fall stew chock full of fresh corn, zucchini, and guajillo chiles, Chile Atole is crisp yet comforting, sweet from the corn yet clean and simple.
Soft pork ribs with hunks of caramelized onions and smokey chipotles in an acidic tomatillo sauce. Such a perfect combination of every flavor you could want on one plate.
Chicken & veggies simmered in a guajillo and ancho chile salsa. Think of it almost like a spicy, slightly thicker chicken soup.
Step up your egg game with this easy and delicious recipe perfect for brunch or a quick weeknight meal.
One of the most important dishes in Mexican cuisine, Chile en Nogada is traditionally made in late summer/early fall when all the fruits are in season. This is also the season of Mexican Independence Day (September 15th), and the green poblano pepper, white walnut sauce, and red pomegranate seeds represent the 3 colors of the Mexican flag. This dish is incredibly special with unique and delicious flavors and textures. The effort is absolutely worth it!
A little smokey, little punchy, little sweet. Lots delicious.
Juicy shredded chicken cooked with sliced onions and hunks of sweet tomatoes is just too dang tasty sitting on tostadas, drizzled with crema, and sprinkled with cheese.
This recipe literally couldn't be easier. Just cut everything up for the pico de gallo, buy some chicharrón and tortillas, and voila.
Simple and delish tacos with seasoned ground pork (or beef) simmered in tomato sauce with carrots and potatoes. Super easy and super goooood.
Golden-fried tacos with shredded chicken, cheese, crema, and a fresh salsa of your choice. Crunchy, delicious, and easy.
Fresh corn, zucchini, and queso panela come together for perfect taco-stuffing fare.
Guajillo chiles are blended with cumin seed and oregano and thickened with softened white bread to create a rich sauce in which to smother your favorite meat (in this case, rabbit).
Chipotles. Tomatoes. Garlic. Salt. Very simple, very flavorful, very good on almost anything.
Did you know Mexico has its version of a potato latke? Neither did we.
A classic Mexican drink made with beer, clamato juice, worcestershire sauce, salsa maggi, lime, and a tajin rim. Perfect for a Sunday brunch, we might add.
Fresh, bright, and spicy, and chock-full of tomatillos, cilantro, and garlic, salsa verde perfectly completments your favorite crispy tortilla chip (or anything else for that matter).
Crispy tortillas dunked in a creamy bean sauce, drizzled with cream, sprinkled with cheese and diced onion, accompanied by avocado, and digesting happily in your belly.
Literally translates to “broth,” but we promise it’s much more. Chickpeas and rice cook in a rich chicken broth with carrots, chayote, and a few peppermint leaves, topped with a fresh cucumber-onion-serrano salad and shredded chicken. These comforting flavors are simple yet fresh, and for that reason we eat caldo at least bi-weekly, if not more often.
Classic Mexican fare: grilled steak with onions and peppers & stuffed into tacos. Perfect for a barbecue or a ridiculously easy weeknight meal.
Grilled steak is finished in a tangy tomatillo-chipotle sauce with hunks of soft potatoes. You're finished in a delightful food coma.
"Aguitas," or "little waters" are commonly served in Mexican homes with lunch. Not quite a juice, though more than just flavored water, aguitas can be made with dozens of fruits, herbs, flowers, and flavors. Aguita de limon con chia is refreshingly tart, though the hint of sweetness nicely blankets the acidity and the little pops of chia give it a fun texture. Perfect for entertaining or adding something special to a regular weeknight dinner--can't go wrong with aguita de limon!
Perfect for breakfast, lunch, brunch, linner, & dinner. Rich, filling, a perfect accompaniment for salsa or avocado (or both). You just can't go wrong with some spicy chorizo & eggs.
Let's be real: who's really that into green beans? Not your average Jose! But this salad is actually BOMB, with a vinegary, limey bite that brings out the flavors of the veggies. Plus, it's filling, clean, vegan, and all that other stuff. Make it on the side of one of our other recipes, or just eat it out the bowl!
There is such diversity of the chiles in Mexico, and all are worth trying! Chile de Cascabel is so named because the sound of the seeds inside the dried chile sound like a rattlesnake--cascabel. And its flavor is delicious! Imagine the taste of chipotle, but sweeter, a bit more tart, and nuttier--you've got chile de cascabel. The chiles are accompanied by roasted tomatoes and garlic, and it's just beautiful on top of grilled meat or vegetables, smothered in a taco, or dipped with a chip--however you want to eat it, you won't be sorry!
No, breaded chicken cutlet is not the most traditional Mexican dish our host family makes, but with thinly sliced chicken breast breaded in a mix of flour and oatmeal and fried to golden-brown perfection, everyone in the family is happy when these pups come out of the pan. So whether you've got picky chicks in the nest or just want a tasty, easy, not very Mexican meal, this one's for you!
Chipotle peppers stuffed with cheese, egg-battered and lightly fried, then immersed in a tomato-garlic sauce. This is a special and delicious recipe worth the extra effort!
Is this the sexiest recipe we've put up so far? No. But is it the most important? YES. You are not doing Mexican food (or life, tbh) very well if you're not making your own beans. And they're too easy, too cheap, and just too damn good to not make a big batch every Sunday to use for the whole week. And honestly, the texture and flavor get better every time you reheat them.
You've probably (hopefully) had a michelada. But gave you had a gomichela!? Beer with some yummy fix-ins plus a CHAMOY rim and enchilada gummy bears...you know you want one! It's the best kind of michelada we've tried yet.
Our host family makes different kinds of sauces for enchiladas, but the verde is one of our favorites. Sweet and tangy from the tomatillos, the "queso Philadelphia" adds creaminess that balances out the heat from the jalepeños. One of the best things about this recipe is how easy it is. The sauce comes together in 5 minutes, and once it's hot, you just dunk a few tortillas in it, wait 30 seconds, put the sauce-soaked tortillas on a plate, and add a drizzle of cream, shredded cheese, and ¡ya! You can also add extra goodies: chopped cilantro, avocado, a fried egg, refried beans, or shredded chicken all go well on top!
By far one of the easiest recipes that our family makes--but don't mistake that fact for a lack of flavor! This dish KILLS IT in the flavor realm, with a tangy and acidic tomatillo-serano sauce that perfectly complements the fat-marbled sausage. Potatoes help soak up all that yummy sauce (though you can add other vegetables if you're so inclined) and you're DONE!
Now that it’s lent, seafood proliferates on Fridays all over Mexico, a blessing considering the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific coast bring super fresh seafood to the entire country. Caldo de Camarones (translation: shrimp broth) is a hearty stew of potatoes, carrots, shrimp, and guahillo chiles, which add a punch of heat and sweetness. It’s a very traditional dish usually made for special occasions, like Christmas dinner or birthdays or, like right now, Fridays during lent. Serve it with crusty bread and lime and fill up on this fresh and flavorful soup.
Is there a flavor more Mexican than chipotle? This smoked dried pepper is *actually* the smoked dried version of Jalapeño…who knew!? The process of smoking the Jalapeño dates back thousands of years; the flesh of the Jalapeño was too thick to dry fully in the sun before going bad, so the ancient Mesoamerican cultures learned to smoke the pepper to preserve it, thus inventing the Chipotle. This dish offers the sweet-smokey heat of the chipotles with sharp tomatillos, tangy roma tomatoes, and rich caramelized onions that envelop the soft pork in a bright and fiery sauce.
This rediculously easy salsa is super fresh and infinitely better than anything you can find in a jar. Though there are certainly more interesting salsas out there, this one takes less than 2 minutes to make and is perfect for adding a bit of heat to any meal or snack. Throw a spoonful on a grilled chicken breast, on your morning eggs, on a scoop of rice, in your veggies, or, of course, happily on top of a chip. If you want it a little less spicy, use less jalapeños or remove the seeds.
A quick and easy classic, tostadas are perfect for a busy weeknight and versatile enough that you throw on whatever it is you're craving! These ones happen to be vegetarian, with refried beans, crema, cheese, salsa, crunchy lettuce, and avocado. Most people go right for the pre-made ones that are more like a big tortilla chip, but when you make them yourself not only are they tastier, but they're nice and warm when you go in for the first bite. Crunchy, hearty, versatile, easy: what more could you want!?
While most people outside of Mexico think of Mole as “that dish with chocolate,” the word mole (pronounced mole-ay) actually means “sauce” or “mixture” in Nahuatl, the Aztec language still spoken by more than a million people. But Mole Poblano is just one of many kinds of moles. Here, totopos, or well-toasted tortillas, are crushed and mixed into the guajillo- and chipotle-based tomato sauce, adding a nuttiness to the smoky sweetness of the chiles.
You know it's good when 3,000 years later they're still making it! One of the more famous Mexican dishes, Pozole is actually a pre-hispanic Central American stew that was just as sacred then as it is now, where it's typically eaten to celebrate birthdays, christmas, and other holidays. There are three varieties of pozole: red, white, and green, each with a unique mix of chiles and herbs. Yet the base remains the same: a rich broth of pork or chicken and hominy, or puffed corn.
If you don't like spicy you can stop reading now. This salsa is spicy as fuck, but the peanuts add a richness that complement the heat and makes for an extremely flavorful salsa to dollop (well, a very small dollop) onto anything and everything: eggs, rice and beans, pozole, tostadas, tacos, burritos, soups and stews...go crazy!
This classic recipe is a staple of our host family, as the tomatillo sauce is incredibly versatile and can be used with chicken, eggs, lima beans, and on gorditas or sopes. Here, pork hock simmers until it nearly falls off the bone, then it's smothered with this spicy and tangy salsa verde; zucchini joins in, uniting the heat of the chiles with the brightness of the tomatoes with the soft pork to create a family favorite.
Roasted poblano peppers, fresh corn, and shredded chicken come together in a smooth and creamy sauce perfect for stuffing tacos or eating right out of the pot. Super easy to make vegetarian.
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