Mexican Recipes
487 recipes found
Camarones Embarazados (Adobo Grilled Shrimp)
Camarones embarazados translates to pregnant shrimp, but these crustaceans aren’t necessarily carrying roe. The catchy name is a play on words: “en vara” means on a stick, and “asado” means roasted, and together, “en vara asado” sounds like “embarazado.” These shrimp are soaked with an adobo that becomes a crunchy crust when grilled. This take on the dish, which spread from Puerto Vallarta on the Pacific coast of Mexico to beaches all over the country, combines guajillo chiles and chiles de árbol with the surprising addition of Mexican chocolate. The chocolate rounds out the sharpness of the adobo and provides a caramelized finish. Simmered extra adobo is delicious for dipping the shrimp hot off the coals.
Lamb Chops With Guajillo Chili Sauce and Charro Beans
Vegetarian Tortilla Soup
This vegetarian version of tortilla soup is no less complex than its chicken counterpart, thanks to plenty of vegetables, spices and a secret ingredient: canned chipotles in adobo. Smoked and dried jalapeños softened in a vinegar-tomato mixture, these little powerhouses do much of the heavy lifting in this vegetarian soup, offering depth and a certain meatiness to an otherwise light and tangy broth.
Enfrijoladas
This is one simple dish you can make if you have corn tortillas in the freezer and black beans in the pantry. Enfrijoladas are comforting enchiladas made by drenching corn tortillas in creamy, coarsely pureed black beans, folding them into quarters, and serving them in more of the black bean sauce. The authentic ones are garnished with Mexican queso fresco, but they are delicious without cheese. Cilantro or epazote is optional – I didn’t have any; it is the black beans that make this dish what it is.
Mexican Scrambled Eggs
I often eat this beloved Mexican breakfast dish for dinner. Serve the eggs with warm corn tortillas.
Grilled Corn on the Cob With Chipotle Mayonnaise
The spicy dip that I serve with grilled corn (as well as with steamed or boiled corn) is sort of like a Mexican aïoli, pungent with garlic, smoky and spicy with chipotle chiles. You can also serve it as a dip with vegetables or chips, or use it as a flavorful spread for sandwiches and panini. The recipe makes more than you’ll need for six ears of corn — if you’re having a crowd for a barbecue, you’ll have enough.
Green Chilaquiles With Eggs
This comforting Mexican dish is made with fried tortillas and salsa. Frying tortillas is easy, but you can use store-bought chips if you’d like; just be sure that they are thick, the type sold in bags at Mexican groceries or tortillerías.
Tomatillo Pineapple Salsa
This fiercely bright salsa comes from Eduardo Rivera, who runs a farm called Sin Fronteras ("without borders") in Minnesota. Resist the temptation to eat it right out of the blender; it's best after it's been chilled at least an hour.
Salsa Taquera
This is a classic salsa of the Mexico City taquero — a combination of tomatoes, tomatillos and chiles de árbol. The preparation varies from stand to stand. Some prefer to char over an open flame, others boil and others just throw everything in the blender raw. They are all incredibly delicious, and you should play around with the preparation until you find your inner taquero style.
Mexican Wedding Cookies
This recipe was brought to The Times in a 1990 article about traditional Christmas cookies, but we think these butter-rich confections are delicious any time of year. Sometimes called Mexican wedding cakes (or polvorones or Russian tea cakes or snowballs), their provenance is often debated, but this much is true: they are dead-simple to make and addictive to eat. This version is done completely in a food processor, so you can clean-up in minutes, and get to the important business at hand: eating cookies and licking your fingers.
Vegan Enchiladas
Tacos de Calabacitas
Jicama Relish In Chilpotle Marinade
Tamales de Pollo (Chipotle Chicken Tamales)
Guadalupe Moreno’s tinga de pollo makes for a delicious filling in this tamales formula from Alicia Villanueva of Alicia’s Tamales Los Mayas in Hayward, Calif. Ms. Villanueva shared her recipe with Leticia Landa and Caleb Zigas for their cookbook “We Are La Cocina.” Her tamales are made with corn masa flour that’s softened and flavored at the same time with both fat and broth. The recipe is a project, but once you’ve done the work of preparing the husks, filling and masa, the process of filling and wrapping the tamales goes quickly.
Queso Fundido With Chorizo, Jalapeño and Cilantro
Here is a magical recipe that works as well for a family dinner as for a football-watching spread: a pound of Monterey Jack melted over chorizo, jalapeño and cilantro, served with chips and lime. You’re welcome.
Grilled Corn, Mexican Style
Not only is this recipe very easy, it results in the kind of deep flavor associated with the crunchy street corn of Mexico. In many parts of Mexico, though, that crunchiness is highlighted with a creamy chile-lime sauce. This is more unusual than the tried, true and unbeatable butter-salt-and-pepper combination, and only slightly more complicated. Just mix together mayonnaise, freshly squeezed lime juice, chile powder, salt and pepper. It’s pretty authentic, and a combination that brings out the grilled flavor, and balances the sweetness of fresh corn perfectly.
Arroz Rojo (Red Rice)
Also known as arroz Mexicano, these tomato-slicked grains of rice taste amazing alongside beans, tacos, enchiladas and just about any spread of meat, seafood and vegetables. Esteban Castillo, the author of the “Chicano Eats” cookbook and blog, toasts the rice in garlicky oil first to give the final dish an even richer flavor. A simple spice blend does, too.
Squash Blossom Quesadillas
Grenadine Punch
Pineapple Salsa
This is a simple salsa with a bright acidity, one that you could temper with some diced mango if you like. I’ve called for a single jalapeño. You could use two if you like. Just keep all the flavors in balance – sweet, salty, sour and fiery. It’s terrific on pork and with grilled fish, on tacos or as an accompaniment to breakfast eggs.
Pan de Muerto
You’ll find this pan de muerto, or bread of the dead, at the center of the elaborate Day of the Dead altar festooned with sugared skulls, flowers and other mementos of the family’s departed.
Agua Fresca de Jamaica
Churros
In the world of fresh pastry, few things are quicker than churros – those crullerlike strips of crisp fried dough that are street-corner snacks in Spain, Mexico and some New York City subway stations. In fact, there are few breakfast dishes or last-minute late-night snacks that can match a batch of churros. If there is a recipe ideal for learning deep frying, this is it. The dough is extremely forgiving, and will brown nicely at any temperature in the neighborhood of 350; with a frying thermometer, you can hit the temperature right on the money. The only trick, as with all deep frying, is to not crowd the dough strips. Work in batches. Once the strips are gloriously brown, turn them in a sugar-cinnamon mixture and serve hot, or at least warm. Cold churros are certainly edible, but they're a far cry from hot ones.