Mexican Recipes

Mexican home cooking runs on a short pantry list and a handful of techniques that repeat across hundreds of dishes. Chili powder, cumin, oregano, garlic, onion, lime and dried chiles will carry you through most of what is on this page. Once you can char a salsa, toast rice properly and shred meat without drying it out, the recipes stop being separate projects and start being assembly.

That is how this section is organized. Start with the building blocks, then pick a protein.

We are direct about what is traditional and what is not. Pozole, tinga, carnitas, mole and pan de elote are Mexican dishes with regional histories. Taco pasta bake, king ranch casserole and seven layer dip are American, mostly Tex-Mex, and they are on this site because they are genuinely good weeknight food, not because we are calling them authentic. Every recipe says which it is.

What is in this section

Recipes are grouped by protein first, because that is how most people decide what to cook. Chicken, ground beef, shredded beef, pork, shrimp and fish. After that there are soups and stews, casseroles and bakes, sides, party food and dips, breakfast, and desserts. There is a vegetarian and vegan group as well, and it is not an afterthought, black bean and roasted vegetable cooking is central to Mexican food rather than a substitution for it.

Times are listed honestly. A 20 minute recipe means 20 minutes from a cold pan, not 20 minutes after an hour of prep you were not told about. The weekend projects, pozole, birria, menudo, are labeled as such.

Where to start

If you have never cooked from this cuisine, start with salsa chicken and homemade taco seasoning. Both are close to impossible to get wrong, and between them they unlock tacos, bowls, quesadillas, nachos and enchiladas without learning anything new.

Then work through the collection: Easy Mexican Recipes at Home.

All Mexican recipes

Browse the full archive: Mexican recipes category.