18 Mexican recipes. Page 1 of 1. Compare ingredients and cooking times. Pan de Elote, Black Bean Corn Avocado Salad, Beef Enchiladas.
Corn kernels, blended with cream and eggs, flavor this Mexican cake, which is why it tastes of sweet corn rather than the gritty cornmeal of cornbread. The puree spreads color and corn flavor through every slice, and the butter and cream give a dense, moist crumb closer to pound cake than to an airy sponge.
Corn seared in a dry, very hot pan picks up brown spots and a toasty sweetness that the mild black beans need. Lime juice and cilantro give the bowl the bright, sharp edge of a Mexican salsa, while avocado folded in at the end softens the acidity with its richness. Well-drained beans matter too, since leftover liquid dilutes the lime dressing quickly.
Tortillas wrapped around cumin-seasoned ground beef and cheddar soak up red enchilada sauce in the oven until soft, while the cheese on top melts and bubbles. Cold tortillas crack when rolled, and a quick warming makes them pliable.
Soaked in three milks (whole, condensed and evaporated), this Latin American cake is wet enough that a little milk seeps onto the plate when you cut it, yet the whipped-egg sponge keeps its shape. It is usually served cold, after a night in the fridge.
Nopales, flat cactus pads from Mexico, release a slippery juice like okra when boiled, yet keep a pleasantly chewy, crisp bite once cooked. Sharp lime juice and grassy cilantro play against the cactus's mild green flavor, with tomato and onion tossed through. Prep starts with gloves and a knife, scraping the tiny spines off both faces and the edges. In Mexico it goes alongside tacos, grilled meat or beans.
These tacos are filled at the table and eaten straight away, while the crisp shells still crack under the first bite. Avocado mashed with lime but left a little chunky gives a cool, soft contrast to the spiced beef.
Beef brisket is simmered until tender, cooled completely and shredded into fine strands, then tossed with lettuce, tomato, red onion and jalapeño in lime juice and cider vinegar and eaten cold.
Seasoned beef, rice, black beans, cheese and salsa all fit inside one large flour tortilla, making a full meal to eat by hand. Beans and rice make it filling, while salsa and sour cream cut through the fatty beef and melted cheese. The tortilla needs to be warm and bendy when you roll it, or the edges crack and the filling escapes.
All the fillings of a taco, minus the tortilla: browned ground beef, kidney beans, corn, cheddar, and salsa piled over crisp romaine and finished with lime. Any water left on the romaine, beans, or corn joins the liquid from the salsa and lime and ends up pooled at the bottom of the bowl. Assemble just before eating, since the warm beef starts wilting the lettuce as soon as it lands.
Chicken thigh strips soaked briefly in lime and paprika hit a smoking-hot pan and pick up charred edges within minutes. If the pan is not hot enough, the chicken releases liquid and steams instead, so it should sizzle the moment it lands.
Spread all the way to the edge, the cheese melts into a glue that holds the two tortillas together and lets the wedges cut cleanly with the filling in place. Sharp cheddar brings flavor while mozzarella brings stretch, wrapped around paprika-seasoned chicken thigh, onion, and bell pepper. To protect the crunch, the vegetables are cooked only until the pan bottom looks fairly dry, as moisture from the filling is what usually ruins it. Cut into 8 wedges and serve warm with sour cream or salsa.
Fried tortilla chips get only about 30 seconds of tossing in the tomato-chili sauce before plating, just enough to leave them half soft and half crisp. The sauce is reduced until thick first so the chips absorb it quickly instead of sitting in liquid. A fried egg tops this Mexican breakfast, its runny yolk breaking into the sauce to make it richer, while cheddar and cilantro add salt and freshness. The heat level depends on the amount of jalapeno.
Achiote paste and lime juice turn the pork shoulder red, and wrapping it in banana leaves inside a lidded pot keeps it braising rather than roasting, and the meat ends up pulling apart with a fork instead of growing a crisp skin. It is ready when even the meat near the bone gives way to a fork, and if it is still tough at the end of the stated time, it stays in longer. No overnight marinade is needed, and the red onions pickle in lime while the pork cooks. Look for achiote as a ready-to-use paste, not dried seeds or a hot sauce. Once cooked, the juices get skimmed of fat and, if there is a lot, reduced before being spooned back over the meat.
Neither boiled under water nor fried dry, the kernels steam briefly in butter and a splash of water under a lid, which cooks them through while keeping them springy. Mayonnaise and crumbled cotija never meet the stove; they are spooned onto each cup afterward, and since cotija brings its own salt, salt is added a little at a time.
Warm corn tortillas carry a layer of half-mashed black beans, a fried egg, and a tomato salsa sharpened with jalapeño. What makes the plate go soggy is water: the salsa should be reduced until a spoon leaves a trail, and the beans thick enough to spread. Cook the whites fully, and use pasteurized eggs for a runny yolk. A squeeze of lime at the end is optional.
Melted cheddar glues tortilla chips together with browned beef, black beans and slices of jalapeño, building a tray meant for sharing. Building the chips in two layers, each with its own share of beef, beans and cheese, keeps the bottom ones from being left bare. The beef cooks until the pan is dry, because any liquid left behind turns the chips soft in the oven. Grated cheddar loosened before scattering melts in an even sheet rather than in clumps. Salsa stays off until just before serving, keeping its moisture out of the chips while they bake.
The fat that rises on the red braising liquid becomes the frying fat for the tortillas, so trimming all the fat from the beef or pouring off the broth's oil leaves nothing to crisp them with. Dipping deeper into the thin broth below soaks the tortillas until they are hard to flip. Swapping the three dried chiles, guajillo, ancho and arbol, for plain chili powder changes the sauce. The rest of the broth gets reheated and served in a bowl for dunking, and low-moisture mozzarella stands in for Oaxaca cheese in the same amount.
Pork shoulder marinated red with achiote and guajillo chilies gets sliced thin, seared, and tucked into corn tortillas with grilled pineapple. This home version cooks the slices in batches in a pan or on a grill; crowding them releases so much liquid that the meat steams instead of browning.