Recipes

Rick A. Martínez · NYT Cooking

Sold in the markets and street stalls of Puebla, chanclas poblanas are made with a slightly flattened, flour-dusted, oval-shaped bun called pan para chanclas which gets its rise and flavor from pulque, a fermented alcoholic drink made from the maguey plant. (Chancla, which means flip-flop or sandal, refers to the shape.) Then, they’re opened and stuffed with chorizo and bathed in a rich tomato-guajillo salsa. They’re messy, but they can be eaten with your hands or a fork and a knife.

Rick A. Martínez · NYT Cooking

At the beautifully abundant Mercado Negro in Ensenada, Baja California, the clams, mussels, oysters, shrimp and fish that are for sale each day are highly sought after by locals and chefs. Almost more common than street tacos served there are these tostadas, made in stands that sell towers of fresh, raw seafood tossed with squeezed lime juice and topped with a number of different housemade salsas.

Rick A. Martínez · NYT Cooking

Sopa Tlaxcalteca, from the central state of Tlaxcala, is a seasonal chicken soup simmered with ripe local produce like corn, carrots, mushrooms, squash and squash blossoms. What makes it special is the whole milk that is added to the simmering broth. It lends a very slight creaminess that accentuates the sweetness of the vegetables and amps up the richness of the chicken stock. There are many soups in Mexico, but this is easily one of the most comforting.

Rick A. Martínez · NYT Cooking

These empanadas are very common in the food stalls of the mercados and tianguis (open-air market) in the southern state of Chiapas. A plant native to Mexico, chipilín lends its leaves to stews and salsas, and is mixed into corn masa to make tortillas, tamales and empanadas in the country’s center and south. Adding chipilín to masa lends a subtle herbaceousness that complements the earthiness of the corn. If you can’t find it, spinach, chard or kale makes a great substitute.

Rick A. Martínez · NYT Cooking

This recipe is a classic pico de gallo preparation with the exception of the inclusion of two types of spicy chiles, jalapeño and serrano. Their flavors are so different: Jalapeños are much more vegetal and can lean into bell pepper and poblano flavors, while serranos are much sharper, crisp and almost cucumber-like. They complement each other very well, and are used in many Mexican salsas. Serve pico de gallo with empanadas de chipilín or on the side with your favorite tacos or grilled meats.

Rick A. Martínez · NYT Cooking

Well known in Mexico and the United States, chiles rellenos are most often thought of as featuring charred, batter-fried and stuffed fresh poblanos, but dried chiles are also commonly used. Dried poblanos, called anchos, are similar in texture and flavor to dried apricots but with a smoky, slight spicy finish. Soft, pliable and mildly sweet, they can be stuffed without having to be charred and peeled.

Rick A. Martínez · NYT Cooking

Encacahuatados are mole-like sauces made with peanuts, dried chiles, tomatoes and cinnamon. Traditionally, they are served with chicken and prepared for special occasions, like birthdays and holidays. In Xalapa, a town in central Veracruz along the Gulf Coast, encacahuatados are made with pork, whose richness pairs well with the nuttiness of roasted peanuts in the spicy-sweet sauce.

Rick A. Martínez · NYT Cooking

A plant-based breakfast or midday snack sold in the streets of Oaxaca, tamales de rajas y queso rival pork- and chicken-filled tamales in their appeal. Unlike their corn husk-wrapped northern cousins, these tamales feature charred banana leaves, which give them a roasted, almost vegetal flavor. The masa is then pressed on top before it’s filled, sauced and wrapped.

Rick A. Martínez · NYT Cooking

The buttermilk gives a cheesy-richness and tang that lifts the earthy flavor of the grits and offers a bright contrast to the roasted, caramelized vegetables. It is also a great way to use up that leftover buttermilk in your refrigerator. To make the perfect grits, cook them over the lowest heat and maintain a bare simmer. Whisking and scraping the sides and bottom of the pan every few minutes will ensure that they will not stick and will allow them to cook more evenly. If you like, stir in an extra 2 tablespoons of butter and ¼ cup of grated Parmesan or shredded Cheddar just before serving.

Rick A. Martínez · NYT Cooking

This recipe was inspired by thịt heo nướng xả, the sweet, salty and aromatic grilled pork dish that is popular in many Vietnamese restaurants in the United States. Lean pork steaks cooked over high heat can dry out quickly, but a quick 15-minute soak in a mixture of baking soda and water ensures a moist and juicy steak. Baking soda causes a chemical reaction on the surface of the meat, which makes it more difficult for the proteins to bond during cooking or grilling. This means you end up with tender, not tough, meat. Shoulder steaks work well here because they have more flavor than lean pork chops and can take high heat and a strong marinade better than other thin cuts. Your butcher can cut the steaks for you or you can use thin cut pork chops.

Rick A. Martínez · NYT Cooking

This may be the perfect all-purpose sauce — BBQ, marinade, dressing — for your summer cookouts. Tangy and sweet rice vinegar cuts through the spicy richness of gochujang, and toasted sesame seed oil amps up the smokiness you get from the grill. The sauce does double duty in this recipe: It’s used to flavor the pork bulgogi-inspired patties, and it’s used as a dressing for the cucumber, sprout and carrot slaw. These burgers can also be made indoors in a large cast-iron or heavy skillet over medium-high heat.

Rick A. Martínez · NYT Cooking

Tetelas, triangle-shaped dumplings, are wrapped with a thin disk of masa and usually filled with a rich and spicy black bean purée. With roots in Mesoamerica, tetelas are thought to have originated in the pre-Aztec culture of the Mixtec people. They lived in the current Mexican states of Oaxaca and parts of nearby Puebla, where tetelas remain popular today. In this version, avocado leaves perfume the beans with hints of citrus and anise, but if you don’t have them, you can use a combination of parsley and tarragon instead. Tetelas can be served alongside a meal like hearty dinner rolls or as a side dish, topped with shredded lettuce or cabbage, salsa, crema, chopped cilantro and onion and a sprinkle of queso Cotija.

Rick A. Martínez · NYT Cooking

Gorditas are thicker and heartier than their flat tortilla cousins and are even easier to make. They don’t require a tortilla press and can be shaped simply by patting masa dough flat. Once cooked, they are often split in the center like a pita and filled with stewed meats and vegetables. Their extra thickness helps to absorb guisos, braises, and to hold their structure and shape when they are stuffed with saucier fillings like pork pulled off the bone from encacahuatado de costillas de cerdo. Gorditas also can be served uncut and used like a thick tortilla for swiping through mole negro.

Rick A. Martínez · NYT Cooking

This beloved dish often starts with unsoaked dried beans, which are traditionally cooked in an olla, earthenware pot, or other types of clay pots, such as a cazuela de barro. Any pot works and the seasonings are generally simple — usually onion, garlic, herbs and sometimes lard or pork — but the resulting flavor is rich and complex. A staple throughout Mexico, this dish varies from region to region in the types of beans used and include pinto beans, black beans and Mayocoba beans. Eaten as is as a side or a main dish, frijoles de olla also can be puréed, smashed or refried and used as a sauce or a filling for dishes like tetelas.

Rick A. Martínez · NYT Cooking

Any reservations you might have had about making corn tortillas from scratch will disappear the moment you taste them: warm, soft and chewy, they actually taste like corn. Freshly made masa purchased from a Mexican market or tortilleria will give you the most soulful flavor and texture, but masa harina is a close second that turns out tortillas that are still miles ahead of packaged ones. When mixed with water and salt, masa presses easily into rounds if it’s properly hydrated according to the tips below. A staple of the Mexican table, homemade tortillas are served with most meals the way bread is in other countries. And while outside Mexico, tacos may be their most well-known use, they can be toasted to make tostadas; stuffed, rolled and fried to make taquitos or flautas; or bathed in a chile, bean, tomato or mole sauce to make enchiladas, enfrijoladas, entomatadas and enmoladas.

Rick A. Martínez · NYT Cooking

Refried beans, a staple of Mexican cuisine, is a flavorful side dish that’s surprisingly easy to make at home. (They’re not really fried twice — “refried beans” is derived from their Spanish name, frjoles refritos, which means “well-fried beans.”) Throughout Mexico, the beans are cooked in freshly rendered lard, which adds a deep, caramelized pork flavor. In this quick recipe, smoked bacon stands in for the lard while chipotle pepper in adobo adds heat, sweetness and a long-simmered flavor that makes canned beans taste homemade. For a meatless version, replace the bacon with half a bell or poblano pepper, and swap the vegetable oil with 3 tablespoons of olive oil. You can easily make a double batch and freeze the leftovers. Store in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Rick A. Martínez · NYT Cooking

Originating with the Taíno people of eastern Dominican Republic, barbacoa is a method of cooking meat whose name comes from the Arawak word barbaca. In Mexico, barbacoa is a style of slow cooking large cuts of beef, lamb, goat and pork. Depending on regionality, the meat is cooked over an open fire or in an underground pit called a pibil, wrapped in agave or banana leaves, often covered with earth, then slow roasted overnight. In this version, beef is oven roasted at a low temperature in a sauce made from dried chiles, herbs and spices, until the meat is so tender it easily shreds.

Rick A. Martínez · NYT Cooking

In Spanish, tostada is used as an adjective and a noun to refer to a tortilla that has been toasted on a comal or griddle, crisped in the oven, or in some regions of Mexico, fried until golden brown. Stateside, store-bought corn tortillas are made using preservatives to extend their shelf life, but they can also add a sour taste and smell to the product. This is masked by toasting or frying them, which enhances the flavor of the corn, making them taste more like something you would find in Mexico. Tostadas can be used to hold whatever fillings you want to pile on top, but in this recipe, chorizo and canned beans make a quick meal perfect for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Rick A. Martínez · NYT Cooking

These chicken and avocado-stuffed arepas, which are known as reina pepiada (or curvy queen), were created in honor of Susana Dujim, a Venezuelan beauty queen who was crowned Miss World in 1955. The 1950s also marked the invention of precooked corn flour, now known as masarepa, by a Venezuelan engineer. But arepas were around for hundreds of years throughout Latin America before that, the corn patties sometimes served whole or split, then filled with countless combinations. Preparing them used to be labor-intensive, but masarepa gives arepas a light and creamy texture without a lot of effort. Unlike cornmeal used for cornbread or muffins, which is ground dried uncooked corn, masarepa is ground from cooked corn and conveniently sold as dried corn flour. Masa harina is ground uncooked corn treated with other ingredients and is used to make tortillas and other dishes. Neither cornmeal nor masa harina can be substituted for masarepa, which is available online and in many supermarkets.

Rick A. Martínez · NYT Cooking

In Spanish, taquitos means “little tacos,” and depending on where you are in Mexico, they can refer to small tacos, breakfast tacos, or stuffed, rolled and fried tacos. If they’re the latter, as in this recipe, medium-size tortillas are typically used, whereas when larger tortillas are used, they are called flautas (or flutes). When choosing your tortillas, freshness is more important than size — they need to be soft and pliable so they won’t crack when rolled. Pick up the bag of tortillas at the store and gently bend the stack; if they are stuck together, stiff or you see any broken edges, they are probably old and will be difficult to roll. Conversely, if there is condensation inside the bag, that generally means the tortillas were packed warm, have a higher moisture content and are likely fresh.

Rick A. Martínez · NYT Cooking

Tamales are a traditional Central and South American dish of masa, a corn dough, that is filled with meat, vegetables, cheese and seasonings, then wrapped in a corn husk or banana leaf and steamed. They have been around for thousands of years — the Aztec and the Maya people ate them — so there are innumerable delicious variations, but this Mexican version, which is known as rojos de puerco, is filled with braised pork and red chile sauce. Often served at special events like weddings, baptisms, first communions and the like, tamales are particularly important to Mexicans and Mexican-Americans at Christmas time during which tamaladas, or tamale-making parties, are hosted to divide the work, share the food and enjoy each other’s company. For convenience, this recipe calls for masa harina, a dried form of masa that can be found in most supermarkets and is reconstituted with water and fat, but if you can find fresh masa, use it for outrageously good, authentic results.

Rick A. Martínez · NYT Cooking

These quick tacos use leftover or store-bought rotisserie chicken, and have a satisfying crispy Cheddar frico called a costra (crust) that is common both in taquerias in the northern half of Mexico and in the southwestern United States. In some taquerias, you can order a taco using only the costra as the shell without a tortilla. In this recipe, the tortilla and costra are layered together to wrap a simple but delicious shredded chicken and chipotle filling.

Rick A. Martínez · NYT Cooking

This weeknight-fast soup — a common and comforting family meal in Mexico — is easy to prepare and uses ingredients typically stocked in the Mexican kitchen like beans, chorizo and fideo noodles. Puréeing the beans with chicken stock, tomatoes, oregano and spices gives the soup a rich and hearty finish, while bits of broken pasta and spicy chorizo add bite. Toasting the pasta adds a nutty depth to the flavor that, together with the fire-roasted tomatoes and stock, give the impression that this soup has simmered for hours, not 10 minutes.

Rick A. Martínez · NYT Cooking

Mole verde is one of the seven famous moles from the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. There are an almost infinite number of variations on this classic mole — the type of ingredients, the method of preparation, the length of time cooked and what is served with it. But what they have in common is their shade of green, from raw moles that are bright emerald green to the long simmered, charred vegetable mole that has a deep olive hue. This version gets its bright color from the spinach and cilantro, and its tang from the tomatillos with a little heat from the poblanos. It’s served topped with roasted broccoli and chickpeas for a vibrant vegan dinner but would complement a roasted chicken just as easily.