[RECIPE] Famous Mexican Foods - Delicious, Classic Dishes

By KC Kudra


The best selling Mexican junk foods are not the same as the most famous Mexican foods if you are looking at authentic Mexican food recipes. Forget Taco Bell and Tex Mex inventions if you want to know what real Mexicans eat.

Tortillas are a Mexican staple and are eaten daily in Mexico, served alongside a meal. In the south of Mexico, tortillas are often made from maize and in the north, they are usually made from flour.

Recipes for Mexican Tortillas
Tortillas are used in many typical Mexican food recipes. They can be fried to make tacos, broiled to make quesadillas or rolled and baked to make enchiladas. Enchiladas are coated in a chili and tomato sauce, filled with pork, chicken, or vegetables, and then baked. They are usually quite mild, despite the chili content.

Quesadillas are tortillas, which are stuffed with cheese. This is a simple Mexican recipe, which is frequently served with salad or beans. If you prefer your tortillas fried, you can make tacos. Taco fillings include pork, chicken, beef, or vegetables.

Famous Mexican Sauces

The word salsa means sauce, although some Mexican salsas are thick and chunky, rather than thin and sauce-like. Mole sauce is a chili, chocolate and spice based sauce. It can be green or red and is often served over turkey or chicken.

Pipian sauce, which is popular in the Oaxaca region of Mexico, is made from pumpkin seeds. It is green and goes nicely with chicken.

Red Snapper Veracruz Style

Fish and seafood is very popular in the Veracruz region of Mexico and the following Veracruz recipe for red snapper, known locally as Huachinango, combines this tasty fresh fish with a flavorful marinade and other ingredients such as bay leaves, chicken broth, onion, and tomato.

Huachinango is found on many menus in coastal Mexican areas. This recipe makes enough to serve six people.

Traditional Huachinango Recipe

You will need:

    1 whole red snapper (about 3 1/2 lbs), cleaned and de-scaled
    1/4 teaspoon black pepper
    1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
    2 tablespoons water
    Juice from 2 limes
    3 chopped cloves garlic
    2 bay leaves
    1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
    1 sliced onion
    1/2 cup chicken broth
    Vegetable oil, to saute
    3 tablespoons dried parsley
    Salt, to taste
    1 tablespoon capers
    12 whole green olives
    8 pitted green olives, finely chopped
    6 pickled chilies
    1/2 cup homemade tomato puree (tomatoes, water, and olive oil)
    4 plum tomatoes


How to make it:

Score the fleshy part of the fish with a sharp knife and leave the head and tail on. Mix the lime juice, water, garlic, clove, and black pepper together and pour this marinade over the red snapper. Let it marinate in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Pour a tablespoon of the oil into a hot pan and sear the snapper on each side for several minutes. Add the chicken broth, then the onion, bay leaves and oregano. Add the tomato puree and the whole plum tomatoes.

Next, add the chopped olives, capers, and pickled chilies. Add salt to taste and simmer for 15 minutes. Sprinkle the parsley and whole olives over the fish before serving it. You can serve this red snapper recipe with rice and salad.

With a family of six, five guys and my wife you can imagine that great food has always been a way of life in our household and having lots of different easy recipes to choose from is very important. Well when the guy factor kicks in that means only one thing will fill that craving, Mexican food, and the more the better. Not that greasy fast food Tex-Mex stuff but real healthy authentic Mexican food you will love.