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Ingredients

Makes 4 to 6 servings

¼ cup / 60ml safflower oil, plus more if needed

1 garlic clove

1 whole chicken, cut into 6 pieces

3 Yukon gold potatoes, peeled or not, cut into large (1- to 2-inch / 2.5 to 5cm) chunks

½ white onion, finely diced

2 cups / 480ml Salsa Verde

1 cup / 20g cilantro leaves, finely chopped

Corn Tortillas, warmed

Avocado, for serving

Directions

Warm the oil in a 4 qt / 3.8L Dutch oven or heavy-bottom stockpot over medium-high heat. Skewer the garlic clove on the tines of a fork and swivel it through the hot oil. The oil should be hot enough that the garlic sizzles and turns golden. Once this happens, remove the garlic and set it aside (don’t throw it away).

Add 2 or 3 chicken pieces, skin-side down, to the hot oil. Don’t overcrowd the pan. You are not cooking the chicken through, just searing it, allowing the skin to brown slightly, which brings out the flavor when it stews. The chicken skin will stick at first, but will release fairly easily once it’s done searing. Using tongs or a slotted spoon, flip each piece of chicken to sear the other side. Then remove the seared chicken and set aside on a plate while you continue to sear the rest of the pieces on each side. Set it all aside while you cook the potatoes.

Using the hot oil in the bottom of the pan (add a bit more, if needed), brown the potato chunks just as you did the chicken, adding them in a single layer and allowing them to turn golden on each side before flipping them. You are not cooking the potatoes through, just searing them; this also helps bring out their flavor and keeps them from falling apart in the stew. Once they’re a light golden color, remove them and set them on a plate.

Now take that clove of garlic that you used to swivel in the oil before you cooked your chicken and slice it fairly thinly. Add the sliced garlic to the oil in the pan, along with the onion, and sauté until soft and lightly browned. Strictly speaking, you could skip this step, since the salsa has plenty of flavor, but I really like the texture of the minced onion.

Add the salsa to the pot, along with the chicken pieces and potatoes. Bring it to a boil, cover, decrease the heat, and simmer for about 30 minutes. Cut into a thick piece of chicken and chunk of potato to confirm they’re cooked through. Shred the chicken for best results.

Sprinkle the cilantro over the stew. To serve, scoop the chicken over some tortillas, top with some fresh avocado and cilantro.

The tinga can be stored in a sealed container in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days.

You can also serve this plate with warm refried beans on the side, its a heartwarming meal that will always bring you comfort.

Recipe Courtesy of My Mexico City Kitchen

*All products available for purchase are tagged in the recipe.

Serving: 1

Hot level: Low

Ingredients:

1 shot of tequila

15 ml of lime juice

65 ml of tomato juice / Clamato

Half a stick of celery for garnishing

2 squirts of Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon of Valentina Hot Sauce

Salt

Ice

Instructions:

If you’d like to rim your glasses with salt, run a lime around the glass rim and twist it onto a plate with salt. You will get a beautiful rimmed glass with salt. Then fill half of the glass with ice cubes. Add the tequila, two squirts of Worcestershire sauce, the lime juice, one teaspoon of the Diablito hot sauce and salt to taste. Mix the ingredients well with a teaspoon or a metal rod, and then add the tomato juice. You can use Casa México's Clamato, which is a mix of tomato and clam juice. Alternatively, you can make your own fresh tomato juice by simply blending one tomato, half a small cucumber, one clove of garlic, a teaspoon of vinegar, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Once you added the juice, taste and add more Diablito hot sauce for more heat. Finally, garnish with the celery stick or a lime wedge or any crazy garnish you can think of, we've heard of crispy bacon, chili shrimp, whole chilies, the possibilities are endless!

Enjoy!

A vegetarian pozole, the base is a generous pile of mushrooms (any kind works) that are cooked until their juices release and they start to brown. A green seasoning sauce made from tomatillos, poblanos, and an optional serrano is added and cooked to thicken, then the hominy and broth get mixed in. Finally, like all pozoles, it is garnished to taste—I like pungent radishes, fragrant oregano, crunchy onion, tender leaves of cilantro, and a healthy squeeze of lime juice. Chased with bites of crunchy corn tostadas and it’s a pozole that even a rojo devotee can love. Find the recipe on by clicking on this link.

3. The Easy Mole

 Mole sauce, the epitome of Mexican food, is made from chilli peppers, cocoa and corn, and was already used before the colonial period as a filling for tortillas served at important meals. The name mole is derived from chilmolli in nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, the word chil meaning chilli pepper and molli sauce or ragout. Make this easy mole sauce and enjoy it chicken or with vegetables, it goes well with potatoes, plantains and nopales. Find the recipe on by clicking on this link.

4. Esquites for snacking!

When you buy Mexican street corn from a cart in the park or the public plaza you have two options: on the cob called elotes or in a cup called esquites. The cart will always be loaded with toppings for your corn; lime juice, mayonnaise, grated cheese, chili powder, butter, and hot sauce so that you can personalize your cup. In this recipe we’re making esquites, the street corn off the cob in a cup. Be ready to add it to your favorite dishes because you will love it! Find the recipe on by clicking on this link

5. For the sweet tooth: Tamales Dulces

Because we know you can't get enough of our sweetness, here we have one of our favorite savory sweet tamales with quince paste and in ode to our host country of Portugal, we will use a very traditional sheep's cheese called queijo de azeitaõ, this can be subbed by any soft white cheese you find in your country. Find the recipe on by clicking on this link.

*All products available for purchase are tagged in the recipes.

What is a Paloma? Paloma means dove in Spanish, and it is the most loved cocktail in Mexico after the Margarita. The classic Paloma drink has a clean, crisp flavor of grapefruit that is balanced out by the sugar in the grapefruit soda. Squirt Grapefruit soda is the most commonly used soda because it is so refreshing!

If you are not into sugary sodas or if you are trying to keep your drinking calories low, use fresh grapefruit juice, sparkling water and your sweetener of choice. If you’re using this option you can steep the habaneros in your sweetener until it becomes aromatic and flavored by the habanero, this should be done the night before.

Serving: 1

Hot level: Low

Ingredients for Habanero simple syrup:

3 dried Casa México Habanero chiles or fresh habaneros

1 cup of water 2 cups of sugar

Ingredients for the Paloma:

25 ml of lime juice 2 oz Tequila (blanco) or Mezcal Amáras

4 oz Squirt or grapefruit sparkling water mix

For rim:

Lime or Grapefruit wedge (optional)

Fresh habanero (optional)

Tajin Chili powder Ice

Preparation: 1. Habanero Simple Syrup: Start by adding the water and sugar in a pot and mixing until the sugar dissolves into the water over medium heat. Add the habaneros whole into the pot and bring to a boil, keep stirring until you can smell the habaneros dissolving into the syrup about 10-15 minutes on LOW heat. If you want a more intense flavor chop the habaneros as they will release more spiciness into the syrup. Let it cool before handling, store in a glass container.

2. Rim the glass with Tajin chili powder

3. Place a couple of ice cubes inside the glass 4. Add the tequila, lime juice and add the spicy syrup 5. Pour in the Squirt 6. Stir to combine 7. Garnish with lime wedges or fresh habaneros!

Enjoy!

Ingredients

Makes about 12 tamales

2 cups / 260g masa harina, mixed with 1 to 1¼ cups / 240 to 300ml water (as directed on this page)

5 Tbsp / 70g butter, softened

⅓ cup / 65g granulated sugar

6 oz / 170g queijo de azeitaõ cheese

6 oz / 170g ate de membrillo / quince paste

Greek yogurt for garnish

Directions

Begin by placing your corn husks to soak in a large bowl of warm water to soften while you prepare the ingredients.

Place the fresh masa or mixed masa harina in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or, if you prefer to do this by hand with a whisk, in a large bowl. You want to whip up your masa to get as much air into it as you can, making it fluffy. The more it’s worked, the lighter the tamales will taste. After beating it for 3 to 4 minutes, add the butter 1 Tbsp at a time and continue to whip it until it’s well incorporated. Then add the sugar and mix for an additional 1 to 2 minutes.

Cut your azeitaõ cheese and ate de membrillo into 12 equal logs, approximately 2 x ½ inches / 5cm x 12mm. They should look like half of a string cheese stick. It’s not crucial that they be perfectly tidy and uniform as they will be tucked inside the tamales; you just want them to fit within the masa and for each tamal to have about the same amount of both cheese and quince paste.

Take your softened corn husks out of the water they’ve been soaking in, squeezing out any excess moisture. Open one up and place “about 3 Tbsp / 55g of the masa mixture in the center of the husk. Use the back of a spoon or a spatula to spread it into a rectangle that’s about 3 x 2 inches / 7.5 x 5cm and about ½ inch / 12mm tall. It doesn’t need to be precise, just big enough to hold the fillings with enough corn husk on all sides so that you can wrap it up and no filling will ooze out. Place one log of cheese and one log of quince paste at the center of the masa and then bring the sides of the corn husk together, sealing the filling inside the masa. Now fold up the bottom of the corn husk so that the whole tamal is contained “inside the corn husk, then roll it up from the side.

The tamal should be “closed” on the bottom and open on top. Use a second corn husk to bind it further. There really isn’t a science to wrapping tamales. What’s important is that the insides stay as tight as possible and that no masa comes out during steaming. Repeat this process with the rest of the masa and filling. If you want, you can cut one of the corn husks into ribbons and use these ribbons to tie up the tamales for extra insurance.

Once you’ve finished, place a steamer basket in a stockpot and add 2 to 3 inches / 5 to 7.5cm of water. Place all of your tamal packages in the pot and bring to a simmer. Cover the pot and let the tamales steam for 20 to 25 minutes, monitoring about halfway through the process to make sure that there is still a good inch or two of water at the bottom of the pan and adding more water if necessary. After 20 minutes, take one out and open it up to test if it’s done. Cut into one with a knife to ensure that the masa has the consistency of firm polenta and doesn’t ooze at all; the halves should cut cleanly and stay intact. Serve with a spoonful of the yogurt.

As with savory tamales, these can be cooked, stored in the refrigerator, and then reheated simply by steaming them again, and they will taste just as good as when they were freshly made.

Recipe Courtesy of Gabriela Camara's “My Mexico City Kitchen" Cookbook.

#TamalesMexicanos #NavidadesMexicanas #ChristmasSpirit #AtedeMembrillo #MaketheMasa

Ingredients

Serves 12

2 3-pound chickens, cut into serving pieces (For Pork Pozole, substitute with 6-pounds pork shoulder/butt)

Kosher or coarse sea salt

2 ancho chiles, rinsed, stemmed and seeded

1/4 cup chopped white onion

Pinch of ground cumin

1 teaspoon Kosher or coarse sea salt

Accompaniments, as desired

1 head romaine lettuce, thinly sliced

Dried ground chile, such as piquín

Dried Mexican oregano

Tortilla chips or tostadas

Refried beans

Directions

Place the chickens in a large pot and add water to cover by at least 2 inches. Add the onion, cilantro and 1 tablespoon of salt and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, partially covered, until the chicken is cooked through and tender, about 40 minutes. Drain, reserving cooking broth.

When the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove skin and bones and shred into bite-sized pieces. In the pot, combine the hominy and 2 cups of water with the shredded chicken and its broth. Taste for salt, add more if necessary and cook for 10 minutes or more; the pozole should be soupy.

Mexican cook's trick: Keep in mind that if you decide to substitute for the Pork option, the pork takes twice as long to cook, reserve the broth to add to the pozole.

For Chile Puree,

Place the chiles in a medium saucepan, cover with water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Simmer for 10 minutes or until soft. Place the chiles, along with 3.4 cups of their cooking liquid, the onion, garlic, cumin, cloves and salt in a blender or food processor and puree until smooth. Pass the puree through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl, pressing on the solids with the back of the wooden spoon to extract as much liquid and essence as possible.

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat until hot but not smoking. Add the chile puree and bring to a boil, then simmer for 6-8 minutes, partially covered with a lid (because it will be pungently good you may cry), stirring occasionally, until thickened, remove from the heat.

Stir in the chile puree to the while pozole and cook for 20 minutes for the flavors to fully macerate. Taste and adjust the salt.

Serve the pozole in large soup bowls, with the garnishes in bowls on the table so guests can customize their pozole experience.

Hominy, or maíz cacahuacintle, also known as giant white corn or maíz mote pelado, looks like corn kernels gone wild. White and super meaty, these giant kernes are an excellent and healthy choice for any stew our soup. Hominy is rich in Vitamin b, has about 4g of fiber per single cup, almost half the calories than white rice (120 calories vs. 250 calories in rice), naturally gluten-free and virtually zero fat (1 gram per cup).

Recipe Courtesy of "Pati's Mexican Table" Cookbook.

Check out our online shop to stock up on the products needed for this recipe here or follow the links directly on the ingredients section!