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CLOSE5 Mexican Recipes for Cinco de Mayo
Mexican food has become hugely popular in the UK over the last few years, with the number of Mexican restaurants across the country rising by 71% in 2014 alone! British households love it for being relatively easy to cook, family friendly, and packed with smoke, citrus and chilli flavours.
Cinco de Mayo is recognised as a huge celebration of Mexican culture and heritage outside of Mexico, and particularly in the USA (though it isn’t actually celebrated as a major holiday in Mexico itself). To help you get in the mood for a little fiesta of your own on 5th May this year, we’ve picked out five of our favourite easy Mexican recipes below.
Take a look and let us know your favourite in the comments!
Mole (pronounced ‘mo-lay’, just in case you thought we were talking about the underground variety…) is the national dish of Mexico. Though there are loads of different versions of the sauce and a wide range of ingredients that can be used, it’s usually rich, dark and made with chillies and dark chocolate. While traditional Mexican mole requires stirring and a long session of simmering, we’ve come up with a quick version that coats shredded chicken breast in a sauce made from Green & Black’s Dark Chocolate – mmmmmmmm!
Read the recipe here!
Chicken tinga, originating in the city of Puebla to the southeast of Mexico City, is a shredded chicken dish coated in a tomato and chipotle chilli sauce. Its popularity is partly because it’s so easy and quick to make (our recipe is ready in 20 minutes!) and partly because it’s a perfect meaty, moreish comfort food. Tinga refers to shredded and stewed meat – it’s traditionally served in tacos with a squeeze of lime; we’ve kept the lime and swapped tacos for tortillas for an easy, assemble-your-own dish.
Read the recipe here!
The genius of the quesadilla lies in its simplicity; two tortillas are filled with cheese and then grilled or toasted, with delicious results. The British equivalent would probably be a cheese toastie, but it’s the range of Mexican ingredients that can be added to quesadillas that make them so much more than melted cheese. This vegetarian recipe for quesadillas includes homemade refried beans along with corn and spring onion for crunch, with smoky chipotle paste and mayo to make a perfect dip for your toasted triangles.
Read the recipe here!
Taquitos are rolled tortillas that are usually filled with meat and cheese. We’ve veered away from the traditional fillings with for our easy vegetarian taquitos, filling them with feta and sweet potatoes before baking them in the over (rather than frying, which is usually how taquitos are prepared).
Read the recipe here!
While chili con carne is the official dish of Texas, the name and origins of this perfect dish for families and parties alike belong to the Spanish-speaking world. Our recipe features a combination of chorizo (from Castellanos, our Bristol-based expert charcutiere) and British beef, alongside sweet red pepper, all simmered in a tomato, chipotle and paprika sauce. Served alongside lime rice and over-crisped tortilla shards for dipping into the sauce, this has to be one of the most popular Mexican dishes in the world.