11 Best Mexican Cookbooks

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11 Best Mexican Cookbooks to Read in 2022

To expand your cooking repertoire, look to any of these informative Mexican cookbooks. We researched the top-rated options so you can choose the right cookbook.

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Mexican flavor and cuisine are diverse and complex, so there’s more to it beyond what you can find at your local restaurants or taquerias. If you’re just beginning your Mexican-cookin’ journey or if you want a deeper look into the cuisine, here are some of our favorites Mexican Cookbooks for you to check out.

  • The Food of Oaxaca
  • Casa Marcela: Recipes and Food Stories of My Life in the Californias
  • My Sweet Mexico: Recipes for Authentic Pastries, Breads, Candies, Beverages, and Frozen Treats

Best for Mexican Cookbook for Newbies: The Art of Mexican Cooking: Traditional Mexican Cooking for Aficionados

Diana Kennedy is an authority on traditional Mexican cuisine who has spent most of her life living in Mexico and studying Mexican cuisine. Her cookbooks include nine others, including this one, which feature hundreds of classic delicious recipes that she sourced directly from traditional Mexican cooks.

It includes detailed instructions on how to make dozens of different types of tamales, stuffed peppers, and chiles rellenos. She also highlights key Mexican spices, herbs, and vegetables, so readers can learn how to select and prepare them properly.

close up of delicious mexican tacos

Best Regional Recipes: The Food of Oaxaca: Recipes and Stories from Mexico’s Culinary Capital

Oaxacan cuisine is renowned throughout Mexico for its dedication to fresh, regional foods and traditional methods of preparation. In this cookbook, author Bricia Lopez (owner of Guelaguetza in Los Angeles) and chef Javier Cabral share the homey bean and egg dishes, mole sauces, and stewed soups that Lopez grew up with, plus the typical Oaxacan salsa and snack foods.

With beautiful photography, the book takes readers straight to Oaxaca, where they can see the dishes, the people who make them, and the cultural traditions that give Oaxacan cuisine its unique Mexican flavor. A bonus feature is Lopez’s personal story about growing up in an immigration-owning family and the challenges of balancing two cultures.

Best Mexican Cookbook For Everyday Cooking: Rick Bayless – Mexican Everyday

What would happen if you tried to eat at every restaurant mentioned in Rick Bayless’ book? Would you get full or starve? If you want to try out some of his recipes, check out our guide to Rick Bayless’ Top 100 Restaurants.

Rick Bayless has become known as the king of Chicago cuisine thanks to his books, television shows, and restaurants. He also hosts a weekly show called The Spice Trail where he travels around Mexico to explore its food culture. In his latest book, Mexican Everyday, he shares his favorite dishes from each region of Mexico.

This book contains over 200 recipes that include regional favorites such as mole poblano, tacos al pastor, and tamales de pollo. These recipes are simple enough to cook at home but offer authentic flavors that you won’t find anywhere else.

Best Texas-Mexican: Truly Texas Mexican: A Native Culinary Heritage in Recipes

Texas Tech University Press

Author Adán Medrana’s detailed cookbook explains why the term Tex-Mex does not apply here. Medrana’s 100 recipes are regional Texas specialties, handed down by generation of Mexican families in Texas who, he argues, eats these foods at home, rather than Tex-Mex combination plates.

In a calm voice, he walks his audience through foundational Texas-Mexican Dishs such as beef stew with serrano chili-cumin-pepper sauce, flour and corn tortillas, homemade chorizos and eggs, potatoes with roasted poblanos, and even a simple plate of roasted peppers smothered with cheese, stuffed into tortillas. There’s also an informativ3 history section that describes the roots of Tex-Mex cuisine and how it has evolved.

common mexican food tomatoes, chilis, cilantro, herbs, corn

Best for L.A.-Mexican: L.A. Mexicano: Recipes, People & Places

If you’re even remotely interested in Mexican cuisine in Los Angeles, then this is an essential read. It’s not just about the authentic recipes; it’s about the history behind them, too. And it’s about the culture surrounding Mexican cuisine in Los Angeles.

He includes his favorite recipes from some of the city’s most famous Mexican restaurant chains, including Taqueria El Farolito, Tacos el Paisa, and La Fonda de Santa Fe; but he also includes profiles of local chefs and personalities who run their own eateries, as well as his helpful tips for finding good ingredients.

Best Fusion Mexican Cookbook: Chicano Eats: Recipes from My Mexican-American Kitchen

Esteban Castilla’s bright, whimsical cookbook has real substance, ushering readers into his life as an LGBTQIA+ first-gen Mexican American, who expresses himself through his genre-bending cuisine. He pulls from memories from his favorite Mexican candied treats to craft recipes like Duvalín Jell-O (three layers of chocolate hazelnut gelato, vanilla bean, and strawberry), and Alitas de Gusanos (chicken wing slathers in a tamarind chilie sauce). True Mexican comfort food.

He reimagined the simple cheese-and-tomatoes tortas that his mother used to make for his dad before work as toasted Telera rolls piled high with chorizos spiced delicatas squashes. You’ll find traditional Mexican dishes from his mom’s roots in Colima, plus drinks, cocktails, and snacks, too.

Best for Cookbook for Entertaining: Casa Marcela: Recipes and Food Stories of My Life in the Californias

Harvest

Food Network host and chef Marcela Valladolí creates fun, inventive dishes in her new book, which offers a glimpse into her busy home life. She doesn’t typically prepare traditional Mexican cuisine, having grown up in Tijuana and living in San Diego before moving to Paris.

Each recipe emphasizes fresh ingredients and creativity. You’ll find recipes that feature classics, such as green pozo­le, traditional salsas and fish taco, plus more inventive dishes such as a huetla waffel (a huitlachochea-infused waffel benedict), salmon with tangi­tory roasted tomatilloes, and candified popcorn slathered a chipotli-honeysauce syrup.

Best for Mexican Desserts: My Sweet Mexico: Recipes for Authentic Pastries, Breads, Candies, Beverages, and Frozen Treats

Ten Speed Press

For this book, Fany Gerson scouted out bakeries, candymakers, and confectioners in Mexico City, where she found the country’s most famous sweet creations. She then translated these into English, creating an extensive guide to the country’s most popular sweets. It includes recipes for some of Mexico’s most well-known baked goods, from cookies and cakes to pastries and breads.

There are also recipes for classic Mexican desserts, such a three-layer flor de calabaza (sweet pumpkin pie) and flor de jocote (custard tart).

Gerson also highlights Mexico’s long history of making sweets, from milk fudge to sweet potatoes. She shares recipes for some of these classic treats, such as jamoncillo de la leche (milk caramel), and camotitos de yuca (sweet potatoes).

Best Vegetarian: La Vida Verde: Plant-Based Mexican Cooking with Authentic Flavor

Page Street Publishing

Plenty of Mexican foods are naturally vegan. In the book, author Jocelyne Ramirez recreates traditional Mexican favorites using ingredients that are completely plant derived. She creates ceviche with hearts-of-palms instead of seafood, tacos al pastor with Jackfruit instead of pork, sopes with walnuts infused with dried tomatoes and spices, and so much more!

mexican food red sombero

Newest Release: Provecho: 100 Vegan Mexican Recipes to Celebrate Culture and Community

Ten Speed Press

Highlights Include:

  • Amazing photos
  • A short summary of each recipe
  • Includes some hard-to-find ingredients

With over a decade of experience as a vegetarian, chef and recipe developer, Edgar Castrejon has mastered making many of his childhood favorites into meatless renditions without sacrificing flavor. The introduction of the book features essential spices to keep on-site and common plant-based substitutes including aquafaba and canned Jackfruit. Once the kitchen is well-stacked, some of the most popular recipes include the Pozole Roja, Quesadillas de Platanos, and Cashew-Based Crema.

Best Keto: Chiquis Keto: The 21-Day Starter Kit for Taco, Tortilla, and Tequila Lovers

Keto dishes sure became a staple for Chiquis’ weekday show.

Rivera’s first cookbook. The first two chapter in particular are well suited to those just starting to experiment with “ketogenic” diets. Rivera breaks down how – and which – proteins, fats, vegetables and sweets are allowed when adhering to this particular dietary regimen.

She then rolls out a number of recipes, including a variety of quick Mexican dishes, as well as a few cocktails, that home cooks will enjoy as much as they do the text itself. Must tries including her low carb margarita, jalapeno ham taquito, and chi mifftins.

Mexican Cookbook Honorable Mentions

Best Mexican Cookbooks In Spanish: Sabor by Nieves Barragán Mohacho

Nieves Barragan Mohacho is the acclaimed chef and owner of one of London’s most acclaimed Spanish restaurants, Sabor. She started out at London’s Barrafina restaurants where she climbed the ranks to executive chef, winning Barrafina Frith Street a Michelin Star in the process.

Despite her chef background, this is a cookbook rooted in the more humble cooking of her Basque upbringing. A celebration of ingredients and flavor, these are recipes for sharing, from comfort family cooking – think: chorizo and potato stew – to lighter bites, like seafood skewers and stuffed piquillo peppers.

Best Mexican Cookbook Of All Time: The Mexican Home Kitchen: Traditional Home-Style Recipes That Capture the Flavors and Memories of Mexico

For Mely Martínez, Mexican cooking has always been about family, community, and tradition. Born and raised in Tampico, Mely started helping in the kitchen at a very young age, since she was the oldest daughter of eight children, and spent summers at her grandmother’s farm in the state of Veracruz, where part of the daily activities included helping grind the corn to make masa.

Mely started her popular blog, Mexico in My Kitchen, to share the recipes and memories of her home so that her son can someday recreate and share these dishes with his own family. In the meantime, it has become the go-to source for those looking for authentic home-style Mexican cooking.

Best Mexican Cookbook of All Time: MEXICO: The Cookbook BY MARGARITA CARRILLO ARRONTE

Mexico: The Cookbook is as Mexican food bible featuring 700 recipes showcasing the rich diversity and flavors of Mexican cuisine.

Mi Cocina: Recipes and Rapture from My Kitchen in Mexico by Rick Martínez

You can take a 20,000-mile journey through Mexican cuisine, including 32 states and 156 cities, in Mi Cocina by Rick Martínez. Martínez hosts multiple food-focused YouTube series, food writer, and a podcast, and you can find some of his mouthwatering recipes on New York Times Cooking and Food52.

When traveling, researching, and writing this cookbook, Martínez was determined to show the great diversity and depth of Mexican food from coast to coast. These recipes recreate some of the taste memories from his journey, and even more, provide readers with helpful techniques and lists of essential tools and ingredients for Mexican cooking.

The cookbook is organized into seven Mexican regions, and it includes beautiful photos that will take you on a trip to Mexico from your own kitchen.

The Mexican Keto Cookbook by Torie Borrelli

In contrast to the typical Mexican American diet–the result of busy schedules, tight budgets, and high-sugar, white flour foods of convenience– The Mexican Keto Cookbook is packed with authentic, full-flavored, health-conscious recipes designed to burn body fat.

Authentic Mexican Recipes by Mexican Abuela On Youtube

De mi Rancho a Tu Cocina – YouTube

mexican family with mexican food recipes

Mexican Cookbook FAQs

What spices are typically used in Mexican cooking? To be a good Mexican chef you need to stock up on these five ingredients: Salt, Ground Black Pepper, Oregano, Cumin, White Pepper, Paprika, and chicken stock cubes.

What are some essential ingredients to keep on hand for cooking Mexican food? List of ingredients you’re likely to use a lot in the beginning:

  • Corn Tortillas
  • Fresh or Dried Cilantro
  • Spicy Jalapeno
  • Fresh epazote
  • Queso fresco
  • Poblano peppers
  • Chorizo sausage
  • Beans – dried or canned
  • Pork lard
  • Beer (jajaja)

What basic cookware is required for making Mexican food? Most Mexican famous chefs will use the items listed below:

  • Comal
  • Tortillas press
  • Scraper
  • Potato peeler
  • Blender
  • Strainer
  •  Variety of Casserole dishes

Best Mexican Food Revealed Here!

What is Mexican Oregano?

10 Best Mexican Hot Sauces Reviewed Here

Ramona Rogers

Ramona Rogers is a blogger who writes about a variety of topics, including personal growth, traveling, cooking, shopping and self-improvement. With a warm and engaging writing style, she aims to inspire and empower her readers to live their best lives and pursue their passions. Through this blog, Ramona shares her own experiences and insights, as well as practical tips and strategies for achieving success and happiness. Whether she's writing about overcoming challenges, building healthy habits, or finding purpose and meaning in life, Ramona's goal is to provide her readers with valuable and relatable content that will help them on their own journeys of self-discovery and growth.

Email: ramona@mexico-newsletter.com

Address: Los Angeles, California, United States of America

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