22 Copycat Mexican Restaurant Recipes (2024)

FAQs

How do Mexican restaurants get their ground beef so fine? ›

Mexican and Tex-Mex restaurants boil raw ground beef with water and seasonings until cooked through to achieve a super fine texture, and the aforementioned Maid Rite sandwiches (aka Loose Meat Sandwiches, which are NOT Sloppy Joe's!) use steam to keep the cooked ground beef soft after cooking.

Why does Mexican restaurant rice taste better? The method used to make Mexican rice involves lightly frying the uncooked rice in oil which helps it absorb more flavor from the seasoning and cook to a perfect consistency. In addition, a traditional blend of spices and diced vegetables and potatoes create unique flavor.

The traditional rice served in Mexican restaurants is typically made with long-grain white rice cooked with onions, garlic, tomato sauce or fresh tomatoes, and sometimes flavored with broth or spices like cumin and chili powder.

The most popular Mexican ingredients are beans, rice, avocado and limes. They're utilized in nearly every dish, from hearty enchilada casseroles to creamy drinks like horchata. Read on to learn the top ingredients in Mexican cooking and to find some recipe inspiration for your next taco or burrito night at home!

When it comes to using fats in recipes, you won't find butter in classic Mexican cuisine. Today, most cooks will use vegetable oil, but the more traditional fat to cook with is lard. Lard, which is pig fat, gives a wonderful flavor to refried beans and the masa (cornflour dough) used for tamales.

Since the pre-Columbian era, corn, squash, chile peppers, and beans have formed the base of the Mexican diet. In addition to these key staples, Mexican food makes ample use of other native American foods, including tomatoes, green tomatoes, avocados, potatoes, prickly pear cactus, chocolate, and turkey.

With garlic and onions as the savory cornerstone, the most common Mexican spices and herbs are coriander, allspice, cloves, thyme, Mexican oregano, Mexican cinnamon (ceylon), cumin and cacao which showcase the breadth of Mexican food.

Lots of livestock in Mexico are given Clenbuterol to promote lean muscle mass and for the animal to grow faster. This is most likely the reason for the diff taste.

The rice should be a tiny bit on the dry side (but still soft and fluffy). If your rice is really wet and mushy, you probably added too much water and/or overcooked it.

Use Fresh Herbs and Chicken Stock

Next, add chicken stock instead of salted water and let the rice boil on high heat for two minutes. Then, lower the heat and allow the rice to steam. “The rice will smell so fragrant from the thyme and garlic, with the thyme enhancing the flavor to another level,” he says.

Do Mexicans use sazon? ›

For many Latin American families, the kitchen has to be stocked with a few key ingredients. There are the dried goods such as grains, rice and beans, liquids like oils and vinegars, marinades like adobo and sofrito, but just as crucial are the salsas and, of course, the sazón.

Spanish rice has a firmer texture and stronger aroma compared to Mexican rice, it gets its sweet yet savory flavor as well as its golden color from saffron. As it is more absorbent, Spanish rice is also better suited for dishes that need to be slow cooked.

Photo: This is Texas Rice. A bed of rice with grilled chicken, steak, and shrimp also bell peppers, oni.

Rice comes into play because it absorbs moisture even faster than salt. You're familiar with the lifesaver of putting your water-damaged phone in a bag of uncooked rice? It's the same concept. By adding just a few grains of rice to your salt shaker, restaurants can guarantee that your salt will pour with ease.

Mole poblano is perhaps the best known of all mole varieties. An ancient dish native to the state of Puebla, it has been called the national dish of Mexico, and ranked first as the most typical of Mexican dishes.

Some of the most popular vegetables in Mexico are tomatoes, onions, and peppers since they're used to make salsas. Other traditional Mexican vegetables include garlic, squash, cabbage, nopales, and more.

Traditional flour tortilla recipes call for animal lard to be added to the tortilla mix, making them unsuitable for vegetarians. In any case, the use of lard is declining in Mexico and commercial flour tortillas are usually made with vegetable oil.

Chilaquiles is one of the most popular Mexican breakfast dishes. They are prepared with deep-fried tortillas soaked in either a red tomato-based sauce or a green sauce made with tomatillos. The best part? It is topped with a dollop of cream, grated cheese, and onion slices.

What are 5 important ingredients in Mexican cuisine? ›

Traditional Mexican Food History: It's All About That Spice

A food with authentic Mexican flavors needs to have used spices that are originally from Mexico. Two of the most important spices in Mexican cuisine would be oregano and cumin. The Mexican oregano is different from the oregano you know from Italian cuisine.

Southern Mexico: While northern Mexico favors beef as its main meat, the south prefers chicken. Corn tortillas are a staple to this area and are served at almost every meal. Black beans and plantains are also typical ingredients.

Boiling ground beef is the best way to cook it so that it comes out in small, fine crumbles. Trust me, this is the secret to all those amazing tacos and pasta sauces at your favorite restaurant! It's also a healthier option, because the boiling process helps separate the fat from the meat, and it comes out quite lean.

Authentic Mexican tacos can be made with plenty of different fillings, but I don't think you'll find ground beef as one of them.

About Restaurant Style Mexican Ground Beef:

And I think you'll love this easy well-seasoned ground beef. I took a few cues from Mexican recipes and would call this something along the lines of a carne picada or molida, which are prepared sometimes with ground or “minced” beef, and sometimes with other proteins too.

A steak has bacteria on the outside which is immediately killed when you throw it in a hot skillet or grill. When beef is ground, you essentially chop or grind up all the surface area, and the bacteria sitting on the surface is brought into the meat and distributed throughout.