Everything You Need To Know About Chihuahua-Style Mexican Food

Food from the state of Chihuahua has a unique place in Mexico's culinary landscape. Chihuahua is located in northern Mexico, bordering Texas and New Mexico. The variety of staple ingredients commonly used there varies slightly from common ingredients you need to make good Mexican food, and Chihuahua-style dishes are quite different because of the cultural influences of Indigenous Peoples, Mennonites, and Mestizos, who have both Indigenous and Spanish ancestry.

The Indigenous Rarámuri tribe contributes dishes that use corn, such as chacales (dried corn soup), pinto and black beans, and salsa. The Mennonites are known for bringing queso Chihuahua, which is a nutty, semi-soft cheese similar to Monterey Jack, used liberally on Mennonite pizza, in soups, and for other dishes. Spanish colonists brought cattle in the 1500s, and beef became a large part of Chihuahuan food as a result.

You'll find beef in carne asada, which is made with grilled meats often marinated in chiles, citrus, and spices and made into toppings for tacos and burritos. Burritos and their often larger counterparts, burros, are a regional Mexican street food every foodie should try, and in Chihuahua, they're smaller and served with flour-based tortillas, compared to the corn-based tortillas used in most of Mexico.

Another well-known dish is Chihuahua-style beef barbacoa. This unique style, compared to the beef barbacoa from central Mexico, is heated in a pot with green and red salsa rather than being cooked in a pit. Common ingredients that round out the flavors of Chihuahuan cuisine include onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and spices such as cumin, which form the backbone of many of its dishes. 

Chiles are also prolific in Chihuahuan cooking. Chilaca de Anaheim, known as chile verde, is one of the four chiles Guy Fieri uses to make pork chile verde. Another chile, found almost exclusively in Chihuahua, is chile pasado, which is a flavorful chile that is roasted, sweated, peeled, and then dried. It has a well-developed, licorice-like flavor and is often used in tacos.

In addition to savory foods, you'll find plenty of desserts and drinks as well. Mexican Wedding Cookies, known as polvorones, are similar to shortbread cookies, usually containing nuts and powdered sugar. Another Chihuahuan specialty is the Mexican spirit sotol, distilled from the region's native Dasylirion plant. If you enjoy Mexican cuisine, the sheer variety of food from Chihuahua makes this region a must-visit culinary destination.