What Mexican cooking involves

Most sessions start at the stove with a dry griddle. Dried chiles go on first, then tomatoes, onion and unpeeled garlic go on to blister and char. The chiles soak in hot water for 20 to 30 minutes, everything is blended with salt and a splash of acid, and the sauce is often fried briefly in a little oil to deepen it. That one routine is behind salsas, enchilada sauce, chilaquiles and stews. Corn dough (masa) is the other pillar: pressed thin for tortillas, or beaten with fat and steamed in corn husks for tamales.

Three directions to grow into

Tortilla makingPressing and cooking your own corn tortillas from masa harina, the single biggest upgrade to tacos and enchiladas.

Start here

Mix a small batch of masa harina with hot water, press a dozen tortillas and cook them on the comal; expect the first few to tear while you find the right dough texture.

Rick Bayless: Corn Tortillas

Tamale makingMasa beaten with lard, spread on soaked corn husks around a filling and steamed; a project dish that is traditionally made in big batches with friends.

Start here

Plan a weekend afternoon for a 12-tamale batch: soak the husks first thing, make the filling, then beat the masa and fill while the steamer heats.

Rick Bayless: Green Chile Chicken Tamales

Salsa makingBuilding a repertoire of table salsas, raw and roasted, red and green, including the coarse texture only a stone mortar gives.

Start here

Char tomatoes, garlic and a jalapeño, then grind them in a molcajete and compare the texture with a blender version of the same salsa.

Rick Bayless: Roasted Tomato Salsa (Salsa de Molcajete)

Your first week

A full-frame pile of small, glossy dried red chiles — Small dried red chiles, the heat in the starter salsa

The tested starter recipe

Rick Bayless: Bold Red Chile Salsa Toasted árbol and guajillo chiles blended with garlic, vinegar and salt. Needs a few fresh garlic cloves besides the kit, plus a blender.

What you can cook in your first month

Toasted red chile salsa

The starter recipe, and the fastest way to learn how far to toast a dried chile.

Guajillo chile sauce

The same toast, soak and blend routine thinned with water and simmered, ready to spoon over eggs or fried tortilla chips.

Charred tomato table salsa

Tomatoes, garlic and a fresh chile blackened on the comal, then blended or ground.

Fresh corn tortillas

A stack of a dozen from masa harina, once you have a tortilla press.

A first tamale batch

Twelve chicken tamales with a green salsa filling, steamed on a slow afternoon.

Choosing and caring for a comal

A comal is a flat, rimless griddle, and it is the tool you will use in nearly every session. Look for one that is heavy for its size, at least 10 inches across so it fits two tortillas or a handful of chiles, and sits flat on your burner without rocking. Cast iron holds heat evenly and lasts for life; thin carbon steel heats faster but hot-spots more. Before each session, wipe it clean and preheat it until a drop of water sizzles away. After cooking, scrape it, rinse with hot water only if needed, dry it on the burner and wipe on a thin film of oil so it does not rust.

Skills to focus on early

Toasting dried chiles

Seconds, not minutes, per side. A scorched chile turns the whole sauce bitter.

Rehydrating and blending

Soak until soft, blend with fresh water rather than the bitter soaking liquid, and strain if the skins stay gritty.

Charring on the comal

Let tomatoes, onion and garlic blacken in spots for smoky depth without cooking them to mush.

Reading masa

Tortilla dough should feel like soft clay and not crack at the edges when pressed; tamale dough should be light enough that a spoonful floats in water.

A stack of homemade corn tortillas folded into a white kitchen towel — Fresh corn tortillas resting in a towel

Chile safety

Wear nitrile gloves when stemming, seeding or chopping hot chiles, and keep your hands away from your eyes, nose and face until the gloves are off and your hands are washed.
Ventilate when toasting or roasting dried chiles: open a window or run the range hood, because the fumes make people cough and sting the eyes.
When blending hot soaked chiles, fill the blender no more than half full, vent the lid and cover it with a towel so the steam does not blow the top off.
Check the tamale steamer's water every 20 to 30 minutes and top it up with boiling water so the pot never boils dry.

Tamales wrapped in corn husks heaped in a big steaming pot, a cook behind the steam

What trips beginners up

Dough, heat, time and salt

Expect the first tortillas to crack or stick; it is almost always the dough's water level, not your technique.
Expect heat levels to vary from bag to bag of the same chile, so taste a small piece before you add a whole handful.
Expect a tamale batch to take most of an afternoon the first time, with steaming alone running about 75 minutes.
Stop under-salting salsa; it tastes flat until it is seasoned, then suddenly bright.
Stop buying dried chiles in tiny spice-aisle jars; whole bags from a Latin grocery or online are fresher and far cheaper per ounce.

Where to keep learning

Rick Bayless and Pati Jinich have both taught Mexican cooking on US public TV for years, and both keep large free recipe libraries online. His recipes lean toward restaurant-tested regional dishes; hers lean toward home-style family cooking. Between them you can find a tested version of almost any dish you want to try next.

Free recipe libraries

Why the kit looks like this

The base kit is the starter salsa's shopping list plus the two things you will reach for every session: a comal and a box of gloves. Dried chiles and spices are cheap and keep for months in a sealed bag in a dark cupboard. Everything else waits for the direction you choose: a press, masa and a warmer for tortillas; a steamer, husks, tamale masa and lard for tamales; a stone molcajete for salsa. A blender and a skillet are assumed, since most kitchens already have them.

Fresh red and green chiles, heads of garlic and husked tomatillos piled on weathered wood — Fresh chiles, garlic and tomatillos from the market

Stock the despensa

The base kit is the starter salsa plus a comal and gloves. Tortilla, tamale and salsa gear waits behind each direction's add-on. Clicking a card selects it in the kit, and clicking the selected card again takes that line out.

Cast iron comal

Essential · Core equipment

A flat, rimless griddle for toasting chiles, charring tomatoes and garlic, and warming or cooking tortillas; it gets used every session.

budget

Lodge Round Seasoned Cast Iron Griddle, PFAS-Free, 10.5 Inches

4.6(45,897)

$24.90

Mexican Cooking

What Mexican cooking involves

Three directions to grow into

Your first week

Choosing and caring for a comal

Skills to focus on early

Chile safety

What trips beginners up

Where to keep learning

Why the kit looks like this

Stock the despensa

Cast iron comal

Dried guajillo chiles

Dried chiles de árbol

Apple cider vinegar

Kosher salt

Disposable nitrile gloves

Dried Mexican oregano

Tortilla press

Masa harina for tortillas

Tortilla warmer

Tamale steamer pot

Dried corn husks

Masa harina for tamales

Pork lard

Molcajete