37 Cinco De Mayo Recipes To Boost Your Celebration

Every party, no matter how small, needs one thing: cake! There are some who'd argue that booze is the only true party essential, but we beg to differ since cake is something that can be enjoyed by young and old as well as people who plan to operate motor vehicles. For a Cinco de Mayo celebration, you can't do better than a Mexican-style tres leches cake. If you like, you can even top the whipped cream frosting with sliced strawberries and green-colored sugar to dress your dessert in the colors of the Mexican flag.

Recipe: Tres Leches Cake Recipe

Even if you're not quite up to making your own tortillas, you can always take a few baby steps in that direction with these DIY chips, instead. All you need to do is to take a package of store-bought tortillas and coat them with a thin layer of oil. (While this recipe calls for avocado or coconut oil, you can actually use any cooking oil you have on hand.) Cut the tortillas in wedges, salt them, bake them, then put them to use for dipping and other chip-like things. You could even make this recipe with flour tortillas in place of corn ones and swap out the salt for sugar. This way, you'd have sweet chips perfect for dessert nachos or dipping in chocolate sauce or honey.

Recipe: Homemade Tortilla Chips

So ubiquitous is guacamole at Tex-Mex restaurants that it almost seems as if it might be an American invention. As it turns out, though, everyone's favorite chip dip dates back to the Aztecs who called their avocado sauce ahuaca-mulli. The pre-Columbian version of the dish contained little more than avocados, tomatoes, onions, and cilantro, and those very same ingredients are in our recipe, as well. We've also added a little lime juice and salt, though, to bring it more in alignment with 21st-century tastebuds.

Recipe: Quick And Easy Guacamole

Should you prefer a non-alcoholic Cinco de Mayo libation, horchata is a lovely Mexican drink made from rice and almonds. While this might sound a bit unusual to the uninitiated, anyone who's tried it will tell you this rich, sweet beverage tastes like the best rice pudding you've ever had. No need to miss out on this treat even if you're lactose-intolerant or dairy-free, as you can still enjoy it by swapping out the milk for a plant-based version (almond or coconut would work particularly well).

Recipe: Easy Horchata

When we think raw fish, we generally picture a Japanese dish like sushi, but ceviche is a Latin-American version that's equally delicious in an entirely different way. Ceviche, unlike sushi, isn't exactly raw, though, as instead the fish – or, in this case, shrimp – is pickled in something acidic like lime juice. Yes, it's completely safe to eat, since the acid essentially "cooks" the seafood. Here we're dressing up our ceviche Mexican style with onions, tomatoes, jalapeños, and cilantro. Open a bag of chips for dipping and you'll have a perfect party dish.

Recipe: Authentic Mexican Shrimp Ceviche

Is the margarita a Mexican cocktail, or isn't it? We don't know for sure, as there are competing origin stories that take place on either side of the border. Still, whether it was first created in Tijuana or Texas, this drink is a staple at Cinco De Mayo celebrations all over the U.S. so we'd be remiss to leave it off our list. This recipe is for a somewhat sweeter version than the original cocktail since it adds agave nectar to the classic 3-ingredient blend of tequila, orange liqueur, and lime juice. If you have no agave nectar on hand but you like a sweeter 'rita, you can use simple syrup instead, or you can just go old-school and leave out the sweetener.

Recipe: Classic Margarita Cocktail

What gives Mexican rice its reddish color? No big surprise: It's tomatoes. This recipe actually gets a triple dose of tomatoey goodness from diced tomatoes, tomato broth, and a tomato-flavored bouillon called caldo de tomate. Where you live might impact whether the last-named ingredient is easy to come by, but if you can't find it where you shop, you could certainly substitute chicken, beef, or vegetable bouillon, instead.

Recipe: Authentic Mexican Red Rice

Pico de gallo is a condiment of many names as it is also known as salsa fresca and salsa cruda. The latter two names refer to the fact that the ingredients for this salsa are not cooked, but the first term actually translates to "rooster's beak." There are various theories as to how this name came to be – there are those who feel that the bits of tomato and pepper look somewhat like chicken feed, while others think that serrano peppers (which are often used instead of the jalapeño called for here) resemble this part of a chicken's anatomy. However pico de gallo earned its moniker, this thick and chunky salsa makes a great topping for meat, rice, and beans.

Recipe: Classic Pico De Gallo Recipe

Arroz con leche is Spanish for "rice with milk," but what it really is, is rice pudding. Our recipe makes for an especially sweet, rich, and creamy version of the dish as it's made with sweetened condensed milk in addition to whole milk. While the pudding shown here is topped with a simple sprinkling of cinnamon, for a special occasion like Cinco de Mayo you could top it off with whipped cream, nuts, and/or sliced berries to give it a more festive appearance.

Recipe: Easy Arroz Con Leche

Will caldo de pollo do as much good for the common cold as the more basic type of chicken soup is reputed to do? We don't know if it will make for a better cure, but the jalapeno peppers will help to wake up your taste buds. Plus there's lime juice bringing some much-needed vitamin C. Even if you're in perfect health, this soup is tasty enough to feature in your Cinco de Mayo celebration. Serve it as an appetizer for a multi-course meal, or pair it with a salad for something light.

Recipe: Caldo De Pollo (Mexican Chicken Soup)

So popular is the mangonada here in the U.S. that this spicy Mexican smoothie has made the transition from being a taco truck specialty to a featured menu item at chains like Baskin-Robbins and Dutch Bros. It's pretty easy to make at home, though, and if you use frozen mango chunks, you won't even have to wrestle with preparing this often hard-to-peel fruit. Sweeten the mango puree to taste with sugar or honey, then add some lime juice and chamoy. Finish things off with a sprinkling of Tajin, then lift a glass of this brightly-colored beverage in a toast to Cinco de Mayo.

Recipe: Sweet And Spicy Mangonadas

Tamales are a Christmas must-have for some families with Mexican roots, but they also appear on other holidays, as well. The reason the dish may be more of a special occasion food than an everyday one is that it does take some time to make. Still, this recipe breaks down every step for you from preparing the masa dough to cooking the ancho chile-spiced pork filling to filling the cork husks and steaming the tamales. You'll need to set aside about half a day to make the tamales. But think of how proud you'll feel when you serve up this super-authentic dish for your Cinco de Mayo dinner.

Recipe: Authentic Mexican Tamales

Elote in its on-the-cob form is fun to eat but does tend to be somewhat messy. Elote en vaso, however, is something you need not fear to dish up at an indoor gathering even if you have light-colored carpeting. Vaso, you see, means cup, although you'll probably want to serve this corn salad in bowls, instead. Doing so means that you can go as wild as you wish with mayo, sour cream, cheese, and hot sauce, and maybe even add a few extras like bacon bits, green onions, and crushed Flamin' Hot Cheetos. Pile the toppings on as you please, since there's no need to worry about them sticking to the corn.

Recipe: Corn In A Cup (Elote En Vaso)

What's the national cocktail of Mexico? If you guessed the margarita, try again. It's not even the michelada but is instead a far simpler drink called the Paloma. To make this Mexican summer refresher, all you really need to do is to open a grapefruit soda and add a shot of tequila. Here, however, we're making a fancier version with grapefruit juice and seltzer and dressing it up with a salted rim and a citrus wedge garnish.

Recipe: Classic Paloma Cocktail

If you want your bean burrito to be authentic, there's one more step you could take besides leaving out any rice, lettuce, tomatoes, and guacamole, and that is to make your own refried beans. It's really not difficult to do, especially if you start with canned pinto beans. All you need to do is saute some onion and garlic, season the beans, and then cook them just one time – there's actually no need for re-frying since canned beans are already cooked.

Recipe: Easy Refried Beans

Birria tacos are a trendy food hall favorite, but you can also make them at home if you're willing to put in the necessary prep work. The actual cooking takes place in a crockpot so that's pretty hands-off, except for the part in the middle where you have to stop and make the sauce. Once you're done, though, you'll have 5 pounds of deliciously seasoned meat. Go ahead and invite all the neighbors to your Cinco de Mayo fiesta, since you'll have enough birria tacos to feed a whole crowd.

Recipe: Slow Cooker Birria De Res Tacos

Mexican menus include a number of variations on the rolled tortilla with fillings, but enchiladas are one of the simpler ones since you don't need to fold them up origami-style to keep the fillings in, nor do you need to fry them. Instead, you just roll flour tortillas around a filling of cheese or meat – here we're going with shredded rotisserie chicken. A panful of enchiladas is then baked in a spicy (or not-so-spicy) sauce to make for a meal that's as enjoyable to eat as it is easy to prepare.

Recipe: Chicken Enchiladas

You might think that Mexican wedding cookies are named for the fact that they're all dressed up in bridal white, but these powdered sugar-coated confections are actually something that people serve at weddings in Mexico, go figure. We feel that these nut-studded goodies are equally suitable for Cinco de Mayo festivities, as well, but they're so simple to make that you may want to bake several batches. That way, you can have them on hand whenever you feel a cookie craving coming on.

Recipe: Melt-In-Your-Mouth Mexican Wedding Cookies

While there are many who feel that Cinco de Mayo won't be complete without a margarita or two, there are also numerous people of all ages who prefer booze-free celebrations. You might think that these two groups would be mutually exclusive, but that need not be the case since non-alcoholic mixed drinks, aka mocktails, have been having quite the renaissance lately. Some of these drinks may be made with zero-proof spirit substitutes, but others, such as this nonalcoholic margarita, make use of creative alternatives that aren't meant to imitate the missing booze but instead add a different element. In this recipe, grapefruit brings the astringency that would otherwise come from tequila, while orange extract takes the place of triple sec and lime juice plays the part of itself.

Recipe: Margarita Mocktail