Shopping Smart: The Best Mexican Cookbooks for Beginners

A first Mexican cookbook has a different job from a fifth one. It has to explain what a guajillo chile is before it asks you to toast one, tell you what to do when the store has no Mexican oregano, and show you what the finished enchiladas should look like. The great reference books on Mexican cooking were written for cooks who already know the basics. A beginner needs a book that teaches them.

This guide picks eight books that do that well: clear recipes, ingredients you can find in an ordinary American supermarket or online, notes on technique, and in most cases plenty of photographs. One of them is written for children. For each, we set out what the publisher and published reviews say the book contains, and who it suits.

Julia’s earns a commission on purchases made through links on this page, at no cost to you. Recommendations are based on what a Mexican kitchen looks for in a cookbook, publisher information, library catalog records and published reviews, which we cite.

Quick verdict: which beginner Mexican cookbook to buy

The other five cover the most detailed instructions, family-style party food, a short paperback to start on, a chef’s take on the basics, and a first cookbook for kids.

Five beginner Mexican cookbooks side by side

Five of the eight, one for each kind of new cook, with the details each publisher gives. All eight are described in full below.

Cover images from Amazon. Page counts and formats are for the editions linked; other editions differ.

The best Mexican cookbooks for beginners, book by book

These eight run from a television teacher’s everyday cookbook to a children’s holiday cookbook. For each we give what the publisher, library records and published reviews say it covers, and who it suits. We have not cooked our way through these books; where we describe a strength, we say whose view it is.

How to choose a first Mexican cookbook

A beginner’s cookbook succeeds or fails on whether you cook from it in the first month. These five questions help you pick one you will use.

1. Are the instructions written for someone who has never made the dish?

Look for headnotes that explain what the dish is, steps that say what “done” looks like, and notes on what to do when something goes wrong. America’s Test Kitchen goes furthest; Martínez explains through notes on every recipe; Olvera keeps things short but clear.

2. Can you buy the ingredients where you shop?

Every Mexican cookbook leans on a handful of staples: dried chiles, masa harina, Mexican oregano, canned chipotles, good tortillas. A beginner’s book should tell you which ones matter and what to use if you cannot find them. Our guide to Mexican pantry staples lists what is worth buying online, and Mexican chiles explained decodes the chile names you will meet.

3. Does it teach technique, or only list recipes?

The techniques that unlock Mexican cooking are few: toasting and soaking dried chiles, charring tomatoes and onions for salsa, frying a sauce to deepen it, warming tortillas properly. A good first book teaches them once and then uses them throughout. Our guide to Mexican cooking methods covers the same ground.

4. Are there photographs?

If you have never seen chilaquiles or tamales made, a photograph tells you more than a paragraph. Martínez’s book is the most visual here; older books, such as Kennedy’s classics on our main cookbook list, have very few photos.

5. How much time do you have?

Be honest. If you cook on weeknights, start with Mexican Everyday or My Mexican Favorites. If you cook on weekends for a crowd, My Mexican Mesa suits you better. You can always add the project books later.

The first tools and staples these books ask for

None of these books requires a professional kitchen. Most recipes need a heavy skillet or a comal for tortillas and toasting chiles, a blender for sauces, and a good knife. Our guide to Mexican cooking tools covers the rest. If a book tempts you into making tortillas from scratch, as Martínez’s does, read corn vs flour tortillas first and pick up a good masa harina.

How we picked these eight beginner cookbooks

We looked for what a new cook needs from a Mexican cookbook: clear, complete instructions; ingredients that can be found in the US; some teaching of technique; and, ideally, photographs. We then chose books that between them cover different kinds of beginners: family cooks, visual learners, weeknight cooks, detail-minded cooks, entertainers, people who want a short book, cooks drawn to a chef’s approach, and children. Every book was in stock on Amazon in the United States when we checked. We took page counts, years, formats and recipe counts from publishers (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Rock Point and becker&mayer! kids at Quarto, W. W. Norton, America’s Test Kitchen, Simon & Schuster, Page Street, Phaidon), library catalog records and bookseller listings, and descriptions of the books from named reviewers, all recorded in our notes. Where a figure differs between sources, we say so; where a publisher does not state it, we write “Not stated”. We describe what publishers and reviewers say; we have not cooked every recipe in these books. We left out books in short supply on Amazon, such as Marcela Valladolid’s Mexican Made Easy and Familia, and print-on-demand titles from unknown authors. We also left out Coco: The Official Cookbook, which is sometimes shelved as a family cookbook: School Library Journal’s reviewer found that it assumes prior knowledge and experience.

Beginner Mexican cookbook questions, answered

What is the easiest Mexican cookbook for a complete beginner?

Mexican Today is the best all-round first book. If you want something shorter, My Mexican Favorites keeps to 60-plus popular recipes in a 160-page paperback. If you want the most hand-holding per recipe, choose America’s Test Kitchen’s The Best Mexican Recipes.

Which Mexican cookbook has the most photos?

Of the books here, Mely Martínez’s The Mexican Home Kitchen. The reviewer at Kavey Eats reported that most recipes are photographed and some show step-by-step pictures.

Is there a good Mexican cookbook for kids?

The Día de los Muertos Cookbook, for ages 8 and up, has 13 recipes and 5 activities from becker&mayer! kids. For teenagers who want a full cookbook, Mexican Today or The Mexican Home Kitchen will serve them for years.

Do I need special ingredients to start cooking Mexican food?

A few. Dried chiles, masa harina, Mexican oregano and canned chipotles in adobo turn up again and again. America’s Test Kitchen’s book is written around supermarket ingredients, and Martínez’s notes suggest substitutions. See our pantry staples guide for where to buy the rest.

What should I buy after my first Mexican cookbook?

A teaching book with more depth. Rick Bayless’s Authentic Mexican and Diana Kennedy’s The Essential Cuisines of Mexico are the usual next steps, and our full guide to the best Mexican cookbooks covers them and eight others.

Where a beginner should start

Start with Pati Jinich’s Mexican Today if you want one book for everyday family cooking, The Mexican Home Kitchen if you learn by seeing, or Mexican Everyday if your cooking time is short. Cook from it for a month, stock the pantry as the recipes ask, and then move up to the classics on our list of the best Mexican cookbooks.

And on the nights you would rather not cook at all, see the menu or call to order.