Ingredient

Ancho chiles Recipes

4 recipes with ancho chiles for weeknights, meal prep, and quick ingredient searches. Choose by time, cuisine, and what is in your kitchen.

4 recipes

Salsa Macha with guajillo chiles, ancho chiles and peanuts — Mexico recipe

🇲🇽MexicoMedium

Sauces and Dips

Salsa Macha

Salsa macha is a Mexican chili oil from Veracruz — dried chilies, raw peanuts, sesame seeds, and garlic fried in oil, then coarsely blended into a thick, chunky paste. The name likely comes from macho ('bold' or 'strong'), though some cooks trace it to machacar, the pounding motion used to crush ingredients in a molcajete. Active cooking takes about 25 minutes; the salsa then needs at least an hour of hands-off resting for the flavors to settle before it's ready to eat. It tastes smoky, nutty, and fruity from the dried chilies, with a heat that builds slowly rather than hitting all at once, and keeps in the fridge for up to a week, tasting better after the first day.

25 min280 kcal10 serves

🌿Vegetarian🌱Vegan🌾Gluten-free

Birria Tacos with Consommé (Mexican Quesabirria with Beef and Chile Broth) with beef chuck roast, beef short ribs and guajillo chiles — Mexico recipe

🇲🇽MexicoAdvanced

Meat Dishes

Birria Tacos with Consommé (Mexican Quesabirria with Beef and Chile Broth)

Birria tacos with consommé are crispy red corn tortillas filled with shredded chile-braised beef and melted cheese, served with a small bowl of the rich red braising broth for dipping. The dish originated in the Mexican state of Jalisco as a goat stew (birria de chivo); the modern beef quesabirria taco version exploded from food trucks in Tijuana around 2018 and became the most viral Mexican street food of the early 2020s. Three dried chiles do the heavy lifting: guajillo for fruity tang and red colour, ancho for raisiny earthiness, and a couple of chiles de árbol for heat. Active work is 30 minutes, the braise handles 3 hours of transformation. Serves 6 with 16 tacos and consommé to dip.

210 min750 kcal6 serves

💪High protein🌶️Spicy🌾Gluten-free

Mole Poblano (Mexican Chicken in Chocolate Chili Sauce) with chicken, ancho chiles and mexican chocolate — Mexico recipe

🇲🇽MexicoAdvanced

Meat Dishes

Mole Poblano (Mexican Chicken in Chocolate Chili Sauce)

Mole poblano is Mexico's most celebrated sauce — a deep, dark, layered blend of dried chiles, toasted nuts and seeds, dried fruit, spices, and a little Mexican chocolate, ladled over tender chicken. Born in the convents of Puebla, it's famously complex, with well over a dozen ingredients ground and simmered into a glossy, bittersweet-spicy sauce. It doesn't taste of chocolate; the cacao just deepens the whole into something rich and unforgettable.

150 min560 kcal6 serves

💪High protein🌶️Spicy🌾Gluten-free

Tacos al Pastor with pork shoulder, dried guajillo chiles and achiote paste — Mexico recipe

🇲🇽MexicoAdvanced

Meat Dishes

Tacos al Pastor

Tacos al pastor are thin slices of pork in a chile-and-achiote adobo, cooked beside caramelised pineapple and tucked into small corn tortillas. A trompo gives the original its moving flame and shaved edges; at home, a very hot skillet and patient batches get close where it counts. The meat needs acid, a little sweetness and real char, not a pile of wet sauce.

525 min610 kcal4 serves

🌶️Spicy💪High protein🌾Gluten-free

Ingredients

Goes well with

Other ingredients that appear most often alongside ancho chiles across the archive. Pick one to drill deeper.

peanuts sesame seeds garlic chicken mexican chocolate almonds pineapple corn tortillas