Mexican cuisine is far more varied than most people realize. And, as much as we love the classic dishes that have become popular in the United States (think tacos and guacamole) there is so much more to discover when it comes to the food and cooking (and desserts and drinks!) of Mexico. That’s why we’ve rounded up these recipes — to celebrate the rich and sophisticated flavors that developed when indigenous ingredients like corn, chiles and chocolate met Spanish culinary customs. There are more far more regional dishes worth mentioning than we can highlight here, but these recipes make for a good starting place — including this one for savory puntas de res.

A dry spice rub on the meat imparts a great deal of flavor, and a luxurious sauce coats the stewed beef, tomatoes and fresh chiles gueros that are mellow but have just enough of a kick and a whole lot of flavor. This dish is a classic and the flavor punch will keep you coming back for another tortilla-full.

This fruity and refreshing drink is so simple to make. Just puree cubed, seeded watermelon with a little water in a blender, until smooth. Then, pour over a mixture of muddled mint leaves, sugar and lime slices. Best of all, agua fresca (which can be made with a variety of different fruits) pairs perfectly with just about any Mexican dish you’re serving up.

This dish is based on the famous chile-rich, boldly spiced birria stew credited to the Mexican state of Jalisco. For quesabirrias, a specialty of Tijuana, the tender meat is folded with cheese into corn tortillas and pan-seared until golden for an irresistible treat. Although birria itself is traditionally made with goat, this recipe, like many popular variations, uses beef.

Vibrant tomatillos combined with garlic, jalapeño and cilantro makes an easy and flavorful Mexican-style salsa verde (green sauce) that’s perfect for topping tacos or as a dip for crunchy tortilla chips. Roasting the vegetables in a hot pan gives the salsa depth and is an excellent contrast to the lightly sweet and acidic flavor of tomatillos. One of the advantages of making your own salsa is that you control the amount of heat in it: Leave the seeds in the jalapeños for a boldly spiced sauce or take them out for a milder one.

Atole is a traditional hot Mexican beverage that is thickened with masa, sweetened with piloncillo and flavored with cinnamon. It is typically enjoyed at breakfast or after dinner with pan dulce. Though some people strain the finished drink right before serving (and others don't strain at all), this version strains the masa slurry before adding it to the milk to ensure the smoothest consistency.

Chilorio is a stewed pork guisado from the state of Sinaloa on the Mexican Pacific coast. The first thing you will notice is its striking crimson red color. Chilorio is a perfect match with breakfast potatoes to bring you back to life after a long night. Also try it tucked into some flour tortillas and tightly rolled for the best Northern-style burrito lunch.

The chile-based sauce known as mole is one of Mexico’s most treasured dishes, and Oaxaca's mole negro (black mole) is one of the most famous of dozens of varieties of mole. The sauce’s name comes from its dark hue and smoky taste, a product of deeply toasted dark dried chiles — such as chilhuacle, mulato and pasilla negro chiles, all native to Oaxaca — and from toasting and charring the other ingredients as well.

Enchiladas from the Mexican state of Oaxaca are made with a red chile sauce. Ours has raisins to pull the fruit flavors from the ancho chiles and add a touch of sweetness. The pork is braised with aromatics and seasonings that turns into a deeply flavored blended sauce. Frying the tortillas a bit before rolling them gives them a durability that is important when assembling the dish.

The swirls on the tops of these Mexican sweet breads (pan dulce) resemble the swirls of a seashell, which is where the name concha comes from ("shell" in Spanish). Conchas are ubiquitous at Mexican panaderías and can come in a variety of flavors and colors.

Tetelas are a traditional antojito (street food) from the Mexican region of Oaxaca. Filled with refried beans and Oaxacan cheese, these little masa pockets are shaped like triangles and typically cooked on the flat griddle known as a comal. We filled this delicious version with homemade refried beans made from black beans, jalapeños, onion and garlic. You can serve them as a snack, appetizer or lunch or dinner. They’re typically made with blue-corn masa but you can use any color you find at your local grocery store.

This marinated, shredded beef is perfect for tostadas, burritos, tacos and even sandwiches. Better yet, this recipe makes a big batch so you can easily store some in the freezer and be one step ahead on nights when you don’t have time to cook from scratch.

Recipe developer Jacqueline Tris says, "Fideo soup always reminds me of my mom; this would be her go-to soup whenever I was sick or needed to be cheered up. It's an easy and comforting Mexican dish made with a tomato base and toasted noodles. Fideo refers to the type of noodle used — a short, thin noodle, similar to a broken spaghetti or vermicelli. The soup is also known as sopa aguada and can be made with different noodles. My favorite type growing up were little pasta stars similar in shape to pastina."

Grilled street-style corn is a staple all over Mexico. You will often see the corn being grilled in its husks over fire — but you can achieve great results on a stovetop. This recipe offers options for each. In both versions, you cook the corn in its husks to develop that smoky and sweet flavor that goes so well with creamy mayo, sour cream and salty Cotija cheese, making it one of the most delicious street foods you can find.

Salsa macha, which hails from Veracruz, Mexico, brings a sweet heat and chunky texture to the table. Chile de arbol brings most of the heat, so add more if you prefer a spicier sauce. Keep an eye on your ingredients while toasting them so they don't burn, which can add a bitter flavor to your salsa.

Marcela’s take on this delicious, deep-fried treat couldn’t be easier: she uses pre-made tortillas. Leave them whole or cut them into any desired shape before frying, then toss in cinnamon-sugar. It’s that simple!

Pozole verde hails from the state of Guerrero located in Mexico's Pacific coast. It is traditionally served with pork and topped with chunks of chicharron. In this version, I use shrimp instead of pork for a lighter version of the dish. The plump shrimp shines against the backdrop of the rich nutty broth, the brightness from the tomatillos and herbs and the mellow heat from the fresh serrano chile.

Once you've tasted a homemade margarita, you may never go back to the store-bought stuff. Tequila, lime juice and agave syrup are all you need for this classic, refreshing drink.

Sticky, sweet and sour, chamoy is as delicious as it is versatile. The condiment is beloved in Mexico, where it is drizzled over mangos, jicama and cucumbers, used to rim summertime drinks, mixed into cocktails and layered in mangonadas (just for a start). Though store-bought versions abound, it is easy to make from scratch with a mix of dried fruits, hibiscus flowers, chili powder, and sugar. Some recipes—like this one—also include tamarind. Homemade chamoy tends to be thicker than commercial types: If you want to, you can thin yours by adding more water.

Ceviche de camaron (shrimp ceviche) is easy to make and refreshing, and a crunchy tostada is a perfect way to serve it. Mexican ceviche is typically made with mild fish or shrimp that’s cooked by the acid in lime juice. In the Sinaloa region along the Sea of Cortez, seafood tostadas are often served topped with mayonnaise, the inspiration for the spicy mayo sauce in this recipe. You can find tostada shells premade at Mexican grocery stores but they’re quite easy to make yourself and delicious fresh. For best flavor be sure to use freshly squeezed lime juice (not bottled) in the ceviche and make sure your shrimp is super-fresh.

The eggs in this beloved breakfast dish are sauced with a ranchero-style sauce of roasted tomatoes, spicy ancho chiles and smoky chipotles. To make breakfast easier, make the sauce ahead of time and reheat to serve, adding a bit of water to thin if necessary.

Beer-battered halibut is fried to a golden crisp, then topped with shredded cabbage and salsa for the ultimate fish taco.

This classic Mexican candy is made with real tamarind pods and often rolled in chile, chile-lime seasoning or sugar (or a combination). The tamarind balls are sweet with a mouth-puckering tartness and a bit of heat. There are two versions here—one with chipotle powder—so add more or less depending on your heat tolerance.

Calabaza en tacha (or candied pumpkin) is a traditional dish made during the celebration of Día de los Muertos. Here in the United States, kabocha squash or pumpkin can be substituted for the hard-to-find calabaza de Castilla typically used in Mexico. Though different regions use different spices, such as cloves or star anise, Mexican cinnamon is always used. The dish can be enjoyed many ways: as a dessert topped with sweetened condensed milk and chopped nuts, as a midday snack or served cold for breakfast, with milk poured over it.

Caesar salad is often thought of as an Italian classic, but the famous dish was likely invented at Caesar's Restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico. For this esquites recipe (which means shaved corn) we pay homage to the anchovy-laced salad by replacing the traditional mayo-sour cream mixture often served on street corn with a Caesar-style dressing made with sour cream, garlic and what some say was a key ingredient in the original Caesar recipe: lime juice.

Tyler keeps his take on Mexican flan traditional, flavoring it with vanilla bean, cinnamon and lemon.

Birria is a spicy Mexican meat stew. Here, Marcela shreds beef short ribs and marinates them in a broth of California chile peppers, pasilla and ancho chile peppers, tomatoes and onion.

Calabacitas literally translates to "little squash," and a la Mexicana means it incorporates the colors of the Mexican flag—white, red and green—from onions, tomatoes and chiles. This vegetarian dish can be served as a side dish, main dish or with tortillas to make tacos. If you can’t find summer squash, zucchini works just as well.

Mixiote are seasoned packets of lamb, rabbit or chicken that are wrapped in agave and steamed on the stovetop or cooked in a barbecue pit (mixiote refers to the thin layer of membrane found in the agave stalk). Since not everyone has easy access to fresh agave, parchment paper makes a fine substitute. The secret to the dish, which is a great addition to a Noche Buena feast, is the marinade: an adobo made with full-flavored dried chiles, warm spices and dried avocado leaves. If you can’t get the last, a combination of bay leaves and mint adds a similar herbiness and liveliness to the dish.

If you’re a fan of caramel, this dessert is for you. Cajeta is the Mexican equivalent of dulce de leche, except that cajeta is made with goat’s milk (instead of cow). If you can’t find cajeta at your local supermarket or specialty food store, you can easily substitute another caramel. You’ll still get wonderfully delicious results!

These churros are extra special: crispy and sweet on the outside, custardy and soft on the inside, like a fried cream puff dusted in cinnamon sugar. Organic sugar is key for the coating— it adds flavor and crunch.

Although chilaquiles is commonly served for breakfast, we’d gladly eat this Mexican staple any time of the day. And since this clever take uses store-bought chips (and eliminates the need to fry your own corn tortillas) it’s easy to enjoy whenever the craving strikes!

Take grilled corn on the cob to new heights by dressing it in the popular Mexican street food style — with mayonnaise, cotija cheese, chile powder and fresh lime.

This popular no-bake Mexican dessert is easy to put together, light and refreshing. The name means “strawberries with cream” in Spanish, and that’s what the dish is at is simplest: Fresh sliced strawberries combined with a mixture of creamy ingredients. In this version sour cream, crema and condensed milk are beaten together for a rich and airy sauce.

The most famous soup from the Yucatan, sopa de lima highlights the subtle, sweet, bergamot-like flavor of limas, a type of citrus from the region. Meyer lemon is a close second from what we can find in the U.S. The soup is traditionally seasoned with a classic recado, a mixture of warm spices, garlic and bitter orange (naranja agria) juice, and the chicken is usually boiled plain. In this rendition, the chicken gets a recado rub and is marinated for a few hours to capture the essence of the spices. Browning the chicken until crispy and then cooking it through in the soup builds on the flavors that keep you coming back for more.

We love the smoky combination of cascabel and guajillo chiles. Using two varieties of dried peppers creates a complex sauce with wonderful depth of flavor, so we recommend seeking them both out. Look for the best-quality corn tortillas you can find. They will have a better flavor and texture and will be easier to work with.

Use tomatillos and fresh hot green chiles to get great color and flavor for this green salsa.

An enchilada stuffed with juicy chicken and covered with mole sauce is an excellent way to showcase mole coloradito, one of the seven moles of Oaxaca. Coloradito typically calls for brioche or other bread to thicken the sauce; I like using sourdough for the slightly funky flavor it brings to the mole. Chocolate and plantains are common in this version as well, but I prefer mine without these to emphasize the flavors of the other ingredients. This recipe is a great way to demonstrate one of my favorite Mexican cooking techniques: refrying. Refrying is the process of cooking something again in an extremely hot saucepot to give it more character and depth of flavor.

Bobby's tacos pack a big punch in a small package by using three different types of chiles: dried ancho chile peppers, New Mexico chile peppers and cascabel chile peppers.

These mini masa cakes take a bit of work but are so worth it — once you get the technique down you can use them as the base for any variety of your favorite toppings.

Aaron's brownies get their kick from Mexican cinnamon and pequin chile powder. If you can't find pequin, just substitute cayenne pepper.

You'll need extra napkins on hand to wipe up all the juices from Melissa's three-hour-braised pork tacos.