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Bacalao a la Mexicana
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The Christmas Eve salt cod of central Mexico, slow-stewed with tomato, manzanilla olives, capers, almonds and pickled chiles güeros. The pot that anchors the Nochebuena table from Ciudad de México to Puebla.
Main Dishes
Mexican
Christmas
Holiday
Make Ahead
30 min
Active Time
1 hr 15 min cook•1 hr 45 min total
Yield10 to 12 servings
This is the Nochebuena dish of central Mexico. Ciudad de México, Puebla, the State of Mexico, Tlaxcala. The 24th of December would not be the 24th of December without a cazuela of bacalao on the table. Not bacalao a la vizcaína, the Basque original. Bacalao a la mexicana, what central Mexico did with the Spanish dish over four centuries until it became something else entirely.
The chile güero is what makes it ours. Long, pale yellow, brined in vinegar with carrots and onions, sold by the jar in every market in the country. Set them whole on top of the stew so each diner can take one with their bacalao. That heat against the sweet jitomate and the briny olives is the signature of the mexicana version. Take the chile out and you have something Spanish. Leave it in and it belongs to us. Cada estado, su propia cocina, and this one belongs to the center.
My mother made bacalao every Christmas Eve. She started desalting the cod on the 22nd, changing the water before bed, before breakfast, before lunch, talking to the bowl like it was a child. The pot came together on the morning of the 24th and sat covered on the stove all afternoon while the rest of the kitchen worked on the romeritos and the ensalada de Nochebuena. By eight o'clock at night the bacalao had been sitting for ten hours and tasted like it had been waiting all year. La cocina no es decoración, es trabajo, and bacalao is the proof.
Do not rush the desalting. Do not skip the tomato reduction. Do not use canned tomato sauce. And do not, under any circumstances, leave out the chiles güeros. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.
Bacalao arrived in Mexico in the 16th century through Spanish merchant routes that brought salt-cured cod from the North Atlantic to the colonies, where it became a Lenten and Christmas staple precisely because it could survive the journey and the months in port without refrigeration. The mexicana version diverges from the Basque bacalao a la vizcaína by replacing the dried choricero peppers with fresh ripe tomato and incorporating the pickled chile güero, a New World ingredient that gave the dish its distinctly central Mexican identity by the 19th century. The Norwegian klippfisk trade, which by the late 1800s supplied much of the salt cod consumed in Mexico, is the reason Norwegian bacalao remains the preferred variety in Mexican kitchens today, even over Spanish or Portuguese cod.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
dried salt cod (bacalao seco)
Quantity
2 pounds
preferably Norwegian skinless and boneless
ripe Roma tomatoes
Quantity
3 pounds
good olive oil (Spanish or Mexican)
Quantity
1 cup, plus more as needed
white onions
Quantity
2 large
finely chopped
head of garlic
Quantity
1
cloves peeled and finely chopped
small waxy potatoes
Quantity
1 pound
peeled and cut into half-inch dice
pitted manzanilla olives
Quantity
1 cup
whole or roughly chopped
capers
Quantity
1/2 cup
drained
blanched almonds
Quantity
1/2 cup
lightly toasted
pickled chiles güeros (chiles largos en escabeche)
Quantity
1/2 cup whole, plus 1/4 cup of their pickling liquid
flat-leaf parsley
Quantity
1/4 cup, plus more for serving
finely chopped
bay leaves
Quantity
2
dried Mexican oregano
Quantity
1 teaspoon
freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
kosher salt
Quantity
only if needed
bolillos or telera rolls (optional)
Quantity
for serving
pickled chiles güeros (for the table) (optional)
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| dried salt cod (bacalao seco)preferably Norwegian skinless and boneless | 2 pounds |
| ripe Roma tomatoes | 3 pounds |
| good olive oil (Spanish or Mexican) | 1 cup, plus more as needed |
| white onionsfinely chopped | 2 large |
| head of garliccloves peeled and finely chopped | 1 |
| small waxy potatoespeeled and cut into half-inch dice | 1 pound |
| pitted manzanilla oliveswhole or roughly chopped | 1 cup |
| capersdrained | 1/2 cup |
| blanched almondslightly toasted | 1/2 cup |
| pickled chiles güeros (chiles largos en escabeche) | 1/2 cup whole, plus 1/4 cup of their pickling liquid |
| flat-leaf parsleyfinely chopped | 1/4 cup, plus more for serving |
| bay leaves | 2 |
| dried Mexican oregano | 1 teaspoon |
| freshly ground black pepper | 1/2 teaspoon |
| kosher salt | only if needed |
| bolillos or telera rolls (optional) | for serving |
| pickled chiles güeros (for the table) (optional) | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •Large glass or ceramic bowl for desalting (no metal, the salt and the acid will react)
- •Wide 6-quart cazuela de barro or heavy Dutch oven
- •Cast iron comal or sheet pan for roasting tomatoes
- •High-powered blender
- •Wooden spoon long enough to reach the bottom of the cazuela
Instructions
- 1
Desalt the bacalao
Rinse the salt cod under cold running water for a minute to wash off the surface salt. Place it in a large glass or ceramic bowl, cover with cold water by three inches, and refrigerate. Change the water every six hours for at least 24 hours, ideally 36. Taste a small piece of the thickest part on the second day. It should taste of clean fish with a whisper of salt, not of the sea. If it is still aggressive, change the water again and give it more time. This step is the recipe. No me vengas con atajos.
Buy Norwegian bacalao when you can. The Spanish and Portuguese varieties are wonderful but harder to find outside Mexico. Avoid anything labeled simply 'salt cod fillet' from a generic supermarket; you want the thick, white, properly cured kind sold for this specific use. - 2
Poach and shred
Drain the desalted cod and place it in a wide pot. Cover with fresh cold water, bring to a bare simmer over medium heat, and cook for 10 minutes. Do not let it boil. Boiling toughens the fibers. Lift the cod onto a plate to cool. When it is cool enough to handle, pull it apart with your fingers into rough shreds, picking out any bones or stray skin. You should have loose, tender flakes. Set aside.
- 3
Make the jitomate base
Roast the Roma tomatoes on a hot dry comal or under the broiler until the skins blister and blacken in patches, about eight minutes, turning once. The blackened spots are the flavor. Transfer them to a blender, skins and all, and blend until smooth. You should have about four cups of jitomate molido. Set aside.
- 4
Build the sofrito
In a wide heavy cazuela or Dutch oven, warm the olive oil over medium heat. Add the chopped onion with a small pinch of salt and cook for eight to ten minutes, stirring often, until soft and just beginning to turn golden at the edges. Add the garlic and cook one more minute until fragrant. Onion before garlic. Garlic burns in seconds and a burned garlic ruins the whole pot.
Use real olive oil here, not vegetable oil. Bacalao a la mexicana came to Mexico through Spain and the olive oil is part of the flavor's spine. This is one of the few traditional Mexican dishes where the olive oil matters more than the manteca. - 5
Cook down the tomato
Pour the blended tomato into the cazuela. Add the bay leaves, oregano, and black pepper. Bring to a steady simmer and cook uncovered for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring every few minutes, until the sauce darkens from bright red to brick red and the oil begins to separate around the edges of the pot. That separation is your signal. A pale, watery tomato sauce means the dish has not started yet.
- 6
Add the potatoes and almonds
Stir the diced potatoes and the toasted almonds into the sauce. Reduce the heat to low. Cover partially and cook for 15 minutes, until the potatoes are tender but still hold their shape. They will absorb the tomato and become part of the dish, not a separate component.
- 7
Fold in the bacalao
Add the shredded cod, the olives, the capers, the parsley, the whole chiles güeros, and the quarter cup of pickling liquid from the chiles. Fold everything together gently. You want to keep the cod in recognizable shreds, not break it into a paste. Simmer uncovered for 15 more minutes, just to let the flavors marry. Taste now. The olives, capers, and chiles bring salt; the bacalao still carries some of its own. You may not need any added salt at all. Taste before you reach for the salt. Así se hace y punto.
- 8
Rest before serving
Pull the cazuela off the heat and let it rest at least 30 minutes before serving. Bacalao a la mexicana is better warm than scalding, and it is better still on the second day. If you are making this for Nochebuena, cook it the morning of the 24th, refrigerate it after it cools, and warm it gently over low heat before sitting down. Serve from the cazuela with split bolillos so everyone can make their torta de bacalao at the table. That ritual is part of Christmas Eve in central Mexico.
Chef Tips
- •The bacalao you buy matters more than any other ingredient in this pot. Look for thick, ivory-white pieces with a clean smell and visible salt crystals on the surface. Yellowed or pink-tinged cod is old. Skip it. A good Mexican market or a Spanish specialty shop is your best source. The plastic-wrapped supermarket fillet is a compromise.
- •Make this one day ahead. Bacalao on day one is good. Bacalao on day two is what your abuela served. The olive oil, the tomato, and the cod need overnight to settle into each other.
- •Serve the leftovers in tortas. Split a bolillo, pile cold or barely warm bacalao inside, add a chile güero from the jar, and you have the breakfast that every Mexican family with leftovers eats on December 25th. This is not a workaround. This is the second life of the dish.
Advance Preparation
- •Begin desalting the bacalao 36 hours before you plan to cook. This is non-negotiable. There is no shortcut and salt cod that has not been properly soaked will ruin the dish.
- •The full stew can be made one day ahead and refrigerated. Warm gently over low heat, adding a small splash of olive oil if it looks dry. The flavor on day two is markedly better than on day one.
- •The stew keeps refrigerated for up to four days. It does not freeze well; the potatoes turn grainy and the cod loses its texture.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 345g)
Calories
440 calories
Total Fat
28 g
Saturated Fat
4 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
23 g
Cholesterol
70 mg
Sodium
850 mg
Total Carbohydrates
13 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
6 g
Protein
34 g
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