10 Foods to Best Celebrate Cinco de Mayo
If you’re a party planner and love to host events, Cinco de Mayo is the perfect occasion to whip out your best crockery and show off your catering/ hosting skills.
The traditional Mexican holiday that falls on May 5th each year commemorates the Battle of Puebla. The Mexican army defeated French adversaries during the Franco-Mexican War, and today, this achievement is known as Cinco de Mayo.
In today’s day and age, one of the best ways to celebrate this auspicious occasion is with traditional Mexican fare, parties, and family celebrations. Looking for foodie inspiration? Check out the rest of this blog for more.
Celebrate Cinco de Mayo With These Party Catering Ideas
If you’re a lover of Mexican cuisine (who isn’t?), and want to do Cinco de Mayo real justice, here are a few traditional dishes to impress your guests.
The great thing about Mexican cuisine is that it’s fairly simple but packed with incredible flavor. So, it’s easy to prepare yourself and source ingredients for your dishes. Alternatively, there’s always Kpacho to take care of your event catering.
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Guacamole
Is any Mexican-inspired Cinco de Mayo party complete without guacamole? Definitely not. This is a traditional dish we can thank the Aztecs for inventing.
Guacamole is one of the most simple dishes to recreate yourself. Forget about pre-made, store-bought versions. All you need is a few ripe avocados, onions/scallions, cilantro, jalapeno peppers, lime juice, salt, and pepper.
Don’t forget to serve with toasted tortilla chips
Shrimp Ceviche
If you want to add a little Latin-American inspiration to your meal selection, ceviche is a great option. It’s a dish you can prepare well in advance and goes down a treat as a snack option, along with your guacamole.
Shrimp ceviche is super simple to make and includes shrimp meat, lemon, limes, red onion, cucumber, cilantro, chili, and avocado. Serve with toasted tortilla chips.
Molé
It doesn’t get more traditional than this dish. It’s also the official dish to commemorate Cinco de Mayo, so your Mexican-themed celebration would not be complete without it.
Molé is a classic Mexican sauce/marinade made from a medley of sweet and spicy chilies, finished off with bitter chocolate. It’s best served with shredded chicken and fresh tacos.
Chilaquiles
Traditionally, this dish is a type of Mexican tortilla casserole. It consists of fresh tomato salsa which sits on top of fried tortilla chips, finished off with eggs, or your preferred form of protein.
In today’s world, nachos are a variation of this traditional Mexican dish. Whether you wish to serve the traditional version or your own nacho-inspired version, it’s always a hit!
Tamales
This is a Mexican dish that made its way to the Americas at the dawn of civilization. It’s been around for a long time and, as such, developed through many variations.
Traditionally, tamales are only eaten on Mexican holidays. So, serving them as part of your Cinco de Mayo foods is 100 percent necessary!
Tamales are a stuffed type of dough, usually made from corn, and filled with various fillings such as meat, beans, and cheese.
Carnitas
Once again, this is a Mexican dish that’s served on festive occasions, such as Cinco de Mayo. Back in the day, it used to take several days and an entire community to prepare this dish.
But today, with the help of a slow cooker, you can recreate carnitas in a matter of hours. Carnitas is simply slow-roasted meat which falls off the bone — most of the time pork or beef is the meat of choice.
Carnitas is ideal as a delicious taco, burrito, or empanada filling.
Tacos
It doesn’t get more Mexican or traditional than the taco. They’re always a crowd favorite and easy to prepare — need we say more?
Invented back in the 1950s along the northern coast of Mexico, tacos are now an iconic Mexican staple to have at any celebration.
They’re super versatile, too. Fill them with battered fish, pulled pork (carnitas), shredded chicken, and grilled shrimp, the options are endless!
Mexican Street Corn
Traditionally known as elotes, Mexican street corn is a brilliant catering option. It’s easy to prepare and a great choice for handheld/finger foods.
Serve your Mexican corn with a generous slather of sour cream, grated cheese, and chopped scallions.
Savory Empanadas
This is another show-stopping option to serve at your Cinco de Mayo party. They’re a crowd favorite as they’re easy to eat as another handheld snack and generally filled with delicious goodness.
Empanadas are another type of stuffed pastry. Some of the most popular savory options include ground beef, pulled pork, chicken, and cheese.
Sweet empanadas are also a good option for dessert. Fill them with chocolate sauce or a thick, salted caramel.
Churros
Who doesn’t love a bit of fried dough, smothered in sugar? Churros are, and forever will be, a crowd-pleaser at any event. They’re also very easy to make, with simple ingredients.
In Mexico, you can find churros sold as street food, in shopping centers, and at most events/gatherings. You can make churro batter in advance and store it in your fridge. All you’ll need is flour, eggs, butter, vegetable oil, salt, water, and ground cinnamon.
If you’re looking to pull out all the stops at your Cinco de Mayo celebration, whip up a chocolate dipping sauce to go with them!
Looking for Cinco de Mayo Party Catering?
Planning on hosting your very own Cinco de Mayo party, but don’t have the time to prepare your own catering?
Kpacho is your go-to for all your Mexican-inspired catering needs. Take a look at our menu here! Impress your guests with delicious Mexican fare and celebrate Cinco de Mayo the right way.