Latin American Grocery Staples
A practical guide to the pantry staples that anchor Mexican, Central American, Caribbean–Latin, and South American home cooking. If you're shopping at a Hispanic market or Latin American grocery store for the first time — or stocking a kitchen for tacos, tamales, sancocho, arepas, or feijoada — these are the ingredients to buy first. Need maseca, dried chiles, sofrito, or queso fresco? Browse Latin American markets near you to find a shop that stocks them.
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Nixtamalized corn flour for tortillas, tamales, sopes, gorditas. Maseca yellow is the everyday standard; Maseca Tamal for tamales.
Guajillo, ancho, pasilla, chipotle, árbol, morita, mulato — toasted and rehydrated for salsas, moles, adobos, and stews.
Goya, Mahatma rice; pinto, black, kidney, and pink beans (dried or canned). The base of every Latin plate.
Goya sofrito and recaíto — Caribbean–Latin green sauce base for rice, beans, and stews.
Goya Sazón (con culantro y achiote), Goya adobo, knorr cubes — the salt-and-color combo behind much of Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Cuban cooking.
Fresh tomatillos for salsa verde; canned chipotles in adobo, fire-roasted tomatoes for salsa rojas and stews.
Queso fresco (crumbled on tacos), cotija (grated on elote), Oaxaca (melted in quesadillas), panela.
Mexican fresh chorizo (raw, crumbly, paprika-red), Spanish cured chorizo (sliceable), longaniza.
Green and ripe plantains (tostones, maduros), yuca, malanga, yautía — the provisions of Caribbean–Latin plates.
Hass avocados and Persian/Mexican limes — the fresh acid that finishes every taco, salsa, and ceviche.
Mexican crema (thinner, tangier than sour cream), media crema, La Lechera condensed milk, evaporated milk.
Cajeta (Mexican goat-milk caramel), dulce de leche (Argentine/Uruguayan cow-milk caramel), Nestlé condensed milk for tres leches.
Jarritos, Mexican Coke (cane sugar), Topo Chico, horchata mix, tamarindo, Inca Kola, mate, café Bustelo, Pilon.
Corn tortillas (Guerrero, La Banderita, Mission), flour tortillas, totopos, tostadas, taco shells.
Doña María mole, salsa verde, salsa roja, salsa macha, valentina, Cholula, Tapatío.
Tapioca flour (Yoki), farofa, dendê (palm) oil, polenta, guaraná, yerba mate, dulce de leche.
Maseca, dried chiles, queso fresco, Mexican crema, fresh chorizo, tomatillos, Hass avocado, limes, cilantro, white onion.
Sofrito, recaíto, sazón, adobo, long-grain rice, pigeon peas, plantains, pernil pork shoulder, mojo.
Maseca for pupusas, loroco, curtido cabbage relish, chicharrón, frijoles refritos, queso duro blando.
Ají amarillo paste, choclo, masa arepa (P.A.N.), arepa flour, chimichurri, yerba mate, dendê oil, farofa.
If you can only buy ten things: maseca, dried guajillo + ancho chiles, long-grain rice, pinto or black beans, Goya sofrito, Goya sazón con culantro y achiote, queso fresco, fresh chorizo, plantains, and Mexican limes. From there you can cook tortillas, beans, arroz con pollo, and basic salsas.
Hispanic markets, mexican grocery stores (Northgate Market, Vallarta, Cardenas), bodegas, and broader Latin American supermarkets. See our Latin American Markets Near Me directory.
Maseca is nixtamalized corn flour — the corn has been treated with lime (cal). Regular cornmeal or corn flour is not nixtamalized and will not make proper tortillas, tamales, or arepas (arepas use a different P.A.N. flour). They are not substitutes.
No. Mexican chorizo is raw, fresh sausage — soft, crumbly, paprika-and-vinegar forward — you cook it like ground meat. Spanish chorizo is cured, sliceable, and often eaten cold. They are completely different products.