The best New Mexico cookbooks are The Rancho de Chimayó Cookbook by the James Beard–winning Jamisons for traditional cooking, Foods of the Southwest Indian Nations by Lois Ellen Frank for Pueblo and Native foodways, and The Coyote Café Cookbook by Mark Miller for modern Southwestern cuisine. New Mexican food is its own cuisine — not Mexican, not Tex-Mex — built on native chile, corn, and centuries of Hispano and Pueblo cooking. These are the books that teach it honestly enough to cook from. For the collector's view, see collecting New Mexico cookbooks; for the deeper Hispano tradition, the Hispano foodways guide.
Published June 2026 · Curated by Josh Eldred, New Mexico Literacy Project
The Rancho de Chimayó Cookbook — Cheryl Alters & Bill Jamison
The most beloved book of traditional New Mexican cooking, drawn from the famous restaurant in Chimayó, north of Santa Fe. The Jamisons are among the most decorated food writers in America, with multiple James Beard Awards, and this is the book to learn real red and green from. Start here.
Foods of the Southwest Indian Nations — Lois Ellen Frank
The landmark cookbook of Indigenous Southwestern cuisine and a James Beard Award winner, by a chef and food historian of Kiowa heritage. It restores the native ingredients — corn, beans, squash, chile, wild foods — at the foundation of all New Mexican cooking. Essential and beautiful.
The Coyote Café Cookbook — Mark Miller
The book that launched modern Southwestern cuisine, from Mark Miller's legendary Santa Fe restaurant. More ambitious than the traditional books — this is where New Mexican ingredients met fine-dining technique — and still the reference for the contemporary chile-forward kitchen.
Tasting New Mexico — Cheryl Alters & Bill Jamison
The Jamisons' celebration of a century of New Mexico home cooking — a hundred recipes that trace how the state actually eats, from the village kitchen to the modern table. The best single-volume survey of the cuisine, and a fine companion to their Chimayó book.
Historic Cookery — Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Gilbert
The first published author of New Mexican cuisine, the home economist and folklorist Cabeza de Baca preserved traditional Hispano recipes in the 1930s and '40s. Historic Cookery is short, plain, and foundational — the document that every later New Mexico cookbook descends from. (See also her memoir We Fed Them Cactus.)
The Feast of Santa Fe — Huntley Dent
A thorough, much-loved guide to the cooking of Santa Fe and northern New Mexico, with the cultural context that makes the recipes make sense. A classic that many New Mexico cooks reach for when they want the why behind the how.
A note on chile
New Mexican cooking begins and ends with chile — the state question is, after all, "red or green?" Any of these books will teach you to roast, peel, and cook with real New Mexico chile, but the culture and agriculture behind it run deep; see the guide to New Mexico chile culture and the Hatch tradition for the full story behind the ingredient.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best New Mexico cookbook?
The Rancho de Chimayó Cookbook by the James Beard–winning Jamisons is the most beloved book of traditional New Mexican cooking.
What cookbook covers Pueblo and Native Southwestern food?
Foods of the Southwest Indian Nations by Lois Ellen Frank, a James Beard Award winner.
Who was the first author of New Mexican cuisine?
Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Gilbert, whose Historic Cookery preserved traditional Hispano recipes and remains foundational.
Cite This Guide
Eldred, J. (June 2026). Best New Mexico Cookbooks to Cook From. New Mexico Literacy Project.
https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/best-new-mexico-cookbooks
Original curation by Josh Eldred. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.