If tequila has turned up in a recipe or caught your eye at the store, here's what you need to use it with confidence and how to choose it, cook it, store it, what to substitute, and 80 recipes to try it in.

What is tequila?

Tequila is a Mexican spirit distilled from the blue agave plant, not from grain or grape. That agave base gives it a flavor nothing else has: earthy and vegetal, peppery, with a faint sweetness and, in aged bottles, a smoky warmth.

By law, true tequila comes only from designated regions of Mexico, mostly around the town of Tequila in Jalisco. The best bottles say 100 percent agave on the label, which is what you want for both sipping and cooking.

In the kitchen tequila brings a distinctly Mexican accent. It loves lime and chile and cilantro. You find it in marinades, sauces, and the margarita-flavored desserts that trade on its tang.

Cooking With Tequila

Tequila does its best work in a marinade. Its acidity and agave bite cut through fatty meat and carry chile and citrus deep into chicken or steak, the backbone of a dish like Chicken Fajitas Grande or Drunken Turkey.

It also deepens a pot of chili or stew. A pour simmered into Mayan Chili or Beef & Tequila Stew cooks the raw alcohol away and leaves an earthy, faintly sweet note under the spice.

The classic pairing is tequila and lime. Together they sharpen and lift a marinade for shrimp or steak, the same combination that powers the margarita.

That margarita flavor crosses over to dessert. Tequila with lime and orange liqueur flavors a Margarita Cheesecake with Lime Sour Cream Topping, or sets into Margarita Jello Shooters.

Getting It Right

Cook tequila or let it macerate; do not just splash it in at the end.

Raw tequila tastes harsh and sharply alcoholic, so give it heat in a sauce or time in a marinade to mellow.

Reach for blanco (silver) tequila in cooking. It carries the cleanest, brightest agave flavor for marinades and desserts, while aged reposado and añejo add oak and caramel notes better suited to sipping or a richer sauce.

The mistake is over-marinating. Tequila's acid will start to break down and toughen delicate proteins like shrimp if they sit too long, so keep seafood to 30 minutes or so and save the long soaks for tougher cuts.

Pairing and Substitutes

Tequila was made for bright, bold partners: lime, orange, chile, cilantro, tomato, and salt all play to its strengths. It suits Mexican and Tex-Mex cooking above all.

There is no exact substitute for that agave character. Mezcal, tequila's smokier cousin, is the closest and works one for one if you want more smoke. White rum or a neutral vodka can stand in for the alcohol, but you lose the earthy agave note.

With no alcohol, a mix of lime juice with a little agave nectar or a splash of pineapple juice gets you the bright, slightly sweet effect in a marinade or dessert.

Buying and Storing

Look for 100 percent agave on the label. Cheaper mixto tequilas cut the agave with other sugars and taste harsher, with the rough edge that gives tequila its hangover reputation. Blanco is the bottle that does the most jobs in the kitchen.

Store tequila upright in a cool, dark cupboard, away from heat and sunlight. It does not need refrigerating.

An unopened bottle keeps indefinitely, and an opened one stays good for a year or more, though the bright agave flavor slowly fades with air, so a bottle you cook from regularly is at its best.

Nutrition

Quick facts

Food group: Tequila is a member of the Beverages US Department of Agriculture nutritional food group.

In Chinese

龙舌兰酒

British (UK) term

Tequila

en français

tequila

en español

tequila

How much does tequila weigh?

Amount	Weight
1 fl oz	27 grams
1 jigger 1.5 fl oz	42 grams

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Beverages

Recipes using tequila

There are 80 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 80 recipes

More tequila recipes

• Barbecued Fish Margarita
• Carmelized Carnitas
• Chicken or Beef Fajitas
• Chicken Tequila
• DIY Yummy Chorizo (Mexican Sausage)
• Drunken Chicken
• Fajitas - Beef
• Lime Chicken Strips
• Margarita Shrimp & Vegetable Kabobs
• Margarita Shrimp with Fettuccine
• New Mexican Chile-Marinated Pork Spareribs
• Pork Tenderloin in Tequila
• Stageline Chili
• Tequila Honey Shrimp