Mango Margarita With a Spicy Chile-Mango Kick

September 2023
By Vivi Abeja
Recipe from Mexico
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This mango margarita with traditionally prepared chile-dipped dried slices of mango is our favorite new cocktail. It’s what we’re planning to reach for today on a rainy Sunday in Chicago and regularly in the next months, as fall gives way to the northern winter. (Yes, we’re having a hard time letting go of summer. Can you tell? Things get muy frío up here.)

To keep things colorful and spicy in our kitchen year round, we asked one of our favorite Mexican cooks Vivi Abeja to create a special margarita using Chimango, a handcrafted, artisanal product made with traditionally dried mango slices that are dipped in chile powder. Vivi came back with this delicioso frozen cocktail, using a Chimango slice both in the drink and as a beautiful garnish on the tajin-rimmed glass.

Watch Vivi, who grew up in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, known for its rich Mexican heritage, make what she calls her ”new favorite margarita.”

Traditionally prepared mango dipped in chile takes this frozen margarita to new heights of delicioso.

Before she started blending this easy-to-make margarita, Vivi bought pre-frozen mango from her local grocery. (Mango is out of season right now and hard to find, she says.) But you can just as easily make this with fresh mango that you peel, slice and freeze ahead of time, she adds. Vivi then placed half a slice of Chimango directly into the mixer when she whipped up this batch, which serves 2. She also used a second Chimango slice as garnish .

“I love margaritas, especially spicy margaritas,” says Vivi. ”I love the flavor and bright color mango brings. I knew I wanted a Tajín rim, and one of my favorite fruits to eat with Tajín is mango. My grandparents used to always buy us cut up mango with Tajín from the neighborhood elotero so it reminds me of them and my cultura.”

The mango not only adds a sweetness to the flavor, it changes the margarita’s texture in all the right ways, says Vivi. “Using mango in margarita is amazing because the mango thickens the consistency of the drink, which completely transforms it from your typical lime margarita. It reminds me of my favorite Mexican juice, Jumex Mango Nectar. While a lime margarita is light and deliciously refreshing, the mango adds a delicious flavor, excellent source of nutrients from the fruit, and exciting texture.”

Vivi and abuela Elisa Abeja — Vivi and her beloved abuela Elisa Abeja, who loved mango too, and who taught her many of her favorite Mexican family recipes.

Vivi was excited to play with the Chimango slices of mango in her kitchen, because it also takes her back to memories of her grandparents. Especially her abuelita, with whom she was very close. “My grandparents loved mangos. They had a mango tree in Mexico and always talked about how mangos here don’t compare to the mangos in their home,” Vivi remembers.

”Margaritas have been my go-to for many many years. Especially spicy margaritas. If I were to make a margarita today, it would 100% be mango,” she says.

With a slice or two of Chimango to level it up and add the Mexican brightness and depth of traditional flavor she learned from her abuela and that continue to inspire her love of cooking.

Would you like to try more of Vivi’s Mexican family-famous recipes? Check out her red enchilada sauce with three types of chile, sausage and egg breakfast burrito, and chicken fajitas, for starters!

Ready to Make this Mango Margarita with Chimango?