Guide

Traditional food of Argentina: 13 dishes to know

Argentine food is built on beef cooked over embers, on Spanish and Italian home cooking brought by millions of immigrants, and on the corn stews of the Andean northwest. Seasoning stays simple: coarse salt, garlic, oregano and mild ají molido. The most emblematic dishes are asado, empanadas, milanesa and locro, with dulce de leche in most desserts.

Updated 2026-10-124 min read

What Argentine food is built on

Two forces shaped Argentine cooking. The first is cattle: beef from the pampas is cooked over wood or charcoal embers on a grill called a parrilla, and the weekend asado is the country's main social ritual. The second is immigration. Between 1853 and 1955, 6.6 million Europeans arrived, mostly from Italy and Spain. Italians brought pizza, fresh pasta and ice cream; the Spanish brought olive oil, stews and wine.

Beneath both lies an older layer. In the northwest, near the Andes, Indigenous and Inca traditions survive in dishes of corn, potatoes, squash and peppers. Argentine food is mild: chimichurri, the sauce served with grilled meat, uses ají molido, a gentle dried red pepper, rather than hot chili.

The asado and the grill

Asado — Beef short ribs, flank steak, chorizo and morcilla cooked slowly over embers, seasoned only with coarse salt. The sausages come off first as a starter while the large cuts cook for an hour or more. Chimichurri, a sauce of parsley, garlic, oregano, vinegar and oil, is served on the side.
Choripán — A grilled beef and pork chorizo split down the middle and served in a bread roll, usually with chimichurri. It is the opening course of many asados, the classic food at football matches and a street snack sold from stands in the big cities.
Provoleta — A thick round of provolone cheese grilled on the parrilla until it melts and crusts, sprinkled with oregano. It comes from the Italian side of Argentine cooking and is served as a starter at the grill.
Matambre — A thin cut of beef spread with a filling, rolled, cooked, then sliced and served cold. Cut across, each slice shows a spiral of meat and stuffing.

Everyday dishes from Spanish and Italian kitchens

Milanesa — A thin beef cutlet soaked in beaten egg with garlic and parsley, coated in breadcrumbs and fried. It is one of the most eaten home meals in Argentina, served with mashed potato or salad, or in a sandwich called a sándwich de milanesa.
Pizza and fainá — Pizza arrived with Italian immigrants and became an Argentine everyday food in its own right. It is often eaten with fainá, a flatbread of chickpea flour laid on top of the slice, another Italian import.

Stews and dishes of the northwest

The provinces of Salta, Tucumán and Jujuy, close to the Andes, keep the country's oldest food traditions, built on corn, squash and potatoes.

Empanadas — Pastries filled with knife-cut beef, onion, paprika and cumin, sealed with a pleated edge called a repulgue and baked or fried. Every province has its style, but those of Salta and Tucumán are the most celebrated. They are eaten as a starter, a snack or a whole meal.
Locro — A thick stew of white corn, squash, potatoes, beans and beef or chorizo, cooked for hours. Born in the northwest, it spread through the whole country and is the dish of the patriotic holidays: 25 May, the anniversary of the May Revolution, and 9 July, Independence Day.
Humita — A paste of fresh grated corn with onion and seasoning, wrapped in corn husks and cooked. It is a northwestern dish, close to the tamales made in the same provinces.
Carbonada — A beef stew cooked with pumpkin or potato. It belongs to the same northwestern tradition as locro and tamales.

Pastries, sweets and mate

Mate is the national drink: dried yerba mate leaves steeped in hot water in a gourd and sipped through a metal straw, the bombilla. One person, the cebador, refills the gourd and passes it around a circle; saying “gracias” means you have had enough. National Mate Day is 30 November.

Medialunas — Small crescent pastries modelled on the French croissant. With other pastries called facturas, they are the usual breakfast and merienda, the afternoon snack.
Alfajores — Two shortbread biscuits sandwiched with dulce de leche, often coated in chocolate. They are eaten with coffee or mate at breakfast or merienda.
Dulce de leche — Milk and sugar simmered slowly for one and a half to two hours until thick and brown. Argentines spread it on toast and put it in alfajores, facturas, panqueques (crêpes) and ice cream.

Mealtimes and regional Argentina

Argentines eat on a late schedule. Breakfast is small, coffee or mate with a pastry. Lunch is the largest meal of the day, often an asado or pasta at weekends, and in many towns shops close for a long lunch and siesta. In the late afternoon comes the merienda, coffee or mate with medialunas or toast, and dinner rarely starts before 9 pm.

Beyond the northwest, two regions stand apart. Patagonia, in the far south, cooks lamb, venison and wild boar, and fish and seafood such as salmon and spider crab; German and Central European pastries and chocolate-making are its other speciality. The Pampas and Buenos Aires, in the centre, are the heart of beef, the grill and Italian-style food, from milanesa and pizza to provoleta. In the Río de la Plata area, the morcipán, a blood-sausage version of the choripán, is a common alternative.

Cook Argentine food at home

Asado is the dish most often called the national dish of Argentina, even though there is no official one. Copper has full recipes for asado, empanadas and milanesa, with ingredients and step-by-step methods, on our page about the food of Argentina, alongside other South American recipes.

Argentina shares its grill, its mate and its dulce de leche with the country across the River Plate. Compare with the traditional food of Uruguay and the traditional food of Chile.

The recipes

Questions people ask

What is the most popular food in Argentina?

Asado, beef and sausages cooked slowly over embers, is the best known and most social meal. Empanadas and milanesa are the most eaten everyday dishes.

What do Argentinians eat for breakfast?

Breakfast is small: coffee or mate with medialunas, other pastries called facturas, or toast with dulce de leche. Lunch is the largest meal, and dinner is often eaten at 9 pm or later.

Is Argentine food spicy?

No. Argentine food is mild. Even chimichurri, the sauce served with grilled meat, uses ají molido, a gentle dried red pepper, rather than hot chili.

What do Argentinians eat on national holidays?

Locro, a stew of corn, squash, beans and meat from the northwest, is the traditional dish on 25 May and 9 July.

What is the national drink of Argentina?

Mate, an infusion of yerba mate leaves sipped from a gourd through a metal straw and shared in a circle. Argentina celebrates National Mate Day on 30 November.

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