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Traditional food of Guatemala: 12 dishes to know

Traditional Guatemalan food is Maya cooking reshaped by Spain: corn, black beans, tomatoes and dried chiles, with thick sauces called recados built on charred vegetables and toasted pumpkin and sesame seeds. The dishes to know first are pepián, a seed-thickened stew, kak'ik, a red turkey soup, tamales colorados boiled in leaves, and fiambre, the cold salad of All Saints' Day.

Updated 2026-10-124 min read

What Guatemalan food is built on

Guatemalan cooking rests on what the Maya were already growing before the conquest: maize, beans, squash, chiles, tomatoes, cacao and achiote. The corn is nixtamalized, cooked with slaked lime, then ground into masa for tortillas and tamales. Black beans appear at almost every meal, along with chirmol, a tomato salsa.

The Spanish brought pork, beef, chicken, wheat, sugar and frying. The meeting of the two produced the recados, the thick sauces of charred tomatoes, chiles and toasted seeds that define the country's stews. Many dishes are still cooked without oil, straight on the comal or wrapped in leaves, and many carry the suffix -ik, which means chili in several Mayan languages. In 2007 the Ministry of Culture and Sports declared four of these dishes Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Nation: pepián, jocón, kak'ik and plátanos en mole.

Recados and stews

These are the dishes Guatemalans serve with white rice, tortillas or small plain tamales for dipping.

Pepián — Chicken or beef in a thick sauce of dry-toasted pumpkin and sesame seeds, charred tomatoes and tomatillos and dried guaque and pasa chiles, thickened with a toasted tortilla. It is the dish most often named as the national dish of Guatemala and was served at important religious and political events.
Kak'ik — A Q'eqchi' Maya turkey soup from Alta Verapaz. Its red broth comes from a recado of toasted guaque, pasa and cobanero chiles blended with charred tomatoes and achiote, finished with mint and cilantro. It is eaten all year with rice and small tamales.
Jocón — Chicken in a green recado of tomatillo, green tomato, spring onion, cilantro and green chile. The name is usually traced to a K'iche' word for a green sauce. It is associated with the department of Huehuetenango but cooked across the country.
Hilachas — Boiled beef pulled into shreds, the "rags" of its name, then simmered in a tomato and tomatillo sauce with potatoes, carrots and dried chiles. It is close to Cuban ropa vieja and common throughout Central America.

Tamales and corn

Guatemala is said to have hundreds of tamal varieties. Unlike most Mexican ones, they are usually made with cooked masa and wrapped in banana, plantain or maxán leaves rather than corn husks.

Tamales colorados — The red tamal: cooked masa spread on a banana leaf, covered with a tomato and achiote recado thickened with toasted seeds, then topped with pork or chicken, green olives, capers and a strip of red pepper. The parcels are boiled, not steamed, and they are the tamal Guatemalan families make around Christmas.
Chuchitos — Small, firm tamales made with the same masa but wrapped in dried corn husks, the closest Guatemalan relative of the Mexican tamal. They are served with a simple tomato salsa and grated hard white cheese from Zacapa.
Paches — Tamales made with potato instead of corn masa. Paches are tied to a weekly ritual: eating them on Thursday is a widespread custom in Guatemala.
Atol de elote — A hot, thick drink made from fresh sweet corn, sweetened and served in cups. Guatemala drinks many atoles, from rice and rice with chocolate to fava bean and peanut, and atol de elote is the one found everywhere.

Feast dishes and sweets

Fiambre — A chilled salad of cold cuts, sausages, chicken, cheeses, pickled baby corn and onions, olives and many other ingredients, prepared once a year for All Saints' Day on 1 November. It is red when beets go in and white without them, and every family has its own recipe. It was declared national cultural heritage in 2019.
Plátanos en mole — Fried ripe plantain slices in a mole of chocolate, sesame, cinnamon and several chiles. The dish dates from the colonial religious brotherhoods and is one of the four heritage dishes of 2007.
Rellenitos de plátano — Balls of mashed plantain filled with sweetened black beans, fried and sprinkled with sugar. Beans as a dessert surprise most visitors; in Guatemala they are a standard sweet.
Shucos — Guatemala City's hot dog, created in the capital: a hot dog loaded with guacamole, cabbage and mayonnaise. It is a street snack native to the capital and sold from carts across the city.

Regional cooking in Guatemala

The country is small but its cooking changes from one department to the next. In Alta Verapaz, Q'eqchi' cooks make kak'ik and bachá, meat, fish or mushrooms wrapped in maxán leaves and cooked in hot ash. Huehuetenango claims jocón. In the western highlands, plain tamalitos de masa often replace the tortilla at the table. On the Caribbean coast of Izabal, Garifuna cooking uses coconut, banana, plantain and seafood, closer to the cooking of Belize and Honduras. Mixco, next to the capital, is known for stone-ground chocolate, declared national heritage in 2009.

Guatemalan food shares its corn, beans and comal with the rest of Central American cooking, but its seed-thickened recados set it apart. To compare, see the traditional food of Mexico and the traditional food of El Salvador.

Cook Guatemalan food at home

Three of these dishes are on Copper with full ingredient lists and step-by-step methods: pepián, kak'ik and tamales colorados. The key technique in all three is the same: toast the seeds and chiles dry, char the tomatoes, then fry the blended recado until it darkens. You will find them, with every other Guatemalan recipe we have, on our page about the food of Guatemala.

The recipes

Questions people ask

What is the most popular food in Guatemala?

Corn tortillas and black beans are eaten at almost every meal. Among dishes, pepián is the best known and most often called the national dish, followed by kak'ik, tamales and chuchitos.

What do people in Guatemala eat for breakfast?

A typical Guatemalan breakfast is eggs with black beans (often refried), fried plantains, fresh cheese or cream, corn tortillas or bread, and coffee.

Is Guatemalan food spicy?

Generally not. Dried chiles such as guaque and pasa give colour and depth to the recados rather than heat, and chile is used moderately. Hot sauces and pickled chiles are served on the side.

What is eaten in Guatemala on All Saints' Day?

Fiambre, a chilled salad of cold cuts, sausages, cheeses and pickled vegetables, prepared by families for 1 November and sometimes eaten at the cemetery.

How are Guatemalan tamales different from Mexican tamales?

Guatemalan tamales use cooked masa and are usually wrapped in banana or maxán leaves and boiled. Chuchitos, wrapped in corn husks, are the exception.

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