Looking to liven up your tex-mex dishes? Look no further than my Mexican Crema, sometimes also referred to as Mexican Sour Cream. Cool and just a touch tart to balance out those spicy flavors in Mexican recipes.
Perfect for tacos, burritos, walking tacos, baked enchiladas, fried rice, Street Corn Salad, breakfast tacos and any other Mexican meals you can think of!
What is Crema?
Think of Mexican crema as the Mexican version of French crème fraiche or American sour cream. It is slightly thinner and a bit sweeter and often served along with cotija or queso fresco cheeses.
Some might call is Mexicana crema, Mexican sour cream, crema fresca or just plain crema.
Ingredients for Making Mexican Crema
One of the best parts of this crema mexicana recipe is that it only takes three simple ingredients to make!
- Heavy cream – This cream is the main ingredient of the recipe. It helps to thin out the consistency and make it more pourable.
- Sour cream – In order to help thicken and also add a little bit of acidity, we use sour cream.
- Buttermilk – I like my Mexican crema to have a little bit of tang to it, and sour cream buttermilk that.
How To Make Tangy Mexican Crema
Crema Fresca can be found in many Latin supermarkets and some mainstream stores. That side, my store was fresh out so I needed to make my own. Don’t worry, it is super simple!
The traditional crema recipe calls for heavy cream blended with buttermilk and given 24 hours to thicken up. Again, I was tight on time.
The quick version of crema Mexicana uses 1/4 cup of sour cream. I opted for a middle of the road experiment – a little bit of buttermilk AND a little bit of sour cream.
- Heat heavy cream. In a microwave safe container, heat heavy cream for 40 seconds. Meanwhile, stir together sour cream and buttermilk in a glass bowl.
- Add heavy cream to remaining ingredients. Add heavy cream, stirring until smooth. Mixture will be watery, but you will notice it starting to thicken already while stirring.
- Allow to sit in a warm place, set lid loosely on the top, or use plastic or aluminum foil. Allow to breath, but to keep covered and free from any floating particles near by, especially if placed outside. Do not let crema mexicana go over 100 degrees.
- Let thicken. Allow to sit for 4-6 hours to thicken. Add flavor, if desired, using a stick blender.
Let it Thicken
Mexican crema needs to sit in a warm place to thicken. Near the stove or oven (if you are using it,) on top of the refrigerator, or in my case, outside on a beautiful 80-degree day all work just fine.
The end result will be thinner than yogurt or sour cream, so don’t be concerned if it seems a bit more loose in terms of texture than what you were expecting.
How to Use Mexican Crema
One of my favorite parts about this delicious condiment is that you can use it on just about anything! Add a dollop of it to soups like white chicken chili or chicken tortilla soup. You could even use it as a dip for chips or veggies.
It works great as the perfect topping for burrito bowls, tacos, shrimp tostadas, grilled chicken burritos or nachos. The creamy taste pairs well with just about any Mexican food you can think of. I always have a jar in the fridge.
I used this batch for Mexican Street Corn but you can also use it on my favorite Totchos. It also tastes great on Chicken Fajitas or Smothered Burritos.
Variations
Mexican crema is a blank slate. There are plenty of ways you can make it your own. Here are a few suggestions.
- Plain yogurt – You can use plain yogurt instead of sour cream. In fact, I love using yogurt in place of any of the three soured creams. However, for my purposes, I usually need something a little thinner to get the right consistency.
Just like other types of cream, you can add a little bit of flavor by blending in other flavors. Some of my favorites are:
- cumin
- fresh cilantro
- lime juice or zest
- lemon juice or zest
- chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
Storage & Shelf Life
How to Store Mexican Crema
Just like most dairy products, it will be good for about a week if kept refrigerated. The FDA recommends it being out for no longer than 2 hours.
Can I Freeze Creme Mexicana?
I do not recommend freezing this recipe.
More Homemade Sauces
There’s no meal that a good homemade sauce can’t elevate. Here are some of our favorites.
Simple Mole Sauce Recipe
Quesadilla Sauce
Birria Consome (Birria Sauce)
Mexican Crema
Ingredients
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 heaping tablespoon sour cream
- 1 tablespoon buttermilk
Instructions
- In a microwave safe container, heat heavy cream for 40 seconds. Meanwhile, stir together sour cream and buttermilk in a glass bowl.
- Add heavy cream, stirring until smooth. Mixture will be watery, but you will notice it starting to thicken already while stirring.
- Allow to sit in a warm place, set lid loosely on the top, or use plastic or aluminum foil. Allow to breath, but to keep covered and free from any floating particles near by, especially if placed outside. Do not let crema mexicana go over 100 degrees.
- Allow to sit for 4-6 hours to thicken. Add flavor, if desired, using a stick blender.
- Drizzle over your favorite Latin dish.
- Blending in cumin, cilantro, chipotle peppers, lime and/or lemon juice or zest to flavor your crema are all optional.
Nutrition
this Mexian crema was delicious! We used it on tostadas, but I’m definitely making this more often to use on all kinds of recipes – so good!
This was so good on our pork carnitas tacos last night!
Wow – this mexican crema recipe is much better than the store bought version! I started using this on all of my tacos!
I adore the crema at the Mexican restaurant near my home, so I was over the moon to have found this recipe for homemade authentic Mexican crema. It was soooo good over tacos tonight!