The Best Guacamole You’ll Ever Make (Restaurant-Quality) | Epicurious 101

Hi, I'm Saul Montiel. I'm a professional chef. Today I'm going to teach you how to make guacamole the right way. Mexican way. I'm going to teach you everything you need to know to make the creamiest guacamole. This is guacamole 101. What I'm looking at the perfect guacamole is a mix of chunky and creamy. Spicy without being too overpowering and crunchy just from the chip. Making guacamole is one of the easiest things to do at home. You just have to be prepared. Who's ready to make the best guacamole? The most important part of making a guacamole is choosing the right avocado. What I choose today is avocado husks from the state of Michoacan, Mexico. They taste better. They're richer in flavor. In front of me I have the same avocado but on different stage. Unripe, the perfect one, and the overripe. I recommend you not to squeeze when you get a bruise onto the avocado. So just by looking at the color I can already tell which one is the best avocado out of the three. We don't want to choose green. We don't want to choose too dark brown. Another way of finding out if your avocados are on point is by the stem right here. When you remove this part of the avocado, if it's too yellow brown that means it's overripe. So this is already no bueno. The perfect one has to be kind of like a green with a little bit of yellow. This is perfect. The safest way to cut an avocado is choosing the right avocado. If it's too green you're going to put more force into the knife and you have more chances of you cutting yourself. You're going to use a bigger knife. It will be easier for you to cut the avocado all the way around. When cutting an avocado you're going to grab it from the bottom because it's wider and you can control it easier. And you slice. Once you feel the seed you want to go around. You're moving the avocado. You're not moving the knife. That's it. Now you're going to remove the knife, put it away, and then twist. And that's how you cut an avocado. You see this brown part right here? This is because somebody put their fingers into my avocado. Do not smash the avocado with your fingers. Now what do you do with this? You remove it with a little spoon. That's it. Not a big deal. Now how you remove the seed? Bigger knife. Slam it a little bit just to cut the seed. You twist, right? Comes out. Now with this finger you kind of push it and it comes off. So let's do our second avocado. Grab it from the bottom, slice, twist, then just twist. Beautiful avocado. Bend it a little bit and then you twist and push it. Okay now I'm gonna dice the avocado for my guacamole. And for this I'm gonna need a smaller knife. Now I kind of leave like a maybe almost an inch free. So I'm gonna cut it in half through here. You're gonna do four. I like to pre-dice my avocado because it will save you energy when you smash it. Because you're gonna need a lot of energy to eat it. The best trick to avoid cutting your hand is take your time. Do it slowly. If you do it hard or you use so much force you probably cut really deep. Now I'm going to remove this part right here because we don't want this on my guacamole. So now I'm going to scoop the avocado out of the shell. And here is my avocado diced for my guacamole. Let's move to dicing our vegetables. To make guacamole you need six ingredients. Avocado, cilantro, onions, serrano, tomatoes, lime. I'm gonna start with the onion. Remove the bottom part, the top part. Cut it in half. I'm removing these parts. I'm gonna use only half an onion. I'm gonna hold it from where the heart of the onion is and dice it from the end of the onion. Small dices. The smaller the easier to smash. So I want the onion to be all over the guacamole. Not only on just little parts of the guacamole. I'm not slicing all the way in. I kind of want to leave this end without touching it so it will hold the onion. It will be easier to slice. So don't cut all the way through, just halfway. That's it. And then just slice it a little bit. So now I'm going to add it into the molcajete. Why I choose a serrano? Because I'm Mexican. It's a beautiful spice without being too overpowering. You can make it even spicier by smashing them. And now I'm going to dice this with the entire seeds because I want this to be nice and spicy. You can remove the seeds. No problem. That's all up to you. If you want to find out how spicy your serrano is, smell it. Oh if you got a strong smell that means it's spicy. Also on the serrano if you see like a little scratch on the skin that means it's going to be spicier. This is okay because it's nice and smooth. So now I have my diced white onions, diced serrano pepper and I'm going to add a little bit of lime. So you see the skins between this one and that guess which one is going to be more juicy. It's smoother. Now if you want to get more juice out of this one you just want to smash it like that and it will be easier to squeeze. I'm going to squeeze some of it here. Don't do all the lime because you don't know how acidity is going to turn. Now I'm going to do some cilantro to get rid of the bottom part. I like to use the stem of the cilantro. It's better and richer. I'm going to put it here. It's always good to save some for garnish. Now I'm going to dice some tomatoes. I'm using plum because they're nice and firm and I'm going to add the tomatoes into the end because I want that to be chunks. So I'm not going to smash this. I'm only going to use the outside of the tomato. I'm removing the insides of the tomato. This will make your guacamole liquidy. We want big chunks because I want to see the tomatoes in it. I'm going to add the tomatoes later on. So my ingredients are ready. Let's mash all these ingredients together. First, I'm going to tell you about my friend right here. Molcajete and a tejolote. Mexican mortar and pestle. It brings the flavor out of the serrano, the onions, the cilantro, and the lime stronger. If you don't have this at home, get yourself a mortar and pestle. And if you don't have a mortar and pestle, get yourself a bowl. Smash it with a wooden spoon. Dice the ingredients a little bit thinner. It will make it easier for you to smash. Now I'm going to smash my onions, serrano, and cilantro. I want the flavors to come out. And also when I mix it with the avocado, you won't find chunks of serrano or chunks of onion. So what I'm doing here, I'm making this into a little paste. So look at this. It's almost ready. It's like I'm making a salsa. Now when we mix this with the avocado, the flavor is going to be even. You might find some brown little pieces. It's okay to eat it. I'd rather don't serve it because I'm a professional. So we have the avocado there. I'm going to do a little bit of salt and now a little bit more smashing. And look how easy it is. And this is why we dice our avocado. This makes me happy. Food alone makes me happy. I don't see the onions. I don't see the serranos because they just got married. We don't want to over smash. We're not making puree. We're making guacamole. Guacamole should be creamier and chunky. Now I'm going to add some of these lovely tomatoes. The reason why I add tomatoes last is because tomatoes release water. Oh my gosh. Look, this is what a perfect guacamole looks like. Now before you put it on a plate or serve it, taste it. It needs salt and it needs a little more lime. I can't believe I get paid to do this. Okay, second shot. So good. So good. My guacamole is ready. So normally in Mexico, we serve the guacamole in the molcajete. The rock is cold, so you will keep the guacamole fresher for a longer period of time. I'm going to garnish it with a little bit of queso fresco. This is optional. So this adds like a saltiness element to my guacamole, which is always good. There's some chips that are very fragile, like my heart. I'm going to use corn tortilla chips. They need to be strong. Guacamole is normally heavier, so you need something that holds that really well. And these tortillas are my favorite. And we save some cilantro, right? And there is the perfect guacamole right in your kitchen. Now to my favorite part, eating the guacamole. I don't feel any chunks of onions. I don't feel any chunks of serrano peppers. It's just creamy, chunky, delicious. I need a beer now. Maybe two. How easy was this process? It was very easy. My daughter Ella and Elena, she's eight and six. They already know how to make guacamole. It's very simple. The key is the avocado. Choose the right avocado.