Durango food guide: caldillo, gorditas and asado rojo

Durango's cooking is the food of a cattle, cheese and orchard state, with broths created, the tourism office says, to ease the harsh climate of its vast sierra. The office, the Secretaría de Turismo del Estado de Durango, describes its dishes in a set of food pages on its Visit Durango site, posted in January 2018. This guide brings them together, explains the terms you will meet on menus and in markets, and says where in the state the office points visitors for each one.

Where Durango's cooking comes from

The tourism office traces the cuisine to the state's first inhabitants, semi-nomadic peoples it names as the Acaxee, Xixime, Tepehuán and Zacateco, who lived by hunting and by gathering nopal cactus, organ-pipe cactus, mesquite and some herbs, and who later began to grow maize, beans and chile. Today, the office says, Durango grows tobacco, sweet potato, maize, chile, beans and squash, along with orchards of pomegranate, quince, peach, apricot, perón and apple. Pigs, cattle and sheep are raised, "por lo que se elabora mucho queso", so a great deal of cheese is made.

Families also keep a strong tradition of sweet preserves: dried apple and quince (orejones), cajetas and jellies of quince and perón, fig preserves and sun-dried peaches.

The dishes to know

Durango dishes and products described by the state tourism office (Visit Durango food pages, dated January 20, 2018)
Dish or product	What it is	Where the office says to find it
Caldillo durangueño	A broth from the tradition of mountain caldos: dried meat (carne seca), chile pasado, onion and garlic. The recipe has been adapted with easier-to-find ingredients	Fondas and restaurants across the state
Asado rojo	The most-cooked dish in Durango kitchens: made with puya and guajillo chiles, mainly savory with a sweet touch of orange, which sets it apart from asado de bodas	A standard gordita filling, and the heart of the reliquia (see below)
Gorditas	Stuffed maize pockets, said to have begun as a way to carry a stew to the fields. Fillings include asado rojo, discada, huevo perdido, chicharrón prensado and huevo verde	Everywhere in the state; the office singles out Nombre de Dios
Discada	Named for the plow disc it was first cooked on; in Durango it is made with ground meat. Eaten mainly at weekends, for family or sports celebrations or among friends	Also a traditional gordita filling
Chile pasado	An artisanal chile from the north of the state with a smoky, sweet flavor from its elaborate preparation, essential to the original caldillo	The wholesale markets (mercados de abasto) of Durango city
Queso ranchero and queso añejo	Fresh, aged and chili-coated ranch cheeses made mostly with techniques inherited from the Spanish, plus Excélsior cheese from Mennonite communities	Ranch cheeses: traditional markets, shops selling Durango products, and supermarkets across the state
Pan ranchero	Breads from the ranches of the Sierra Madre, baked in adobe ovens: semitas, gorditas de horno, maizcrudos and empanadas filled with chilacayote squash, sweet potato or fruit paste (ate)	Traditional markets, villages and roadsides
Nieves Chepo	Nieves de garrafa, ices creamier than traditional ones, with more than 120 years of tradition; they began in Ciudad Lerdo	Squares and parks of the main cities; the original branch is in Lerdo's Parque Victoria
Mezcal	Mostly artisanal, from Agave durangensis, endemic to the region	Tours of the distilleries (vinatas) of Nombre de Dios, 40 minutes from the capital

The reliquia, and the rest of the list

Asado rojo is the main element of the reliquia, a tradition in which, the tourism office says, Catholic faithful serve the community and visitors a plate of asado, patoles and "sopas" as an offering to a saint, in payment of a manda, or promise. Patoles are white beans; the office lists them stewed with chorizo and tornachiles.

The office's longer list of "platillos típicamente durangueños" also includes:

Savory dishes: asado de bodas, chicharrones de vieja (goat carnitas), peanut enchiladas and milk enchiladas, red pipián of chile, squash seeds and maize, and barbacoa de olla
Tortillas and masa: panochas, flour tortillas both salted and sweet, gorditas de nata, gorditas filled with stews, and red-chile and sweet tamales
Drinks: atoles, champurrado and, as the state's spirit, mezcal
Sweets and breads: torrejas with maguey syrup, sweet potato and squash in piloncillo syrup, nut brittle (palanquetas de nuez), chilacayote empanadas, pulque bread, anise semitas, sweet potato rolls, sweet potato with coconut, gorditas de cuajada, buñuelos, rice pudding and date-and-nut roll
A newcomer: scorpion tacos, which the office calls a dish of recent creation

Cheese and the Mennonite communities

Durango has a long tradition as a dairy producer, the office says, and most of its many cheeses are made with techniques inherited from the Spanish. It also highlights Excélsior cheese, produced in Durango's Mennonite communities, which it describes as the second most numerous in the country. In the ranch settlements, cattle are taken up to mountain pasture in the rainy season, and cuajada, requesón, cream and ranch cheese are made in small huts near the grazing land.

Planning a food trip

Two places come up again and again in the office's pages. Nombre de Dios, which it calls the oldest town in Durango, is the place it names for gorditas and for mezcal tours, 40 minutes from the state capital. Lerdo, in the Laguna region of the state, is where the Chepo ices began. In Durango city, the wholesale markets are where the office says to buy chile pasado, and our Durango city guide covers the capital itself. For the state's spirit, see our guide to tequila and mezcal labels.

The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) travel advice for Mexico, last updated October 20, 2026, and still current on October 29, says: "Drug-related violence affects the northern states of Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, Sinaloa and Durango." It adds: "Take extreme care outside tourist areas in all these states." For cities in those states, it says: "Travel during daylight hours when possible, tell relatives or friends of your travel plans and only use reputable hotels."

How this guide was researched: from the food pages of the Durango state tourism office (Secretaría de Turismo del Estado de Durango), dated January 20, 2018, its page on Nombre de Dios, dated March 17, 2017, and the FCDO's Mexico travel advice, all read on October 29, 2026. Descriptions are the tourism office's, summarized and translated by us. The pages are still published and are dated 2017 and 2018, so the places, stalls and tours they mention may have changed since. We have not eaten at, and do not rate or recommend, any restaurant, stall or producer.

Durango food guide: caldillo, gorditas, asado rojo and the state's other signature dishes

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