Claudette Zepeda’s Favorite Ingredients for Bigger, Bolder Flavor

The author of Cooking the Borderlands always keeps these things on hand.

Chef Claudette Zepeda is often on the road opening a restaurant somewhere, or popping onto TV to cook with Bobby Flay or compete on Guy Fieri’s Tournament of Champions.

When the author of Cooking the Borderlands gets home, dinner is “something that doesn’t require a lot of brain power.” She wants to use her hands—“it’s therapeutic for me to be in the kitchen”—but still keep things simple.

“I’m not trying to be a hero,” she says in this week’s podcast conversation.

Once she grabs a Costco rotisserie chicken and pulls out the enchilada sauce that she always keeps in the freezer, Claudette says she can get enchiladas ready in half an hour.

She leans on a handful of powerhouse ingredients to pack her quickest dinners with flavor: there’s always Salsa Maggi around (she says “it’s our Marmite, our liquid umami,”) plus a pretty wide range of vinegars. She uses Shaoxing wine for deep, slightly savory flavor “even in non-Chinese dishes,” and often adds liquid shio koji to marinades.

That’s “my little ace in my pocket,” Claudette says. “Shio koji is just perfect in boosting flavor and being, like, a supporting actor to the ingredients.”

Her pozole broth has kombu in the base, “and it makes it even more pozole-like,” she says. The chiles blend more seamlessly into the soup, “and the broth tastes deeper. It just tastes like a pozole, if I were to have an amplifier just turn it up a little.”

Claudette finds inspiration in all the classic dishes of the border states, but also in the ways that immigrant communities from across Asia have influenced the food and flavors of Mexico. “You can’t talk about Tijuana without talking about the Japanese and the Chinese immigrants that really changed our culinary landscape,” she says.

So when she cooks, “There’s no limit to what I can do. I never think of food as being restrictive. Like when someone says make Mexican food, you really are letting me run free… There are no borders in my food,” she says.

Making the flavors work depends on understanding the fundamental framework of each dish. For example, the central tenets of salsa, she explains, require “a pepper, an onion, you know, an allium, and salt. And sometimes an herb. But after that, you can really go crazy.” The other day, Claudette says, she didn’t have any chiles around. “So I was like, I’ll add some yuzu kosho, because I wanted heat, but I didn’t have an actual pepper.”

On this week’s episode, Claudette also shares the story of how she almost left cooking behind—and where she found inspiration again.

Below, you’ll get a little preview of Cooking The Borderlands: a peek at the agua frescas Claudette makes to use up ripe fruit and keep kids hydrated in the summer heat. The flavors in these recipes are just a starting point, she says. With agua fresca, “it really is just limited to your imagination.”

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Claudette mentioned:

• Birria tacos

• Claudette’s guide to aguachile (Food + Wine)

• Yuzu kosho (on YUZUCO here)

• White Widow salsa (Food + Wine)

• Salsa Maggi

• Shio Koji

• Little cup blender

• Cocinando con Maggi

• Joy of Cooking

• Mastering the Art of French Cooking

From the ad break:

• TCHO Chocolate: If you’re a chef, baker, or maker in the sweets business, request a chocolate sample at TCHOpro.com

• Made In Cookware: Visit madein.cc/dinnerplan to unlock your discount offer.

• Straus Family Creamery: Find Straus organic ice cream at Whole Foods nationwide or at strausfamilycreamery.com.

• Masienda: Use code DINNERPLAN15 for 15% off ingredients and cookware at Masienda.com.

Catch up on The Dinner Plan:

• Chef Sheldon Simeon’s Best Potluck Recipes

• How to Save Money on Groceries

• Rick Martinez’s New Salsa Book With Transform Your Weeknight Cooking

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Photo: David Alvarado

Spiced Strawberry Jamaica

Reprinted with permission from Cooking the Borderlands: Spice and Smoke Between Mexico and the States by Claudette Zepeda. Copyright © 2026 by Claudette Zepeda.

Not unlike the art of turning yesterday’s dinner into tomorrow’s tostadas, aguas frescas are a way for moms everywhere to turn yesterday’s overripe fruit into today’s delicious drink. When my family fell on hard times financially, making fun aguas was a way for my mother to keep us from knowing it (or at least stop us from thinking about it). Now, as a mother myself, I can also add that it is an effective way to get stubborn, picky kids to drink water.

Makes about 2 quarts

• 2 cups packed dried hibiscus flowers

• 1 cup very ripe diced strawberries

• 1 stick Mexican canela/Ceylon cinnamon

• 1 whole star anise

• ½ cup sugar

• Peel of 1 orange

• Pinch of Diamond Crystal Kosher salt

• Ice, for serving

Optional garnishes (per glass):

• Hibiscus flowers

• Whole star anise

• Orange peel twists

1. In a medium saucepan, combine the hibiscus flowers, strawberries, cinnamon, star anise, sugar, orange peel, salt, and 1 quart of water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

2. Once the mixture reaches a boil, remove from heat, cover with a lid, and let steep for 15 to 20 minutes.

3. Strain the steeped liquid through a fine-mesh sieve directly into a pitcher and stir in an additional 1 quart of cold water. Stir to incorporate. Save a few hydrated hibiscus flowers for garnish if you wish; you can discard the rest of the solids.

4. Top the pitcher off with ice and stir once more before serving. If you want to impress someone, garnish with a hibiscus flower, a star anise, and an orange peel twist.

Banana Chai Horchata

Reprinted with permission from Cooking the Borderlands: Spice and Smoke Between Mexico and the States by Claudette Zepeda. Copyright © 2026 by Claudette Zepeda.

Makes about 2 quarts

• 1 cup jasmine rice

• 1 stick Mexican canela/ Ceylon cinnamon

• 1 teaspoon loose-leaf masala chai blend

• 3 medium overripe bananas

• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

• 1 quart whole milk

• Pinch of Diamond Crystal Kosher salt

• Ice, for serving

Optional Garnishes:

• Frozen strawberries, slightly thawed and puréed

• Ground cinnamon or cinnamon sticks

• Plantain chips

1. In a container or bowl, mix together the rice, cinnamon, chai, and 1 quart of water. Let soak overnight.

2. In a blender, combine the soaked rice mixture (with the soaking water) and the bananas. Blend on high for 4 to 5 minutes, until the rice is completely dissolved.

3. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a large pitcher (discard any leftover pulp). Stir in the condensed milk, whole milk, and pinch of salt, and mix until fully dissolved.

4. Top off the pitcher with ice, stir again, and serve. Stir the pitcher each time before pouring.

5. If you want to go the extra mile, garnish your horchata like the ones found in mercados across the border: Fill a tall glass halfway with ice and pour in the horchata. Add a couple tablespoons of strawberry purée and a dash of cinnamon or a cinnamon stick. Drink with a straw.

Cucumber Pineapple Chia

Reprinted with permission from Cooking the Borderlands: Spice and Smoke Between Mexico and the States by Claudette Zepeda. Copyright © 2026 by Claudette Zepeda.

Note: To make cucumber ribbons, use a vegetable peeler to take layers off a cucumber with a peeler, discarding until you get to the flesh.

Makes about 2 quarts

• 1 large cucumber, peeled and diced

• 1 cup diced fresh pineapple

• ½ cup sugar

• Juice of 1 lime (about 2 tablespoons)

• 2 tablespoons chia seeds

• Pinch of Diamond Crystal kosher salt

• Ice, for serving

Optional garnishes (per glass):

• Lime wedges

• Tajín

• Cucumber ribbons (see Note above)

1. Add the cucumber, pineapple, and sugar to a blender with 2 cups of water. Blend on high until smooth, about 3 minutes.

2. Pour the mixture into a pitcher. Stir in the lime juice, chia seeds, salt,

3. and 1 quart of cold water. Stir to incorporate, and let sit for 10 to 15 minutes so the chia seeds can expand.

4. Top off with ice and stir once more before serving.

5. If you’d like, garnish each glass by rubbing lime over the rim of the glass; then dipping the rim in Tajín. To be extra fancy, you can also line the inside circumference of the glass with a cucumber ribbon before pouring in the agua fresca.