Guacamole

Published May 1, 2018. Updated January 17, 2024

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Homemade Guacamole! Here you’ll learn how to make this easy, flavorful, avocado based dip that’s perfect as a chip dip or adding as topping to all your favorite Mexican food. Everyone will love this at your next gathering or in your Super Bowl party food spread!

Fresh guacamole in a serving bowl with a side of chips.

The BEST Guacamole Recipe

Everyone in my family has a weak spot for homemade guacamole. I make a batch, and you wouldn’t believe how quickly we polish it off!

I mean, microwave nachos (tortilla chips with Mexican cheese melted in the microwave) with a batch of this easy guacamole is frequently a weekend lunch at our house. It’s pretty much the fanciest meal you’ll ever have the pleasure of enjoying.

Honestly though, it’s straight up comfort food at its best. This humble dip doesn’t require much but there’s a reason it’s become world famous!

Fresh Guacamole Ingredients

  • Avocados – good guacamole starts with good avocados so use the best you can find. Hass are best, most likely you’ll be getting Hass if in the US, they make up 95% of what’s sold.
  • Roma tomato – this adds little bits of sweet tomato-y flavor that pairs perfect with the avocado and lime.
  • Red onion – a little goes a long way, and don’t forget to rinse to remove the harsh bite first.
  • Jalapeño – this adds a nice spicy kick. You could try it with another type of pepper such as Serrano (they’re spicier) or in a pinch use some cayenne.
  • Cilantro – you won’t always find cilantro in guacamole but it really adds such a great background flavor.
  • Garlic – use fresh garlic not bottled.
  • Salt and pepper – as always, this brings out the flavors and keeps it from tasting one dimensional.
  • Lime – if you don’t have lime you could substitute lemon in a pinch.

ingredients for guacamole

How to Make Guacamole

  • Prepare avocados: first, cut the avocados into halves and remove the seed. Place them into a large bowl.

Showing how to make guacamole, adding eight avocado halves to a large white ceramic mixing bowl.

Mash avocado: Using a pastry cutter or fork cut into avocados and keep cutting until it’s about the texture you want (I like mine like mine to have a bit chunky with texture).

Mashing avocados in a mixing bowl using pastry cutter to make homemade guacamole.

Add in remaining ingredients: next add in tomatoes, red onion, cilantro, garlic, jalapeño, salt, pepper and lime juice.

Adding diced tomatoes, red onion, cilantro, garlic, jalapeño and lime juice to mashed avocado in mixing bowl.

Toss: toss mixture together and serve with tortilla chips and all your favorite Mexican food!

finished fresh guacamole in large bowl

How do You Choose the Best Avocados for Guacamole?

It seems that picking good avocados is a fine art but it’s much easier with a few helpful tips:

  • Check the color: Avocados with a darker green or blackish shade are more ripe, vibrantly green avocados are underripe and still need a few days (or even a week or so) to ripen.
  • Gently press the avocado: hard solid avocados aren’t ripe yet, mushy avocados are overripe (or overly bruised). They should have some give when gently pressed.
  • Avoid those with patchy dark spots on the skin, these can be signs of bruising inside. Also avoid those with random soft spots as that is usually another sign of bruising.

How Can I Ripen Avocados Faster?

  • Store them in a warm place, this will speed up ripening (sometimes I put them in a sunny window). If you want to slow ripening store them in the fridge.
  • Put them in a paper bag with a banana, kiwi or apple (fold top of bag over). This will increase the amount of ethylene gas produced (which is a gas released by some produce that causes fruits and vegetables to ripen).

Can I Omit the Jalapeño?

If you don’t like your guac spicy, feel free to leave out the jalapeño pepper. But if you’ve never had homemade guacamole with jalapeño in it, I recommend trying it!

If you don’t like spicy foods, take out the seeds in the pepper and finely dice it before adding it to the guac.

Can I Double This Guacamole Dip Recipe?

Very easily! You can also halve this recipe if you’ll be feeding a smaller crowd.

How do You Store Guacamole?

To my knowledge, there’s no perfect way to store homemade guacamole to prevent it from browning. But I have found that storing fresh guacamole in an airtight container with a piece of plastic wrap pressed directly on top of it slows the browning somewhat.

If you’re worried about your guac browning before you eat it, my advice is to wait to make it until you’re ready to serve. But believe it or not, this batch didn’t brown all day sometimes you’ll just get lucky.

Every now and then I’ll get great avocados that hold their color, but it’s not common so prep everything else earlier if you wan’t, but wait to cut up those avocados.

easy homemade guacamole recipe in a serving bowl

Helpful Tips for the Best Guacamole:

  • Use a pastry cutter to cut up the avocados. It’s the fastest, and it leaves you with some texture rather than guacamole mush or paste. A long pronged fork works great too.
  • Use the best, ripe avocados. I can’t stress this one enough. It makes or breaks the guacamole. Avoid bruised and mushy avocados.
  • Only use fresh lime juice. Bottled juice just won’t give it near as good of a flavor.
  • Add garlic for flavor. Some people might say authentic Mexican guacamole doesn’t have garlic, I say I don’t know what’s official but I do know the garlic makes it taste better, so go with it.
  • Rinse red onions to remove harsh bite of the onion. Rick Bayless suggests this, and I think it really does help. If you want a milder onion flavor, go with green onions instead.
  • Dice everything (other than avocados) small. It’s just better this way, trust me.
  • Make more than you think you’ll need. Somehow this is a tip for the best guacamole :). No, it’s just a little word of advice. This goes fast, so double up the batch for a party.

dipping a tortilla chip into fresh guacamole dip

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best guacamole
4.89 from 9 votes

Homemade Guacamole Recipe

The BEST homemade guacamole! It's easy to make yet so perfectly flavorful and totally irresistable. Perfect as a chip dip or serve it with all your favorite Mexican entrees. Double for a crowd or half the recipe if only serving a few people.
Servings: 6
Prep10 minutes
Ready in: 10 minutes

Ingredients

  • 4 ripe Hass Avocados, seeded and scooped from peel (about 26 oz before peeled and cored)
  • 1/3 cup finely chopped red onion, rinsed under water in mesh strainer and drained
  • 1 large Roma tomato, seeded then diced
  • 2 Tbsp finely chopped cilantro
  • 1/2 - 1 jalapeño, seeded and minced
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

  • Add avocados to a larger bowl and cut into avocados with a pastry cutter or fork until you've reached the texture you like. 
  • Add red onion, tomato, cilantro, jalapeño, garlic, lime and season with salt and pepper to taste. 
  • Toss mixture then serve immediately for best results.

Notes

  • Rinse the red onions to remove their harsh bite. 
Nutrition Facts
Homemade Guacamole Recipe
Amount Per Serving
Calories 204 Calories from Fat 162
% Daily Value*
Fat 18g28%
Saturated Fat 2g13%
Sodium 9mg0%
Potassium 633mg18%
Carbohydrates 12g4%
Fiber 8g33%
Sugar 1g1%
Protein 2g4%
Vitamin A 300IU6%
Vitamin C 18.4mg22%
Calcium 17mg2%
Iron 0.7mg4%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Nutrition values are estimates only. See full disclaimer here.