☕Champurrado Recipe: How to Make Thick Mexican Chocolate Atole

What is champurrado?

Champurrado is chocolate atole. Atole is Mexico's family of warm corn drinks, and champurrado is the chocolate member of the family: nixtamalized corn masa (or masa harina, like Maseca) gives it body, while Mexican table chocolate, piloncillo and cinnamon give it flavor. It comes out thick and velvety, somewhere between hot chocolate and a pourable pudding, and it's filling enough that in a lot of homes a mug of champurrado and a tamal counts as dinner.

The name is usually traced to champurrar, a Spanish word for mixing, which is exactly what happens in the pot: the corn and the chocolate become one thing. In some regions people simply call it atole de chocolate, or chocolate atole.

What's the difference between champurrado, atole and Mexican hot chocolate?

All three are served hot during the cold months, so they get mixed up a lot. In short, every champurrado is an atole, but not every atole is champurrado, and Mexican hot chocolate is something else entirely. The difference comes down to what thickens them:

• •Atole: the whole family. A corn drink thickened with masa or cornstarch, in flavors like vanilla, strawberry, guava or pecan.
• •Champurrado: an atole made with masa and chocolate. It has both corn and chocolate, which makes it the thickest and most filling of the three.
• •Mexican hot chocolate: table chocolate melted into milk or water and frothed with a molinillo. No corn, so it stays light and foamy, never thick.

Where does champurrado come from?

Corn and cacao are two of Mexico's oldest ingredients. Long before the Spanish arrived, people in Mesoamerica drank corn beverages (the word atole comes from the Nahuatl atolli) and cacao beverages, and combining the two was nothing unusual. What changed after the conquest was the flavor: cinnamon, cane sugar (the source of piloncillo) and milk arrived later and shaped the champurrado we know today.

That's why every region and every family makes it a little differently. Some make it with water only, the old way, and some use milk for a creamier cup. Some add anise, some sweeten it with white sugar, and some won't hear of anything but piloncillo. The recipe here is the most common home version, the one that comes out of a big pot on a cold Sunday.

How do you make champurrado without lumps?

Lumps are champurrado's number one enemy. The good news is that a few old kitchen tricks keep them away, and if the thickness isn't right on the first try, it's almost always fixable:

• •Dissolve the masa harina in cold or lukewarm water, never boiling. Whisk it well or give it a few seconds in the blender.
• •Strain it into the pot. The strainer catches any little lumps that slipped through.
• •Pour slowly and keep stirring. One hand pours, the other stirs.
• •Keep the heat at medium-low and use a wooden spoon, scraping the bottom. Masa sticks easily, and if it scorches, the whole pot tastes burnt.
• •Be patient: it thickens in about 10 minutes. Cranking up the heat to hurry it just makes it stick before it thickens.
• •Take it off the heat a little early, since it keeps thickening as it cools. Too thick? A splash of hot milk fixes it. Too thin? Give it a few more minutes on the stove.

water to dissolve the masa harina, never boiling

Cold or lukewarm

into the pot, to catch any little lumps

Strained

heat, with a wooden spoon scraping the bottom

Medium-low

to thicken, without cranking up the heat

10 min

When is champurrado served, and what goes with it?

Champurrado is a cold-weather drink. It shows up on Día de Muertos next to pan de muerto, at the December posadas, at Christmas dinner and on January 6, Three Kings Day, when the rosca is cut. Then it comes back on February 2, Día de la Candelaria, when whoever found the little baby figurine in the rosca has to treat everyone to tamales.

Its natural partner is the tamal: rajas, salsa verde, sweet, any kind. In Mexico City there's even the guajolota, a tamal tucked into a bolillo roll and eaten for breakfast with a cup of atole or champurrado. It's also great with pan dulce, with Marías cookies for dunking, or just on its own on a cold afternoon with family.

Where can you buy champurrado ingredients in the U.S.?

The only hard part about making champurrado far from Mexico is rounding up the right ingredients. Regular masa harina for tortillas works perfectly (no fresh masa needed), but Mexican table chocolate and piloncillo aren't always at the grocery store down the street.

MexGoodies carries Maseca, Abuelita chocolate, piloncillo and cinnamon sticks, all original products from Mexico, and ships anywhere in the U.S. in 3 to 7 days (Canada too). And on days when there's no time to cook, Maizena chocolate atole is a tasty shortcut: it's thickened with cornstarch rather than masa, so it isn't true champurrado, but it hits the spot in ten minutes.

Frequently asked questions