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This homemade guacamole recipe is fresh, creamy, and ready in just 10 minutes. Made with ripe avocados, lime juice, onion, tomato, and cilantro, it’s perfect for tacos, chips, and parties.
Homemade guacamole is so easy to make, and perfect for loading on top of your favorite Mexican or Tex-Mex dishes (tacos, burritos, nachos, carne asada, pollo asado, and more!) or just serve with some fresh homemade tortilla chips for a snack with a frosty margarita.
Let’s Talk about What Makes a Good Guacamole
There are some recipes that get complicated for no reason.
Guacamole shouldn’t be one of them.
The best homemade guacamole starts with ripe avocados, fresh lime juice, a little onion, tomato, cilantro, and salt. That’s it. No special equipment, no long ingredient list, and no need to overthink it.
What makes great guacamole isn’t adding more ingredients—it’s getting the balance right. Creamy avocados, bright lime, a little crunch from onion, and enough salt to make all those flavors pop.
This is the recipe I pull out for taco nights, game days, backyard cookouts, and every time someone shows up with a bag of tortilla chips. It comes together in minutes and somehow always disappears before everything else on the table.
Why You want This Recipe for Guacamole
- Ready in less than 10 minutes
- Made with fresh ingredients
- Perfect for tacos, nachos, and burrito bowls
- Easy to customize
- Naturally gluten free
- Great for parties and gatherings
- Tastes like restaurant style guacamole
What Makes This Guacamole So Good
The secret isn’t a special ingredient.
It’s using ripe avocados and keeping the flavors simple.
I’ve made versions loaded with extras, but I always come back to this one because it lets the avocado be the star. The lime keeps it bright, the onion adds crunch, the tomato adds freshness, and the cilantro brings everything together.
Every ingredient earns its place.
Ingredients for Authentic Guacamole
- Avocados: Look for avocados that yield slightly when gently squeezed. If they’re hard, they’re not ready yet. If they’re mushy, they’ve gone too far. Look for avocados with dark green to almost black skin. A ripe avocado typically darkens as it matures.
- Onion: white onion is typically used in Mexican cooking, although yellow will work also.
- Cilantro: gives a fresh, herbaceous flavoring. Using leaves and stems chopped together gives more flavoring.
- Salt: use a nice sea salt to bring out all of the natural flavors. Most homemade guacamole needs more salt than people think.
- Lime: use freshly squeezed juice, it brightens the flavor and helps slow browning.
- Optional Add-Ins: Roma tomatoes, jalapeño, garlic
How to Make Homemade Guacamole
Making homemade guacamole is easy and simple. No fancy equipment is needed for this recipe. Although a molcajete is traditional and makes it quick and easy to mash, a fork will easily mash the avocados also. You want to make sure the avocados are ripe and soft to allow for easy mashing. If the avocados are hard then you may need to wait a few days.
- Finely dice: the onion, cilantro and any other ingredients you may be adding (ie jalapeno or garlic). In the bowl or molcajete add the onion, cilantro, salt and lime juice.
- Mix: Mash this together and let sit while you prepare the avocados. This allows the lime and salt to work wonders on the onion and cilantro softening them up.
- Prepare avocados: slice the avocados in half, remove the pit, then dice the avocados while in the peel. I prefer to dice into squares, just a few slices in both directions gives a chunky square dice. This helps create a wonderful chunky texture to the guacamole. At this point, add the avocados to the bowl or molcajete with the other ingredients.
- Mash: using the pestle or a fork, mash the avocado to your desired consistency.
- Add tomatoes if desired. I like to do this step last so the tomatoes remain in their nice dice and not mashed.
Tips from making guacamole on repeat
- Start with Ripe Avocados- No amount of seasoning can fix an unripe avocado.
- Salt Matters- Taste before serving, then add more salt! If it seems bland it just needs a bit more salt.
- Don’t Overmix- Overmixing can make guacamole feel pasty. A little texture makes it better.
- Add Tomatoes Right Before Serving– This keeps the guacamole from becoming watery.
Variations
Spicy Guacamole– Add finely diced jalapeño or serrano peppers.
Chunky Guacamole– Mash only half the avocados and leave the rest diced.
Simple Guacamole– Skip the tomato and keep it extra traditional.
Creamy Guacamole– Add a spoonful of Mexican crema for a richer texture.
How to Keep Guacamole From Turning Brown
This is probably the most common question I get.
The best way to slow browning is:
- Press plastic wrap directly onto the surface
- Store in an airtight container
- Refrigerate immediately
The lime juice helps, but limiting air exposure is what really makes the difference.
More Dips & Salsa Recipes
Tableside Guacamole
Ingredients
- ¼ cup white onion finely diced
- ¼ cup cilantro diced
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp lime juice freshly squeezed (approx 1/2 a lime)
- 4 avocados
Optional Ingredients
- 1 roma tomato diced
- 1 jalapeno seeds and membranes removed, finely diced
- 1 clove garlic minced
Instructions
- Add the diced onion and cilantro into a medium size mixing bowl or molcajete. Add the salt and lime juice. Mash together. Let this sit while preparing the avocados. (add garlic and jalapeno during this step if desired.)
- Slice the avocado in half, remove the pit. While in the shell dice the avocado into square pieces. Larger chunks for chunkier guacamole, smaller dice for smoother guacamole.
- Scoop the avocado out with a spoon, add to the bowl or molcajete. Mash together to desired consistency.
- Stir in diced tomato if desired.
- Serve immediately.
Video
Equipment
- molcajete
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Photography by Jess Gaertner Creative
Recipe first published April 27, 2020. Updated September 8, 2023 with new images and video. Recipe is unchanged.
I LOVE guacamole. I prefer to mash the avocado with a fork as I like the slightly chunkier texture. I make it pretty much the same way but I add a few drops of Tabasco for a hit of spiciness. I don’t normally put onion in it but maybe I’ll give that a try next time. I’m glad there were pictures otherwise I would have had to look up what on earth a molcajete is!-pestle and mortar!
Great recipe for guacamole! Love not having all the chunks throughout since I’m not a fan of onion. Most recipes put a bunch of other stuff in. Love how simple this one is.
Thanks so much Marie!
Made this recipe and luv, luv, luv it! Had refried beans on the side and everyone asked for the source of the source of the recipe. Thank you….teh luncheon was a success.
Thanks so much Greta! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Great recipe, turned out delcious. Thanks for sharing.
Simon
Thank you so much!! Happy you enjoyed it!
Really good recipe – thanks for sharing! Interesting idea to put the pit back in to keep the guac green and fresh. Wonder why that works? Do you happen to know?
Hi Brian!! I’m not sure why it works. I know whenever we only use half of an avocado with lunch though and we wrap up the other half for dinner, we always wrap the half with the pit and the avocado lasts so much longer that way!
I love guacamole and I never knew that about keeping the pit in the guac to keep it green. Thanks so much for the tip! It looks delicious! Now, pass the chips!
Thanks so much Sara! And you’re welcome! 🙂
What kind of chip that is Keto do you use ?