tl;dr;
Smash three ripe Hass avocados with a fork until very coarsely mashed.
Stir in:
- 1 finely grated garlic clove
- At least 1 finely chopped serrano pepper (with seeds if you want some extra heat)
- A quarter of a white onion, finely chopped
- 1 to 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lime juice.
Season very liberally with about a teaspoon of kosher salt.
The nitty-gritty:
A good guac has A LOT of aggressively-flavored ingredients, and tons of salt. You need both to cut through the fatty avocado flavor, which coats your tongue and can mute any other flavors.
The other thing many people don’t realize is guac’s flavor changes as it sits. Let’s say you stir a whole serrano pepper into your mixture. You taste it and it doesn’t seem that spicy, so you add another chile; it seems fine. Then 15 minutes later, it’s blazing hot. That’s because it takes a while for the flavors to leech into the avocado. So if you ever find yourself wondering if your guac is spicy (or salty, or lime-y) enough, wait a few minutes before you add more so that you don’t accidentally serve your guests a red-hot guac. Here’s what I do:
Smash three ripe Hass avocados with a potato masher, fork, or molcajéte(a Mexican mortar and pestle) until very coarsely mashed. It’s okay if there are still some hunks of avocado—it will continue to break down as you mix in the other the ingredients. Stir in 1 finely grated garlic clove, at least 1 finely chopped serrano pepper (with seeds if you want some extra heat), a quarter of a white onion, finely chopped, and 1 to 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lime juice. Season very liberally with about a teaspoon of kosher salt.
A word on cilantro: While it’s traditional to add it to guac, there are times I won’t use it. If I’m serving it as an appetizer with corn chips or fried corn tortillas, I’ll definitely throw some cilantro in there. If I’m putting out guac as a condiment for a taco, I’ll generally put out some cilantro on the side, so guests can build their tacos to their own tastes.
