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Mexican crema is a thickened cream for dolloping over tacos and soups! Creamy and slightly tangy, it’s easy to make at home.

Mexican Crema Recipe

When it comes to dolloping, Mexican crema is where it’s at! This sumptuous thickened cream is at home over tacos and in burrito bowls: basically any meal with Mexican-inspired flavors can benefit from a little crema!

Alex and I love dolloping it on all sorts of recipes to add a little richness, like tacos, enchiladas, nachos, and burrito bowls. Mexican crema can be purchased in stores, but it can also be made at home. It’s truly easy, but involves a little wait time: almost like a science project!

Mexican Crema Recipe

About Mexican crema

Mexican crema is a thickened cream often used to dollop over soups, tacos, burritos, enchiladas, and anything that needs a touch of richness. It’s creamy and slightly tangy, and falls between American sour cream and French crème fraîche.

What’s the difference between sour cream and Mexican crema? Sour cream has about 20% butterfat and an acidic flavor. It’s less stable under heat and tends to curdle easily (so it’s best in cold preparations or added as a dollop at the end).

Crème fraîche is richer and has a higher fat content, about 30%, which gives it body and thickness. It works in soups and sauces; it melts easily and won’t curdle. Mexican crema is similar to crème fraîche: it’s a littler runnier and tastes even more tangy. It’s essentially crème fraîche with lime and salt added!

Mexican Crema Recipe

How to make Mexican crema

Mexican crema is very easy to make, but it does involve some waiting time. Up to 2 days, in fact! The base recipe for a crema is making crème fraîche: then it’s mixed with lime and salt.

To start, stir together heavy cream and a bit of yogurt. Then cover the bowl and let it sit at room temperature for 36 to 48 hours, until it becomes very thick! Sound a little odd to leave out dairy on the counter? The mixture won’t spoil on the counter, since the acid in the mix prevents bacteria associated with dairy products.

Note: If it’s winter and the bowl is by a cold window, the thickening won’t happen as quickly. Make sure the bowl is in a room temperature location, not by a cold window.

Once the Mexican crema is thickened, stir in the lime juice and salt. It’s that easy! You can use the Mexican crema for up to 2 weeks.

Flavor variations

Want to step up your crema? Here are a few citrusy spins that perfect for dolloping on tacos, burritos and quesadillas.

Cilantro lime crema

Recipes to serve with Mexican crema

Mexican crema is at home on so many different Mexican inspired recipes! Here are a few of our favorite recipes that would love a dollop of creamy goodness:

Dietary notes

This Mexican crema recipe is vegetarian and gluten-free.

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Mexican Crema Recipe

Mexican Crema Recipe

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3.7 from 3 reviews

Mexican crema is a thickened cream for dolloping over tacos and soups! Creamy and slightly tangy, it’s easy to make at home!

  • Author: Sonja
  • Prep Time: 2 days
  • Cook Time: 0 minutes
  • Total Time: 2 days
  • Yield: 1 cup 1x
  • Category: Essentials
  • Method: Mixed
  • Cuisine: Mexican

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 1 tablespoon plain yogurt
  • 2 teaspoons lime juice
  • ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt

Instructions

  1. In a sealable container, stir together the cream and yogurt. Cover and let sit at room temperature for 36 to 48 hours, until it becomes very thick*. (The mixture won’t spoil on the counter, since the acid in the mix prevents bacteria associated with dairy products.)
  2. Mix in the lime juice and salt. Taste and adjust lime as necessary. Mexican crema keeps in refrigerator for up 2 weeks, and will continue to thicken while refrigerated.

Notes

*Note: If it’s winter and the bowl is by a cold window, the thickening won’t happen as quickly. Make sure the bowl is in a room temperature location, not by a cold window.

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About the authors

Alex & Sonja

Hi! We’re Alex & Sonja Overhiser, authors of the acclaimed cookbooks A Couple Cooks and Pretty Simple Cooking—and a real life couple who cooks together. We founded the A Couple Cooks website in 2010 to share seasonal recipes and the joy of home cooking. Now, we’ve got over 3,000 well-tested recipes, including Mediterranean diet, vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, smoothies, cocktails, and more!

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24 Comments

  1. Ashley says:

    This recipe is the go to in our house for carnita tacos!






  2. Ashley says:

    This is so great I can’t make tacos without it anymore!!






  3. Maureen Samson says:

    Ok, well I have to say that was very much a waste of my time and money. Followed recipe exactly, mixture thickened up nicely and then everything fell apart when I added the lime juice!! I now have a curdled mess – the 33% MF cream was very expensive. I’ve tried to whip it back together but I think at this point it is a write-off.






    1. Alex Overhiser says:

      I’m so sorry about this! We have never had that issue!

  4. Helen Marshall says:

    How many calories are in 2 tablespoons?

    1. Alex Overhiser says:

      100 cal

  5. Amy Morgan says:

    I only have 24 hours. Will it still thicken?

    1. Alex Overhiser says:

      Hi! It will thicken slightly but not a lot.

  6. Laurie Anne Rodriguez says:

    All I want to know is if you can put Mexican Crema in your coffee. I guess not!

    1. Alex Overhiser says:

      No — the sourness would not be good.

  7. Ginger Hill says:

    Is regular salt ok?

    1. Alex Overhiser says:

      Yes, but just use a tiny pinch!

      1. Anonymous says:

        Thank you, Alex!

      2. Rita says:

        My mixture has been sitting for about 46 hours at this point, it has thickened nicely, however it has a bit of an unpleasant smell. Like sour milk, is this normal?

        1. Alex Overhiser says:

          Hi! It should smell slightly sour and tangy, but not bad like sour milk. Sometimes you can get a bad bacteria in there that ruins the recipe. I’m sorry!

  8. Ela says:

    Everything look great, my cream think beautifully after 48 hours, I mix with the Lemon and salt, so far so good but I decided to add some salt and them was a disaster, the cream look like cottage cheese, what happened? What was wrong?

    1. Alex Overhiser says:

      Hi! The extra salt probably caused it to split. Try chilling it before stirring in extra next time.

  9. Ksbrown23 says:

    We only had half-and-half. So I used just under a cup of that, plus I added a tablespoon of softened butter and whisked it together. Came out great!

    1. Amberlei Moon says:

      Thank You for this as I only have half and half too! It’s also much cheaper than heavy whipping cream where I live!

  10. Sara says:

    Is it plain yogurt or plain greek yogurt?

    1. Alex Overhiser says:

      We use standard yogurt, but greek should work too!

  11. susan says:

    i was bad and mixed everything together at once – will it still work?

    1. Alex Overhiser says:

      I’m not sure if the lime juice will inhibit the thickening. Let us know if it works out!

    2. Bren says:

      Just came here to say that I also made the mistake of adding the salt and lime juice before the fermentation but it still thickened up.

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