Chabela Cortez: A Frosty Michelada

Name: Chabela Cortez: A Frosty Michelada
Yield: 10
Cuisine: American

Recipe: Jay Kuehner , Seattle

Photo: Stuart Mullenberg

May 13, 2011

This frosty Michelada should be served in huge, frosty mugs, garnished with carrots and celery and sometimes shrimp.

“For me, this is the drink of choice in my near-native Tucson, when the days are too hot,” says Jay Kuehner. “On road trips in central California, this drink would come in huge, frosty mugs, garnished with carrots and celery and sometimes shrimp.” Kuehner says the Chabela Michelada allows for virtually limitless garnish options, including lime, jalapeño pepper, celery, and cherry tomatoes.

Ingredients

2 1/2 oz. fresh tomato juice (see below)
1 oz. fresh lime juice
1/4 oz. chamoy (see note)
1/4 oz. simple syrup
1/4-1/2 oz. hot sauce (such as Tabasco or Tapatío)
1/2 oz. olive brine (Kuehner uses Goya)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cracked black pepper
1 dash Worcestershire sauce
1 bottle Mexican beer

Tools:shaker
Glass:12-oz. chilled beer
Garnish:salt rim, shrimp and lime wedge

Preparation

Salt the rim of a glass and set aside. Stir or shake all ingredients except the beer with ice. Pour, ice included, into glass and top with beer. Garnish. Serve with the bottle containing any remaining beer to the side of the glass so that it can be added as desired.

To make fresh tomato juice, puree fresh, ripe tomatoes, preferably heirloom, and strain through a sieve. “In the summer, we pick heirlooms, and they are so juicy, you can just muddle them or push them through a mill,” says Kuehner.

NoteChamoy is a tangy, salty, and slightly sweet sauce made from pickled fruit. It’s available in many Latin grocery stores. If you can’t find it, Kuehner says it can be omitted, but adds that it’s worth hunting down: “It always gets interesting reactions.”