Mexican Name Finder
Soup or stewNahuatlPuebla

Chileatole

"chile maize gruel"

Say it

chee·leh·ah·TOH·leh

Built from

chīllichile+ātōllimaize gruel

What Chileatole means

Chileatole is a Mexican soup or stew name of Nahuatl origin meaning "chile maize gruel". It is built from chīlli (chile) and ātōlli (maize gruel). It is pronounced chee-leh-ah-TOH-leh, and it is most associated with Puebla.

ātōlli is the maize drink that gave Spanish atole. Chileatole is its salted, chile-seasoned form, eaten with a spoon rather than drunk.

Chileatole is one of the many Mexican food words formed in Nahuatl. Spanish borrowed it, and in several cases English borrowed it again from Spanish. See how Nahuatl builds words and the full list of Mexican food names.

This is a site about what Mexican words mean, so there is no recipe here. For the name itself: Pozole, menudo, birria, caldo. Mexican soup names are blunt and descriptive: menudo means "the small things", the offal that goes in it, and pozole comes from a Nahuatl word for foam, describing how the hominy blooms open as it cooks.

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Chileatole means chile maize gruel

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