The cuisine of the Southwestern United States is food styled after the cooking of the Oasisamerican Native Americans, Hispanos of New Mexico, caballero cowboys, hillbillies, and Mexican Americans.

One such style within the Southwest is New Mexican cuisine, named after the state of New Mexico and the Southwest's historical naming convention of Nuevo México. It is most popular in the states of New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Southern Nevada and Utah. This cuisine is known for its use of New Mexico chile, the majority of the crop is grown in Hatch, New Mexico. A hallmark of New Mexican cuisine is smothering dishes with either red chile, green chile, or both (a combination referred to as "Christmas"). Beyond chiles, it incorporates flavors such as piñon, and dishes such as breakfast burritos, biscochitos, and sopapillas. Another popular variety is the Tejano foods from Texan cuisine, called Tex-Mex, which includes dishes like fajitas and from Texan barbecue. Additionally, parts of Arizona’s Southwestern cuisine are often called Sonoran, named after the Mexican state of Sonora and the Sonoran Desert that covers a third of the state, and include dishes like Sonoran hot dogs.

A number of casual dining and fast food restaurants specializing in Southwestern cuisine have become popular in the United States. Several brands specialize in Southwestern foods for grocers.

When New Mexico was still part of New Spain and the Republic of Mexico, regional ingredients were more limited, with few imports supplementing locally grown food. This gave New Mexican cuisine its unique palate.^{[citation needed]}

All cooking was done at home by women who toasted whole spices and ground corn by hand using metates. Hunters made "jerky", in the style of New Mexican carne seca, with game meats, fish and wild birds. Fruits and vegetables were sun-dried in preparation for the winter.^{[citation needed]}

Food was slow-cooked in iron or copper pots over open fires, and the only imported items were non-perishables from New Spain—coffee, sugar and spices.^{[citation needed]}

The expansion of the railway system allowed the importation of milled flour and corn meal, sugar, lemons, oranges and other ingredients from "the States".^{[clarification needed]}

Traditional ways of cooking were eventually replaced by iron stoves. The basic chile, beans and corn dishes from Mexican cuisine evolved over time and in modern form often substitute extremely hot peppers and condiments for the subtle, balanced spicing of authentic Mexican cuisine. Native Americans and Hispanos developed the earliest forms of New Mexico chile to supplement this taste.^{[citation needed]}