Charred Tomatillo Salsa

I love making salsa and one of my favorites is a charred tomatillo salsa that is really simple to make. It’s a perfect match for chips and beer on a hot humid Puerto Vallarta afternoon.

The recipe requires few ingredients and it should take you about 20 minutes from start to finish.

Salsa Ingredients:

• 1 pound of tomatillos
• 2 Serrano or jalapeno chiles with the seeds removed cut into strips
• 1 cup of coarsely chopped onions
• 1 cup of loosely packed cilantro
• 1 lime for juice
• Salt to taste
• Variation: add 2 charred cloves of garlic

The measurements are not really set in stone. You can add more chiles or onions to taste. Some extra lime juice will give the salsa a brighter sharper taste.

To make the salsa:

Place the tomatillos, chopped onions, chile strips in a preheated oiled pan to char the vegetables. Keep the heat medium high and turn the vegetables continually until they are blackened all over. Charring the vegetables really adds to the flavor.

After you have charred the vegetables, add them to the blender with the cilantro, lime juice, and salt to taste.

Blend the salsa coarsely. The salsa should have some body. You want to be able to see flecks of cilantro and bits of onion.

The finished salsa. Great stuff. I usually just make the salsa to eat with a big bowl of chips. When I am feeling more ambitious I put the salsa over a sauteed fish filet.

Two tomatillo salsa recipes you might like:

My Mexican Table Salsa Recipe

Chicken Breasts With Tomatillo Salsa Recipe Provided by Mexican Foodie

Tomatillo Salsa Recipe

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My Great Mexican Salsa Recipe

I make great salsa. No modesty here. My salsa rocks. I’ll give you the basic ingredients and techniques for making a typical table salsa.

Try it for yourself. Even though the ingredients are similar in most salsas no two cook’s salsas every taste the same. I learned how to make this salsa by watching our next door neighbor, Lucy.

Doing everything the same as she did, my salsa never tasted anything like hers which was phenomenal. At first, I was disappointed because I was unable to replicate her version but I stuck with it and realized that I was making great salsa, just totally different.

Once you start making your own salsa you’ll never be able to go back to store bought.

Authentic Mexican table salsa is easy to make and tastes far superior to anything from the supermarket. Mexican cooks use ingredients on hand to make vibrant, flavorful, and healthy salsas.

To make the salsa you can mix and match the following ingredients to suit your taste:

• Tomatoes preferably Roma but regular tomatoes work fine
• Tomatillos
• Onion
• Bell peppers
• Jalapeno chiles
• Serrano chiles
• Poblano chiles
• Garlic
• Cilantro
• Lime juice

The most important step for making a great salsa is charring the vegetables as shown in the picture below. You really want to char the vegetables. Make sure they are good and burnt all the way around.

To char the vegetables hold them over an open flame on a gas stove. If your stove is electric, preheat a large frying pan on high and char the vegetables in the pan turning often.

Many Mexican recipes have you peel the chiles. In this case, the charred bits give the salsa a deeper smokier flavor so you want to leave the skins on.

Recipe for a Typical Version of the Mexican Table Salsa

Ingredients:

• 6 Roma tomatoes or 3 large regular tomatoes
• 1 Medium white onion chopped
• 3 Jalapeno or serrano chiles (add more or reduce quantity to taste)
• 1 Garlic clove
• 1 Cup loosely packed cilantro
• 2 limes (the smaller Mexican limes are the best)
• Salt
• Makes 5 to 6 cups of salsa

Char the tomatoes, onion, garlic and chiles. Remove from heat and let cool. Remove the tops of the tomatoes and chiles. Put all ingredients in a blender including the cilantro and the juice from two limes. I like to add two tablespoons of olive oil which gives the salsa a richer flavor. Add salt to taste. Blend until coarsely ground. Do not over blend. The finished salsa. Nothing beats homemade.

More Mexican Salsa Recipes You Might Like:

My Tomatillo Salsa Recipe

Authentic Mexican Salsa

For more great Mexican Recipes visit MexicanFoodie.com