Oh, Summer, the many things that it brings to our lives: fresh vegetables and fruits, trips to the pool or beach, and vacation time for some. It’s the time of the year when many will use their barbecue grills almost every weekend if possible.
For these days when you’re grilling your meat or chicken, warm up some tortillas alongside the meat to enjoy your grilling feast by making some tacos, and top it off with one of the most famous salsas in Central Mexico, one that’s sought after in many “Taquerias” for those who like to have a good, spicy, tasteful salsa. A good taco has to have a really good salsa to go along.
Red Salsa Taquera
This salsa traditionally has Chiles de Arbol, tomatoes, garlic, salt and water, but some cooks like to add tomatillos (the medium size tomatoes with a husk), like I do in this recipe. This is a very spicy salsa, but you can adjust the spiciness to fit your own taste by reducing the amount of Arbol peppers. This salsa goes well with “Tacos al Pastor”, too. Most Taquerias in Mexico City that sell Tacos al Pastor offer this salsa to top your tacos with. Some people know this salsa as Salsa de Chile de Arbol and others as Salsa Taquera.
How to make Red Salsa Taquera
Directions:
- Heat a skillet or heavy griddle and arrange the tomatoes, onion, tomatillos, and garlic to roast on the skillet. (Please check the ingredients list below)
- Roast the ingredients. The garlic cooks in a few minutes. The roasting process will take about 8 minutes.
- When your tomatoes and onion look softened, it’s time to remove them and set aside or place in your blender or food processor along with the garlic. Now add the Arbol peppers to the hot griddle and slightly roast them.
- Once all the ingredients, tomatoes, tomatillos, garlic, onion and arbol peppers are in the blender, process them until you have a fine texture.
Season with salt and serve in a bowl. Enjoy!
Buen Provecho
Mely,
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Receta en Español Salsa Taquera.
📖 Recipe
Taquería Style Salsa
Ingredients
- 1 Large sized tomato
- 4 medium sized tomatillos or 6 small ones *
- 2 garlic cloves unpeeled
- ⅓ of a medium white onion **
- 15 Dry Arbol Peppers ***
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Heat a skillet or heavy griddle over medium heat, once it’s hot. Arrange the tomatoes, onion, tomatillos and garlic to roast on the skillet.
- Roast the ingredients until they start showing some blistering and look slightly softened, turning them to make sure they roast evenly. The garlic cooks in a few minutes and you will need to remove it, peel the skin, and set aside. The roasting process will take about 8 minutes. If your tomatoes don’t look to softened, wrap them in aluminum foil for about 10 minutes, this will help them to finish cooking.
- When your tomatoes and onion look softened, it’s time to remove them and set aside or place in your blender or food processor along with the garlic. Now add the Arbol peppers to the hot griddle and slightly roast them, this will be a very fast step since the peppers skins burn easily, which gives them an unpleasant bitter taste, so be sure to turn them and roast the peppers without burning them.
- Once all the ingredients, tomatoes, tomatillos, garlic, onion and arbol peppers are in the blender, process them until you have a fine texture. If your salsa is too thick add a little water. Season with salt and serve in a bowl.
Kimber Wallick
I’ve never made a salsa recipe that my husband liked and today I made two! This salsa taquera and another from your book The Mexican Home Kitchen called salsa verde cremosa. These are the first two recipes I’ve tried from your book and with these results you can bet I’m excited to try more. Delicious and thank you!
Ely
Hi Mely,
Have you tried canning this salsa? I would love to make a big batch and can it to have through out the year. Do you know if it's possible and how it would hold up?
Love your recipes!
Ely
Mely Martínez
Hello Ely,
Sorry, I haven't tried canning this salsa.
Gabriela
Delicious! However, the 15 chile de árbol was too much for my family. We love spicy food, but this amount was too much for us! Love all your recipes!
Luz
Super good recipe! I didn’t think the chiles would be spicy since she added 15 but ooooo it’s spicy. I would use maybe 5 next time but I’m a wimp. I’ll still be using the rest of this salsa, thank you!
pero de internet
ever use Mexican oregano in these?
Mely Martínez
Hello.
Yes, once in a while.
perro de internet
do you peel the red tomato?
Mely Martínez
Hello,
No, I use them with skins on.
Jerry H.
I've made this plenty of times.....so good! Sometimes I will add chile Japones and some powdered chile chipotle .
Thank you!
Sarah
Delicious! But seriously spicy. I cut the arbol amount in half and still spicy. So if you are sensitive to heat maybe 3 arbol. Delicious flavor!
Jeana
The heat is in the seeds and the inner veins. Cut these out to make the salsa less spicy.
nick
You can't cut the veins out of Arbol chilis: even if they were fresh it would be a tall order because they're so small, but when they're dried it's literally impossible unless you rehydrate them and even then... You can remove the seeds for sure - which you should definitely do since they're insanely spicy and they're pretty bitter to boot - but even 5 seeded arbols is pretty hot, especially for a weaker pallet. I think you've got it right: 3 arbols for a slightly hotter but still medium spicy salsa for a weaker pallet is probably the right amount.
Norma
This salsa is so delicious,thank you!!
Gabby
I made this recipe for dinner today with pollo asado tacos and I am so happy I did! So delicious and it is like going to a taqueria. Thank you.
Misty Westfall
I am unable to find the Arbol
Chilies, is there a pepper I could sub ?
Can wait to make this recipe!! I’ve looked everywhere for a recipe like yours!! Thank you for sharing!
Kind Regards,
Misty
Misty Westfall
*can’t wait to make it , I meant. Lol
Mely Martínez
Hello Misty,
You can try using Puya peppers, Piquin peppers, or even the spicy Chinese peppers sold at Asian stores.
Janb
Possible on Amazon. I would suggest taste the pepper first before using 15.
Nichol Richards
Look on Amazon. I’ve had to do that before.
salsa snob
Spanish isle at Walmart and any grocery store. they are dried in a bag or any taqueria will usually have a grocery section.
Jeana
Try Amazon,com or MexGrocer.com. Getting chiles de arbol are totally worth it!
andrew
Hi, Where I am from it is not possible to get fresh tomatillos. Would canned tomatillo work as a substitute?
Mely Martínez
Hello Andrew,
Yes, you can use those to make Taqueria style salsa, just add to the blender.
klaus
dawg, this is the worst salsa ever. mi mama told me to never mix the two tomatoes, it came out unpleasantly sweet.
Mely Martínez
Hello Klaus,
This is so strange and weird, using both types of tomatoes is a very common practice for this type of salsa, especially in taquerias. There is absolutely no reason to have a sweet taste.
Dave
Do you ever add fresh lime at the end?
Mely Martínez
Yes, sometimes. But some people add lime all the time to their tacos.
Kristi
Hey! Thanks so much for this recipe. I made it today and I feel like it might have come out a little bland. Any thoughts as to why this may have happened. Maybe the tomatoes?
Mely Martínez
Hello,
You can adjust the number of tomatoes to your personal liking. I'm not sure what you mean by a little bland.
No spicy?
Miran
My problem was always not enough salt. My friend who was from Mexico added almost a teaspoon to this amount of tomatoes.
Mely Martínez
Hello Miran,
As the recipe indicates, you need to add salt to adjust to your taste.
Colin Fernandez
I think the tomatillos you used were too ripe. They should be used when green and not more yellow for a nice sour flavor.
Vince
What should a base amount of salt be, I’m afraid of using too much or too little. I was also unable to locate Chile de Arbil, will the Japones Chilis work?
Mely Martínez
Hello Vince,
If you don't find Arbol peppers then those you mention could be a good substitute. Keep in mind that even though their level of heat is similar it would differ from one to another. For the sal, add 1/3 tsp first, if that is enough for you, then you do not need to add more. Happy cooking!
Kay
This is a yummy salsa! It is pretty spicy. I think I am gonna use about 10 peppers next time. It is very good, the only issue was when I was roasting the veggies, it gets smoky and it’s hard to evenly roast them cause they roll. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. Overall, delicious! 😊
Linda
Making some taquitos dorados for dinner and needed the perfect salsa. I have bought various store made ones and I have had no luck. I found this recipe and decided to give it a try, OMG! It was perfect. Delicious and perfect amount of heat. The tomatillos definitely are a must!
Mely Martínez
Hello Linda,
Thank you for trying the Taqueria Style Salsa. Enjoy!