Salsa Verde: Recipe

After Sunday night's meal, I had some leftover chicken, just enough to make chicken tacos. But no chicken taco (or lots of other food) is complete without some salsa verde (green salsa). So I decided to whip up a batch.

Salsa Verde

salsa verde ingredients

2 lbs tomatillos
3 garlic cloves
1/2 cup cilantro
1/2 cup onion
4 serrano peppers
1/8 cup lime juice



First, tomatillos are not the same thing as green tomatoes. So be sure that you are buying tomatillos. Usually you can tell that they are tomatillos and not tomatoes because they are wrapped in a husk and are usually smaller, especially this time of the season.

tomatillos

This recipe calls for the ingredients to be broiled (roasted), so turn on the oven to broil while you're preparing the ingredients. Now it's time to work on the tomatillos. The first step is to take the husks off of the tomatillos and rinse the tomatillo well with water. They will be sticky and may even have dirt on them, so be sure to rinse them well. Then cut the tops off and cut them in half (if they're larger size).

peeling the tomatillo

Next separate and cut into pieces 3 cloves of garlic; halve the 4 serrano peppers (deseeding some if desired); and cut into pieces the 1/2 cup of onion. Then arrange them all on a foil-lined cookie sheet.

ready to roast

Place the cookie sheet under the broiler (or in the oven) and broil until the tomatillos are charred, soft, and clear juice is running from them. The other ingredients will char, too, but will have a good roasted flavor to them. Depending on the size of your tomatillos, this can take anywhere from 5 minutes to 15 minutes. But I would advise that you remain vigilant to get the charring you want and not burn it all.

roasted

ingredients in blender

From this point, the salsa is almost made. Place all the tomatillos, onion, garlic, and cilantro into a blender. Add about 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Add three halves of the serrano peppers and blend well. Add the lime juice and then add more serrano peppers to desired potency. Blend well. When it is all blended, pour into a refrigerator safe bowl to allow to cool. 

salsa ready to be cooled.

For this batch of salsa: I deseeded three halves of the serranos I had, because I wanted their roasted flavor without the heat. So in the end, I used all but one half of the serrano pepper, which was still seeded. When you first taste the salsa I made, you taste the lime but by the end of the bite you have the wallop of the serranos.

As I said, I had leftover chicken so I put my salsa verde on chicken tacos, complete with avocado, cilantro, and queso fresco. It can be used on a variety of dishes, including huevos (eggs) and chilaquiles or migas or just as a stand-alone to eat with chips. The salsa will keep for up to about a week in the refrigerator but does lose its potency the older it gets. A quick side note, although this may look like the sauce that is used in green enchiladas, it is not quite the same recipe.

chicken tacos with salsa verde

¡Hasta la proxíma vez!