To make my Mexican Salsa Verde, I like to char roast the tomatillos, chilies and garlic, bringing out their inherent sweetness while imbuing a wonderful smoky flavor. Combined with some fresh minced onions, cilantro and lime juice, you won't be able to stop eating this Salsa Verde until all the chips are gone.
Oh the things I go through to get a descent photo for the website… Let me start from the beginning… I made a batch of salsa verde last week to go with some tacos, but having had a few cervezas on an empty stomach, the tacos and salsa were demolished before I had a chance to take a photo of the salsa verde by itself. Oops!
Fast forward a week and I’ve made a fresh batch of salsa verde. Then I realize I don’t have any chips to show it with. So I got a bag of masa harina out, kneaded some dough, made a single tortilla, cut it into pieces and made some fresh baked tortilla chips just for this post:-)
I tend to prefer salsas made with tomatoes for chips, but as a condiment on tacos, eggs, etc, I’m a huge fan of this green tomatillo salsa. It’s tangy, sweet and spicy with some very concentrated flavours owing to the fact that everything gets fire roasted before it goes into the salsa.
You could of course use canned tomatillos, but given how widely available the fresh ones are here in North America, there really isn’t any excuse to not use fresh ones.
Ingredients
Steps
- Peel the husks off the tomatillos and wash thoroughly. Score the bottoms of the tomatillos with a knife.
- Move the oven rack to the top position and turn on the broiler. Lay down a piece of foil onto the rack and turn up the edges to prevent juices from running off. Place the tomatillos, chili and garlic on the foil and broil until the skins charred. Flip everything over and char the other side.
- Remove everything from the oven with the foil, being careful not to spill any of the liquid. Remove the core excess char from the tomatillos and mince with a sharp knife. Mince the chili and garlic and add to a bowl with the tomatillos. Add the lime juice, onions and cilantro then salt to taste.