With red wine vinegar and Worcestershire Sauce, this tomatillo green chile salsa is just right spicy, fresh and robust in flavor. Don’t reach for another jar of green salsa from the grocery shelf until you try making your own. Always better, less expensive and healthier. And did I mention easy?
This recipe was first published January, 2018 and updated October, 2020
Making Homemade Salsa and Why This Recipe Works
Where would we be without salsa? Game day would be less zesty, and our corn chips would be very sad and lonely.
I’ve started making my own Salsas. About time don’t you think?
As many Mexican and Southwestern meals that come out of this kitchen, it seems silly to reach for those jars at the store.
Plus, it seems I’m always trying a new brand every chance I get to find a flavor profile that I love. Jarred salsas always come up short handed, with something not being quite right.
So I’ve taken to my own test kitchen, researched recipes and ideas and after a few experiments have come up with a Homemade Tomatillo Green Chile Salsa recipe.
One that I think tasted like a classic salsa verde recipe.
One can call this Salsa Verde Mexicana or Green Salsa using fresh tomatillos. But with the addition of Worcestershire and Red Wine Vinegar, I’d call this delightful.
What Is A Tomatillo?
And by the way, whats a tomatillo anyway? A tomatillo is a small round fruit that’s encased in delicate paper husk.
Tomatillos are indigenous to Mexico and Central America, they’re also known as husk tomatoes or tomatoes verdes.
They’re related to the tomato and widely used in Mexican cooking lending a tart zesty flavor to sauces and salsas. Their tangy citrusy flavor turns slightly sweet when cooked.
To prepare, just remove the paper husks and rinse.
What Goes Into This Recipe – Ingredients
Mise en place. Always gather ingredients before starting any recipe. It will save you time and organize your mind.
- Fresh Tomatillos, The star of the show and the backbone of this recipe, look for tomatillos in the produce section. I find them next to the tomatoes. Their flavor is slightly acidic and tart.
- Onions, One simply can’t make salsa without onions. Sweet or yellow onions work best for this recipe.
- Jalapeno, We always need to bring a little heat to any salsa recipe. Control that heat by removing the veins and seeds of a jalapeno pepper, or leave them in for hot spicy salsa.
- Limes, Fresh lime juice, a staple in many salsas, not only brings that tropical flavor, but brightens the overall flavor.
- Sugar, Sugar will balance out the tartness of the tomatillos.
- Worcestershire Sauce, I love what the flavor does to this salsa. Savory, sweet and salty, it adds a dynamic layer of goodness.
- Red Wine Vinegar, Vinegar with a touch of sweetness. Red Wine Vinegar is a robust choice for this combination of ingredients.
Ingredient Swaps:
- Pickapeppa Sauce: If you’ve got a bottle of Pickapeppa sauce in the fridge, don’t hesitate to substitute it for the Worcestershire. Similar to Worcestershire, but mildly spicy, it’a a great alternative.
- If you don’t have Red Wine Vinegar, a great substitute is Apple Cider Vinegar or even White Wine Vinegar.
- Add a squeeze of honey in place of the sugar.
- With the same pale green color and similar crunch, Green Tomatoes are a good substitute for tomatillos.
- Green Chile Peppers: Make this tomatillo salsa more of an authentic Southwest recipe by replacing jalapeno peppers with two medium roasted green chile peppers or one 4-ounce can of Hatch chile peppers. Poblano peppers are a good choice if you like your salsa less spicy.
How To Make This Recipe – It’s Easy!
- Roasting Tomatillos For Salsa: Start by removing the husks from the tomtillos, rinsing them and slicing them in half. In a frypan, stovetop, cook the tomatillos over medium heat until they start to brown on each side and start to soften.
- The tart tomatillo gets a sweet caramelized flavor when pan seared.
- Then simply add all ingredients in your food processor. Pulse until the salsa is the consistency you’d like. Depending on what you’re using it for, chunky or thin is your choice.
Choose the smaller greener tomatillos. They come with a more tart flavor, which makes this tomatillo salsa unique with flavor. Avoid the larger more ripe tomatillos. They are softer and more ripe. Save those for using in a Tomatillo Sauce.
Tomatillos have a sticky waxy film on their surface. Rinse them well and scrub them gently to remove the film.
No. If you leave them raw and simply chop them, you’ll have a fresher, tarter and a salsa that is crisper in texture. Try this recipe both ways. Experiment and enjoy.
Roasted Tomatillo Green-Chile Salsa Recipe
How To Use Tomatillo Green-Chile Salsa
Tomatillos are very common in Mexican cuisine, but have found their way into our Southwestern recipes over the years. Tomatillos and green chile peppers are great partners for those who want a good green-chile salsa without so much spicy heat.
Try it on everything! It’s basically just a different flavor profile than your favorite red tomato salsa. Thick in texture you could almost consider this a pico de gallo.
Besides a dip for tortilla chips, here are some recipe I’ve used this green salsa for:
- Roasted Green Chile Chicken Soft Tacos
- Breakfast Tacos
- Award Winning White Bean Chili
- Black Bean Chicken Tostadas with Tangy Romaine
- Scrambled Eggs
- Chorizo Potato Shiitake Mushroom Tacos
- Dollop a little onto Calabacitas con Queso
More Homemade Salsa Recipes
- Chipotle Peach Salsa, A very special salsa recipe for fresh peach season.
- Chipotle Black Bean Corn Salsa Easy using canned black beans, load up those corn chips with this tasty appetizer salsa.
- Essential Mexican Restaurant Style Salsa A salsa recipe that tastes just like you’d find at your favorite Mexican Restaurant.
- Big Batch Salsa for Canning Your tortilla chips will thank you when you have a stash of this fresh canned salsa to keep you warm all winter long.
- Salsa Macha Salsa Macha is a rich chile infused oil condiment that’s easy to make and complex in flavor. It adds texture and depth to anything it touches.
And if you’re looking for a queso recipe for those chips, don’t miss my Queso Blanco Recipe. So easy.
And if you love Mexican Food as much as we do, take a look at my Mexican-Southwestern Category. You’ll find a ton of ideas for your next fiesta. Including the most popular recipe on my site for Hatch Green Chile with Pork.
Tomatillo Green-Chile Salsa
Ingredients
- 6 tomatillos peeled, rinsed, halved and pan roasted
- 2 garlic cloves peeled
- 2 jalapeno pepper stemmed, seeded, cut in half. Or one 4-ounce can Hatch Green Chile Peppers.
- ⅓ cup cilantro rough chopped
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon red wine vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon Pickapeppa Sauce or Worcestershire
- ¼ cup water
- ½ medium onion fine chopped
Instructions
- Remove the stem, seeds and veins from jalapeno pepper. Or leave the seeds and veins in for some good heat. Cut the jalapeno and half and with skin side up, with your hand flatten the pepper so it will roast in the fry pan.
- Heat a 10 inch non-stick skillet over medium high heat. Lay in the garlic, jalapeno and the halved tomatillos. The tomatillos should be cut side down.
- When the tomatillos are well browned (3-4 minutes) with tongs, turn everything over and brown the other side. The tomatillos should be soft.
- Scrape the tomatillos, jalapeno and garlic into a food processor and let cool to room temperature.
- Add the cilantro, sugar, vinegar, Pickapeppa and water. Blend to a coarse puree, easily spoonable consistency.
- Pour into a salsa bowl and add the diced onion. Note, Once the onion has been diced, put it in a strainer and rinse under cold water. This will temper the onion flavor.
- Add and season with a little salt and a little more sugar if you wish.
Notes
Nutrition
Roasted Tomatillo Green-Chile Salsa … It’s what’s for tortilla chips and beyond.
Why Trust These Recipes? Lea Ann Brown has lived, worked and played in Colorado for 45 years. She has immersed herself in the Colorado Culinary space, is a Culinary School Graduate and publishes her Colorado food Blog, Cooking On The Ranch.
I love this stuff! SO good. And easy to make. The jarred versions one can buy are OK, but nothing like homemade. Terrific recipe — thanks.
We grew tomatillos this year for the first time and what a beautiful and delicate plant! The bees loved the blossoms! Made a few salsas from them, but never took the time to roast them. Pinning your recipe so I can give the roasted salsa a try. I just love the tangy sweet flavor of tomatillo salsa and boy, do we love salsa! 🙂
A friend of mine grew tomatillos a couple of years ago, I was so surprised at how well and prolific that plant was. Wonder if they’d grow in a big container like some tomatoes do?