Spicy Tomatillo Salsa that is tasty and versatile

Is it a salsa or an enchilada verde sauce?

Spicy Tomatillo Salsa is something I have had at Mexican restaurants but I never really jived with it, until now. This Spicy tomatillo salsa is tasty and versatile It can be enjoyed as a spicy salsa but it is also great as a verde sauce for chicken enchiladas. Using all fresh ingredients this salsa is a winner and one that anyone who likes spicy salsas should try out. This tomatillo salsa will become a staple in your repertoire of recipes.

What is a tomatillo?

First let’s address what is a tomatillo. Tomatillos looks like baby green tomatoes in a husk but they are not. They are a fruit and have a tangy flavor. They are often in the green sauce you eat at Mexican restaurants. I started playing around with tomatillos a year ago. Recently I a friend suggested Chicken Enchiladas verde because I had some shredded chicken I needed to use. My friend, Adrianne, told me to buy a bottle of green salsa for my enchiladas. But why buy bottled when fresh salsa is so easy? I immediately went to the grocery store in an attempt to make fresh tomatillo salsa that could double as an enchilada sauce.

Roasted garlic to give this Tomatillo Salsa depth

I sort of jumped right in and thought I need an onion, and some spicy peppers, so why not add jalapenos and serranos to poblanos, once I even used some Hatch chilis. I absolutely love roasted garlic and usually roast about eight cloves every two weeks to have roasted garlic on hand for recipes. In this case you can roast the garlic while you cut up the other ingredients. I believe the roasted garlic adds a deeper flavor to this spicy tomatillo salsa. The flavro roasted garlic adds to this salsa is worth the extra effort. Throw in some tomatillos, lime juice and a little salt and you have just made tomatillo salsa.

Spicy means peppers

At our house spicy is the norm. I decided in addition to poblano peppers I would toss in the obligatory jalapenos. Jalapenos do not have a consistent heat. One might be hot , while another might not be. For real heat we have the serranos. I know enough about using hot peppers that a little lime juice goes along way in complimenting the heat so in went the juice of a lime. I threw in a few Hatch chilis when they were in season instead of the jalapenos and it was next level spicy but so good!

But wait you need to remove the waxy outer layer of your peppers

A funny thing about hot peppers is that they all have a waxy layer. To deal with this we roast all of them and then give them a minute to three minutes under the broiler. But wait there’s more. After you have a good char on the peppers you are going to remove them directly from the oven into a bowl and then cover it with saran wrap. This allows the peppers to steam. I leave them in the bowl for about thirty minutes.

Leaving the peppers in a bowl covered with saran wrap allows the peppers to steam and make peeling off that outer layer a little easier. Once time is up you should be able to peel that out layer off of all the peppers. Keep all those seeds! The seeds will give you some good spice. If your skin is sensitive to peppers, find yourself some throw away non latex gloves when handling the peppers. Once all of this is done you will have a spicy tomatillo salsa that is tasty and versatile

Blend it all together in a blender for Spicy tomatillo salsa that is tasty and versatile

While the peppers are under saran wrap go ahead and drop the garlic, tomatillos and onion into a good blender. Using a blender instead of an immersion blender once you add the peppers, will prevent all of the peppers juices from possibly getting in your eyes. Once everything is nicely blended together, add in fresh lime juice and salt, blend quickly and your salsa is ready. It will be hot since the peppers are still hot when you blend them. I like my salsa chilled before I serve it. If using with enchiladas it doesn’t need to be chilled but I would still let it cool a little before adding it to my enchilada filling.

Versatile sauce

This spicy tomatillo salsa is so versatile, you can eat it as salsa. You can use it as an enchilada salsa sauce, but I might double it to have more to pour over the enchiladas. You can add it to eggs, chicken or anything you might add salsa to. The prep time is short and the roasting time is about 25 to 30 minutes which gives you time to prep other parts of your meal. The freshness of the salsa makes the effort worth it. Go ahead, give it a try and tell me that this is not the best tomatillo salsa. A spicy Tomatillo salsa that not only tastes amazing but is also versatile.

Print Recipe

Spicy Tomatillo Salsa

Prep Time1 hr

Cook Time25 mins

Equipment

• blender
• baking pan
• foil

Ingredients

• 6 cloves Garlic, roasted
• 1/8 teaspoon olive oil
• 3 Poblano peppers
• 3 Jalapeno peppers
• 2 Serrano peppers
• 1 lb Tomatillos usually about 10 nice sized tomatillos
• 1/2 Red onion
• 1 Lime, juiced
• 1/8 teaspoon Salt

Notes

First I like to start with roasted garlic which is so easy.  Take a head of garlic and cut off the top, exposing the top of the cloves.  Wrap foil around the garlic with cloves up to make a little bowl.  Drizzle a little olive oil over garlic, it doesn’t take much so no more than 1/8 teaspoon.  Close up foil and place on a baking sheet in oven preheated to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.  I do this before I begin on anything else.  I find garlic needs at least 45 minutes to get really good and roasted.  Once roasted carefully remove garlic from foil and let cool a little. Once cooled you can remove the roasted cloves, an easy way is to push clove from bottom and the roasted garlic should come out.

Back to everything else.  Remove the husks from your tomatillos, rinse them and while rinsing them rub off the gummy feeling as best you can. Warm water and a gently rub can help remove the stickiness of the tomatillo.

Rinse all the peppers before using them.  Always be careful when working with hot peppers. If you have sensitive skin use non latex gloves while working with peppers. 

Prepare a large baking sheet pan with foil or parchment paper for an easier cleanup.

I like to remove the core of the tomatillos before roasting so just cut out the stem and the core and set on the prepared backing sheet pan.  I usually place them top side up. When it comes to the peppers I leave in the seeds but we like things spicy. Feel free to remove all the seeds from the peppers if you prefer to.  Remove the stems by just cutting off that area from the serranos and jalapenos.  The poblano has a core to it that I like to remove along with the stem but I leave in seeds that are not on the core.  Cut each pepper lenghtwise into halves and place skin side up on the baking sheet pan.  Take your ½ red onion and sliced into into quarters or smaller, (I sliced mine into 6 sections ). Place onion sliced sections on the baking sheet pan.

Remember your garlic?  Go ahead if it still has baking time and place it on the baking sheet with the peppers, tomatillos and onion.  Roast everything on the middle rack of your over for about 30 minutes.  You shouldn’t need to flip them since all the peppers are skin side up unless you notice some tomatillos getting too charred on one side. 

If you find you need a little more charring on the vegetables, turn the oven onto broil for 1 minute and see if everything looks charred nicely.  If not I broil for 1 more minute watching closely, burning is not the goal here just a nice charred look. Be very careful in broiling, it doesn’t take long before things are burned instead of charred.

After 30 minutes have a medium mixing bowl ready with some saran wrap.  Carefully remove the poblanos, serranos and jalapenos and place them in the mixing bowl. Cover the bowl with saran wrap for 15-20 minutes.  This will allow the peppers to steam a little bit and it will help remove that waxy layer of the pepper.

Go ahead and place tomatillos and onions into a blender.  Unwrap foil from garlic and you should find golden, sort of carmelized garlic cloves.  Let it cool and carefully remove 4-8 of those cloves and place them in the blender. 

You can also remove any extra cloves and save them in the refrigerator for another cooking experience or to mix in with some goat cheese for a great appetizer. If you just want to take a short cut in removing the roasted garlic you can actually just squeeze the garlic and it will ooze out.  You might lose some roasted garlic this way and you will get messy but it is a quicker way to get to that roasted garlic. 

After about 15-20 minutes you are going to remove saran wrap from the bowl.  Hopefully when you go to remove that waxy out layer of the peppers it will just peel right off, don’t worry if some sticks on the pepper.  Discard the waxy layers.

Place the peppers into the blender, add juice of 1 lime.

Blend until the salsa is the consistency you like, I like mine almost pureed so I just keep blending.  Once all done toss in salt.

Give blender a little pulse or two to mix in salt.

Serve your salsa with chips or quesadillas

I also use this salsa for my chicken enchiladas verde.