I inherited my mother and grandmas cast-iron stomach, because I never get a stomachache from eating too much salsa or spicy chile.
I can always count on finding this salsa in my mom’s refrigerator. She and I like very spicy salsas, and we love the intensity of this one. My grandma always had a mild salsa casera (homemade salsa) made with Hatch roasted chile in her kitchen and my mom always has this smoky and spicy chile de arbol salsa in hers. I have to confess that I have eaten an entire bowl of this salsa with a bag of chips in one sitting on more than one occasion. It’s an addicting salsa, if you can handle the heat.
This salsa is also a favorite of my husband. He also likes spicy chile and the smoky flavor of this salsa pairs especially well with eggs, steak, brisket, and ribs.
Watch this video to see how simple it is to make.
Chile de Arbol Salsa
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon canola oil
- 20 chiles de arbol stemmed (do not remove seeds or veins)
- 1 small white onion quartered
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 cup canned peeled whole tomatoes
- 1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Heat canola oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add chiles and toast for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring constantly so chiles are fried well and change color.
- Add onion and garlic and fry for 2 minutes, again stirring constantly.
- Transfer fried ingredients to a food processor or blender and add whole tomatoes, tomato sauce, and salt. Puree until salsa is smooth with specks of chiles. Add salt to taste.
- Serve at room temperature or slightly chilled.
- Serve as a salsa dip or to top off your favorite tacos or tostadas. Chile de arbol salsa can be stored in the refrigerator 3 to 5 days, or frozen for many weeks.
This is right up my alley. I LOVE spicy. These kinds of peppers make me sneeze when I’m cooking them but I have all of this at home so it will be done later on today. Thanks!
Thank you for this recipe – I have a bag of chiles de arbol that I partially used over the holidays – I’m going to try this today!
Oh!!! Delicious… I have tried and love to taste it many times… keep posting nice recipes…
http://foodmumbai.co.in
Arbol chiles are the best!!! You are serious leaving in the seeds, I bet that salsa is spicy. Yum!!
I never remove seeds from chiles unless I’m stuffing them — I love spice 😉
Thanks for your delicious recipe,looking mouth watering,thanks for your recipe..
I’m totally new to Mexican Cooking! Do you use fresh chiles or dried ones? This sounds right up my husband’s alley!
You do use dried chiles : ) At our local Mexican grocery store a bag was $1.79 plus tax. There is enough to make many batches just from one bag because the chiles are very small.
My husband and I made this tonight with some dried chiles we got from our Mexican grocery store. It is the second hottest salsa I’ve ever tasted! My mouth was burning but for some odd reason I kept wanting more! I added some sour cream to my bowl to cut the heat a little bit, but my husband didn’t to his bowl. Very good! Tip: if this is too spicy for you and you want relief from the burn, eat a couple spoonfuls of honey, drink some milk, or do both!
I’m also from El Paso living in Ohio and love New Mex/Tex Mex cooking. I just made this recipe and came out delicious! It is so easy to make. FYI, I omitted the can of tomato sauce b/c the canned tomatoes had plenty of sauce. Also, I added some chile piquin (http://www.pequin.us) my mother in-law sent us from Phx to make it extra hot!
I stand corrected, I added Chiltepin (http://www.chiltepin.us/) to spice it up more, not piquin!
Lawdy it’s hot! So good, but I normally do chile de arbol salsa in a molcajete after seeding and toasting them. I figured the tomato stuff would temper the heat a bit, so I could skip the tedious seeding, but NOPE! Don’t get me wrong it is incredibly delicious, but I dipped a spoon into the puree and tasted it and it about blasted my face off. Thank you so much for the recipe.
way too hot and i love hot…. =(
This was excellent this recipe I loved . I put it over porkchops delicious
cant wait try all this on my own
Arbol Enterprise is one of the mildest Chile’s. Your article confuses me.
I found the tomato sauce flavor a little too forward of the other flavors. When I make this again, I’ll probably cut it in half (or omit it altogether) and use more peeled tomatoes. I also added an extra clove of garlic. It is very spicy. I will probably try to shake out some of the seeds too. The heat is different, it wasn’t so hot in the mouth as the spice made the area around my nose and under my eyes sweat.
Amend my above comment: Next time I make this I’ll just use stewed tomatoes which is usually what I prefer for salsa. I think the recipe’s choice gives the sauce too much of a spaghetti sauce vibe. I also would recommend pureeing the tomatoes separate to the desired consistency, removing from the blender/food processor then using a little bit of the tomato puree to chop up the chile mixture. If you blend it all together, you might get too smooth of a texture.
Can I substitute New Mexico chilies or guajillo chilies for the Arbol?