Mexican Restaurant Style Salsa

Josh here today. It’s Thursday again so that means it’s recipe time!

I want to share one of my favorites, something I’ve been fine tuning for years. Who doesn’t love a bowl of salsa from your local Mexican restaurant? The stuff that comes out of a bottle is never the same.

You’ll notice I only use a few fresh ingredients. Of course, you can substitute the prepared stuff for on the vine tomatoes, fresh jalapenos, and garlic cloves. However, the majority of Mexican restaurants scrimp on the fresh to save money. Also I consider the little bit of vinegar from the jarred jalapenos add to the finished product.

Mexican Restaurant Salsa

2 10 or 14 oz. cans diced fancy tomatoes, petite (open can and empty out as much water/juice as possible)
2 Tbs bottled HOT jalapenos, finely minced
1 Tbs pickle juice from jalapeno jar
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp Kosher salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, finely minced
1/4 cup red onion, finely minced
2-3 dried chili peppers, finely minced (optional for more heat)

Roughly chop onion and de-stem cilantro. If using, soak dried peppers in warm water on the counter for an hour then prepare.

Note: Remember, the seeds are what really add the heat, so use as many or as little as you’d like.

Put all ingredients into a blender and fold in and then blend to desired consistency, or blend half of everything and mince to break up the saucy puree. Cover and refrigerate for at least two hours before serving.

This is what I’d consider a mild-medium salsa. If you like your salsa mild, only use 1 Tbs of jalapenos at first. You can always heat it up later. And the longer this refrigerates, the hotter the salsa gets.

Finally, I’d like to point you to a cool new feature Leah’s added to the blog. She’s organized all of her designs by type, difficulty level, texture, and the order in which they were posted on the blog. You probably noticed it already, directly underneath the blog’s header at the top.

Hopefully this will make things a lot easier to find!

See you next week,

Josh