Homemade Pico de Gallo (Fresh Tomato Salsa)

You’ll love this easy pico de gallo recipe! With just 6 simple ingredients, you’ll have fresh, zesty, delicious tomato salsa in no time. Jump to the Homemade Pico de Gallo Recipe

What is Pico de Gallo?

Pico de Gallo is a chopped relish-like salsa or sauce from Mexico that, in it’s most basic form combines ripe tomatoes, onion, jalapeño, cilantro, salt, and lime. According to Rick Bayless (an American chef that’s devoted his career to Mexican cuisine), this kind of fresh tomato salsa is a condiment popular in every region of Mexico.

In Texas, this fresh salsa is know as pico de gallo, but in Mexico, it’s known by a variety of other names including salsa Mexicano, salsa fresca, and salsa cruda. If you’re wondering what pico de gallo actually means, it translates to “rooster’s beak.” I’m not really sure why it’s called this and from a little research, there are a number of theories why, but for now, I’m just going to move on to making it 🙂

How to Make It

Not only is this salsa delicious, it’s incredibly simple to make. I’ve shared the full pico de gallo recipe below, but here are some takeaways:

Chop tomatoes and onion into small pieces. For a salsa with less seeds and liquid at the bottom of the bowl, you can remove the seeds and excess liquid from the tomato (I usually skip this unless I have a particularly seedy tomato). To do it, cut the tomatoes in half and gently squeeze them out.

Next comes the chile pepper, you can use jalapeño or Serrano in this. For a spicy salsa, leave the seeds and white membrane intact (that’s where all the chile pepper’s heat lives). For a mild salsa, remove the seeds and membrane. I like to mince the pepper pretty small so I don’t ever bite into a big chunk.

Cilantro is next. Roughly chop the cilantro. I like a lot of cilantro in my salsa, but you can always pull back the amount we suggest below if you’d like.

Last, but not least, add salt and acid. My go-to acid for pico de gallo is fresh lime juice, but you can use apple cider vinegar if that’s all you have. Give everything a stir and let the salsa sit for a few minutes (more on that below).

My Tips For Making The Best Salsa

Let’s quickly walk through my best tips for making the absolute best bowl of pico de gallo salsa:

Use high-quality tomatoes. A ripe, red tomato is best. It should be aromatic and smell like a tomato. I know that seems like a silly sentence, but far too often I see tomatoes sold in the store that just don’t smell like anything! In the summer months, when tomatoes are abundant, look for vine ripened or heirloom tomatoes. In winter, when good quality tomatoes are tougher to find, plum tomatoes or cherry tomatoes are the better choice.

Don’t skimp on the onions and cilantro. We add a good amount of onion and cilantro to our salsa. You should be able to see them and taste them — especially the cilantro.

Use fresh lime juice. There’s no room for the bottled stuff here. Pico de gallo should taste fresh, a heavy squeeze of fresh lime juice helps with that. As I mentioned above, apple cider vinegar does work as a substitute if you don’t have limes.

Let the salsa sit a few minutes before serving. Salt draws out flavor from the tomatoes and tones down raw onion. By letting the salsa sit for 10 to 20 minutes before serving, it will taste better. On the same note, since this is a fresh salsa, don’t let it sit too long. In his book, “Authentic Mexican,” Rick Bayless says that a fresh salsa like pico de gallo is at it’s best for an hour or two, after which you loose a bit of crunch and the flavor of the onion can start to take over the salsa. He’s absolutely right, but I must admit that I’ve still been very happy when it’s been made a day in advance.

Serve with homemade tortilla chips. Making your own tortilla chips is easy and they taste so good! Here’s our recipe for tortilla chips to help you.

Serving Suggestions

For me, I’m happy to spoon a generous amount of pico de gallo on just about anything, but the fresh salsa is perfect with tortilla chips, spooned onto tacos, eggs, chili, over enchiladas, and more.

More Easy Salsa Recipes

• Try this roasted tomato salsa with charred tomatoes, garlic, and peppers. It’s quick to make and only gets better with time.
• In this Roasted Tomato Salsa, tomatoes, garlic, and peppers are charred on all sides then added to onion, cilantro, and lime for a flavorful and addictive tomato salsa recipe.
• For something a bit different, try this Easy Pineapple and Avocado Salsa with fresh pineapple, avocados, jalapeño, red onion, and fresh lime.
• Quick and Easy Salsa made with canned or fresh tomatoes, onion, peppers, and garlic.
• This isn’t a salsa, but we love it anyway: Try our quick and easy enchilada sauce. It only takes 15 minutes to make!

Recipe updated, originally posted June 2010. Since posting this in 2010, we have tweaked the recipe to be more clear. – Adam and Joanne