Our Mexican salsa verde recipe made with roasted tomatillos, chile peppers, and garlic is genuinely one of my favorite homemade salsa recipes! It’s easy, incredibly flavorful, and makes everything taste better. Trust me, once you try it, you’ll be hooked!
We shared this roasted tomatillo salsa recipe years ago, and so many of our readers have kept coming back to it over the years. This one is a keeper! To make this easy green salsa, we roast tomatillos alongside other ingredients like chiles and garlic, guaranteeing so much flavor!
I serve this as a salsa with homemade tortilla chips and as the base for these delicious green chicken enchiladas. I also love it with my favorite breakfast tacos! For more salsas, see my fresh pico de gallo or this easy red salsa!
Key Ingredients
- Tomatillos: Tomatillos are the stars of my roasted salsa verde. They look like small green tomatoes with papery husks. Remove the husks and rinse them of any sticky residue before you roast them.
- Chile Peppers: I love my salsa verde made with jalapeno and serrano chile peppers. Serranos are usually a little spicier than jalapenos, but after I roast them, I remove the seeds and membrane to make the salsa medium-hot. If you love spicy salsa, leave the seeds in!
- Garlic: For a sweeter roasted garlic flavor, I toss unpeeled garlic cloves into the same dish as the tomatillos and roast them together. Then, before you blend the salsa, squeeze the roasted garlic out of the cloves.
- Broth: This is a little unusual, but I use a little broth (chicken broth or veggie broth) to deglaze the pan where I roasted my tomatillos. I picked up this trick from one of my favorite Mexican restaurants, and I’ve never looked back!
- Onion, Cilantro, and Lime: To freshen up the salsa, I blend in raw onion, lots of fresh cilantro, and lime juice.
How to Make Roasted Tomatillo Salsa Verde
Roasting makes this green salsa extra flavorful (just like roasting makes this roasted tomato salsa incredible). To make this salsa, I roast the tomatillos, chile peppers, and whole unpeeled garlic cloves. I use my broiler and leave them under it until everything blisters and picks up some color.
Then, I deglaze the roasting pan with some broth (unusual, but trust me!). Finally, I blend the roasted ingredients and the broth in the pan with my fresh ingredients (onion, cilantro, and lime juice).
I can’t wait for you to try this incredible homemade salsa. I love it with tortilla chips, spooned over tacos, in burritos, and with rice bowls. I’ve also shared these salsa verde chicken nachos, green enchiladas, and this Instant Pot salsa verde chicken.
Roasted Tomatillo Salsa Verde
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
This roasted tomatillo salsa verde is one of our favorite homemade salsas. It brightens just about everything you dip into it or serve it with. Using an oven broiler makes quick work of the roasting, which will take about 15 minutes. Once roasted, it is very easy to remove the skins from the peppers and most of the seeds. You could leave them in, but just keep in mind that the salsa will be much spicier.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
1 pound (450g) tomatillos, husked and rinsed (6 medium)
1 jalapeño pepper
1 serrano pepper
2 unpeeled garlic cloves
1/2 cup (118ml) chicken broth or vegetable broth
1/4 medium onion, chopped
1/3 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves and tender stems
1 tablespoon lime juice, or more to taste
1/2 teaspoon salt, or more to taste
Directions
1Set an oven rack about 4 inches from the broiler. Turn the broiler on.
2Place the tomatillos, jalapeño, serrano pepper, and unpeeled garlic cloves in a baking dish.
3Broil, turning occasionally, until the tomatillos are blackened in spots, 10 to 12 minutes.
4Remove the baking dish and add broth, then use a wooden spoon to scrape any bits stuck to the bottom. Let tomatillos, peppers, and garlic cool.
5When the peppers are cool enough to handle, peel most of the skins and remove the seeds. For a spicier salsa, leave in some or all of the seeds. Remove the softened garlic from the peel.
6Add roasted tomatillos, peppers, garlic flesh, onion, cilantro, lime juice, and salt to a food processor.
7Pour about half of the liquid from the baking dish into the processor, then pulse 3 to 4 times or until the salsa is mostly smooth and no big chunks of tomatillo remain, scraping down the sides as necessary.
8Adjust with more liquid, lime juice, or salt based on consistency and taste.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Baking dish: Since this recipe uses the broil function of the oven, we recommend using a high-heat baking dish or rimmed baking sheet.
- Storing: The salsa will keep well in an airtight container in the fridge for about 1 week.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
So good!!
This is an excellent recipe. I doubled the recipe for the enchiladas because I like it very saucy and then I added sour cream to the finished salsa. Also, in doubling I added two roasted, skin peeled, seeds removed poblano peppers, (because I love their flavor ) but I used a single Serano and jalapeño so it wouldn’t be too spicy.
Turned out amazing with almost a cup left over to freeze for later.
When do you use the chicken broth? Assuming that the cilantro goes in at the very end of processing?
Hi Janette, You’ll add the broth to the baking pan after broiling. Step 4: Remove the baking dish and add broth, then use a wooden spoon to scrape any bits stuck to the bottom. Let tomatillos, peppers, and garlic cool.
Question. Do you remove the tomatillo skins? If not aren’t they chewy?
We do remove them.
Can I remove the seeds before roasting?
For the peppers, I find it much easier to roast, and then remove the skins and seeds.
I make this every fall with my green tomatoes instead of tomatillos. We have a short growing season and they never all ripen. Its yummy!!!. Additionally I grow Hot Hungarian Wax peppers, and that’s what I use too. So while not the actual recipe, but an adaptation, still delicious ! 🙂
I also almost always have green tomatoes left over at the end of the growing season, even though it’s pretty long here in zone7. I love pickled green tomatoes and fried green tomatoes, but I’m the only one in my family who does. That’s a lot of pickles to eat by myself! So I’ll make green salsa with them this year. And thanks to the original recipe creator too.
Just made this for my dinner. It was delicious.
Still working on it right now, seems great right now. My first time with this recipe, will keep you posted how the final product works out.