Roasted Tomatillo Salsa Verde
One of my favorite salsa recipes! Try our easy roasted salsa verde recipe with lots of flavor thanks to roasted tomatillos, peppers, and garlic. Jump to the Roasted Tomatillo Salsa Recipe or watch our quick video below to see how we make it.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
How to Make Roasted Tomatillo Salsa
Salsa verde is one of my favorite salsas. It brightens just about everything you dip into it or serve with it — hello chicken nachos. To make our favorite version, we roast tomatillos, peppers, and garlic. Roasting makes the salsa extra flavorful. If you are looking for a fresh salsa, try our homemade pico de gallo recipe or this quick and easy salsa (they are so simple to make and everyone loves it).
Tomatillos are the star in this easy salsa recipe. They look like small green tomatoes and have papery husks. The husks should be removed before cooking them. The tomatillos are added to a baking dish with a jalapeño pepper, a serrano pepper, and a couple cloves of garlic. Then we roast.

Using our oven broiler makes quick work of the roasting. It will take 10 to 12 minutes. Once roasted, remove the skins from the peppers as well as most of the seeds. You could leave them in, just keep in mind the salsa will be much spicier. Since it’s been roasted, the softened garlic flesh easily squeezes out of the peel. Then we throw the tomatillos, peppers, and garlic into a food processor.
In goes some raw onion, lime juice, and cilantro to freshen things up then give the salsa a few pulses and you are done. Easy!

Try These Recipes Using Salsa Verde
- It’s so simple to make these Easy Chicken Enchiladas with salsa verde, chicken, sour cream, cheese and cilantro. The perfect quick and easy dinner.
- Use this salsa to make our Crave-worthy Instant Pot Salsa Verde Chicken. The chicken stays juicy, tender and tastes incredible.
- We spoon this salsa over these Epic Breakfast Tacos with Potatoes and Peppers.
- These Loaded Chicken Nachos are made extra flavorful with salsa verde.
Recipe updated, originally posted September 2009. Since posting this in 2009, we have tweaked the recipe to be more clear. – Adam and Joanne
Roasted Tomatillo Salsa Verde
- PREP
Salsa verde is one of our favorite salsas. It brightens just about everything you dip into it or serve it with. Using an oven broiler makes quick work of the roasting. It will take about 15 minutes. Once roasted, it is very easy to remove the skins from the peppers as well as most of the seeds. You could leave them in, just keep in mind the salsa will be much spicier.
You Will Need
1 pound tomatillos, husked and rinsed (6 medium tomatillos)
1 jalapeño pepper
1 serrano pepper
2 unpeeled garlic cloves
1/2 cup chicken or vegetable stock, see our veggie broth or our chicken stock recipe
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
Heat the broiler with a rack about 4 inches below the heat source. Place the tomatillos, jalapeño, serrano pepper, and garlic into a baking dish. Broil, turning occasionally, until they’re blackened in spots, 10 to 12 minutes.
Remove the baking dish and add chicken stock then use a wooden spoon to scrape any bits stuck to the bottom. Let tomatillos, peppers, and garlic cool.
When they are cool enough to handle, peel most of the skins from the peppers and remove seeds. For a spicier salsa, leave in some or all of the seeds. Remove the softened garlic from peel.
Add roasted tomatillos, peppers, garlic flesh, onion, cilantro, lime juice, and the salt to a food processor. Pour about half of the liquid from the baking dish 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. Adjust with more liquid, lime juice, or salt based on consistency and taste.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- If you cannot find serrano peppers, substitute with jalapeño.
- The salsa will keep well covered in the fridge for about 1 week.
- Nutrition Facts: The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We have used the USDA database to calculate approximate values.
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This came out very tart. Next time I will roast the onions to add some sweetness.
This recipe is delicious! I’ve made it a half a dozen times using tomatillos from my garden. I don’t care for raw onions so I roast the onion with the tomatillos. Thank you!
So much flavor in this recipe. Simply delicious. Ive made this verde three times and also have made the enchilada as well. Absolutely restaurant quality. I roasted mine in a cast iron skillet!
Great! Thank you!
Great Salsa and easy to make ..used it in your chicken enchilada verde recipe and they were Amazing!!! The sour cream and cheese takes them over the top. Restaurant quality! Thank you!!! I never liked bottled salsa verde and this was so easy!
I Have to make more it’s so delicious
Very easy to make and it’s very good
The BEST salsa verde I’ve ever made!
This was easy and amazing. I will be making this on a regular basis in the future.
Wonderful, flavorful recipe, thank you!