Try this 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.
Salsa verde is one of my favorite salsas. It brightens just about everything you dip into it or serve with it — hello salsa verde 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 (it’s so simple to make and everyone loves it).
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: It’s so simple to make this chicken enchiladas recipe with salsa verde, chicken, sour cream, cheese and cilantro. The perfect quick and easy dinner. Jump to the Chicken Enchiladas Recipe.
How to Make Roasted Tomatillo Salsa
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!
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: Use this to make our crave-worthy Instant Pot salsa verde chicken. The chicken stays juicy, tender and tastes incredible. See the Instant Pot Chicken Recipe.
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 Recipe
- PREP
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 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 Supertracker recipe calculator to calculate approximate values.
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My sister made some Salsa Verde, she got the recipe from a friend and was sworn to secrecy. She wasn’t allowed to share the recipe she got from a friend. The way they made it was so delicious. When my sister made it, she would give me about 3 canning jars of the salsa and it would be gone in a day and a half it was that good.
I’m glad I found this recipe, even though this recipe is a little different than the way my sister made it, I would love to make this and see what the difference is in both recipes.
What subsitution can I use for the tomatillo? Where I live they don’t sell them. 🙁
You could try underripe tomatoes or just replace with ripe tomatoes for a red salsa.
Canned tomatillos are available, whole or crushed. Walmart typically stocks them in their Latin food section. Not the same as fresh and you can’t roast them, but as long as the chiles are roasted, the flavor of the salsa verde should be fine. If using green tomatoes, add some sugar or agave syrup. Tomatillos have a natural sweetness that green tomatoes don’t have. Just recalled a suggestion I made to a friend…tomatillos always remind me of green apples, not overly sweet, just right. So instead of sugar, I’m thinking a combo of green tomatoes and fresh apple could closely resemble the flavor of tomatillo. Of course, I’m assuming you’ve eaten tomatillo and know the flavor so you can replicate it. I live in a city where I can procure most Latin ingredients readily but I’ll have to actually experiment with the green tomato/apple as a salsa verde base. Sounds like a great combination, don’t you think? Another thought…if the canned tomatillos are low-broiled in a skillet, center oven, until the top browns, one should be able to achieve the roasted flavor needed for this recipe. Hope some of this is helpful!
I made this about an hour ago and could not wait to tell everyone how wonderful it is!!!
Nice! So glad you enjoyed it.
If you add some chopped avocado and put some in the blender with everything you have a creamy salsa which is thicker and yummy!
Sounds great!
This is my all-time favorite salsa recipe! I love the mellow richness of the roasted vegetables. Thanks for sharing. It is a must-have recipe!
This is my first time ever making salsa. Having recently moved from Austin TX I no longer have the luxury of finding fresh salsa in my grocery store. This recipe is not only easy but tastes AMAZING! It tastes even better than most restaurants. I am so curious now, do you have a recipe for red salsa? Thank you so much for all your research and for sharing.
We do: Roasted Tomato Salsa and Pico de Gallo (fresh tomato salsa)
Great flavor, fairly easy. I used Poblanos rather than Anaheim, tastier pepper. Turned out a little thinner than we are used to. I’ll use less broth next time. Any ideas on how to thicken?
Using less broth is best.
Best recipe on the web for salsa verde! Many others don’t even say to roast the tomatillas and most use corn oil. This one makes a great taste and is less fatty.Very delicious.
I also roast the onions. Used pasilla peppers, as our local grocer did not have serranos, and the plants in my garden were not ready yet. Awesome recipe. Have used it with poprk, beef and chicken. Simmered them all in the verde for several hours. I did add a little cumin amd crushed red pepper for heat.
I made this for the 2nd time in 2 weeks. My family loves it! I have been working long and hard to find the one that fits us with flavor and heat. I follow your recipe except I substitute chicken stock for chicken NOT stock, being a vegetarian. It makes the absolute best Heuvos Verdes., which we had for dinner last night. Thank you for sharing.