• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Mexican Please

  • Home
  • Recipes
    • Most Popular
    • Most Recent
    • Salsas
    • Appetizers/Sides
    • Beans
    • Breakfast
    • Dessert
    • Drinks
    • Enchiladas
    • Main Dish
    • Mexican Cooking 101
    • Tacos
    • Soup
    • Tortillas
    • Vegetarian
  • Articles
  • Cooking Course
  • About Me
  • Contact

3 Keys to Perfect Homemade Salsa

October 8, 2015 By Patrick 27 Comments

88 shares
  • Share
  • Tweet

When I walk past the salsa aisle in the grocery store I give it the Hand. Like a fed-up mother who doesn’t want to hear it. Or a traffic cop halting a lane of approaching cars. Or a dude who knows that store-bought salsa just doesn’t come close to the real thing.

Spend five minutes reading this post and your reward is a lifetime of giving the salsa aisle the Hand.

Once you perfect the basic formula you’ll never go back to paying five bucks for something that you can do significantly better. Don’t get me wrong, I used to pay that five bucks too, but not anymore.

Key #1:  Roast those tomatoes!

First, you must roast the tomatoes.

You have lots of ways to get there. Bake them in the oven at 400F. Toast them on a hot skillet. Put them on a grill.

The common denominator is HEAT.

I typically use the oven at 400F. After 20-30 minutes they’ll look like this:

roasted tomatoes after being in oven

Same tomato, better flavor.

Roasting lowers the acidity of the tomatoes, making them sweeter.  It also concentrates the flavor as some of the internal moisture is now evaporated.

Key #2: Use ratios, not recipes

It’s easier to think in terms of ratios instead of blindly following a recipe.

Start by using a 2:1 weight ratio on your Tomatoes VS. Onions for a properly balanced salsa.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to weigh ingredients every time you want to make salsa. Just know that a typical plum tomato weighs approximately 100g (3.5oz), and a largish white onion will weigh 300g (10.5 oz.)

So if we start with 3 plum tomatoes (300g) then we’ll use ½ of a white onion (150g) to approximate the 2:1 weight ratio.

But don’t forget, Mexican cuisine is one of the most forgiving cuisines out there, so there is some wiggle room here if you have to wing it. If you only have regular tomatoes start with 2 tomatoes and half an onion.

Key #3:  Add capsaicin incrementally

The final and most important key is what I call Capsaicin Control.

See, everyone has their own preferred heat level. Nobody can tell you how much heat you like in your salsa, only you know that.

But most salsa recipes don’t take into account the wide range of taste buds out there and they end up defaulting to something that is typically too hot for most people.

But what exactly makes a salsa too hot?

Capsaicin is the invisible ingredient in chili peppers that gives them their distinctive heat. When a salsa or hot sauce is too ‘hot’ for you it means the capsaicin level is too high for your taste buds.

jalapeno cross section showing where capsaicin is

The highest concentrations of capsaicin will reside in the seeds and pith of chili peppers. That’s why in some recipes there will be recommendations to take out the seeds if you want a lighter version.

But there’s an easier way.

The first few times you make salsa at home you are going to add the capsaicin incrementally, i.e. Capsaicin Control.

How? By cutting the jalapeno into quarters and adding one quarter at a time until it tastes ‘right’ to you.

That meeting point where the heat of the capsaicin is properly balanced with the flavor of the ingredients is what makes Mexican food taste MEXICAN.

Got anything I can taste test?

OK, let’s put the 3 Keys into practice. We’re going to focus on the Mother of all Salsas: the lauded Tomato-Jalapeno salsa.

Using the 2:1 weight ratio we’ll stick with 3 plum tomatoes and half an onion. Plus we’ll need 1 garlic clove and 1 jalapeno, and salt to taste.

tomato jalapeno salsa ingredients

Prepare the tomatoes by rinsing and de-stemming.

tomatoes roasting for salsa and huevos rancheros

My default roasting method is the oven at 400F.

In 20-30 minutes they’ll look like this.

tomatoes after roasting

Into the blender they go along with ½ white onion, 1 clove garlic, and only ONE QUARTER of the jalapeno.

tomato jalapeno salsa one quarter jalapeno at a time

Pulse blend (so it stays chunky) and taste for heat level. Not enough? Add another quarter of the jalapeno, blend, and give it a taste. Closer?

tomato jalapeno salsa adding another quarter jalapeno

Keep going until it tastes ‘right’ to you. Eventually you’ll get good at knowing where your sweet spot is. For me, I typically add half the jalapeno, taste, and then add another quarter if I need it.

You can add salt to taste here but the majority of the time I make this I don’t add salt, it’s usually rich enough for me.

This will make approximately 2 cups of the best salsa you’ve ever had.  Roasted tomatoes blended with capsaicin moments ago is your new secret weapon.

classic tomato jalapeno salsa how to make

You can always double or triple the core recipe if you want to make bigger batches.  It will keep in the fridge for a few days.

One other side benefit of roasting the tomatoes is that it makes the salsa warm. You’ll get instant credit for slaving away in the kitchen all day when you present this to your Significant Other. Something about warm salsa generates awe from those of us who grew up eating cold store-bought salsa.

Speaking of store-bought salsa…Please say hello to my friend the Hand.

P.S. Using these same techniques you can easily make Tomato Chipotle Salsa and a delicious Salsa Verde.

 

Still hungry?!

Want to receive Mexican Please recipes via email when they are posted?  Sign up below to subscribe.  All recipes are spam free.

And don't worry, we hate spam too!  You can unsubscribe at any time.

Thank You For Subscribing!

Filed Under: Mexican Cooking 101, Most Recent, Salsas

Next Post: Chile Pepper 101 »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Mel

    August 24, 2020 at 1:45 am

    Hi. Thanks for this post! I always thought authentic (or what I thought would be considered authentic) salsa was raw ingredients. Raw tomatoes, etc. I’m going to try the roasting method. Maybe raw vs cooked is a regional thing or raw is just more photogenic for magazines, etc.

    Reply
    • Patrick

      August 25, 2020 at 4:14 pm

      Hey Mel! Yeah I think you’ll be a convert once you try Salsa with some roasted tomatoes 🙂 Keep in mind that for dishes like Pico de Gallo you’ll leave the tomatoes raw. Cheers.

      Reply
  2. Aziza

    November 22, 2019 at 7:08 pm

    Hola! I char tomatoes-onion-garlic and jalapeño ona stove. Then blend veggies, some salt, pepper and other lovely additions like oregano, cumin, corriander. Reminds me salsas in Villahermosa. Something to do with burned black tomato skin 🤔😊

    Reply
    • Patrick

      November 23, 2019 at 12:19 pm

      Ohh nice 🙂

      Reply
  3. George Phipps

    October 25, 2019 at 12:40 am

    Great info on the salsa!!

    One question I have is; when making salsa with fresh tomatoes, you get an orange colour. I cannot seem to find a way to make salsa bright red without using canned tomatoes.

    Do you have any suggestions on this?

    Many thanks,
    George

    Reply
    • Patrick

      October 25, 2019 at 1:18 pm

      Thanks George! Hmmm I feel like the onion is always to dilute the red of the tomatoes a bit, and if you try to avoid that it’s prob not going to taste like Salsa. Which would be bad 🙂

      Reply
  4. Jose

    October 8, 2018 at 1:36 pm

    I’m going to use your recipe as a base and add cilantro, grilled corn, lime juice, cumin, diced raw red onions, diced raw red peppers, and scallions. It’s for a salsa contest. I’ll tell you-all how it did .

    Reply
    • Patrick

      October 8, 2018 at 5:03 pm

      Nice, sounds awesome…good luck Jose!

      Reply
    • trish

      July 8, 2019 at 9:02 pm

      Well, how was your salsa?

      Reply
    • Annalisa

      July 23, 2019 at 8:10 pm

      How did u do in the contest? I always add Mexican oregano, try it and see if you like it.

      Reply
  5. BENJAMIN ZUCKERMAN

    August 16, 2018 at 6:43 pm

    I think that it would be good to put the onion, garlic, and jalapeno in the oven as well – bake the whole thing for 20 minutes and then blend. I appreciate your two-to-one ratio for the tomato and onion. I happen to like some cilantro and lime/lemon in my salsa as well, but that’s just personal taste.

    Reply
    • Patrick

      August 16, 2018 at 8:28 pm

      Thanks Ben this is a good tip to keep in mind. Cheers.

      Reply
  6. Dawn

    August 14, 2018 at 6:51 pm

    Tried your method (portions) blind, but we also added our favorites.. a little lime juice and a little vinegar. We wont blame you if it’s too acidic. Thanks for your post.

    Reply
    • Patrick

      August 14, 2018 at 9:29 pm

      Thanks Dawn! Hope it treats you well!

      Reply
  7. Mathyu von Mathy

    August 3, 2018 at 1:53 pm

    “Just know that a typical plum tomato weighs approximately 100g (3.5oz), and a largish white onion will weigh 300g (7 oz.)”

    If 100g = 3.5 oz, then 300g = 10.5 oz.

    Reply
    • Patrick

      August 3, 2018 at 11:28 pm

      Hey thanks much for catching this! Just corrected it. Cheers.

      Reply
    • glen

      April 2, 2019 at 4:33 pm

      Hello my name is Glen,so if i use 12 tomatoes or roughly 2 lbs, i use 2 onions,4 peppers, 4 gar, im tryin to make 4 t0 5 cups. T U

      Reply
      • Patrick

        April 5, 2019 at 6:11 pm

        Hey Glen, yeah you got it those are the correct ratios. Keep in mind that you’ll get approx. 2 cups from a batch that uses 3 tomatoes as shown in this post, so quadrupling it will give you around 8 cups or so. Cheers.

        Reply
  8. Mitanti Ghosh

    January 14, 2017 at 5:57 pm

    Quite interesting and useful. Bookmarking this one, will need these tips for myself later.

    Reply
    • Patrick

      January 15, 2017 at 2:06 pm

      Thanks Mitanti!

      Reply
  9. Doug Lawson

    October 20, 2016 at 10:09 pm

    good methodology though! I enjoyed reading this!

    Reply
  10. Doug Lawson

    October 20, 2016 at 10:08 pm

    No acid besides the tomato in this method? Usually a cooked salsa will have the onions and tomatoes roasted and or charred along with the garlic to enhance the depth and richness of the salsa. I’m surprised you didn’t add any salt, lemon or lime to the end result as well.

    Reply
    • Patrick

      October 24, 2016 at 11:46 am

      Cheers Doug! I think it’s pretty darn amazing how good a simple homemade salsa can be without the enhancements you mention 🙂

      Reply
      • Brian Bassett

        December 4, 2017 at 9:40 pm

        Then put them on the side so that people like me that do enjoy a “finished” more varied flavor spectrum can dial it in.

        Reply
        • Patrick

          December 7, 2017 at 11:38 pm

          Good idea Brian!

          Reply
    • Annalisa

      July 23, 2019 at 8:07 pm

      Agreed, must add garlic salt pepper and I always add mexican oregano and ground cumin. Yummmmmmm!

      Reply
      • Anonymous

        August 6, 2019 at 3:54 pm

        It’s very easy if you don’t like what he made move on on what YOU like 👍.

        Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

Hey, I'm Patrick! I spent 2 years living in Cozumel and got obsessed with Mexican food. I built this site to share all the recipes and techniques I've learned along the way. Read More…

Footer

Mexican Recipes

Cooking Course

Mexican Cooking 101

Ingredients

Salsas

Starting a Food Blog

Enchilada Recipes

About Me

Contact

Disclaimer

© 2022 Mexican Please
 - Privacy Policy