Authentic, Well-Balanced Pico de Gallo

Name: Authentic, Well-Balanced Pico de Gallo
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 2 tomatoes; 1/2 onion; 1 jalapeno; 15-20 sprigs cilantro; juice of 1 lime; 1/4 teaspoon salt (plus more to taste)

September 14, 2018 By Patrick 29 Comments

Update: Hey guys, I’m re-posting this Pico de Gallo recipe because I’ve added a video to the post — it’s my first recipe video!! You’ll find the video down below, right before the recipe box. Please let me know if the video is helpful and if you’d like to see more of them!

Every kitchen needs a no-thinking-involved Pico de Gallo recipe.

Because if you don’t have to think about how to make it, you can focus on the infinite number of ways you can use it.

There’s a recipe sheet at the bottom of this page that can be printed out, but if you sear the following pic in your memory you’ll always have what you need to make a delicious, versatile Pico de Gallo.

Authentic Pico de Gallo Recipe

So in the above photo we’re using:

2 tomatoes
1/2 onion
1 jalapeno
15-20 sprigs cilantro
juice of 1 lime

And of course, a bit of salt. You’ll probably need close to 1/2 teaspoon of salt for this batch, but I usually start by tossing in a heaping 1/4 teaspoon and then doing some taste testing.

Give the tomato, jalapeno, and cilantro a good rinse. I usually twist off and discard the bottom, thicker portion of the cilantro stems, but I use the upper portion of the stems that hold the leaves together. (How to chop cilantro.)

And regarding the jalapeno, I usually start by adding half of it and then adding more if I feel the Pico needs more heat. Of course, a lot of this depends on the mood of the jalapeno, so I’m in the habit of sticking the tip of my tongue on this spot:

Do this regularly and you’ll get an instant snapshot of how combative your jalapeno is feeling, especially compared to other jalapenos. I wouldn’t recommend doing this with hotter peppers like habaneros, but I like doing it with jalapenos and serranos.

This particular jalapeno was relatively mild, so I knew I would probably be adding all of it to the Pico batch.

Finely chop the tomato, onion, jalapeno, cilantro and add them to a mixing bowl.

Add the juice of a single lime and a heaping 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Mix well.

And now the most important part: taste it!

Pico de Gallo reaches its full potential when the tomatoes are kept in check by the other ingredients. So if you take a bite and get a mouthful of tomato-ey flavor you can balance it out by adding more onion, jalapeno, or lime juice.

This batch needed more jalapeno, salt, and lime juice. So that’s close to a 1/2 teaspoon of salt and all of the juice from a single lime (close to 2 tablespoons worth).

When the ingredients are in balance, Pico is the perfect example of the sum being far greater than the individual parts. It has a light, effervescent flavor that will work wonders on all sorts of dishes.

We use it on Tortas:

And on Nachos…

And on these Molletes:

And even on some Avocado Toast:

Once you’ve made it you’ll never have to dig around for another Pico de Gallo recipe. Awesome!

Okay, as promised, here’s the recipe video. It’s my first recipe vid so feel free to use the comments section below if you have feedback on it and please let me know if you’d like to see more of them!

Click Play to see how easy it is to make Pico de Gallo!!

Buen Provecho.