Authentic Mexican Restaurant Style Salsa Recipe

Authentic Mexican Restaurant Style Salsa Recipe

by Dutchbunch | Published on August 13th, 2009, 1:48 pm | Food

I am going to try this tonight. Does anyone have the recipe for Enchiladas like they make at the Mexican restaurants? My family loves them but any canned enchilada sauce tastes awful. It seems to me that the sauce they use might have some cinnamon in it? Thanks!

Well we like our Enchiladas with a bit of a kick, but this by far our favorite recipe for Enchilada sauce:

Ingredients:
1 six ounce can tomato paste
3 cups water
1 sugar substitute packet
3 tablespoons vinegar
3 tablespoons of minced jalapeño slices and their juice
1 tablespoon of chili powder
1 tablespoon of dried onion flakes
2 teaspoons of Tabasco brand sauce
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons cornstarch
½ teaspoon of garlic powder
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup finely diced fresh cilantro
2 teaspoons of “Catalina Spice Mix”

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Method:
1. Take jalapeños and blend in food processor to mince.

2. In a small saucepan, add jalapeños, water, tomato paste and all ingredients minus the cilantro.

3. Whisk, and stir as you bring mixture to a boil.
4. Simmer for one minute, stirring periodically, remove from heat and allow to cool for about 5 minutes.

5. Add cilantro, stir. Transfer to locking lid plastic bowl, seal and place in refrigerator until chilled.

sergio wrote:no way! this recipe is bad. there is no way in hell that authentic salsa is made with pickled jalapenos. you need to use fresh ingredients and a molcajete. this recipe is the reason why so many mexican recipes get butchered. people are so ignorant and have a bad sense of taste. this disgusts me

Well fortunately for the rest of us latinos, we will experiment with different taste and ingredients, like pickled jalapenos are any less lethal! Are U kidding me? A real cook will try and experiment and you discust me! Serigo! Try it you might like it :clap:

I thought this salsa was an awesome start to what I was looking for. I think every "authentic" mexican restaurant probably has a different taste depending on where you are. Someone mentioned that authentic salsas contain no green. My hometown mexican restaurant's salsa does contain green. I found that I like quite a bit of cilantro in my salsa and that that was the taste I was looking for. I also added small doses of lime, vinegar, onion, basil and a little bit of chilli powder.

My family and I have been trying to copy a local restaurants hot sauce recipe for more than ten years and couldn't come close until this recipe! We were being way to complicated in trying to do so. I made this recipe and in less than 5 minutes I had a batch that was very close to the original and with some very minor tweaking I think I will have it. Now just figure out how to make the cheese sauce and we will be set!

Thanks for the recipe...I have been trying for some time to reproduce the restaurant style salsa to no avail...I have used the recipe with several minor modifications to recreate the salsa from one of my favorite restaurants...I was making it more complicated that it had to be...this recipe wil help me to get some much needed vegetables into my diet...Thanks again

I've seen Mexican food experts make salsas many, many times. You don't use jarred jalapenos. Nor do you skip the onion.

This is the basic salsa recipe that is used all over the world of Mexican cooking. Yes it's simple. Yes you use a blender. Yes it's quick, and it's suppose to be. After all, it's a condiment. You should be able to do this 5 min before dinner. If you want to make gourmet salsa, that's a different recipe.

To make basic red table salsa you'll need:
- Roasted tomatoes. (you can use whole peeled tomatoes from a can or roma tomatoes work great. Spread whole tomatoes on a cookie sheet. Place on top oven rack and broil for a few minutes.
- Chopped yellow or white onion.
- Cilantro
- Whole fresh serrano chiles. (you can also use jalapeno or even habanero. you can chop up habanero and place it in vinegar over night to lower the heat level)
- Salt

Throw everything in a food processor or blender. If you think this isn't "authentic," think again. Do you really believe "real" Mexicans don't have blenders?? That they use a mortar for everything? FYI, they don't have TV's either.

That's it! The amount you put in of each ingredient is up to you. But I'd start with a small batch. One 14 oz can whole tomatoes or about 5 roma tomatoes, 1/4 medium size onion, small handful of cilantro, and 2 serranos.

For variety:
- try substituting the roasted red tomatoes with roasted tomatillos.
- add lime
- add some avocado.

Keep in mind that your salsa can be different every time you make it. Just wing it. Don't measure to much.

Dr Max Rosa wrote:I've seen Mexican food experts make salsas many, many times.

But are you married to a Mexican? (and their whole damn family?) Well then... Mexicans by stereotype are clever little fellows capable of finding the path of least resistance much like electricity. When they migrated from their mud puddles and adobes to DIY improvement store in the valleys of Southern California.... I'm told, they started shopping at Albertsons. (A grocery store.)

That said... this isn't "Authentic Mexican" it's "Authentic Mexican Restaurant" and despite what Food Network wants you to believe, go into almost any restaurant and this is what you'll find. Feel free to complicate things all you like, but when it comes to simplicity and taste, this recipe cannot be beat. I made some last night in under 3 minutes for dinner.

Awesome recipe. This turns out exactly like the typical salsa served in most Mexican restaurants. For those that are complaining that this isn't "fresh" salsa - it's not meant to be!! It has it's own unique flavor and is really easy, fast and cheap to whip up at anytime of the year.

I followed this exactly, but did add a clove of garlic to the blender. Then, after it was all blended, I added diced up fresh tomatoes, onion and lots of cilantro to give it a slightly more "fresh" flavor (as I've seen done in many mexican restaurants).

I'll never buy another jar of salsa!

What are the ingredients? They don't seem to be posted in the post anymore.

is it me or is there something missing in 'ingredients'?

sergio wrote:no way! this recipe is bad. there is no way in hell that authentic salsa is made with pickled jalapenos. you need to use fresh ingredients and a molcajete. this recipe is the reason why so many mexican recipes get butchered. people are so ignorant and have a bad sense of taste. this disgusts me

Quite right Sergio, authentic Salsa Casera is not made from pickled jalapenos,nor canned tomatoes, it is the most basic of Mexican salsas, tomatoe, onion, jalapeno, garlic and cilantro, all ingredientes are readily available in any mercado in any town in Mexico, freshness, made daily, is key. I am surprised on how may readers mentioned "molcajete" which provides the ideal consistency for the tomatoes, but lacks sanitation, most authentic mexican recipies continue to be bastardized north of the border by commercial, shelf life, products. To the day in the states we can send people to the moon, but we can't make a decent tortilla. Provecho.