12 of Our Favorite Salsas

There are tons of store-bought salsas on the market, both jarred and fresh, most of them versions of pico de gallo or salsa verde. The quality varies from brand to brand, or even store to store.

But there’s a whole wide world of salsas out there, most of which you can make at home. Plus, opting for the homemade stuff gives you more flexibility to tailor it to your tastes. Check out our favorite salsas below. We have everything from the humble pico de gallo to deeply charred, chili-based condiments.

Avocado and Poblano Salsa with Toasted Cumin and Almonds

This salsa is a cross between Spanish mojo verde and Mexican guacamole. We start by charring the poblano chilies to give them a deep, smoky flavor. The poblanos then are blended with avocado and almonds; the resulting spread is rich and creamy with brightness from cilantro and lemon. This salsa can be served as a dip, but it also makes a great spread for meats and sandwiches.

Fresh Tomatillo and Serrano Chili Salsa

This bright and tangy salsa is an example of salsa cruda — a kind of salsa made only with raw ingredients. Keeping the ingredients fresh preserves their flavors, but it also makes this a super easy recipe to throw together. We learned this one at Casa Jacaranda cooking school in Mexico City from chefs Jorge Fritz and Beto Estúa. It’s bold and acidic, making it the perfect condiment for cutting through the richness of fattier dishes.

Tomato and Charred Onion Salsa with Chipotle

Our Charred Onion Salsa with Chipotle skips the tomato broiling altogether, opting instead to blacken red onions and fresh jalapeños and mix them with plump, juicy grape tomatoes. A single minced chipotle in adobo bumps up the smokiness even further without totally dominating the flavor profile.

The end result is familiar, but totally different from other charred salsas we've tried. The soft, blackened vegetables contrast perfectly with the firm tomatoes, creating a versatile condiment that's as good spooned over grilled meats as it is scooped up with tortilla chips.

Ancho Chili Salsa Roja

Ancho chilies give simple red salsa a big boost of flavor. Ancho chiles are fresh poblanos that have been left to ripen to a full red, which develops a bold sweetness. Drying them deepens their flavor further. The resulting pepper is spicy, sweet, smoky and earthy. We complement those rich and sweeter flavors of the anchos by using fresh ingredients to contrast, the resulting salsa is earthy, smoky, sweet and spicy.

Colombian Avocado Salsa (Ají de Aguacate)

Ají de Aguacate is an avocado-based salsa from Colombia that’s fresher, creamier and tangier than the guacamole you might be used to. This salsa calls for slightly less ripe avocados, which takes some of the pressure off from finding that avocado ripeness sweet spot. Anaheims and habaneros contrast the cool creaminess of the avocado and chopped hard-cooked eggs.

Red Chili Roasted Peanut Salsa

This vibrant, complexly-flavored chili salsa beats supermarket spreads by a mile. And it's an excellent introduction to smoky, fruity guajillo chilies, which you’ll want to save for any number of Mexican recipes (carne adovada, salsa macha, pulled chicken or pork). We build instant depth of flavor by first toasting the dried chilies with garlic, then rehydrating and blending them with peanuts, honey and lime.

Guatemalan Salsa (Chirmol)

This smokey Guatemalan salsa uses the broiler to develop deeply charred flavors on the red onions and jalapeños. We utilize the flavors of a chipotle in adobo to boost the smokiness even further and add heat. Mint, cilantro and grape tomatoes bring a welcome freshness.

Salsa Macha Costena

Salsa macha is an oil-based condiment that is nutty and thick. We learned this version from Puerta Vallarta native Paola Briseño-González, who includes cocoa nibs to add a bitter note that perfectly complements the chilies and nuts. This smokey sauce is well suited for eggs, quesadillas, and grilled seafood, but can be used however you like. It keeps for a several months when stored in an airtight container in the fridge which makes it the perfect staple condiment.

Salsa Fresca

We love salsa fresca for the fresh, bright, uncooked flavors of the vegetables. If you have really great tomatoes, this is the time to use them. This is one of the simplest salsas to throw together and every element stands out due to its simplicity.

Pico de Gallo

The surprise ingredient in our favorite pico de gallo is...cherry tomatoes! Okay, it might not be that surprising to see tomatoes in a pico recipe, but we found that specifying cherry tomatoes over any other kind gave us more reliably sweet results. Cherry tomatoes are sweeter and brighter year round than other varieties, making them a dependable choice.

Charred Habanero Salsa

This salsa is made with just four ingredients! Salsa de habanero tatemado is known for bold complex flavors, which are surprisingly easy to coax out. We adapted the recipe taught to us by Josefina López Méndez, chef at Chapulín restaurant in Mexico City. Deeply charring the habaneros gives this salsa a dark, blackish color, but the flavors are bright and colorful. It’s tangy, bitter, deeply spicy and subtly sweet, with a layer of fruitiness.

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Willow Montana

Willow Montana is the Production Manager of Digital Media at Milk Street. Willow spends their days coordinating and planning video shoots, managing schedules and overseeing the execution of digital projects. They studied Baking and Pastry Arts at Johnson and Wales University and worked in restaurants while putting themself through six more years of college. They hold a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in English Literature and a Master’s of Fine Arts in Publishing and Writing. Willow is a firm believer in living a slow, quiet life and making things by hand. When they aren’t following the developers around with a camera at the Milk Street office, they may be found at home shaping loaves of sourdough, caring for dozens of houseplants and, occasionally, out in the wild at a punk rock show.