How to Make Salsa Verde with Serranos & Tomatillos

This Familia Kitchen Abuela 101 spotlights a Mexican essential dipping and cooking sauce: salsa verde. This is the favorite family recipe of one of our go-to (and youngest) abuela cocineras, Anjie Villalobos, uses tomatillos and a combination of serrano and/or jalapeños chiles. This fragrant green sauce goes with just about everything, deliciously.

Anjie Villalobos has three grandchildren who live near her in southern California and love spending time with her in the kitchen. Salsa with her homemade chips are among their very favorite things to eat at her house.

Count on salsa verde to add a welcome touch of heat and bright velvety flavor to your platos favoritos—like Anjie’s recipe for green chile chicken pozole, her family’s legendary New Mexican sweet chile rellenos, and, of course, tacos, enchiladas y mucho más.

For more of Anjie’s go-to Mexican and southwestern U.S. family-famous recipes, check out her Mexican frijoles de olla or refried beans, her family-famous guacamole, her tortilla soup, her family-famous green chile chicken pozole, and garlicky shrimp tacos—all served with her handmade corn tortillas (see how to make them set-by-step).

Ready to Make Anjie’s Salsa Verde with Serrano Chiles?

How to Make Salsa Verde With Serrano & Tomatillos

Recipe by Anjie Villalobos

4.8 from 9 votes

Cuisine: Mexican

Servings

4 to 6

servings

Prep time

5

minutes

Cooking time

25

minutes

Ingredients

• 10 to 12 tomatillos

• 3 to 4 serrano chiles, some but not all seeds removed (to your taste)

• 1/2 white or yellow onion

• 2 1/2 tsp salt

• 2 cloves garlic

• 1 bunch cilantro

• 1/2 lime, juiced

• 1 cup water

Directions

• Set oven to 400°.
• Remove the papery skin covering the tomatillos. Wash in warm water, removing all residue.
• Line a baking sheet with foil. Put tomatillos and serrano chiles on the foil and place baking sheet in the middle rack of the preheated oven. Roast about 20 minutes.
• Once the chiles and tomatillos are blackened on top, remove from oven and place in a blender. Pulse for 30 seconds.
• Add remaining ingredients. Pulse for another 30 to 45 seconds, or until the salsa reaches desired consistency. (I like mine semi-chunky, but my children prefer it on the smoother side.) I recommend tapping the “pulse” button to retain some texture, rather than pureeing fully.
• It’s ready! Serve with totopos or your favorite Mexican dishes.

Notes

• You can use jalapeños or serranos, or a combination of both. I happen to prefer all serranos.
• When it comes to the chiles, some of the seeds can be removed if you don’t want your salsa to be too spicy. We like our hot in my family, so I usually leave them all in.
• Once pureed, tomatillos can become gelatinous, so I sometimes need to use more or less water depending on the consistency. Tomatillo puree tends to solidify, especially if the salsa is refrigerated.