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This smoky guajillo salsa is deeply flavorful and a little spicy, made with dried guajillo chiles, toasted garlic, and fresh tomatoes. It’s inspired by the salsa at my favorite local taqueria, and it’s so easy to make at home!
A Note from Cheryl
- If you have trouble finding dried guajillo chiles locally, you can order some here!
How to Make This Recipe
See recipe card below for full list of measurements, ingredients, and instructions.
Toast the Chiles
Add dried guajillo chiles to a hot cast-iron skillet. You may need to work in 2-3 batches depending on the size of your pan! Toast the chiles over medium-high heat until they’re slightly inflated, then immediately transfer them to a cutting board and let them cool completely.
Cheryl’s Tip: Be careful you don’t toast the chiles too long or they might develop a bitter flavor.
Boil the chiles
When the chiles are cool, cut off their stems, then slice the chiles into strips. Boil the guajillo strips in 2 cups of water for 5 minutes, then toss in a roma tomato. After 30 seconds, transfer all of the solid ingredients to your food processor and set the pot of water aside.
Roast the Garlic
Heat the cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat again, then add 4 unpeeled cloves of garlic to the pan. Flip the garlic over frequently, roasting the garlic just until the cloves are tender and slightly charred, then transfer the garlic to your cutting board and let it cool.
Make the Salsa
Once the garlic’s cooled, peel the cloves and throw away the charred skins. Add the roasted garlic and all the other salsa ingredients to the food processor, and blend everything together. Once you’ve got a thick purée, mix in small amounts of water until the salsa’s as thin as you like it.
What I Love About This Recipe
This smoky guajillo salsa recipe is my everyday answer to the ubiquitous dried chile salsa of local taquerias.
Blended with plenty of dried chiles, lots of pan-roasted garlic, and fresh tomatoes, it’s a little sweet and a little spicy – but it’s not so overwhelming that you can’t, you know, drink it. It’s smoky but not one-sided, thanks to the garlic and tomatoes. It’s just as good with chips as it is drizzled on nachos or carne asada.
Recipe Variations
- Don’t Feel the Burn: If the tomatoes are too acidic or sharp for your tastes, add in a little sugar. Sugar won’t actually neutralize the acidity in the tomatoes, but it does make them a little more palatable. You could also try a tiny touch of baking soda, but it might alter the flavor of the salsa too much.
Making changes to a recipe can result in recipe failure. Any substitutions or variations listed are simple changes that I believe will work in this recipe, but results are not guaranteed.
Smoky Guajillo Salsa Recipe
Equipment
- Large cast-iron skillet
- stovetop
- Tongs
- Cutting board
- Sharp knife
- medium saucepan
- Slotted spoon
- Food processor
- Silicone spatula
Ingredients
- 4 ounces dried guajillo chiles approximately 18 peppers
- 2 cups hot water
- 1 whole roma tomato approximately 2 ounces
- 4 large cloves fresh garlic whole, unpeeled
- 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 whole roma tomato approximately 2 ounces
- 2 large cloves fresh garlic peeled, plus 1-2 more if desired
Instructions
- Place large, cast-iron skillet on stovetop over medium-high heat. When skillet is hot, add 4 ounces dried guajillo chiles to skillet, arranging chiles in single layer without stacking or overlapping.. Work in multiple batches if needed.
- Toast chiles 15 to 20 seconds or until fragrant and slightly puffy. Transfer toasted chiles to cutting board and set aside to cool. Repeat process with any remaining dried chiles.
- Once all chiles have been toasted and cooled, cut off and discard stems of chiles. Slice chiles into strips.
- Place guajillo strips and seeds in medium saucepan. Add 2 cups hot water and place saucepan on stovetop over high heat.
- Bring water to rolling boil. Boil chiles 5 minutes.
- After 5 minutes, add 1 whole roma tomato to saucepan. Boil tomato 30 seconds, then immediately transfer chiles, tomato, and 50% of seeds to food processor bowl using slotted spoon. Set saucepan of water aside.
- Place large, cast-iron skillet on stovetop over medium-high heat. When skillet is hot, add 4 large cloves fresh garlic to pan.
- Toast garlic, flipping cloves frequently, approximately 8 minutes or until cloves are tender and skins are lightly charred.
- Transfer charred cloves to cutting board and set aside. Once cloves have cooled, peel cloves and discard skins. Trim and discard ends of cloves.
- Transfer toasted garlic to food processor bowl with guajillo chiles and boiled tomato. Add 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt, 1 tablespoon white vinegar, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon onion powder, 1 whole roma tomato, and 2 large cloves fresh garlic.
- Pulse ingredients in food processor until puréed into thick paste.
- Add reserved water to food processor in small increments, pulsing mixture to fully incorporate water after each addition. Repeat until desired consistency is achieved.
- Once salsa is thinned as desired, taste salsa and add additional garlic and/or salt if desired. Pulse mixture to fully incorporate any added ingredients.
- When satisfied with flavor of salsa, transfer prepared salsa to serving bowl and serve as desired.
- Storage: Refrigerate salsa in an airtight container up to 2 weeks.
Approximate Information for One Serving
Nutrition Disclaimers
Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.
Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.
To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.
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Overall very good – definitely lives up to it’s name! It did start out a bit bitter for my taste (I’ve made roasted guajillo salsas several times so I know this can be an issue with these…), so I added some sweet onion, lime juice, and cilantro, and used some plain water in addition to some of the cooking water. Like all salsas, I’m looking forward to how it develops in a day or two. I think it would be great on grilled chicken, enchiladas, etc with something to balance out the rich smoky flavor. A few chips in and I can tell this will be addictive.
Glad you enjoyed it, Dorothy! 😊
Hi, I had a question about how many tomatoes are meant to be used in this recipe? In the instructions, I’m seeing that the recipe calls for 2T of roma tomatoes; however, in the instructions, I am seeing to add a whole boiled tomato plus the 2T of chopped tomato? Is this correct? Thank you for your wonderful recipe! 🙂
Sorry about that confusion, Katherine! We used two Roma tomatoes 🙂 disregard the two tablespoons.
Is the recipe supposed to say 2 Roma tomatoes rather than 2 tablespoons?
Yes 🙂 Sorry about that confusion. We have updated the recipe!
I look forward to trying this! Just to clarify, do you mean 2 roma tomatoes as opposed to 2 tablespoons of romas? And 6-8 garlic cloves instead of 6-8 T of garlic cloves? I make a similar guajillo/arbol salsa and I use 2 full romas and around 6 garlic cloves. It’s also my favorite salsa! 🙂 Have you tried throwing a little oregano in this? I swear it makes a huge difference but it’s really a personal preference. I have some spicy Mexican oregano growing this spring and I plan to use it as much as possible! 🙂