How to Make Salsa So Good, You’ll Never Go Back to Store-Bought

If your only experience of salsa is opening a jar of shelf-stable red or green stuff, you’re missing out, says Rick Martínez, author of Salsa Daddy: Dip Your Way Into Mexican Cooking. “Salsa should be bold, sometimes fresh, sometimes smoky, and always bursting with flavor.”

Having whipped up my own salsa on the regular, I can vouch for the fact that it’s head and shoulders above store-bought—bright, zippy, and deeply satisfying. And don’t go thinking it’s only for chips. The direct translation of the word salsa is “sauce.” Even that, according to Martínez, is an understatement. “In Mexican cuisine, salsa is so much more. It’s a seasoning for food that tickles and gratifies the palate. It’s an accompaniment that adds depth, poignancy, and zest, often in the form of spicy, sweet, and sour flavors.”

In my home kitchen I’ve used salsa where you’d expect, to pair with chips, to smother enchiladas, to perk up tacos. It’s also fantastic in the Instant Pot with chicken thighs (SO easy) and as a shakshuka-adjacent simmer sauce for eggs. But Martínez wants me (and you) to think bigger. “Start using salsa like a jar of mayo or a bottle of ketchup—put it on everything! Freeze leftover salsa to make weeknight dinners tastier, faster, easier, and spicier.”

As someone who’s chasing both convenience and deliciousness all the time, there’s a strong case to make for DIY salsa magic. But with store-bought salsas so readily available, if we’re taking the time to prep our own, they have to be good. To help improve all of our salsas, I asked Martínez how to make them shine.

Tip #1: Char Your Ingredients

Don’t skip this step! Combining raw ingredients can be tasty; think pico de gallo. But for maximum depth of flavor and top tomato taste, even if they’re out of season, Martínez urges roasting, grilling, or broiling the ingredients for “maximum depth, intense flavor, caramelized sugars, and smokiness.”

Tip #2: Blend With Care

Some salsas are simply stirred together, but many go in the blender. If you’re making one that does, go easy, Martínez says. “Blending on high makes a salsa smoothie that’s loaded with air. Blend on low to start and gradually increase to medium low and never higher.” If you want a chunkier salsa, try using a food processor instead.

Tip #3: Calibrate the Salt and Acid to Your Taste

According to Martínez, salt plus acid equals balance. “Without them, salsa falls flat,” he says. Once you’re finished making the salsa, let it hang out. “Salsa changes as it sits. Let it rest for 10 minutes, then adjust the salt and acidity if necessary.” How to make salsa a bit saltier is obvious. For acid, Martínez suggests adding lime, lemon, vinegar, flor de jamaica (aka hibiscus), or even a tangy tomatillo.

Tip #4: Tame a Too-Spicy Salsa

There are a few ways to fix this problem. First, if you have time, let the salsa chill in the fridge overnight. “The heat will go down one full step, from hot to medium, or medium to mild,” says Martínez. If you don’t have time for this, add some fat—in the form of oil, cheese, crema, or avocado—to the salsa. “Capsaicin—the compound that makes chiles spicy—is fat-soluble, not water-soluble. That means that capsaicin dissolves in fat and oil, allowing it to be dispersed more evenly across a dish.” He also notes that oil coats your mouth, creating a buffer between your taste buds and the spicy compounds in the chiles.

Tip #5: Broaden Your View of Guacamole

Martínez has a strong opinion when it comes to salsa’s perfect companion: guacamole. “Americans believe that there is a correct version of guacamole and everything else is wrong. That is wrong.” The only requirement for guacamole, he says, is that there be a lot of avocado. Other than that, there’s a lot of variety. “There are regional recipes that are pourable with tomatillos and green chiles, there are cooked and fire-roasted versions, there are recipes with fruit, seeds, nuts, insects, tomatoes and no tomatoes.” Basically, he’s giving us all permission to eat guacamole exactly how we’d like (even with peas, I guess).