Salsa Taquera

Salsa Taquera (Salsa de Chile de Arbol), is a fiery taco salsa made with freshly roasted tomatoes, garlic, onions, and Arbol peppers. Salsa Roja Taquera is a perfect salsa for your favorite street tacos! This Salsa Roja de Chile de Arbol is also great for dipping chips, taquitos, and is perfect for most Mexican dishes. Our Salsa Taquera Recipe has a wonderful roasted garlic flavor with a kick!

I absolutely love Salsa Roja Taquera! And, if you love garlic, you will too! Salsa Taquera (Salsa de Chile de Arbol) is traditionally a taco sauce used in Mexico for street tacos. One bite and you’ll understand why! The reason is because the garlic flavors accompanied by smoky, spicy Arbol peppers add so much flavor to any taco that’ll you’ll find yourself making this recipe a regular staple in your fridge!

Salsa Taquera Recipe

• Arbol Chilis
• Roma tomatoes
• White onion
• Garlic
• Olive oil

How to Make Salsa Taquera

1. Preheat skillet with 2 tablespoons olive oil to medium high heat. Add chopped tomatoes and onions and roast until they begin showing signs of blistering, roughly 5 minutes.
2. Add garlic and roast for an additional 2 minutes.
3. Include Arbol peppers and cook an additional minute.
4. Place all ingredients in a blender and add 4 tablespoons of olive oil; blend on high until smooth, roughly 40 seconds.
5. Add salt if needed.

What is Salsa de Chile De Arbol?

Chile de Arbol is the primary ingredient in this recipe and the salsa is named as such. These chilis can be found in most grocery stores and are commonly used in Mexican dishes. Salsa de Chile De Arbol is a very simple salsa and one that is popularly served in Mexico at good Taquerias (restaurants specializing in tacos). Some chefs make this salsa with tomatillos but Salsa Roja Taquera is commonly made with just Chile de Arbol, tomatoes, garlic, and onions. Chile de Arbol has a nice smoky flavor which really sets this Salsa Taquera Recipe apart!

How Spicy is Chile de Arbol?

Let’s start by comparing them to something. While they are much hotter than jalapenos, they are just a bit milder than cayenne pepper. However, a straight answer would be: they are pretty darn hot! That’s because they register on the Scoville scale at 15,000 to 30,000. These peppers are very useful in Mexican cuisine; they can be used to make homemade chili powder or adobo sauce, commonly used as a marinade for many Mexican dishes.

Chili Pepper Types and Their Heat Level

While it would be very difficult to provide an exhaustive list of chili pepper types because there are thousands of varieties, here are some of the more common variety used in traditional Mexican cuisine. We use the Scoville Scale, a scale which determines the heat level of peppers, to assign a value to the heat of each pepper listed below. While there are some peppers that register as 16,000,000 on the scale (insanely hot), the peppers commonly used below are much milder. However, don’t be fooled, many of these peppers have quite a kick!

• Bell Pepper: 0 to 100
• Poblano: 2,500 to 5,000
• Jalapeno: 2,500 to 5,000
• Chipotle: 2,500 to 5,000
• Serrano: 5,000 to 15,000
• Chile de Arbol: 15,000 to 30,000
• Cayenne: 30,000 to 50,000
• Habanero: 100,000 to 300,000

If you’re looking for a milder salsa that’s still perfect for street tacos, try our Serrano Salsa or Fire Roasted Salsa.

Recipe Tips and Variations

• Heat. Many traditional recipes call for up to 15 Arbol peppers. However, if you don’t habitually eat extremely spicy foods, this may be a stretch for you. That’s why I only included 4 peppers in my recipe here and this was actually enough for me, and I like spicy food. However, go for the whole 15 if you’re tough!
• Spices. I can see this recipe also being pretty good with a just a bit of cumin or oregano. Experiment and let us know how it worked out if you do!
• Tang. Maybe a little lime or lemon in this recipe would be delicious!
• Roasting your ingredients. We used a cast iron skillet for this recipe and it worked great! Remember, you want your ingredients to be slightly roasted. That’s because this is what adds to the flavor!
• Tomato seeds. We used all the tomato in this recipe so we didn’t lose any of the juice! Seeds are ok!

Health Benefits of Chili Peppers

Chili peppers have some amazing health benefits. Let’s take a look at just a few.

• One study found that eating chili peppers reduced symptoms of heartburn (1).
• Chili peppers may reduce appetite (2).
• One study revealed that consumption of chilis increased metabolism (3).

We enjoyed sharing this Vegan Plate recipe with you! Here are some other similar recipes you’ll enjoy!!

Simple Salsa and Dip Recipes

• Serrano Salsa
• Avocado Sauce
• Fire Roasted Salsa
• Vegan Nacho Cheese
• Beet Hummus

Vegan Mexican Food Recipes

• Lentil Tacos
• Vegan Chimichangas
• How to Make Spanish Rice
• Chipotle Sofritas