Chipotle Salsa with Roasted Tomatillos

By GratefulSea

We've been looking for a very flavorful salsa, so I finally created my own. It's easy to put together, and has a sweet smokey roasted flavor. Be careful about the heat-- if you don't like hot salsa go easy on the chipotle peppers. They're very flavorful but also very hot. We use a bit less than 1 Tablespoon of chipotle pepper and another "light" Tablespoon of the adobo sauce.

Choose tomatillos that have light brown husks that are not shriveled or dried up;leave those husks on until ready to use. Small ones are sweeter than larger ones, so you may want to use more than the four this recipe calls for. Store them in the refrigerator or on the counter for several days if you want.

Ingredients

• 4 medium tomatillos, husked, rinsed, and cut in half (from either direction)
• 6 cloves of garlic, peeled
• 16 cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
• 1 to 2 chipotles in adobo sauce (almost certainly less, to taste)
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Details

Preparation time 20mins
Cooking time 20mins

Preparation

Step 1

Put the garlic, tomatillos, and cherry tomatoes in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat, and roast for about 5-minutes. Turn everything over and roast the second side for another 5-minutes, being sure that the tomatillos are well-softened before removing from heat. They will be blackened in spots.

{ALTERNATIVE METHOD: for easier clean up, put the tomatillos on a parchment-lined jelly roll pan, and roast them, skin-side-up, with the garlic cloves at 400º for about 5 minutes. Flip them over and add the tomatoes, roasting for another 12 minutes. Remove them to the food processor.}

[My latest favorite method is to put the tomatillo halves on a parchment-lined baking sheet and broil (on high) on the middle rack for 8 minutes. Remove garlic, and turn over the tomatillos. Add the tomatoes (I now leave them whole) and continue to broil for 5-6 minutes.]

After roasting, put the tomatillos, tomatoes, and garlic in a food processor, fitted with the knife blade; add one to three chipotles (depending on how hot you like your salsa; we use one small chipotle at the very most) right from the can, and process until smooth. You may also add some of the adobo sauce that the chipotles are packed in; that will add more flavor.

Add 1/4 cup water, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of cumin.

Taste for seasoning preference, and serve with tortilla chips.