Made with only 5 ingredients, this Chile de Arbol Salsa is the perfect taco salsa. It’s spicy, goes well with Mexican favorites like tacos, tostadas and gorditas and is even freezer friendly!
This Chile de Arbol Salsa recipe is my family’s version of the quintessential Mexican taco salsa.
It’s the salsa that’s always on the table when we’re serving tacos, tostadas, taquitos, sopes and gorditas. It’s my dad’s number one favorite condiment and will forever remind me of my family.
If you’re not a fan of spicy food, this salsa probably isn’t for you. Instead, you may want to try making my 5-Minute Fresh Homemade Salsa or this Easy Salsa Verde.
But if you love spicy food as much as I do, then keep on reading!
What is chile de arbol?
Chile de Arbol peppers are a type of red chile that’s commonly used in Mexican cuisine. The chiles themselves are quite small, but they’re very spicy, ranging from 15,000-30,000 on the Scoville Heat Unit (SHU) scale.
For reference, the average jalapeno pepper ranges between 2,500-8,000 SHU.
How to make chile de arbol salsa
Remove and discard the stems from the Chile de Arbol peppers. Place them in a bowl. (photo 1)
Cover the peppers with 4 cups of boiling water, then cover the bowl with a plate, aluminum foil or plastic wrap. Let them soak in the hot water for 15 minutes. (photo 2)
Soaking the peppers will soften the skins, making them much easier to blend and helps create a much smoother salsa.
Uncover the bowl and drain the water from the peppers using a colander or slotted spoon. (photo 3)
Transfer drained peppers to a blender and add in tomatoes, garlic, salt and 3/4 cup of fresh water. (photo 4)
Puree all the ingredients in a blender until the salsa is completely smooth. (photo 5)
Tips and tricks
This salsa is meant to be spicy. That being said, if it’s way too spicy for you, add one or two more plum tomatoes to the blender and puree until smooth.
This salsa should be completely smooth. Depending on the power of your blender, it can take anywhere from 1 to 5 minutes of blending time to get it looking like the salsa in the photos.
Ways to use chile de arbol salsa
Aside from eating this salsa with homemade tortilla chips (which I love!), here are a few of my favorite ways to eat it.
- drizzle it on easy chicken tacos, breakfast tacos or ground beef tacos
- have it with your chorizo and eggs breakfast
- mix it into soups like chicken tortilla soup, black bean soup and red posole to add a little spice
If you’re anything like my dad and absolutely LOVE spicy food (the spicier, the better), then you may want to completely omit the tomatoes.
I modified this recipe to my taste, but when my dad makes it, he doesn’t ever add tomatoes! So if that’s you, go for it! You can always add in more tomatoes later.
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Ingredients
- 4 3/4 cups water, divided
- 1 ounce dried chile de arbol chiles
- 2 plum tomatoes, halved
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Pour 4 cups water into a small pot and bring to a boil over high heat.
- While water is coming to a boil, remove and discard the stems from the peppers. Transfer peppers to a bowl.
- Carefully pour boiling water into the bowl. Stir the peppers with a spoon to make sure they're all saturated with water.
- Cover the bowl with a large plate, aluminum foil or plastic wrap. Let the peppers soak for 15 minutes until softened.
- Uncover the bowl and transfer the softened peppers to a blender using a slotted spoon to drain out any water.
- Add tomatoes, garlic, salt and 3/4 cup of fresh water. Puree until completely smooth.
Isabel’s Tips:
- This salsa is meant to be fairly spicy. If it’s way too spicy for your liking, add in an extra tomato or two to help dilute the heat.
- Storage – This salsa will keep in the fridge in an airtight container for 1 to 2 months.
- Freezing – To freeze, let the salsa come to room temperature. Place it in a freezer-safe storage bag or container and freeze for up 6 months. When ready to eat, remove the salsa from the freezer a day before and thaw in the fridge.
Nutrition Information
I went the dad hot route. My tongue is still hanging out of my mouth. I want to eat more though. Very easy. Very yum !
I love the recipe, I don’t make to hot because of my little guy. But otherwise it’s good
Love that this recipe is simple and delicious. I doubled the recipe to 2 oz of chilis. Wow! It’s super spicy. Might add the recommendation of adding a few more tomatoes. Cheers from London!
My mother taught me to make salsa. Her recipe includes a little bit of cilantro. We love it with eggs in the morning, on some tortilla chips, in burritos, on tacos, well, on most anything at time 😋
To the author- in reply to another comment you said you like to use 2 chiles. Your recipe calls for an ounce of dried chiles. An ounce of dried chiles is WAY more than 2 chiles…an ounce is probably 20-30 chiles. what gives?
Hi Scott! That was a personal preference I shared based on the feedback from another comment. This recipe uses a whole ounce of dried chiles to make a batch to store and use for later. If you’re making this recipe, I recommend following the instructions on the recipe page.
Store bought salsa is never spicy enough – this turned out delicious and had the perfect heat for me. Yummy on chips or tacos. This was my first time making my own salsa and it was a very simple process. Thank you!!
Thank you, Noah!
This is delicious thank you for the recipe. I had the worst coughing fit from just stemming the peppers that my husband had to finish that step which has nothing to do with the your recipe, it’s just me. I was able to make it through the rest of the recipe. It’s very easy with minimal ingredients.
Wow, it is very spicy. I eat spicy Indian and Chinese and with two tomatoes, I thought the salsa was too spicy (burning in fact, to my taste uneatable). I added in two plum tomatoes to dial it down. First time making this style of salsa, I’d dial down the arbol Chiles next time around and maybe look for some roasted onion. Thanks!!!
Hi Tim! Yes its definitely spicy! When I eat it I can only put a few drops on my food.
Thank you Isabel. I made this exactly as your recipe states. It was perfect and hot. I took it to a family BBQ today and it was a spicy hit. My dad loves hot salsa and this got his approval. Thank you!
Oh my goodness I have been looking for a recipe like this for so long. This is absolutely amazing and it’s spicy! I love spicy! I didn’t have tomatoes, so I used 1 small can of tomato sauce, so good!!! If you want it less spicy use 2.
I made this yesterday and it came out really watery/soupy. I would recommend not to add water at all and see how it blends up w/ the size and moisture of the tomato amount you use. The taste is good and I’ll experiment with the tomato amount on my next try. Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Jose, thank you for the feedback!
This is my husbands favorite salsa, I can’t keep enough of it in the house. He absolutely loves it. Yes, I use the entire 1oz of peppers, it is hot & if you don’t like hot or are sensitive to it this probably isn’t the salsa for you.
Mine was fine the first time but second time with a new bag of tomatoes it is soupy. I blended it just like the first time and didn’t even add water this time and still came out light colored and soupy. I added a ton more tomatoes to it but it doesn’t matter, still same soupiness
Hi Dave! That’s weird it did that, would you mind elaborating? We may be able to help!
I found out what the problem is:
1) don’t try to double the recipe because you’ll overblend it trying to blend that much at once
2) I have a vitamix blender which is super powerful. Only put it up to 3-4 or else it will overblend
3) Don’t add too much water, might want to add less than the recipe states
Also I only put ONE pepper in this recipe, plenty hot for me. Anything more I can’t take it.
I’m glad you were able to figure out the problem! Chile de Arbol is definitely spicy and I personally like to add about 2 when I’m using them. Thanks for getting back to us!