Our easy tomatillo salsa verde recipe made with roasted tomatillos is bright, zesty, slightly smoky, and makes everything taste better.
We shared this tomatillo salsa recipe years ago, and so many of our readers have kept coming back to it over the years. This one is a keeper! To make this easy green salsa, we roast tomatillos alongside other ingredients like chiles and garlic, guaranteeing so much flavor!
I serve this as a salsa with homemade tortilla chips and as the base for these delicious green chicken enchiladas. I also love it with my favorite breakfast tacos!
Key Ingredients
- Tomatillos: Tomatillos are the stars of my roasted salsa verde. They look like small green tomatoes with papery husks. Remove the husks and rinse them of any sticky residue before you roast them.
- Chile Peppers: I love my salsa verde made with jalapeno and serrano chile peppers. Serranos are usually a little spicier than jalapenos, but after I roast them, I remove the seeds and membrane to make the salsa medium-hot. If you love spicy salsa, leave the seeds in!
- Garlic: For a sweeter roasted garlic flavor, I toss unpeeled garlic cloves into the same dish as the tomatillos and roast them together. Then, before you blend the salsa, squeeze the roasted garlic out of the cloves.
- Broth: This is a little unusual, but I use a little broth (chicken broth or veggie broth) to deglaze the pan where I roasted my tomatillos. I picked up this trick from one of my favorite Mexican restaurants, and I’ve never looked back!
- Onion, Cilantro, and Lime: To freshen up the salsa, I blend in raw onion, lots of fresh cilantro, and lime juice.
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
How to Make the Best Roasted Tomatillo Salsa
Tip 1: Roasting builds flavor. Roasting makes this green salsa extra flavorful (just like roasting makes this roasted tomato salsa incredible). To make this salsa, I roast the tomatillos, chile peppers, and whole unpeeled garlic cloves. I use my broiler and leave them under it until everything blisters and picks up some color.
Tip 2: Deglaze your pan. I deglaze the roasting pan with some broth (unusual, but trust me!). Finally, I blend the roasted ingredients and the broth in the pan with my fresh ingredients (onion, cilantro, and lime juice).
Serving Suggestions
I can’t wait for you to try this incredible homemade salsa. I love it with tortilla chips, spooned over tacos, in burritos, and with rice bowls. I’ve also shared these salsa verde chicken nachos, green enchiladas, and this Instant Pot salsa verde chicken.
More Salsa Recipes
Roasted Tomatillo Salsa Verde
- PREP
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- TOTAL
This roasted tomatillo salsa recipe is one of our favorite homemade salsas. It brightens just about everything you dip into it or serve it with. Using an oven broiler makes quick work of the roasting, which will take about 15 minutes. Once roasted, it is very easy to remove the skins from the peppers and most of the seeds. You could leave them in, but just keep in mind that the salsa will be much spicier.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
1 pound (450g) tomatillos, husked and rinsed (6 medium)
1 jalapeño pepper
1 serrano pepper
2 unpeeled garlic cloves
½ cup (118ml) chicken broth or vegetable broth
¼ medium onion, chopped
⅓ cup loosely packed cilantro leaves and tender stems
1 tablespoon lime juice, or more to taste
½ teaspoon salt, or more to taste
Directions
1Set an oven rack about 4 inches from the broiler. Turn the broiler on.
2Place the tomatillos, jalapeño, serrano pepper, and unpeeled garlic cloves in a baking dish.
3Broil, turning occasionally, until the tomatillos are blackened in spots, 10 to 12 minutes.
4Remove the baking dish and add broth, then use a wooden spoon to scrape any bits stuck to the bottom. Let tomatillos, peppers, and garlic cool.
5When the peppers are cool enough to handle, peel most of the skins and remove the seeds. For a spicier salsa, leave in some or all of the seeds. Remove the softened garlic from the peel.
6Add roasted tomatillos, peppers, garlic flesh, onion, cilantro, lime juice, and salt to a food processor.
7Pour about half of the liquid from the baking dish into the processor, then pulse 3 to 4 times or until the salsa is mostly smooth and no big chunks of tomatillo remain, scraping down the sides as necessary.
8Adjust with more liquid, lime juice, or salt based on consistency and taste.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Baking dish: Since this recipe uses the broil function of the oven, we recommend using a high-heat baking dish or rimmed baking sheet.
- Storing: The salsa will keep well in an airtight container in the fridge for about 1 week.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
OMG!! First taste I was taken back to Oaxaca. Yum. Even better with home grown tomatillos, Serrano and lime (yes, am bragging 🙂
So happy you enjoyed it, Tom!
How many enchiladas will this sauce cover? I don’t see anything in the recipe about how many it serves.
Hi JR, this recipe makes about 2 cups of salsa, which should work for a family-size batch of enchiladas (9×13 pan).
This turned out absolutely amazing and was so easy. I made it to use for the chicken enchiladas, but I can’t quit dipping tortilla chips into it. Hope I have enough left for the enchiladas! This is absolutely delicious!!!
Can this recipe be canned or frozen?
Some of our readers have said that they have successfully canned using a water bath. I would imagine that a pressure canner would work, too.
So good!!
This is an excellent recipe. I doubled the recipe for the enchiladas because I like it very saucy and then I added sour cream to the finished salsa. Also, in doubling I added two roasted, skin peeled, seeds removed poblano peppers, (because I love their flavor ) but I used a single Serano and jalapeño so it wouldn’t be too spicy.
Turned out amazing with almost a cup left over to freeze for later.
When do you use the chicken broth? Assuming that the cilantro goes in at the very end of processing?
Hi Janette, You’ll add the broth to the baking pan after broiling. Step 4: Remove the baking dish and add broth, then use a wooden spoon to scrape any bits stuck to the bottom. Let tomatillos, peppers, and garlic cool.
Question. Do you remove the tomatillo skins? If not aren’t they chewy?
We do remove them.
Can I remove the seeds before roasting?
For the peppers, I find it much easier to roast, and then remove the skins and seeds.
I make this every fall with my green tomatoes instead of tomatillos. We have a short growing season and they never all ripen. Its yummy!!!. Additionally I grow Hot Hungarian Wax peppers, and that’s what I use too. So while not the actual recipe, but an adaptation, still delicious ! 🙂
I also almost always have green tomatoes left over at the end of the growing season, even though it’s pretty long here in zone7. I love pickled green tomatoes and fried green tomatoes, but I’m the only one in my family who does. That’s a lot of pickles to eat by myself! So I’ll make green salsa with them this year. And thanks to the original recipe creator too.
Just made this for my dinner. It was delicious.
Still working on it right now, seems great right now. My first time with this recipe, will keep you posted how the final product works out.
Turned out great. I’m using it with your enchilada recipe. Ty. I took a picture but I don’t know how to attach it.
Hi Billie, So glad you enjoyed the recipe. We don’t currently have a way for you to attach a picture on our site.
Have used your recipes several times because they’re delicious and you explain it in a very easy way to understand. Ty for the time you took to make these videos. Great job.
This sauce is AMAZING oh my goodness. I didn’t have any serranos on hand so just used the jalapeños and it was so so SO SO SO good I am SO excited to make this again! PS I’ve NEVER left a review on a recipe I found online before. It was too good I had to!
Every time I have made this it’s a huge hit, the green sauce is absolutely the best. I roast onions , peppers and tomatillo with garlic and it really makes a difference. Not heavy on cilantro so I use parsley with a small amount of cilantro ( not a fan of it , seems to overpower other flavors) to allow that fresh taste. Salt and juice from roasted veggies w/chicken stock makes it your own. Love it and now only using Fast seared/quick sautéed corn tortillas before filling . They are a lot better!! This recipe is great using a rotisserie chicken also in a hurry!! LOVE IT SO MUCH!!
Hey Adam and Joanne…I love your recipes! Keep up the good work, and all the best to you in the New Year.
I made your Salsa Verde. Not only was it an easy recipe it was fantastic. Great taste! I will be making this again.
Have you ever canned this? I use a pressure canner so I think it would be fine but I’m curious.
Thanks!
This salsa verde looks amazing. I would love to try it soon, maybe in your enchilada recipe or the quesadillas. My husband can’t/won’t eat super spicy foods so can you tell me if this runs more on the mild or spicy side and if there’s a way to make it milder? Thanks so much!
It may help to choose younger jalepeno peppers rather than the older, larger ones with veining on them, and removing seeds also helps somewhat, but much more important is removing the white-ish pith the seeds are attached to, which is called the placenta and is the very hottest part of a hot pepper. Use a spoon and scrape ALL of that and the seeds out. It is a very good idea to put on disposable gloves to keep from getting the juices from this on your hands-I assure you, you seriously do not want to get it on your hands and then touch your eyes or any other sensitive areas!! You could cut off the stem, then slice the pepper in half lengthwise, remove the placenta and seeds, turn it with the skin side up and roast it, or roast it first. I would leave out the serrano pepper, which is the hotter of the 2- as much as 5 times hotter. Try the recipe with one jalepeno- if you like it and you think you might like it a littler hotter, try 2 smallish jalepenos. I am a wimp about hot-spicy things, but I can tolerat 1 -2 smallish ones with about 10 of the medium (1½ inch tomatillos with no problem.
Hi Terri, It’s medium spice level. You can leave out either the jalapeño pepper or serrano pepper to reduce the heat level.
Loved your recipe. It turned out great. I’ve been wanting to make tomatillo sauce for awhile now. Ty
Can you freeze this sauce?
Yes, it should last up to three months in the freezer.
This recipe is delicious! I’ve made it a half a dozen times using tomatillos from my garden. I don’t care for raw onions so I roast the onion with the tomatillos. Thank you!
So much flavor in this recipe. Simply delicious. Ive made this verde three times and also have made the enchilada as well. Absolutely restaurant quality. I roasted mine in a cast iron skillet!
Can I freeze this homemade salsa verde?
Yes, you absolutely can.
Great! Thank you!
Great Salsa and easy to make ..used it in your chicken enchilada verde recipe and they were Amazing!!! The sour cream and cheese takes them over the top. Restaurant quality! Thank you!!! I never liked bottled salsa verde and this was so easy!
The BEST salsa verde I’ve ever made!
This was easy and amazing. I will be making this on a regular basis in the future.
Wonderful, flavorful recipe, thank you!
Looking forward to making this.
I just made this tonight and it is lip smacking good. I have been vegan for 8 months now and am always looking for new recipes. I love the flavor of this. Will definitely add it to my favorites file. Thanks for sharing.
How long does this keep in fridge after making? Looks delish! Patricia
Hi Patricia, I’d expect that the salsa will keep well covered in the fridge for about 1 week.
Easy to throw together. I poured in glass mason jars and threw them in the freezer.
Made this recipe tonight, I have to say it was wonderful. Followed the recipe exactly, then made chicken enchilada verdes with it. Thank you for such a great dish. Everyone ate too much. Will definite use this recipe for now on.
Is there a way to can this salsa? Do I need to add more lime juice or would this amount work?
Hi Brittany, Great question. We have never tried canning this salsa (or any salsa). If you do give it a try, we’d love to hear any tips you gather along the way.
I’ve successfully canned in a water bath for 15 minutes….wonderful!