Salsa Ranchera is a great basic tomato-based table sauce that can be used to serve with tacos, huevos rancheros, or just served with corn chips!
I roughly use a classic recipe by Diana Kennedy as a guide for my Salsa Ranchera. Diana Kennedy is a great resource for Mexican cooking, in case you haven’t heard of her. Her cookbook The Art of Mexican Cooking is a classic and one that I use and refer to often.
We cook Mexican food quite frequently around here – it is one of my favorite cuisines. I love to have a variety of salsas to choose from for tacos and this Salsa Ranchera is a great easy one to add to your repertoire. I love it with all tacos but especially with beef tacos.
The heat can be adjusted to your taste for this recipe. I use 5 whole serrano peppers roasted – which makes the sauce pretty spicy which I love – if you aren’t sure how hot you like yours maybe start off with fewer peppers and adjust to your taste.
The method for the sauce is really easy. Roast some ripe tomatoes and serrano peppers until blackened and charred under your broiler. Put your charred tomatoes, serranos, and some garlic into a blender and puree. Heat up a few tbsp of oil in a saucepan. Stand back and pour in your salsa. Cook for 8 minutes stirring frequently over medium heat. Add salt to taste, let cool, and serve.
This sauce will keep for 2-3 days in your fridge.
Looking for some other great Mexican recipes to try – some other favorites of mine Mexican Shrimp Cocktail or Spicy Chipotle Shrimp are two great ones. Or make some Guacamole with Roasted Poblano to go with your salsa for taco night.
Salsa Ranchera
Ingredients
- 7-8 whole medium to large ripe tomatoes
- 5 whole serrano peppers less if you are sensitive to spice
- 2-3 whole garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1/2 tsp salt to taste
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
Instructions
- Heat up your broiler.
- On a sheet pan put your whole tomatoes and serrano peppers. Place them under the broiler.
- Roast the tomatoes and peppers until charred evenly (turning half way through cooking).
- Remove the stems from the serrano peppers and place in blender along with tomatoes and garlic. Puree.
- Heat some oil in a heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat.
- Stand back as the oil will spatter - pour in your sauce.
- Cook over medium heat for about 8 minutes.
- Add salt to taste and let cool to serve.
