A few years ago I discovered the only jarred salsa that I've ever had strong feelings about at our local Kroger store. It. Was. Delicious! Then they discontinued it and I stocked up (a dozen jars at $0.49 to $1.09 after scouring all the Fry's between home and school, home at Trader Joe's, etc.) and made a commitment to figuring out how to make my own. When I still had a 2-3 jars left, it reappeared (oh happy day!). But I'm still kinda skittish (and have to drive to the Dillons in Lawrence now that we're in KC) and so have *finally* given it a shot. A couple of batches in and I'm getting close. So before I lose my paper full of notes...
4-5 tomatillos, papery skin removed and halved through the stem end
Tomatoes - amount roughly equal weight to the tomatillos (any sort of tomato, from grape to beefsteak). If you use grape or cherry tomatoes, leave them whole; otherwise halve them through the stem end
1-2 slices of peeled onion, 1/2" thick
4-6 garlic cloves - LEAVE PAPERY SKINS ON
oil
1.25 t salt
3/4 t sugar
1 T chipotle in adobo sauce* - this is the only heat in the salsa, adjust to your preference
1/2 juicy lime, juiced (whole lime if not)
chopped cilantro, if you're into it ;-)
Line a baking sheet with foil. Rub tomatillos, tomatoes, onions, & garlic (skins on!) with oil & place on baking sheet, cut sides down. Turn broiler on (high, if you have a choice) and broil until the skins start to char. This took about 10 minutes for me...but you want to watch pretty closely so you don't have a smoke alarm incident.
Let vegetables cool until you can handle them safely. Pop garlic out of their skins and roughly chop everything. Place in a food processor with salt & sugar and give a quick couple of pulses (it'll still be chunky). Scrape down sides.
Remove seeds and scrape flesh off the super-thin skins of 1-2 chipotles. Discard seeds & skins. Finely chop chipotles. Measure out about 1 T (total) chipotle flesh and adobo sauce from the can. Add chipotle, lime juice (& cilantro) to processor and give another quick couple of pulses. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Keep pulsing until you're happy with the chunkiness. Done!
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*I've found that brand matters for chipotles- Embasa was my go-to in Phoenix. I haven't seen it in KC, but got lucky with my first can (unfortunately I don't recall the brand name). Not-so-great chipotles can be withered or have spots that were, I imagine, scarred or bug-eaten or... that are stiff & difficult to separate flesh from peel. If you get one of those, try something else next time. I'll update with better brands as I find them.
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Ingredients list from Kroger Private Selection Tomatillo and Chipotle Pepper Salsa:
Fire Roasted Tomatoes in Tomato Juice, Tomato Puree (Water, Tomato Paste), Diced Tomatoes in Tomato Juice, Tomatillo Puree, Roasted Onion, Cane Sugar, Apple Cider Vinegar, Salt, Chipotle Pepper Puree Adobo (Chipotle Pepper, Water, Tomato Puree, Vinegar, Soybean Oil, Salt, Sugar, Onion, Garlic Powder, Spices), Cilantro, Roasted Garlic Puree, Dried Onion, Chipotle Pepper Powder, Lime Juice Concentrate, Chili Powder (Ground Red Chili Peppers, Salt, Cumin, Oregano).
