Michelle holidayed in Mexico last year and came home talking about a sauce she enjoyed whilst there, a Mexican tomatillo sauce or salsa verde. This sauce was served alongside other food as a salsa with a kick of heat and can be served both hot and cold. Tomatillos themselves are fruits that look very similar to a green tomato but are slightly bitter on the palate. We’ve never managed to find tomatillos locally, however we received a jar in the box gifted to us by La Costena UK/Mextrade and decided to make the sauce.
We served the sauce with chicken enchilladas. We sauted chicken, together with sliced pepper, red onions and a good teaspoon of a homemade spice blend that we use for pulled pork (the recipe for the spice blend is also attached below). If you don’t fancy chicken you can use steak, pork, vegetables, your choice. We fried both sides of our corn tortillas (we used Santa Maria tortillas as these are readily available in supermarkets) in a little oil, this stops them going soggy, before filling them with the chicken mixture. We then layered up the dish as follows: pour half the tomatillo sauce in the base of an oven-proof dish, lay the chicken filled tortillas on top and then cover with the remaining tomatillo sauce and top off with a layer of grated cheese before placing in an pre-heated oven at 180CFan for 20 minutes or until golden. Declicious served with our refried beans and guacamole.
pulled pork spice blend
Print recipe
Ingredients
- 5 tsp smoked paprika
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp onion granuals
- 2 tsp garlic granuals
- 2 tsp celery salt
- 2 tsp english mustard powder
- 3 tsp dried oregano
- 6 tsp dark muscavado sugar
Directions
| Place all the ingredients together in an air-tight container and mix to combine. | |
Note
This recipe is by no means prescriptive, and changes every time we blend it together. If you don't like something leave it out. If you fancy more heat add hot smoked paprika. Make it your own.
Once blended together store in an airtight container in your storecupboard for up to a year.
tomatillo sauce
Ingredients
- 1 large tin tomatillos (we used a 28oz tin)
- 1 red chilli (deseeded and sliced)
- 1 small onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- bunch coriander stalks
Directions
| Place the tomatillos, together with the juices from the tin, in a saucepan along with the chilli and bring to the boil. Allow to simmer for about 5 minutes to infuse the mixture with the chilli. | |
| Place the tomatillos, chilli and remaining ingredients in a food processor adding a few tablespoons of the cooking liquid. Blitz well until a sauce forms, adding more cooking liquid if needed. You want a slightly thick sauce with the consistency of soup. | |
| Return sauce to the saucepan and continue to simmer for a further 15-20 minutes, allowing the raw ingrients to cook through and the flavour to soften. | |
Note
You can use this sauce as the base for our baked enchiladas or as a dipping sauce either warm or cold.
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