Roast Your Jalapeños For Restaurant-Worthy Smoky Salsa

If there's one thing your favorite Mexican restaurant is probably doing to their salsa that you are not, it's roasting. While salsa is loved for its spice and bracing, fresh flavors, getting the most out of it involves more than just throwing things into a blender. Making the best homemade salsa isn't just about acid and heat; it's about achieving a deep complexity that incorporates all kinds of subtle notes of fruit, earth, and smoke. As a condiment, it isn't meant to sit on the sidelines, it's made to stand out, and that involves squeezing as much flavor out of a relatively simple combination of veggies and seasonings — and nothing does that more than a little fire. And sure, roasting adds umami to acidic tomatillos and sweetens tomatoes, but if you really want a smoky taste in your salsa, you've gotta be roasting jalapeños.

Two things happen when you place jalapeños over a flame. The first is the Maillard reaction, where the heat from the flame breaks down and transforms the natural sugars in your peppers. Just like browning a piece of meat, this process brings out the natural flavors that were hidden within the cells of the jalapeños, giving them more complex fruity notes. The next thing is the charring of the outsides, which produces that craveable smoky flavor. Finally, high heat can steam off or break down peppers' source of spice, capsaicin, making the jalapeños milder and more balanced.

If you have a gas stove you can roast your jalapeños over an open flame, but the easiest way (with less risk of burning) is in the oven. Position a rack to get the peppers as close as possible to the top of your oven's heat source without touching it. Heat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, and then place cleaned and lightly oiled jalapeños on a baking sheet on the upper rack. Roast them for five minutes on each side, or until they have started to char but not fully burn. Next, let the jalapeños steam in a covered bowl or container for 10 minutes. Once the skin of each pepper is loose and they are cool enough to handle, you should be able to pull the bitter-tasting skins off with your fingers, no problem.

Lucky for you, there aren't many salsa recipes that don't use jalapeños or similar peppers like serrano, and all of them will taste better with more smoky flavor. The roasted jalapeños will really complement the toasted, sweet notes of a fire-roasted salsa, or they can add a little extra depth to fresh pico de gallo. The fruity, savory roasted peppers can also balance out a fresher, vibrant salsa verde. If you can dip a tortilla chip in it, roasted jalapeños can help.