Chef Lupita
Chiapas Cochito Adobo Paste
Chiapas' brick-red recado for cochito, built from toasted chile ancho, guajillo, achiote, vinegar, pimienta gorda, and thyme before it stains pork for the oven.
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Chiapas Charred Breakfast Salsa (Chirmol Chiapaneco)
Created by
Chiapas highland chirmol, made with fire-blistered tomato, onion, garlic, and chile simojovel, the morning salsa for eggs, frijoles de la olla, and warm corn tortillas.
Sauces & Condiments
Mexican
Make Ahead
Comfort Food
Weeknight
10 min
Active Time
15 min cook•25 min total
YieldAbout 2 cups
Chiapas, especially the highland kitchens around San Cristobal de las Casas and the market routes that lead toward Simojovel, knows this salsa as breakfast work. Tomato, onion, garlic, chile simojovel, salt. Nothing fancy. The comal does the talking.
The chile simojovel is the ingredient that tells you where you are. It is small, red, and serious, from Chiapas, not pasilla, not chile de arbol, not piquin. You toast it for seconds, then grind it with charred tomato in a molcajete until the salsa tastes smoky, sharp, and alive. If you burn it, you start again. No me vengas con atajos.
I learned this kind of chirmol from women who cooked breakfast before the market day swallowed them whole: beans already warm, tortillas wrapped in cloth, eggs fried in manteca de cerdo, salsa waiting in a rough clay bowl. The lesson is practical. Build flavor before you add anything. Char first, grind second, season last. Asi se hace y punto.
Chirmol belongs to the broader Mesoamerican family of charred tomato and chile salsas, with close relatives in Chiapas, Tabasco, Guatemala, and the Maya highlands. The name is commonly linked to Indigenous and colonial-era sauce vocabularies around roasted chile mixtures, and in Chiapas it remained a household salsa because it needed only the comal, the molcajete, and what the morning market provided. Chile simojovel, named for Simojovel in northern Chiapas, is one of the regional chiles that keeps this version from becoming a generic tomato salsa.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
ripe Roma tomatoes or small field tomatoes
Quantity
6
dried chile simojovel
Quantity
3
stemmed
white onion
Quantity
1/2 medium
cut into thick slices
garlic cloves
Quantity
2
unpeeled
coarse sea salt
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon, plus more to taste
fresh cilantro (optional)
Quantity
2 tablespoons
finely chopped
warm corn tortillas, eggs, and frijoles de la olla (optional)
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| ripe Roma tomatoes or small field tomatoes | 6 |
| dried chile simojovelstemmed | 3 |
| white onioncut into thick slices | 1/2 medium |
| garlic clovesunpeeled | 2 |
| coarse sea salt | 1/2 teaspoon, plus more to taste |
| fresh cilantro (optional)finely chopped | 2 tablespoons |
| warm corn tortillas, eggs, and frijoles de la olla (optional) | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •Dry cast iron comal or heavy skillet
- •Volcanic stone molcajete and tejolote
- •Rough Chiapas highland clay bowl or barro negro salsa vessel
Instructions
- 1
Heat the comal
Set a dry comal or cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Let it get properly hot before anything touches it. Chirmol is built on char, not on pale cooked tomato. The comal should darken the skins quickly and leave the flesh soft enough to crush.
- 2
Char the vegetables
Place the tomatoes, onion slices, and unpeeled garlic on the hot comal. Turn them as their skins blister and blacken in spots. The tomatoes should slump and leak a little juice, the onion should soften at the edges, and the garlic should feel tender inside its skin. This takes about 10 to 12 minutes.
Do not peel away all the blackened tomato skin. That char is the point. Remove only any flakes that taste ashy. - 3
Toast the chile
Toast the chile simojovel on the comal for 10 to 15 seconds per side, just until it darkens slightly and smells sharp and fruity. It is small and burns fast. The chile simojovel is not pasilla. Do not replace it with pasilla and pretend nothing changed.
- 4
Grind the base
Peel the garlic. Put the salt, toasted chile simojovel, and garlic in a molcajete and grind to a rough paste. Add the onion and crush it into the chile. Add the tomatoes one by one, grinding until the salsa is loose, smoky, and textured. You want pieces of charred tomato skin and small flecks of chile. A blender makes this too smooth unless you pulse carefully.
- 5
Season and rest
Taste for salt. Let the salsa sit for 10 minutes so the charred tomato juices settle into the chile. Stir in the cilantro only if your market tomatoes are flat and need freshness. Good tomato and good chile simojovel do not need decoration.
- 6
Serve for breakfast
Serve at room temperature with eggs cooked in manteca de cerdo, frijoles de la olla, and warm corn tortillas. This is a breakfast salsa, not a dip for chips under melted yellow cheese. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
Chef Tips
- •Ask for chile simojovel at a Mexican market with Chiapas or Tabasco vendors. If the vendor tries to hand you pasilla, walk away or buy it for another dish. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
- •Use ripe tomatoes that smell like tomato at the stem. If the tomatoes are pale and hard, do not make chirmol today. Cook what the market is selling today.
- •A molcajete gives the best texture: crushed tomato, rough chile paste, little black flecks from the comal. If you must use a blender, pulse three or four times only. Smooth chirmol is lazy chirmol.
- •Serve it with breakfast foods from the Chiapas table: eggs, frijoles de la olla, queso de Chiapas if you have it, and corn tortillas. Flour tortillas belong to the north. This is not that kitchen.
Advance Preparation
- •Chirmol can be made up to one day ahead and refrigerated, but the char is clearest the day it is made.
- •Bring the salsa back to room temperature before serving. Cold tomato dulls the chile simojovel and makes the salsa taste flat.
- •Do not freeze this salsa. The tomato breaks down and the texture turns watery.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 50g)
Calories
15 calories
Total Fat
0 g
Saturated Fat
0 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
0 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
150 mg
Total Carbohydrates
3 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
1 g
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