Chef Lupita
Birria Chile Adobo (Adobo para Birria)
Jalisco's birria begins with this chile adobo: guajillo, ancho, warm spices, vinegar, and manteca worked into a brick-red paste that turns goat or lamb into birria.
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Colima Cascabel Chile Salsa
Created by
Colima's salsa de cascabel is built from rattling dried chiles, roasted jitomate, and garlic worked in the molcajete until it is rough, nutty, and ready for sopitos colimenses.
Sauces & Condiments
Mexican
Weeknight
Budget Friendly
Make Ahead
10 min
Active Time
12 min cook•22 min total
YieldAbout 1 1/2 cups
Colima, between the Volcan de Fuego and the Pacific, makes this salsa for the small fried masa antojitos called sopitos colimenses. Not tacos. Not a northern flour tortilla situation. Sopitos. Little corn rounds with meat, cabbage, and this red salsa spooned over the top like the cook means it.
The chile is cascabel, small, round, and dry, with seeds that rattle when you shake it. That sound tells you the chile is dry enough. Its flavor is toasted nuts, red earth, and a mild heat that does not need to shout. Not all Mexican food is hot. Some salsas know how to speak in a lower voice.
I learned this version from a woman near Comala who roasted the jitomates until the skins split black in spots, then toasted the cascabels quickly on the comal. Quickly. Cascabel burns if you treat it like chile ancho. She crushed everything in a molcajete and served it in a small red clay cazuelita, the kind that looks ordinary until you realize the whole table reaches for it first. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
Use good dried cascabels, flexible enough not to crumble into dust, fragrant when opened. If your chile smells like cardboard, your salsa will taste like cardboard. Preguntale a las senoras del mercado. They know which sacks are fresh.
Chile cascabel is an old Mexican dried chile recognized by its round shape and rattling seeds, and it has long been used in western and central states where cooks wanted nutty depth more than aggressive heat. Sopitos colimenses became one of Colima's defining antojitos in the 20th century, especially around Colima city, Villa de Alvarez, and Comala, where small fried masa bases are dressed with meat, cabbage, and red table salsas. The salsa's technique, dry toasting chiles and grinding them with roasted tomato and garlic, belongs to the pre-blender logic of the molcajete: release the chile oils first, then build texture by hand.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
dried chile cascabel
Quantity
10
stemmed
Roma tomatoes
Quantity
3 medium
ripe
garlic cloves
Quantity
2
unpeeled
white onion
Quantity
1/4 small
sea salt from Colima or kosher salt
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon, plus more to taste
hot water
Quantity
1/3 cup, plus more as needed
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| dried chile cascabelstemmed | 10 |
| Roma tomatoesripe | 3 medium |
| garlic clovesunpeeled | 2 |
| white onion | 1/4 small |
| sea salt from Colima or kosher salt | 1/2 teaspoon, plus more to taste |
| hot water | 1/3 cup, plus more as needed |
Equipment Needed
- •Dry cast iron comal or heavy skillet
- •Volcanic stone molcajete and tejolote
- •Tongs for turning chiles
- •Small red clay cazuelita for serving
Instructions
- 1
Check the chiles
Shake each chile cascabel. You should hear the seeds rattle inside. Break one open and smell it. It should smell nutty, dry, and deep, not dusty. Remove the stems. Leave most of the seeds if you want the traditional texture and heat. If your guests are delicate, shake out half the seeds. Do not rinse the chiles.
- 2
Roast the vegetables
Heat a dry comal over medium heat. Roast the tomatoes, garlic, and onion, turning often, until the tomato skins blister and blacken in spots, the onion softens at the edges, and the garlic cloves feel tender under the skin. This takes 8 to 10 minutes. The black spots matter. That is where the salsa gets its cooked sweetness.
- 3
Toast the cascabels
Lower the heat to medium-low. Toast the chile cascabels on the dry comal for 10 to 15 seconds per side, pressing lightly with tongs. They will darken slightly and smell like toasted nuts. Pull them off before they scorch. Burned cascabel turns bitter fast, and no tomato will save it. Asi se hace y punto.
Do not walk away from the comal. Cascabel is small and thin-walled. It is ready before you think it is. - 4
Soften the chiles
Put the toasted chiles in a small bowl and cover with hot water. Hot, not boiling. Let them sit for 10 minutes, just until pliable. Boiling water roughens the skins and can pull bitterness forward. Drain, saving a little soaking water only if it tastes clean. If it tastes bitter, use fresh hot water for blending.
- 5
Grind the base
Peel the roasted garlic. In a molcajete, grind the salt and garlic into a paste. Add the onion and work it down. Add the softened cascabels a few at a time and grind until the skins break into a coarse red paste. This is not baby food. A salsa de molcajete should have body.
- 6
Finish the salsa
Add the roasted tomatoes one at a time, crushing them into the chile paste until the salsa loosens and turns brick red. Stir in 2 to 4 tablespoons of hot water until it spoons easily over sopitos. Taste for salt. The final salsa should be nutty first, then tomato-sweet, then warm from the chile. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.
Chef Tips
- •Buy chile cascabel from a vendor who turns over inventory. The chiles should be reddish brown, round, light, and fragrant. If they are gray, cracked, or smell like a storage box, leave them there.
- •A blender works if you need it. Blend the softened chiles, roasted tomato, peeled garlic, onion, salt, and 1/3 cup hot water in short pulses so the salsa stays a little rough. A perfectly smooth cascabel salsa is useful, but it loses the molcajete texture. That is a compromise, not an upgrade.
- •This salsa is made for sopitos colimenses, but it also belongs on eggs, beans de la olla, quesadillas made with corn tortillas, and grilled fish from the coast. Colima is small. Its kitchen is not.
- •Do not add cumin, vinegar, sugar, or cilantro. The cascabel is the point. Let it do its work.
Advance Preparation
- •The salsa keeps refrigerated for 4 days in a covered jar. The chile flavor deepens after the first night.
- •If the salsa thickens in the refrigerator, loosen it with a spoonful of hot water and taste for salt again before serving.
- •For the best texture, grind it the day you serve it. For weeknight cooking, make it ahead and keep it cold.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 31g)
Calories
15 calories
Total Fat
0 g
Saturated Fat
0 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
0 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
100 mg
Total Carbohydrates
2 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
1 g
Protein
0 g
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