Chef Lupita
Aceite de Chiltepin Bajacaliforniano
Baja California's wild chiltepin steeped in olive oil with garlic, orejon, and lime peel, until the oil turns ruby-amber and carries the slow, sneaky burn of the desert coast.
Culinary Explorer
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Salsa Zarandeada de Chiltepín Seco
Created by
Nayarit and Sonora's chiltepín-driven table salsa, built on toasted chiltepín seco, charred chile cola de rata, and tatemado tomato, ground rough in a molcajete and spooned over grilled fish straight off the parrilla.
Sauces & Condiments
Mexican
BBQ
Make Ahead
Batch Cooking
15 min
Active Time
10 min cook•25 min total
YieldAbout 1 cup, enough for 6 to 8 servings
This salsa belongs to the Noroeste, the long coastal arc that runs from Nayarit through Sinaloa and up into Sonora. It is the salsa that lives next to the pescado zarandeado, the whole snapper or pargo butterflied and grilled over mesquite on a wire zaranda along the Pacific coast. The salsa takes its name from that grill. Where the fish is zarandeado, the salsa goes with it.
Chile chiltepín is the chile of the Sierra Madre Occidental. It grows wild in the foothills of Sonora and the canyons of southern Chihuahua, and the rural communities of Alamos and Yecora harvest the dried red berries by hand every fall. The fresh ones look like green peppercorns. The dried ones look like little red beads. They are hot, sharp, fast, and unlike any other chile in Mexico. The heat hits and is gone in seconds. This is the chile that the Comcaac and the Yaqui people have been using for centuries, and it is the soul of Sonoran cooking. No me vengas con atajos. If a recipe asks for chiltepín and you reach for jalapeño, you are making something else.
The chile cola de rata, the rat-tail chile, comes from the same region and adds the red color and the gentle smoke that frames the chiltepín. Together with a tatemado tomato and a hit of citrus, this is the table salsa of the marisquerias from San Blas to Bahia de Kino. La cocina no es decoracion, es trabajo. I learned this version from a senora in El Quelite, Sinaloa, who keeps her chiltepines in a glass jar on the counter and refills it every November when her cousin drives down from Hermosillo with a sack of them. Cada estado, su propia cocina. This one belongs to the desert coast.
Chile chiltepín (Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum) is the wild ancestor of every domesticated chile in the Capsicum annuum family, including jalapeño, serrano, ancho, and bell pepper, and it has been gathered in the Sonoran desert and the Sierra Madre Occidental for at least 8,000 years. The Comcaac (Seri) and Yaqui peoples used it ceremonially and medicinally long before Spanish contact, and it remains the official state chile of Sonora, where wild harvest by Sierra communities is protected under federal designation. The pescado zarandeado tradition itself originated on Isla de Mexcaltitan in Nayarit, where the fish was grilled in a hand-woven zaranda basket over mangrove and mesquite, and the chiltepín-and-cola-de-rata table salsa migrated north along the coast as the dish spread through Sinaloa and into Sonora in the early 20th century.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
dried chile chiltepín (chiltepín seco)
Quantity
3 tablespoons
dried chile cola de rata
Quantity
6
stemmed
garlic cloves
Quantity
4
unpeeled
Roma tomato
Quantity
1 medium
fresh lime juice
Quantity
1/4 cup (about 3 limes)
fresh naranja agria juice
Quantity
2 tablespoons
or substitute 1 tablespoon orange juice plus 1 tablespoon lime juice
flaky sea salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon, plus more to taste
dried Mexican oregano
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
preferably oregano del monte sonorense
mesquite-grilled fish drippings or olive oil
Quantity
2 tablespoons
white vinegar
Quantity
1 tablespoon
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| dried chile chiltepín (chiltepín seco) | 3 tablespoons |
| dried chile cola de ratastemmed | 6 |
| garlic clovesunpeeled | 4 |
| Roma tomato | 1 medium |
| fresh lime juice | 1/4 cup (about 3 limes) |
| fresh naranja agria juiceor substitute 1 tablespoon orange juice plus 1 tablespoon lime juice | 2 tablespoons |
| flaky sea salt | 1 teaspoon, plus more to taste |
| dried Mexican oreganopreferably oregano del monte sonorense | 1/2 teaspoon |
| mesquite-grilled fish drippings or olive oil | 2 tablespoons |
| white vinegar | 1 tablespoon |
Equipment Needed
- •Volcanic stone molcajete with tejolote
- •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for toasting
- •Wooden spoon for pressing chiles on the comal
- •Small glass jar with a tight lid for storage
Instructions
- 1
Toast the chiltepín
Heat a dry comal or heavy cast iron skillet over medium-low. Add the chiltepín seco in a single layer. Toast for 30 to 45 seconds, shaking the pan constantly. The little pellets will swell slightly and the kitchen will fill with a sharp, almost piney scent. That is the chiltepín waking up. Pull them off the heat the moment they turn fragrant. Chiltepín burns faster than any other chile in Mexico and burned chiltepín is bitter chiltepín.
Open a window before you toast. The chiltepín releases an aerosol that will make everyone in the room cough. The senoras in Alamos toast outside on the patio for a reason. - 2
Toast the chile cola de rata
Wipe the comal clean. Return it to medium heat. Toast the chile cola de rata for about 20 seconds per side, pressing each one against the hot iron with a wooden spoon. They should puff slightly and turn a deeper red, never black. Cola de rata is thin-walled and burns almost as fast as chiltepín. Watch them. Pull them off and let them cool on a plate.
- 3
Tatemar the garlic and tomato
Place the unpeeled garlic and the whole tomato directly on the comal. Let the garlic char in spots and soften inside, about 8 minutes, turning occasionally. Let the tomato blister and blacken on all sides, about 10 minutes. This is tatemado, the dry-charring technique that runs through the cooking of the Noroeste. The char is the flavor. Pull the garlic and slip the cloves out of their papery skins. Pull the tomato and let it cool enough to handle.
- 4
Grind in the molcajete
Drop the toasted chiltepín, the cola de rata broken into pieces, the peeled garlic, and the salt into a volcanic stone molcajete. Grind in a slow circular motion until the chiles break into a coarse, uneven powder shot through with red flakes. You want texture here, not paste. The whole point of a zarandeada salsa is that you can see the chiltepín. If you blend this smooth, you have made a different salsa.
If you do not own a molcajete, pulse in a spice grinder in short bursts of one second. Do not use a blender. A blender turns this into red soup and the texture is half the salsa. - 5
Work in the tatemado tomato
Tear the charred tomato, skin and all, into the molcajete. Mash it into the chile and garlic paste with the tejolote until the salsa loosens into a chunky, brick-red puree. Leave streaks of tomato visible. Leave seeds. The blackened skin gives this salsa its smoke and its color.
- 6
Finish with citrus, fat, and vinegar
Stir in the lime juice, naranja agria juice, vinegar, oregano, and the fish drippings or olive oil. The salsa should be loose enough to spoon but not watery. Taste for salt. Taste for heat. Chiltepín has a flash of heat that hits and disappears in seconds, so the salsa should taste sharper than you think it needs to be. Asi se hace y punto.
- 7
Rest before serving
Let the salsa rest at room temperature for at least 15 minutes before serving. The chile, salt, and acid need a moment to come to terms with each other. Spoon it over pescado zarandeado fresh off the parrilla, over grilled shrimp, over a tostada de marlin ahumado, or onto the edge of a plate of frijoles puercos. Spoon it generously. This is a table salsa, not a garnish.
Chef Tips
- •Buy your chiltepín seco from a Sonoran or Sinaloan source if you can. The wild-harvested berries from the Sierra Madre carry a different aroma than the cultivated ones, brighter, almost citrus-tinged. In Sonora they sell them by the gram. They are expensive for a reason. A pound of wild chiltepín takes days to pick by hand.
- •Chile cola de rata is sometimes labeled chile de cola or chilaca seca in markets outside Mexico. If you cannot find it, use one toasted chile guajillo and one chile puya together. It is a compromise, not an upgrade, but the color and gentle smoke will come through.
- •If you grilled fish to go with this salsa, save the drippings from the foil or the platter and stir a tablespoon into the finished salsa. Fish fat folded into chiltepín salsa is the flavor of the Pacific coast. Olive oil is the fallback when there is nothing else.
- •Chiltepín heat dissipates fast in the mouth but it builds in the salsa if it sits too long. Make this the day you plan to serve it. Stored salsa gets meaner by the hour and by day three it will burn the roof of your mouth without tasting like anything.
Advance Preparation
- •The chiltepín, cola de rata, garlic, and tomato can be toasted and charred up to one day ahead and held covered at room temperature. Grind and finish with citrus on serving day.
- •Once finished with citrus and vinegar, the salsa is best the day it is made. It will keep refrigerated for up to three days in a sealed glass jar, but the chiltepín heat builds and the citrus dulls. Bring it back to room temperature and stir in a fresh squeeze of lime before serving.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 34g)
Calories
55 calories
Total Fat
4 g
Saturated Fat
1 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
3 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
330 mg
Total Carbohydrates
4 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
1 g
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