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Ingredients
1 ½ cups vegetable oil
5 garlic cloves, peeled
1 cup mixed roasted nuts, such as peanuts, pecans and almonds (salted is fine)
78 grams ancho chiles (about 5 large), stemmed and seeded
7 large chiles de árbol, stemmed
2 tablespoons raw sesame seeds
2 dried bay leaves, crumbled
1 teaspoon dried oregano, preferably Mexican
1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat the oil, garlic and nuts in a large saucepan over medium until the garlic is golden brown, 6 to 8 minutes. Remove from the heat. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the garlic and nuts to a heatproof bowl to cool.
- Step 2
Add the chiles to the pan with the oil. Cook over medium heat, stirring and flipping the chiles, until the oil is slightly reddish and the chiles are brick-red in color, about 30 seconds. Remove from the heat. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the chiles to the nut mixture; let cool for 5 minutes.
- Step 3
While the nuts are cooling, add the seeds to the hot oil and set aside; they will toast as they sit. Purée the chile mixture with the bay leaves, oregano and salt in a food processor until coarsely ground. With the motor running, slowly drizzle in the seed-and-oil mixture until the chiles are finely ground.
The salsa can be stored in an airtight container, refrigerated, for up to several months.
Private Notes
Comments
I’m assuming these are dried chilies. Is that right?
Love. I used olive oil. No arbol so did mix of pasilla and ancho. Subbed tahini for the sesame. Like 2TBSP. use primarily peanuts with some walnuts and pecans. I would make this to give as gifts.
Typically I make some slight modifications after tasting, but this salsa recipe is amazing as written. For people who are trying to cut back on salt, I would taste before adding additional Crystal Diamond, although it is the perfect cooking salt (not as salty as other types of salt). Thank you Rick for a wonderful recipe. I add chile crisp to everything, now I will add your salsa!
This is SO DELICIOUS. Made the recipe to the letter and was startled at how bright and vibrant the flavors were. I’m going to put it on everything! For those of you concerned about the bay leaves, have no fear. It’s a tiny amount and gets obliterated into imperceptibly eensy pieces.
My comment was cut off before I finished! I used guahillo, ancho, pasilla chilis and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes. It’s good but next time I’ll make sure I have chilis de arbol because I didn’t think it was very spicy.
This is pretty yummy. I used a combination of the chilis I had, ancho, guahillo,

