Which is the Best Tasting Picante Sauce?

Salsa is an important subject.

Someone wise once said: “Food is a medium for sauce.” Indeed!

What is your preferred medium: Chips? Taco? Burrito? Eggs? All purpose? You have to be more specific. There are hundreds – nay, thousands of options.

In the local U.S. supermarkets you may find these (on West Coast anyway):

Taco sauce
Cholula – all fine Mexican food places seem to prefer this one
Tapatio – all good Mexican food places seem to prefer this one.
Pico Pica – a Los Angeles cult favorite (my fav of the three)

Other
Crystal – my fav for eggs
Tabasco, Chipotle – highly addicting, I’m using this on everything now

Pico de gallo
Depends on what looks best. Local stores carry various local brands. I’ll go to one of the various Mexican fast food places (Wahoos!, Rubios, Baja Fresh, etc.) and order a bucket of their pico de gallo for parties (since I can never get it right myself)

But alas, personal taste is impossible to prescribe. Experiment. Try every one and see which YOU like best. That’s the fun part.

Once you try these and others, you may wince when you see Pace.

I have honestly never heard of Any of those , u lucky thing. Our big Mexican grocery makes big bins of pico and it’s awful .

Learn to make your own. Then it will come out great every time.

My favorite right now is a Jamaican inspired mango habanero salsa.

I dug out the recipe.

1 mango
1 med yellow onion
3 garlic cloves
5 habanera peppers
1 T fresh ginger
½ tsp. turmeric
1/8 tsp. cumin
1/8 tsp. coriander
1 T honey
½ C cider vinegar
½ C water
1 tsp. salt

In a small saucepan, bring vinegar, water, and salt to boil. Purée remaining ingredients in a blender or food processor, then transfer mixture to a bowl. Pour vinegar mixture over mango mixture and stir well. Allow to cool before bottling. Keeps refrigerated for 3 weeks or more.

@WestRiverrat How nice of you!! But I thought picante sauce was red and tomato based. Back to Mayberry.

oooooh – I’m all over that @WestRiverrat. Will try tonight actually. On the way to the store.

Technically it is all tomato based, but I always use acid free yellow tomatos instead of red. My grandfather could not tolerate the acids in the red tomatoes. But I categorize my picante, pico de gallo and similar sauces all as salsa.

@ipso let it sit in the refridgerator at least 4 hours. It tastes better when the flavors have had a chance to blend.

10–4

The best salsa available on the market shelves is Lucky Habanero Salsa. It is sold at Whole Foods in Southern CA, also at Mother’s Markets in Orange County, and Irvine Ranch Market, Promelis Markets, Vicente Foods, The Meat House in Costa Mesa, BevMo locations in Orange County. Try it for the best tasting freshest, vegan, 100% natural salsa with no preservatives and NO vinegar so you taste the chilis!

I have become addicted to pico. I grow my own tomatoes, jalapenos and I’ve bought Vadalia onions. I dice the tomatoes and onions, sometimes add a little seeded jalapeno , salt and diced whole garlic. I bet I eat ½ cup a day. With whole grain Tostitos (which don’t exist during a holiday). I have Got to find a Whole Foods market!!