Chipotle Tomatillo Green-Chili Salsa is a smoky, slightly spicy salsa with fresh cilantro and citrus notes with tons of flavor that’s the perfect topping for all your favorite Mexican recipes and the perfect Chipotle Copycat Recipe!
We love Chipotle Copycat Recipes including Chipotle Chicken, Chipotle Guacamole and my Ultimate Beef Barbacoa which is based on the Chipotle recipe I have on the site. You can make an entire Chipotle buffet with the recipes here on the site!
Chipotle Tomatillo Green-Chili Salsa
This tomatillo salsa from Chipotle has so many layered and complex flavors you would think it takes a long time to make and is super complicated. But really its just one extra step of roasting a few vegetables *or grilling* until they’ve charred before adding them to a food processor. When you char and roast a vegetable it adds a complex new flavor to a vegetable and softens and deepens the flavors of it.
In this salsa we roast the tomatillos, tomatoes, jalapenõs and red onions. You don’t need to add oil to them before roasting them, but they may stick to your roasting pan a bit. Don’t worry if they do, you’re going to be blending this salsa in a food processor anyway, nothing on the pan needs to win a beauty award. If you’d like to add a bit of vegetable oil to your vegetables before roasting them it you absolutely can. This will also give them a jumpstart on adding some more color to them in the oven.
If you want to grill your vegetables I do suggest adding a bit of vegetable oil to them as they will be more likely to stick to the grill. You could also just oil your grill by scrubbing the grill clean then wiping the grates with a paper towel moistened with some vegetable oil.
Want to make a Chipotle buffet at home?
- Chipotle Chicken Recipe (Copycat)
- Chipotle Black Beans (Copycat)
- Chipotle Queso (Copycat)
- Chipotle Guacamole (Copycat)
- Chipotle Corn Salsa (Copycat)
- Chipotle Lime Chips and Guacamole (Copycat)
- Chipotle Inspired Ultimate Beef Barbacoa
Where to use this salsa? Top it on:
- burritos, tacos, enchiladas, quesadillas, taquitos
- salads, chicken bowls, grilled meats, grilled fish
- eggs, omelettes, chilaquilles
How to store this Chipotle Tomatillo Green-Chili Salsa:
- Since it contains fresh cilantro this salsa is best consumed within 72 hours and should be kept refrigerated when not being consumed. If you skip the cilantro you could keep it for up to 5 days if kept refrigerated.
- I do not recommend freezing Chipotle Tomatillo Green-Chili Salsa.
MORE COPYCAT RECIPES
- Panda Express Orange Chicken (Copycat)
- Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Soup (Copycat)
- Olive Garden Italian Salad Dressing (Copycat)
- Olive Garden Five Cheese Ziti al Forno (Copycat)
- Cheesecake Factory Chicken Madeira (Copycat)
Did I mention I have the ENTIRE Panda Express Menu?!
Ingredients
- 2 pounds tomatillos halved
- 3 vine tomatoes halved
- 2 jalapenos deseeded
- 1 red onion cut into wedges
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 450 degrees and add the tomatillos, tomato, jalapenõ and red onion to a baking sheet and roast for 25-30 minutes until they all start to char.
- Add the roasted vegetables along with the rest of the ingredients to a large food processor or a blender with a vent (the steam will need an escape) and pulse until slightly chunky, about 10-15 seconds.
Nutrition
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This salsa is fantastic – it’s part of our regular menu rotation now.
Glad you enjoyed it and thanks Kate, for the five star review.
can you freeze this?
Since it contains fresh cilantro this salsa is best consumed within 72 hours and should be kept refrigerated when not being consumed. If you skip the cilantro you could keep it for up to 5 days if kept refrigerated.
I do not recommend freezing Chipotle Tomatillo Green-Chili Salsa.
Yep! This is an incredible dupe! I thought I was getting smart roasting everything in an actual pan and it took forever so next time I’ll do the oven! But I will also half and then half mine again for next time since I’m swimming in salsa ? but yessss I made a burrito bowl with some corn salsa and I’m living for it!
So glad to hear you enjoyed this Salsa! Thanks so much Abby!
Where is the Chipotle part of it?
It is a copycat of the restaurant called Chipotle 🙂
Hiya!
In the title of this recipe it says there’s chipotle in the salsa. Then when Iook at the ingredients there is no chipotle listed ?????. Am I missing something?
It’s called chipotle because it’s based off of the restaurant chipotle’s salsa.
Hi, this was delicious how long can I refrigerate this for?
It’ll last up to 3 days in the refrigerator but if you leave out the cilantro, it’ll last for up to 5 days. So glad you enjoyed it!
Can this tomatillo green chili be canned? Sounds so good I’ve family that would love it at Holidays as gift.
I’ve not tried it but if you decide to try, I’d love to know what worked for you. I think making them for gifts is such a great idea!
I do not understand why you are calling it a tomatillo green-chili salsa when you are using jalapeños not green chili’s but still sounds tasty.
Tastes just like Chipotle’s, but BETTER!!!
This is extremely flavorful and delicious! It was very easy to make and my family loved it when it was fresh and warm!
Thanks for the 5 stars, Susan.
Love it! It came out very flavorful. A perfect use for our abundant tomatillos from our garden. A+ recipe.
Thank you for sharing this recipe!
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Tatyana.
Do you add the juice from the roasted veggies?
You’ll just want to add the roasted veggies. Enjoy!
I added the juice because it didn’t say not to 🙁
Came out great. Not exactly like Chipotle’s, but quite similar. Only thing I would do different is chop the garlic finely. I ended up with large slivers. I might try roasting the garlic with the tomatillo next time too. Thanks, this recipe is a keeper. For those that can’t get fresh tomatillos, they can usually be found in a can as well. My local (Los Angeles) dollar store carries them.
So glad you liked it! Thanks for sharing that tip about the canned tomatillos – very helpful for when you can’t get them fresh!
Do you can this salsa?
I made this salsa and though it tasted well, mine was green not brown like your picture or Chipotle’s. What am I missing to get the right color?
I’m glad it still tastes good but I’m not sure why it would’ve been green. Did you add the vine tomatoes into the recipe as well?
What if I can’t find tomatillos? Can I use all tomatoes?
Sometimes they’re labeled as Mexcian Green Tomatoes. If you’re still having trouble finding them, you can buy underripe tomatoes and add a squeeze of lime juice.
I love all your Chipotle copycats! They’re so good!
So glad you’re enjoying them!
Loving every bit of this salsa, looks incredibly delish. Making it asap.
I hope you enjoy it!
This is one of my favorite salsas and I’m excited to make it at home. Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome, Kelly!
You’re so right about roasting adding a new flavour complexity to vegetables and it works so well in this lovely salsa – thanks for the recipe.
Great minds think alike!
Can you can this ???
I’ve never tried canning before.
I imagine that you could can it. I have a recipe for Tomatilla salsa from Ball that I can every year. I”m going to try to can this Using the canning directions from the Ball canning book.
What a great looking salsa! This will be perfect for Cinco de Mayo!
Definitely!