Dried Chili Salsa From Boonville Barn

Some of the best recipes come from friends who really know their ingredients. Krissy Scommegna of Boonville Barn Collective grows some of the most beautiful dried chilis I've ever seen in the Anderson Valley of Mendocino County, and she put them to spectacular use in this pantry-friendly salsa that tastes like it came straight out of a great Mexican restaurant.

We sat down together on YouTube to walk through this recipe and share our tips for cooking with whole dried chilis — check out How To Cook Dried Chilis before you get started.

This recipe is a base for experimentation. Add canned tomatoes to tame the heat, pulse in cilantro or oregano for brightness, or toast cumin and coriander seeds alongside the chilis for deeper complexity. More lime for sharpness, a drizzle of honey or agave to balance the heat — once you understand the base, the variations are endless.

*A Note On Our Recipes: 

Every recipe here was developed and tested using farm-fresh beans from Foodocracy and Primary Beans. Older beans, anything past a year in your pantry, or beans from other sources may need more coaxing. Give them a soak and add extra cooking time, and they'll get there eventually.

Dried Chili Salsa From Boonville Barn

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Category

Appetizer / Condiment

Cuisine

Mexican

Some of the best recipes come from friends who really know their ingredients. This pantry-friendly dried chile salsa comes from Krissy Scommegna of Boonville Barn Collective, who grows some of the most beautiful dried chiles in the Anderson Valley of Mendocino County. Rich, smoky, and endlessly versatile, it tastes like it came straight out of a great Mexican restaurant.

Author:

Lisa Riznikove

Ingredients

• 1 ounce (30 grams) whole dried chiles, any variety

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• 3 cloves (10 grams) garlic

• 1 small (90 grams) yellow onion, peeled

• 2 cups water

• 2 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lime juice

• 2 tablespoons avocado oil

• 1 teaspoon salt

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Directions

1. Using kitchen shears, snip stems from dried chiles and empty of any loose seeds. Don’t worry about removing every single seed, but removing some will reduce the chance of bitterness in your finished salsa. Snip chilies in half.

2. In a dry skillet over medium-high heat, toast chile halves for a few moments per side, just until fragrant. Do not burn.

3. In a small saucepan, combine onion, chiles, garlic and 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat, cover and let steep for 10 minutes.

4. Using tongs, fish chiles and onion out of saucepan and place them into the jar of a blender or immersion blender. Do the same for cloves of garlic, pausing to peel them out of their papery skins. Reserve 1/2 cup of cooking water.

5. Add half of the reserved cooking water to blender and puree. Add lime juice, oil, and salt and blend to combine, thinning with more cooking water as needed. Add more salt and lime juice if necessary.

6. Store salsa in the refrigerator and eat within a week.

Recipe Note

Every recipe here was developed and tested using farm-fresh beans from Foodocracy and Primary Beans. Older beans, anything past a year in your pantry, or beans from other sources may need more coaxing. Give them a soak and add extra cooking time, and they'll get there eventually.