Salsa Negra is for Cooking
Salsa Negra is not a good sauce for eating with chips or topping your next taco, but it is fantastic as a quick grill marinade for poultry, shellfish, and beef. The salsa gives a nice char flavor to whatever you decide to grill.
Salsa Negra
Salsa Negra used correctly is a superb baste for beef, shrimp, chicken, quail, and oysters.
Servings 2 cups
Equipment
- measuring cups and spoons
- Blender
Ingredients
- 2 cans of chipotle chiles en adobo
- 2 tbsp honey
- ¼ cup balsamic vinegar or sweet sherry vinegar
- ¼ cup dark brown sugar
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- ½ cup water
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- Add all of the ingredients to a blender or food processor. Blend well until all the ingredients are well incorporated. Store in a sealed jar or dish in the refrigerator until ready for use.
Salsa Negra can be stored in the refrigerator for 5 days or frozen for later use.
Why have you not attributed this recipe to Rick Bayless? This is his Salsa Negra recipe exactly but you’ve swapped the molasses for honey
First, I have nothing but respect and admiration for Rick Bayless. He’s, without a doubt, one of the best chefs this country has ever produced. The salsa negra recipe shown is linked to my post recreating the HOUSTON STYLE FAJITAS-THE ORIGINAL ARRACHERAS. If you are interested, this gives the history of the Fajita. Initially (1970-1980s), the marinade was based on vinegar, herbs, spices, and orange/lime juice. Because of consistency problems with the marinade, the restaurant switched to salsa negra sometime in the late 1990 or early 2000s. The salsa negra recipe on my website comes from El Tiempo and Ninfa Laurenzo via Dominic Laurenzo, which he uses throughout his menus. This predates Rick Bayless by some 10-15 years or so. Salsa negra is not a new invention. Salsa negra is not an invention of Rick Bayless, nor does he claim it to be. Salsa negra, or black sauce, is commonly used throughout northern and central Mexico. It would be like me putting down a hollandaise recipe on my blog and being asked why didn’t I give credit to Jacques Pepin. Mr. Bayless has his version of salsa negra as do I and many others. I prefer honey in mine, while Rick prefers molasses. Some cooks prefer the addition of black garlic or another selection of dried peppers (Morita) instead of Chipotle. However, the bases of all salsa negra recipes are the same as are all of the ingredients to hollandaise, béchamel, and velouté.