Copycat Baja Fresh Salsa

Muffin Goddess's Note:

Posted by request, this came from TSR. I haven't actually tried it myself, nor have I ever been to a Baja Fresh restaurant, but I've gotten pretty good results with many other TSR recipes. Note: prep and cook time are estimated, and the key points are the firm, chilled tomatoes and stem-side-down start to blackening them.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 35 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs 15 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 3 cups

• 7 medium chilled tomatoes (not too ripe, they should be firm)
• 1 small jalapeno pepper
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 2 tablespoons white onions, diced
• 2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat your barbecue grill (high temp).
2. Remove stems from tomatoes and place 6 of them directly on the heated grill, stem side down.
3. Roast them for 20 to 30 minutes, or until the grilled side is very charred.
4. Turn them over, throw the jalapeno pepper (minus the stem) on the grill with the tomatoes, and grill for an additional 20 to 30 minutes, or until both the tomatoes and the jalapeno are blackened.
5. Turn the pepper periodically to blacken all surfaces.
6. Remove the tomatoes and jalapeno from the grill, place them in a bowl, and allow them to cool for 10 to 15 minutes.
7. Once cooled, dump the contents of the bowl into a blender, add the garlic and salt, and puree on high speed.
8. Add water and blend again for 30 to 45 seconds.
9. The sauce will darken as the charred tomato bits are chopped finer.
10. Pour the contents of the blender into a bowl.
11. Dice the remaining tomato and add it to the pureed salsa.
12. Stir in the onion and cilantro.
13. Chill before serving.

Reviews

[joop]

so perfect. I have been making this for years now and am just getting around to reviewing in anticipation of a bumper crop of tomatoes that will be turned into this amazing salsa and canned. Will make a jar or two with chipotle just to kick it up a bit.

Adding information here - I replaced 1/2 of the water with fresh lemon juice and put in a ground dried chipotle for an amazing kick on this.

The reason the water is in there is this salsa at Baja Fresh is very runny. If you like a normal thick and chunky salsa there's no reason to add the water but if you want a true copy, add it.