Bayless Tomatillo-Chipotle with Guajillo, Cascabel, and Arbol

[u/Drinking_Frog]

This is something of a follow-up to my recent post about playing around with the Rick Bayless recipe and adding other chiles.

This really did come out pretty nicely. I might want the tomatillos to keep more "zing," so I might not roast them as long, but I could just as easily squeeze in a little lime juice (and will do exactly that later on). I might back down on the cascabel, as well, as the flavors seem to get a little muddied (but it's still mighty good). If anything, that will give me a little more information about any direction I might take.

My biggest mistake was not keeping some of the reserved water overnight to add back in. The salsa tightened up a fair bit overnight. It's very good, but I could ice a cake with it). That said, it would be fantastic for mixing in with some shredded chicken, pork, or beef or for something like a quesadilla. An advantage to this consistency also is that I could easily vacuum seal it for freezing should I want to make a large batch.

The heat is right about the level I was shooting for, what I would call "a crowd pleaser" level.

Here's what I did:

- 12 oz tomatillos, husked, rinsed, and cored

- 1/2 large onion in ~1/2" slices

- 6 cloves garlic, unpeeled

- 40 g guajillos

- 20 g cascabels

- 4 whole arbols

- 1 7 oz. can chipotles in adobo

- ~1/2 tsp kosher salt

Roasted the tomatillos, onion, and garlic for roughly 15 minutes. Toasted the dried chiles, got rid of their stems and seeds, and reconstituted the guajillos and cascabels in just enough water (the arbols went in dry). Peeled the garlic, strained the chiles (reserving some water), and whizzed everything up in the food processor until fairly smooth, adding about 1 tbsp of the reserved water. It was good right out of the gate but even better sitting overnight.

I've rambled on long enough. Does anyone have any thoughts?

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[u/Still-Mulberry-1078]

That colour is very nice

[u/Drinking_Frog → u/Still-Mulberry-1078]

Thanks. A lot of that comes from the guajillos.

[u/Mountain_Student_769]

another Bayless Banger

[u/7itemsorFEWER]

Man it's so funny, I thought this guy and Skip Bayless were the same guy for so long, but also barely knew who skip was, so thought this guy was just another actor turned wanna celebrity chef, assumedly making the whitest Mexican food one can find.

Come to learn he's a completely different guy, the other guys brother, and exceedingly talented chef with a true love and commitment to Mexican cuisine....

[u/sgigot → u/7itemsorFEWER]

Other than both being in the media the two brothers couldn't be more dissimilar. Skip is a loud mouthed jackass who's a REALLY easy guy to hate, and Rick is soft-spoken, passionate, and seems to be caring.

[u/MonkeyDavid → u/7itemsorFEWER]

Rick Bayless comes by it honestly—doing doctoral work in anthropological linguistics and getting interested in Mexican culture, especially food.

[u/different_produce384]

Rick is so much more awesome than the other Bayless boy

[u/MagazineDelicious151]

Thanks for sharing!

[u/Drinking_Frog → u/MagazineDelicious151]

Thanks.

[u/Red_In_The_Sky]

Looks damn good

[u/Sriracha-Enema]

Does anyone have any thoughts?

Bayless has a recipe for homemade chipotles using morita peppers. After making them I haven't bought a can, SO much better. This recipe probably would shine even better using those.

[u/Drinking_Frog → u/Sriracha-Enema]

That's on the to-do list. Thank you for letting me know it's that good. I'd say it's moved up to the top of that list.

[u/Fine-Relationship326]

This looks wonderful and delicious looking 👀

[u/kestrel413]

Last night I did a tomato and a half quarter onion and 2 big garlic cloves fried up with some oil. (Same pan chorizo was frying up in). Added 3 dried chile de arbol and a dried chipotle ( love in a can or dried but so happy I have dried) and salt. Blended up came out thicker than what I would have liked but tastes out of this world. Yes chorizo tacos were topped with the salsa. Hope everyone has delicious dinners this evening :)

[u/SainT2385]

I once ordered a spicy salsa at a Bayless restaurant and spent the rest of the night in pain. I couldn't even eat my food because it was sooooo spicy. I dont know if it was supposed to be that hot but wtf. This was like 2013 or so... not sure if they still make it

[u/mqduck]

12 oz tomatillos

I don't follow. 12 tomatillos or x 12 oz tomatillos?

[u/Drinking_Frog → u/mqduck]

Enough tomatillos to make twelve ounces

[u/hotsaucesensei]

Great blend of peppers here! Kind of surprised it really overtook the tomatillo. I would expect it to be more brown. How much tomatillo v peppers?

[u/SkillIsTooLow]

Love me some Rick Bayless. Looks and sounds wonderful. 10/10 would try some on a slice of tres leches.

[u/GaryNOVA]

That’s a pretty thick salsa. The kind that works really well on Mac and Cheese and Baked potatoes. Sometimes just a spoon full depending on spiciness. Especially with Mac.

How is it with tortilla chips? The same?

[u/PixieGirrrl]

🤤