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Salsa Negra

September 7, 2015 By Laura 10 Comments

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Salsa Negra is your new best friend in the kitchen–it will keep in the fridge, add zip to your cooking, and it is super easy to make! Affiliate links have been used in this post to link to items I am discussing.

Salsa Negra: an easy, fast sweet and sour chipotle sauce that is absolutely tasty, lasts in the fridge, and can be used in all sorts of delicious ways!

I have had a fantastic recipe for Spiralized Calabacitas sitting in my drafts folder since July 23. Yes, July 23. And why have I not shared this delicious recipe for using up zucchini during zucchini season you ask? Because I needed to make more of the salsa negra used to make it, so I could photograph it also. And finally, finally I got that done! Whew!

This blogging business is a hard job, I tell ya!

Salsa Negra: an easy, fast sweet and sour chipotle sauce that is absolutely tasty, lasts in the fridge, and can be used in all sorts of delicious ways!In all seriousness, the salsa negra was an integral part of the recipe. No point in sharing the one until I had shared the other. And this recipe is so embarrassingly easy that it is pretty mortifying it took me so long. C’est la vie. (And needless to say, stay tuned for an awesome calabacitas recipe coming soon.)

This recipe started with a “secret weapon sauce” that Rick Bayless shares in his new fabulous More Mexican Everyday: Simple, Seasonal, Celebratory. I have almost half the book bookmarked, and the secret sauces for keeping in your fridge are worth the purchase price alone (I paid for this book). It is not a super authentic salsa negra, which takes some serious work, but rather a next best thing and super delicious and easy to boot salsa negra. If that makes any sense! I made the recipe exactly as written the first time I made it, at my parents’ house. You can find that recipe at Parade Magazine. The recipe I am sharing is a little different. First of all, I made it with Steen’s 100% Pure Cane Syrup, a decision made because of what I had around (and which led to some other changes because the Steen’s is runnier than molasses in my opinion). Second, when I served the sauce to my family, almost everyone loved it (some could not handle the heat), but many of them wanted it sweeter. So, authentic or not, I decided to make it a bit sweeter.

About the heat… if you are using this as, for example, a barbecue sauce (entirely valid–it is fantastic on shredded pork), it is, indeed, super hot. But this sauce has many uses that tone the heat down. Brush a little on chicken breasts–they will be more like moderately hot. Drizzle a little into calabacitas–not hot at all. Drizzle more though and it will be! You get the idea–it can be a great way to add some flavor without making it super hot. Or, if you love this stuff like I do, you can also dip a chip in it and just have a glass of cold milk handy!

Salsa Negra: an easy, fast sweet and sour chipotle sauce that is absolutely tasty, lasts in the fridge, and can be used in all sorts of delicious ways!

Salsa Negra: an easy, fast sweet and sour chipotle sauce that is absolutely tasty, lasts in the fridge, and can be used in all sorts of delicious ways!
Print
Salsa Negra
Closely adapted from Rick Bayless.
Course: condiment
Cuisine: Mexican
Author: TheSpicedLife
Ingredients
  • 2 7 1/2-oz cans chipotle chiles en adobo
  • 3 T Steen's pure cane syrup
  • 5 T dark brown sugar, packed
  • ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
  • pinch of salt
  • 7 T water
  • 2 T Chinese light soy sauce
  • 2 T Chinese dark soy sauce
Instructions
  1. Place the first 5 ingredients (including the adobo sauce with the chipotles) into a blender and puree until quite smooth. Pour into a small saucepan. At this point it will look like this:
    Salsa Negra before cooking
  2. Add the water and on medium heat, bring the mixture to a boil. Immediately reduce the heat to medium low or low, enough to maintain a gentle simmer. Be careful because this mixture will splatter--you will want to stir it frequently, which will cut down on the splattering.
  3. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring frequently.
  4. You are looking for it to thicken and darken a bit (but not as dark as the finished sauce), kind of like tomato paste.
  5. Remove from the heat and stir in the soy sauces. If you are using the dark soy sauce, which I definitely recommend for its depth of flavor, it will darken the sauce considerably. If needed, add a little water--you want a consistency like runny ketchup.
  6. Place in a sealed container and store in the fridge. Bayless says it will keep for a month or 2; I can confirm that the little I had left from July 23 was still fine this past weekend when I added it to the new batch I made.

If you are looking for delicious ways to use your Salsa Negra, I will list some of my dishes below as I post them!

Grilled Chicken glazed with Salsa Negra on top of spiralized calabacitas--a flavorful, Mexican-inspired dinner that makes the most of your zucchini harvest!

 

Spiralized Calabacitas with Salsa Negra Glazed Chicken

Mexican Ramen Bowl

Mexican Ramen Bowl

Filed Under: balsamic, Dips, Mexican dishes, pantry cooking, salsas, sauces, vegetarian Tagged With: chipotle, condiment, east, mexican, salsa, salsa negra, sauce, weeknight

« Old Fashioned Chocolate Glazed Chocolate Bundtlettes; Driving Around Mount Etna
Spiralized Calabacitas with Salsa Negra Glazed Chicken »

Comments

  1. Kristina says

    September 8, 2015 at 12:02 am

    I LOVE the sound of this one! I love chipotles, and I am intrigued by the balsamic flavor…

    Reply
  2. Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says

    September 8, 2015 at 12:16 am

    Oooh, this sounds so rich and flavorful, yummy!

    Reply
  3. Florian @ContentednessCooking says

    September 8, 2015 at 4:09 am

    Love the flavors! Great recipe!

    Reply
  4. Judy@ImBoredLetsGo says

    September 8, 2015 at 6:25 am

    This sauce sounds so interesting…gotta try it!

    Reply
  5. Kathy Hester says

    September 8, 2015 at 8:59 am

    I bet that is super spicy! It would love amazing on a Halloween table ; )

    Reply
  6. Joanne says

    September 8, 2015 at 9:32 am

    I have never seen a salsa like this before, but I am definitely intrigued. I love the smoky spice of chipotles, so I must try this!

    Reply
  7. Kirsten says

    September 9, 2015 at 10:32 am

    Now I’ve got to source Chinese light and dark soy sauce? I can barely keep a bottle of Kikkoman green label in the fridge! Kids. Kids and their rice obsessions, Laura, it’s crazy.
    This sauce is intriguing to me, I’m thinking it would be an interesting glaze for grilled butternut squash.
    Thanks!

    Reply
    • Laura says

      September 9, 2015 at 5:34 pm

      It would make a fantastic glaze. Well you can always follow the link and use the exact Bayless recipe. He kind of leaves what kind of soy sauce up in the air. But you know me–I have a billion and it drives me nuts when it is not specified lol so I do. 😀

      Reply
  8. Trish says

    September 9, 2015 at 10:32 pm

    Ooooh this just sounds SO good! The dark brown sugar and chipotle. YUM!

    Reply
  9. Christie says

    September 14, 2015 at 9:38 am

    My family would be all over this salsa. I love the sweet and spicy flavors. Putting this one on my must make list.

    Reply

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Hi! I’m Laura and I am a recovering history major who has re-channeled all of my passion for learning about the history of different countries to learning about their food culture. That doesn’t mean every dish on here is strictly authentic, but it does mean that even my adaptations are not undertaken lightly. My goal is to show you–by doing–that these dishes are possible in your kitchen. Including desserts because I have quite the sweet tooth! Read More…

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