Guajillo chile salsa

A sauce built on dried chile

The guajillo chile salsa gives the dried chile the leading role. Where many Mexican red salsas use tomato and add chile for heat, this one is made from the chile itself. A supplier describes it as one of the most popular dried chiles in Mexico, comparable to the ancho.

A dried-chile salsa depends on the chile being toasted and softened correctly. Toasting brings out aroma, and soaking brings the chile back to a texture that blends smoothly. The sources read describe the same steps with small differences, so the method below gives the common path, not one authorised recipe.

Preparing the chile

Guajillo chiles have a tough skin, which is why the supplier recommends soaking them in hot water for twenty to thirty minutes before blending. Another source warns against over-soaking, which can make the chiles bitter, and against burning them during toasting. Both points come from guides read in the search, and the second is from a commercial page whose content is not consistent, so the times here should be checked against a tested recipe before they are relied on.

A typical recipe blends the softened chiles with about one cup of their soaking liquid until smooth. The sauce is then simmered for about thirty minutes, which thickens it and darkens its colour.

Where it is used

Guajillo chile is used throughout Mexico as a base flavouring, and the supplier says it is traditionally incorporated into mole and used to coat pambazo, a sandwich. A recipe site describes a salsa of this kind as typical of Guanajuato, where it is used for enchiladas mineras. The sources read do not date these local uses, and they do not show the salsa as a single regional dish.

Guajillo and other dried-chile salsas are a family of their own. A dried chile such as árbol or pasilla gives a different aroma, bitterness and heat, so a recipe that names one chile should not be read as describing the others.

Open questions

The early history of guajillo cultivation and of this salsa is not established by the sources read. A food-history text on Mexican chiles would be needed. The heat level of guajillo varies, and the sources read do not give a scoville measure, so the page does not state one.