Roasted Chili Corn Salsa (Chipotle Copycat)

This easy roasted chili corn salsa has a little bit of heat and lots of flavor. Made with just a few ingredients - roasted jalapeño, red onion, white corn, cilantro, lime and salt. It's the perfect addition to tacos, burritos, bowls or to serve as a side.

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Quick tips

Recipe tips

This recipe is easy and comes together in just a few steps.

Peppers

For this recipe you can use a jalapeño pepper or a poblano pepper. Pepper spiciness can vary even in the same variety. For this reason, I recommend tasting your peppers before you add them to the rest of the ingredients. You may want to add more or less depending on the level of spiciness you want.

After you blister your peppers, finely dice them.

Preparing the corn

For this roasted chili corn salsa, you can choose to use white or yellow corn. You can also choose from canned corn, frozen corn, or fresh corn.

• Canned corn - Drain the corn and pat dry. 
• Frozen corn - Defrost the corn, drain, and pat dry. 
• Fresh corn - Set a large pot of heavily salted water to boil. Shuck the corn, and boil for about 5 minutes. Cut the corn from the cob. Drain and pat dry. 

Roasting/blistering

For this recipe you have a few options to roast and blister the veggies. You can use open flame if you have a gas burner, the broiler in the oven, or stove top with a cast iron skillet. You can choose whether or not to roast the corn. Chipotle doesn't roast the corn, but I like the extra layer of flavor it adds.

• Roasting over an open flame - If you have a gas stove, you can roast the onion and pepper over the flame. Using tongs, rotate the pepper and onion until it is getting blistered and charred.
• Roasting under the broiler - Place onion and pepper on a baking sheet, and set under the broiler for a few minutes until it is blistering and forming a char. Keep an eye on the vegetables, as the broiler can burn food quickly. You may need to rotate them halfway through.
• Stove top with a cast iron skillet - This is the method I used, since you can roast the corn, red onion, and pepper at the same time. Heat a cast iron skillet over high heat. Add the corn, jalapeño, and onion to the pan and cook until browning and blistering. Work in batches if you need to.
• *BE CAREFUL when roasting peppers! The vapors and burn your eyes and throat.

Serving suggestions:

• Serve as a side to go with enchiladas or fajitas
• Put in burritos
• Use for tacos
• Add it to quesadillas
• Use as a component for burrito bowls
• Make as a part of your meal prep and use it throughout the week.

Try this other salsa recipe to go with your taco night: Mango Pico de Gallo

FAQs

Any questions? I'd love to help! Drop a comment below or send me an email!