Made with tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, and some cilantro, this Easy Game Day Salsa is sure to be a hit with all of your friends and family. Serve it with chips as a satisfying snack or as a topping on tacos for a delicious meal.
Possibly the easiest recipe on my entire website, this five-minute salsa recipe is one of the best things you’ll ever come across. Aside from it being completely fool-proof, it is also incredibly versatile. From tacos and burrito bowls to chips and anything in between, you can use this salsa in so many recipes and on so many different occasions.
All you need is some tomatoes, a bunch of cilantro, garlic cloves, jalapeños (or serrano peppers, if you want your salsa on game day – or any occasion – to be extra spicy), salt, pepper, some fresh lime juice, and half of an onion. Then, just blend away until you get the texture you like!
If you love to entertain people or host parties and gatherings, you are absolutely going to love this Game Day Salsa because it’s the perfect thing to make or have on hand in a pinch. My mom used to make this in a big batch when I was growing up, and she would keep it in the fridge at all times.
That way, whenever guests popped in for surprise visits, she could buy herself some time by serving chips and salsa. It became something she was practically known for and everyone would undoubtedly attack the chips and salsa while she whipped up something else.
Different Ways to Use Salsa in Your Cooking
My mom was clearly a genius and to top it off (pun not intended, but embraced) she would always save a small batch to add to her Mexican Rice and Refried Beans. Honestly, it added so much flavor that sometimes I would tell her just to make it so I can put it on top of my Mexican rice.
It was a super simple, fun Mexican bowl – just rice, beans, and salsa! I even started adding this salsa to my soups because I found regular vegetable broth to be too bland and
monotonous in texture for my taste. I would add the salsa in by the spoonful and it completely added so much more flavor.
Aside from some of these classic ways to use salsa in your meals, there are still so many more options! My husband loves mixing his salsa with a little bit of sour cream, and it’s actually a game-changer. We use it to dip our quesadillas in and we even recently started using it as a burger sauce.
This Game Day Salsa is just so addicting, you end up wanting to put it on everything. I especially love pairing it with my Black Bean Mexicali Burgers.
How to Make the Best Game Day Salsa
Whether you’re really whipping this out during the Superbowl, NBA Championships, FIFA, or whatever sports you’re into or you’re just making it as an easy snack for a crowd, it’s really hard to mess up this salsa.
For instance, if you have a pulse setting on your blender, you can’t go wrong! You can get your salsa to whatever consistency you prefer. Besides, you can’t overblend salsa – it’s just not possible, so no pressure there.
In this recipe, I used a can of Ro-Tel tomatoes, which is a Texas-based canned tomato company that uses vine-ripened tomatoes and blends them with select green chilies and flavorful spices. I used the original, but you could always opt for their spicier options, including Serrano, Hatch, or their Hot version which includes habanero peppers.
Of course, you can also use a regular can of tomatoes or fresh tomatoes if you prefer, but I definitely recommend adding in some extra green chillies if you do so. If you tend to be more health conscious, you can use a salt-free canned tomato brand or use garden-fresh tomatoes when they are in season (around June through October).
Salt-free canned tomatoes prevent unnecessary sodium intake and getting garden-fresh produce while they’re in season allows you to get the maximum nutritional value out of your fruits and vegetables.
You can definitely double or even triple this recipe if you’d like. I know, especially during game day or any events that I have at my house, I always make the salsa two days beforehand. In fact, making it a day or ahead of serving allows all the flavors to really soak in, especially if you’re using any added spices or those Ro-Tel tomatoes.
Just an East/West coast girl living the southern life. I love sharing all my tested and perfected recipes here, along with some travel guides and a little bit of my lifestyle
