Salsa Borracha Norteña
Chapter 1 — Salsas & Sauces: The Foundational Layer
If you want your kitchen to taste exactly like that legendary, dimly lit taqueria tucked into a Los Angeles strip mall or stationed off a dusty Texas highway, this is where you start. The drunken salsa earns its name from a cold splash of Mexican lager that finishes the sauce, but its soul comes from the brutalist simplicity of fire and stone. By gently frying dried chiles in pure lard, blistering fresh tomatoes on a dry comal, and ruthlessly crushing the lot in a basalt molcajete, you build a dark, fiercely savory paste. When you drape this over a half-pound of slow-cooked meat, you taste the smoke, the fat, the malt, and the unapologetic bite of a true Northern Mexican standard.
Before you start
Always double-warm tortillas before assembly.
A cold, rigid tortilla is the death of a good taco. Lightly mist your tortillas with water and briefly microwave to gelatinize the starches, then immediately transfer to a screaming hot, dry comal for a few seconds per side until they puff and develop leopard-spotted blisters.
Ingredients
- Roma tomatoes4 large
- tomatillos3 med
- serrano peppers3 med
- white onion1/2 med
- cloves garlic4 large
- dried pasilla chiles2 med
- dried ancho chile1 med
- pure rendered lard2 tbsp
- Mexican lager1/2 cup
- fresh orange juice1 tbsp
- coarse kosher salt1 tsp
- fresh cilantro1/4 bunch
Method
- 01
Dry-roast the fresh vegetables on a heavy skillet or comal until deeply blistered and blackened.
Preheat a dry carbon-steel skillet or cast-iron pan over medium-high heat until smoking. Lay down the Roma tomatoes, tomatillos, white onion slab, serranos, and unpeeled garlic cloves directly onto the dry metal. Let them sit undisturbed to develop that essential black carbon layer, rotating occasionally with tongs; pull the garlic after 10 minutes when soft, the tomatillos and serranos around 15 minutes, and the tomatoes and onion at 20 minutes.
- 02
Briefly fry the torn dried chiles in shimmering lard until puffed and aromatic.
Heat the lard in a separate small skillet over medium heat. Tear the dried pasilla and ancho chiles into large pieces and drop them into the fat for just 15 to 30 seconds per side. Remove the chiles immediately so they do not turn acrid, but keep the infused lard in the skillet.
- 03
Crush the peeled roasted garlic, salt, fried chiles, and charred vegetables sequentially in a molcajete into a thick paste.
Peel the papery skins from the roasted garlic and grind the soft cloves with the kosher salt into a sticky paste using the stone pestle. Add the brittle, fried dried chiles and grind into a dark sludge, followed by the serranos, tomatillos, onion, and tomatoes one by one. The friction of the basalt forces the essential oils and blackened skins to bleed into a rustic salsa; do not use a blender.
- 04
Fry the crushed salsa in the reserved infused lard, deglaze with beer, and reduce.
Return the small skillet with the infused lard to medium-high heat, and carefully pour the crushed salsa directly into the hot fat to violently sizzle and emulsify. Immediately pour in the Mexican lager, scraping up any dark bits, and simmer for 5 to 8 minutes until the alcohol burns off and the sauce reduces into a thick, glossy marvel.
- 05
Stir in the orange juice and cilantro, adjusting the salt to balance the malt and char.
Remove from the heat and mix in the fresh orange juice and chopped cilantro. For the best flavor, transfer to a deli container and rest in the fridge overnight before serving at room temperature to let the malic acid, smoke, and malt fully integrate.
Notes
Do not substitute vegetable oil for the lard.
The animal fat is essential for extracting the fat-soluble flavor compounds from the chiles and provides the authentic mouthfeel of a Northern Mexican taqueria. If you lack fresh manteca, beef tallow salvaged from your carne asada trimmings is an equally authentic alternative.
A manual potato masher can substitute for a molcajete, but never an electric blender.
A blender violently shears the cellular walls, aerating the mixture into a frothy smoothie. If you do not own a volcanic stone mortar, roughly chop the ingredients and crush them in a heavy bowl with a potato masher to retain the necessary rustic texture.
Pair this dark, smoky salsa with robust beef and pork.
When you are ready to build the ultimate Northern Taco, use the Carne Asada recipe on p.X. Slice the skirt steak thin, immediately across the grain. The deep maltiness of the beer in the salsa perfectly grounds the acidic overnight citrus marinade of the beef.