Easy Pico de Gallo Recipe

We regularly have Mexican night at our house. Most of the time we prepare the food ourselves but sometimes we order Mexican Food Takeout when we don’t have time or the supplies that we need. We both have our mexican food favorites and try a variety of different recipes each week- it could be fajitas, tacos, burritos, and all the sides that go along with it.

However when I tell you that my husband LOVES pico de gallo, that is an understatement. Baseball he loves, Hawaii 5-0 he loves, his jeep he loves…but pico de gallo, he LOVES, possibly as much as he loves me! We don’t just put pico on tacos, burritos, and other Mexican goodies, but he loves pico on his omelets, regular scrambled eggs, hamburgers, and just about anything he can put it on.

Pico de gallo can usually always be found in our fridge and is incredibly easy to make. I did not discover that until a couple of months ago. We have always spent way too much money buying premade pico from the grocery store or have often bought it from the Mexican restaurant, even if we are preparing everything else at our house. I found a few recipes online and made my own adjustments to suit our palate. When I try to cut corners by using canned tomatoes or something else, it never turns out the same and sits in the fridge uneaten. Once you start making it, you will discover it is not that expensive, easy to make, and simply delicious!

Using 8-10 roma tomatoes, finely dice them to your preference of bite size. You don’t want them too small because they become mushy and you don’t want them too large because then it is more of a tomato salad!

While you have the cutting board and knife like the one from Zizio, go ahead and dice up your onion. I use one large red or sweet onion, depending on what I have on hand. We like it with either and don’t have a particular preference between the two but never use just a regular onion. We prefer the taste of the red onion or sweet onion on the pico de gallo.

How spicy do you like your food? My husband likes it spicy, but my tummy cannot take it! Carefully, oh so very carefully, slice your jalapeño down the middle long ways. Clean out the membrane and seeds without getting it all over the place. Depending on how sensitive your skin is, you might need to wear plastic kitchen gloves when dealing with jalapeños. I usually just run cold water while I am cutting the jalapeño in half and cleaning it out. Once you have it cleaned, then you can dice it up into very tiny pieces. If you like it spicy, amp it up by adding in another jalapeño or two. You can also reserve the extra like I do and add it directly to the person’s pico that likes it spicier! My husband always gets an extra little container with his plate that has jalapeño in it to mix in with the pico for his particular preference.

Can I just say right now how much I love cilantro? Can I also add how hard it is to just cut up with a knife? Maybe if I was Gordan Ramsay I could easily slice and dice it up but for the average home cook, cilantro is hard to cut. The best tip in this entire recipe is this one- put your cilantro in a coffee mug, grab a pair of kitchen shears, and start cutting. EASY PEASY!

Cut a lime in half, grab your salt and start dumping everything in a bowl! Squeeze half a lime juice into your mixture, salt to your preference, and taste. Add more lime or more salt or more cilantro or whatever you feel needs to be added into it. Keep in mind that the more it sits, the more the flavors meld together. I usually get it almost perfect to our taste, put in an air tight container for a couple of hours then taste again. Add more lime or salt if needed.

I have no idea how long it will keep in the fridge because a whole container can be gone in just a few days at our home!

Enjoy!

8-10 Roma tomatoes, diced

1 Sweet or Red onion, diced

1-3 jalapeños, depending on your preferences, cleaned and diced

5-6 cilantro stems, or more according to preference, cut in small pieces

1 lime

Kosher Salt

Mix tomatoes, onions, jalapeños, and cilantro together. Squeeze the juice of half a lime into the mixture, more if needed, and add salt to your preference.

Store in air tight container in the refrigerator.