The Secret To Picking The Perfect Salsa For Your Homemade Tacos

A taco is only as good as the filling that goes in it, but pairing your taco with the right salsa is what makes it sublime. Grab a classic street taco, and the go-to toppings will usually be a simple mixture of onions and cilantro, maybe with a squeeze of lime, but from these, most people will go right to the salsa bar. The acid in salsa is perfect for balancing out the savory flavors of most taco fillings and brightening everything up so you can more easily down one of the world's great culinary creations. But picking the right salsa isn't always as simple as you think. And when we were talking to James Beard Award winner Rick Martinez about mistakes people make with tacos, one of his biggest pieces of advice was putting a little more thought into your salsa selection.

The big issue, according to Martinez, is that many people have been conditioned to only think of one or two different types of salsa. He said, "In the U.S., it's easy to take a one-size-fits-all approach to salsa. You buy a jar at the grocery store and use it for taco night." But instead of that, he recommended thinking about the character of your filling and then making your own fresh salsa that complements that flavor profile. As an example, he told us that complex fillings like birria are better paired with simpler salsas, with the inverse also being true.

Even if you've expanded your salsa palate beyond the supermarket tomato salsa offerings to include a salsa verde or chipotle salsa, that's only the beginning of what you can pair with your taco. Just think of a pastor taco. Get one from a good taco spot, and it will often come with chunks of sweet roasted pineapple on top. There is no reason a mango salsa can't do the same for some chile-rubbed chicken tacos you make for yourself at home. Your steak tacos will be plenty tasty with a simple tomato salsa, but give some roasted corn salsa a try and see how the sweet and smoky flavor complements the meaty charred carne asada perfectly.

And with so many salsas available to choose from, you don't need to settle for just one. If you have lean meat as your taco filling, the brightness of some fresh pico de gallo will be great with it, but topping that off with a second creamy avocado salsa will add some much-needed fat as well. Even your old-school taco night ground beef taco can be a playground for salsa combos. Stick with your tomato salsa, but then add some hatch green chile salsa along with that for a taco take on a green chile cheeseburger. You wouldn't top every burger you make with ketchup, so why treat salsa the same way?