9 Store-Bought Salsa Verdes, Ranked Worst To Best

My mother-in-law makes amazing salsa verde. We typically eat it with pork, but there's no shortage of ways you can consume it. It is the perfect green veggie-forward relative of a red salsa. And the great part is that there's no one set recipe. Every homemade and store-bought salsa verde varies slightly. Since I have eaten it in my family more times than I can count, I had a general idea of what I was looking for in a store-bought one, though I knew it wouldn't be the same.

Though there are plenty of salsa verde recipes out there, they often include tomatillos, jalapeños, seasonings, and maybe other green ingredients like avocado, cilantro, or bell pepper. Therefore, I'm looking for an option that hits those multidimensional green notes. I'm looking for a bright, slightly tangy salsa bursting with flavor intrigue; it should be salted enough to offer some seasoning but without overwhelming the dish. The consistency should be pretty chunky. I found a variety of salsas at the grocery store from major fast food chains and other brands to figure out which is the best. Get your favorite tortilla chips ready.

I don't have much luck with Signature Select products, and this Medium Salsa Verde is an easy skip. Though it contains tomatillos, green bell peppers, jalapeños, and green chilies, the corn syrup makes this unnecessarily sweet. Two tablespoons contain 3 grams of sugar, for example; that means your meal will be quite sweet if you're coating your protein in the stuff.

The Signature Select salsa is pretty chunky, which is nice, but I can't get past its sheer sweetness. It's hard to appreciate the other green ingredients. This does not taste like a salsa I want to eat in any form, no matter what it's paired with. I hope Signature Select can come up with something tasty in a future taste test, but this is easily the worst salsa of the bunch; everything else is incredible in comparison. The corn syrup overpowers the green elements, making this unpleasant to consume. Let's find something better.

This Taco Bell condiment contains green chili puree as a primary ingredient, along with tomatillos and other ingredients, including natural flavor. Verde Salsa is surprisingly good and such a pleasant change from Signature Select. It's tangy, thanks to vinegar and lime juice, but there's also a touch of sweetness I don't really like because of the sugar. I could taste the sugar — much like the previous — but at least here it isn't as cloying. 

The sweetness feels more balanced by the chili and other additions, giving it an easy lead in the ranking. However, a couple of things hold it back. The bottle and overall size make it clear this is more of a condiment to drizzle over a burrito or taco. It's not the salsa verde you'd bathe your pork in. This is something you'd keep in your fridge to use whenever you please rather than employing the whole container for your family meal. With that in mind, the texture is a bit thin, with little chunkiness. I like the flavor, but overall, the mild sweetness and limited versatility keep it toward the bottom of the ranking. This has a time and place, though.

In seventh place is La Victoria, a brand I'm pretty familiar with. The brand's Thick and Chunky Salsa Verde doesn't exactly hit on its titular adjectives. It's quite runny with small chunks of bell peppers and jalapeños. So, sure, there are chunks, but it's definitely not thick. It seems watery and wouldn't be very easy to eat with something like chips, or even to pour over protein like beef or chicken. The consistency holds it back the most because other options are more well-rounded, but the flavor could use improvement, too. 

It has a decent spice level but needs some tang for more dimension. This store-bought option has many familiar ingredients, as well as Santa Fe peppers and dehydrated cilantro, which add a bit of heat and herbal flavor (respectively) that I appreciate. I can see the cilantro specks, and it definitely adds some visual and textural appeal. I'd select La Victoria over the previous two for most dishes based on consistency and less sweetness — thankfully.

Herdez is another heavy hitter among store-bought salsas. The brand has everything from medium guacamole salsa to a roasted version of the salsa verde. Roasted additions are typically more dynamic with wonderful smokiness, so I'm sure this option would be quite nice. As it is, the Herdez Mild Salsa Verde Jar ranks toward the bottom-middle because it's kind of one-dimensional. It has classic ingredients such as tomatillos, green chile peppers, and onion to create the foundation. 

There's a hint of cilantro, which I like, but I think it needs a touch more vinegar to give it some oomph — this would allow it to compete with the higher-ranking options. On the plus side, I like the even, somewhat thick consistency. It has lots of tomatillo seeds, which offer a textural element that makes me keenly aware of the vegetal additions. You could use this jar in a number of ways, which makes it a great addition to your pantry. I'd be interested to try the Roasted Salsa Verde because of the roasted element, but also because it has a higher (medium) spice level compared to the mild one here.

O Organics is an Albertsons Companies brand, which means you can find it at Acme, Carrs, Shaw's, Vons, and all the Albertsons Companies stores. This jarred salsa has lots of flavorful organic ingredients. There are key players (tomatillos, bell peppers, etc.) as well as flavor enhancers like vinegar, garlic, and spices. Signature Select is also exclusive to the stores, but the organic brand fares much better. 

To start, O Organics' version is actually good — if you served it to me at dinner, I wouldn't cringe at the flavor (i.e., sweetness). O Organics is really chunky but quite mild on the tongue. The heat only comes after you swallow, which is interesting. I like the magical change, but I'd still prefer to taste the heat the whole way through. I like the pieces and chunks, as well as cilantro and spices. There's some organic cane sugar, but it yields 1 gram of sugar per 2-tablespoon serving, which makes it similar to others on this list that don't even add sugar or sweetener. Therefore, it doesn't particularly enhance sweetness; instead, it is used to offer a well-rounded taste, perfect for something like chicken verde tacos. It's definitely better toward the end of the bite, but it could use a little improvement.

The bold packaging of Somos' Mild Salsa Verde makes it stand out in the aisle. But I think the ingredients and overall flavor speak volumes too. You may pick it out on the shelf for the interesting exterior, but you'll place it in your cart thanks to the fascinating ingredients. There are roasted tomatillos for added flavor, as well as Anaheim and roasted jalapeños. This makes it a standout with a great texture; it's delightfully thick with enough tomatillos and peppers to give it a sturdy base so it doesn't seem watery. 

I absolutely think this is one of the best salsa verdes you can get. It is smoky and interesting, with some heat to bring out more flavor. I think it needs a touch more salt and vinegar, but that is ultimately a personal preference. I like that it tastes vegetal and earthy, allowing the fresh ingredients to shine. You can't go wrong if you add this to use for salsa verde chicken enchiladas or just dunk some chips into it.

I always have a bottle of Cholula in hand and was interested in how the Salsa Verde would perform. Well, Cholula makes up for the lack of vinegar in Somos. This salsa verde is tangy, zingy, zesty — I use all those nice descriptive words to convey its sheer intensity. The jar has standard tomatillo, but the addition of poblano pepper is kind of fun. There's a touch of dehydrated cilantro added in for good measure. Cholula is a favorite hot sauce of mine, so I'm genuinely pleased that its quality extends beyond the rojo variety. 

This Salsa Verde is particularly nice and thick, and I can clearly see the bits of things like poblano pepper and tomatillo. It's memorable and flavorful, with a blend of earthiness, salt, spice, and of course, vinegar. This acidity works well when you want to cut the fattiness of something like pork or your preferred cut of fatty meat. There's a little of everything that I am looking for. I think the tartness may not appeal to everyone, but it does to me — so it takes bronze to get third place!

If I am going for simplicity and authenticity, Del Real is a winner. It's extremely close to how my mother-in-law makes her salsa. This ingredient list is simple — tomatillo, fire-roasted jalapeño, salt, and water. The fire-roasted quality adds a level of smokiness that's almost imperceptible, but then I can catch some marvelous dimension in each bite. Del Real is actually spicy, not tangy, so it has a more straightforward flavor. 

Tomatillo naturally tastes somewhat tangy, but I still want a bit more to round out the heat. This is also the only option that requires refrigeration prior to opening, which indicates a level of freshness. The plastic container makes it easy to just dump it and use as required. I appreciate that this is very buildable, whether you want to just add a splash to a tostada or use it as the foundation for pork chile verde — you can leave it as is or add seasoning, herbs, and maybe even some garlic cloves. I really like Del Real brand for a number of food items, so it solidifies its standing as a force to be reckoned with in this Fire Roasted Salsa Verde. The heat level would be great on something like black bean molletes, offering punch to the beans and bread. However, the next option is so good I could genuinely just drink it like it was a spicy green veggie smoothie.

I've never purchased Casa Martinez before, but now I'll keep my eyes peeled for it. This Fire Roasted Tatemada Medium Jar is phenomenal. This option includes jalapeño and serrano peppers, as well as cilantro, to add welcome heat and fragrant flavor. Vinegar, salt, garlic, and onion are there to bring the dimension I'm looking for, and of course, it wouldn't be complete without tomatillo. Looking at the ingredients alone, nothing is particularly unique, but the flavors come together in perfect harmony. 

Casa Martinez is amazing — delightfully tangy, herby, and spicy. But then you can't forget about the tatemada element, which the brand translates on its packaging to make it easy to understand: fire-roasted. This adds yet another impactful flavorful element that sends it into the stratosphere. The texture is thick enough to cling to proteins with punchy pieces of peppers. Pour Casa Martinez Fire-Roasted Salsa Verde over fried tortillas to create speedy chilaquiles verdes that will impress any guest, or simply use it as a dip with your favorite blue corn chips. Every bite is spicy and tangy, but never strays far from the vegetable notes of tomatillo and the two types of peppers.

I bought all the salsas from Albertsons, but I'm sure there are plenty of other offerings at other stores as well. I tried them all one after the other to ensure I could catch the slight differences between them. I was looking for a store-bought salsa verde that was bright, tangy, with a tinge of heat and salt to round it out. I wanted the most interesting, flavorful salsa I could find.

I tried the salsas on their own and with chips just to get a better idea of how they taste, both on their own and paired with other things. I judged them mainly on how they tasted on their own, though. It needed to be a tasty, dynamic blend of fresh, vegetal notes and a hint of salt; tanginess and spiciness were important to give it a more fully developed flavor. I considered how to use it as a sauce for meats or vegetables, not just a dipping salsa. Consistency played a role, more so when something was too thin. A runny consistency would make it very difficult to coat foods like pork or chicken without making them soupy.