Tangy, spicy fresh sauce ideal on meats, burgers, and vegetables.
This has got to be one of my all-time favorite recipes. I think it’s spectacular. It’s actually a copycat recipe. In March I was in San Diego and visited a middle eastern place called The Kabob Shop. They had a jalapeño cilantro sauce that was amazing. I was ordering their chicken kabobs and smothering them with this sauce. Their other sauces were also excellent. I asked an employee what the ingredients were and he said, “jalapeños, cilantro, and olive oil.” The next time I went there, I asked another employee, and she said,”We get fired if we give away any of our recipes.” Well, I knew there had to be more than 3 ingredients. I took several tubs of it back to Denver so I could try to recreate it.
So I just spent a couple hours recreating this sauce – comparing theirs with mine and making adjustments – and I’m delighted with the result. It’s very close, and I like mine at least as much as theirs. I’ll be making this over and over.
I would generally serve this on meats and vegetables. When I finished up the chicken, I stirred more of this sauce into the rice and just ate that. Wonderful! You could serve this as a dip with chips or veggies, but it’s pretty tangy – I’d lean toward using it on meat, maybe fish, and burgers. This also keeps well, at least a few weeks.
- 4 cups (loosely packed) fresh cilantro (about 2 bunches)
- 3 large jalapeños (1 cup when loosely chopped)
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- 1 tsp minced garlic (1 clove)
- ¼ tsp salt
- Rinse cilantro & set aside. It's okay to include the stems.
- Cut stems off the jalapeños, then slice open and remove seeds and veins. Loosely chop and put in 1 cup measuring cup. It should be about 1 cup of jalapeños.
- Dump all ingredients into a blender and blend thoroughly.
- If desired, adjust salt and vinegar to taste.
- Serve with meats, rice, potatoes, whatever. Store in a container in fridge; keeps several weeks.
This has got to be one of my all-time favorite recipes. I think it's spectacular. It's actually a copycat recipe. In March I was in San Diego and visited a middle eastern place called The Kabob Shop. They had a jalapeño cilantro sauce that was amazing. I was ordering their chicken kabobs and smothering them with this sauce. Their other sauces were also excellent. I asked an employee what the ingredients were and he said, "jalapeños, cilantro, and olive oil." The next time I went there, I asked another employee, and she said,"We get fired if we give away any of our recipes." Well, I knew there had to be more than 3 ingredients. I took several tubs of it back to Denver so I could try to recreate it.
So I just spent a couple hours recreating this sauce - comparing theirs with mine and making adjustments - and I'm delighted with the result. It's very close, and I like mine at least as much as theirs. I'll be making this over and over.
I would generally serve this on meats and vegetables. When I finished up the chicken, I stirred more of this sauce into the rice and just ate that. Wonderful! You could serve this as a dip with chips or veggies, but it's pretty tangy - I'd lean toward using it on meat, maybe fish, and burgers. This also keeps well, at least a few weeks.
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