El Pinto Wild & Fiery Chipotle Salsa

The El Pinto is a family owned restaurant in Albuquerque, N.M. The twins Jim and John Thomas run the business, which features the traditional New Mexican recipes of their grandmother Josephina Chavez-Griggs. Many of the foods they offer feature the famed Flame Roasted Red and Green Chile Peppers of that region. These “Salsa Twins” create handcrafted Salsas and Chile Sauces that feature flame roasted and hand-peeled Hatch Valley New Mexico chile peppers and other fresh regional ingredients.

I received a bottle of the El Pinto Wild & Fiery Chipotle Salsa for review. The Salsa has an attractive label featuring a painting of the El Pinto Restaurant & Cantina. The jar lid is red, to indicate a HOT heat level. As you can see from the ingredient list, the product features exactly what you would expect in a Chipotle Salsa:

The aroma of the salsa was very fresh, and featured distinctive tomato, roasted green chile, garlic, and a chipotle smokiness.

This salsa featured large chunks of tomato, onion, and roasted green pepper, and was of exactly the right consistency, not thin or watery, and not too thick.

The best part of this product was the taste. This is a fantastic salsa right from the jar for dipping tortilla chips. But, it gets even better. Along with the salsa was the El Pinto recipe booklet featuring many great sounding ideas. I had to try cooking with this salsa, and chose the El Pinto Baked Salmon, which is simply baking a salmon filet for 10 minutes, then spreading a thin coat of homemade mayonnaise on the top of the filet, then covering the filet with the El Pinto Wild & Fiery Chipotle Salsa, then baking an additional 5 to 7 minutes.

The salmon turned out wonderful. The smoke and heat from the jalapeno came through, and produced an amazingly simple and delicious dish.

This salsa has what the Salsa Twins describe as “added kick and a lot of heat.”  For the average consumer, this would be considered a HOT salsa, however, most of the people who frequent this site would consider this salsa to have a slight level of heat, perhaps a 4 on a scale of 1 to 10.

Overall, this is one fantastic product, with a wonderful aroma, texture, and flavor. I look forward to trying the numerous other products this company produces. This salsa is available in all 50 states in stores that include Kroger, Costco, and Walmart, as well as online at :

www.elpinto.com

On the website, you will find the whole line of very reasonably priced products, special offers, and many excellent recipes to use with the Salsas and Red and Green Roasted Green Chile Sauces.

Best Regards
John Zegel