My husband called it “the red stuff” for about three months before he finally admitted it was the best thing I make. That arbol chili sauce has been sitting in a jar in our fridge since basically forever and honestly our household would fall apart without it.
Jump to RecipeI first made arbol chili sauce a couple years back after my teenager complained that our taco nights were “kind of boring.” Rude, but fair. One batch of this sauce on some simple chicken tacos and suddenly everyone was quiet, the good kind of quiet, the eating-too-fast-to-talk kind. Real arbol chili has a bright, sharp heat that’s completely different from the muddy spice of chili powder. That’s what makes this recipe worth learning.
Why You’ll Love This Arbol Chili Recipe
- The heat is sharp and clean, arbol chili brings a fruity, grassy bite that builds slowly instead of just burning
- Ready in under 30 minutes with no fancy equipment
- Uses dried chiles you can find at basically any grocery store
- Works as a sauce, a marinade, a drizzle, or a dipping sauce, one recipe, endless uses
- Stores in the fridge for two weeks, so you make it once and eat well all week
Ingredients
For the Arbol Chili Sauce
- 20 dried chiles de arbol, stems removed (this is about 0.5 oz, they’re tiny but pack serious heat)
- 2 dried guajillo chiles, stems and seeds removed (I add these for body and a little sweetness to balance the arbol heat)
- 3 plum tomatoes, halved
- ½ medium white onion, cut into thick wedges
- 4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (brightens the whole sauce, don’t skip it)
- ½ teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
- 8 whole black peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
- ½ cup water, plus more as needed
- 1 tablespoon neutral oil (avocado or vegetable)
Optional but good
- Pinch of cumin
- Extra ½ teaspoon sugar if your tomatoes are on the sour side
How to Make Arbol Chili, Step by Step
Step 1: Toast the dried arbol chili and guajillo chiles
Heat a dry cast iron or heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the arbol chili and guajillo chiles and press them flat against the surface using the back of a spatula. Toast for about 20 to 30 seconds per side, you want them slightly darkened and fragrant, not black. Burnt chili will make your whole sauce bitter. The moment they start smelling nutty and a little smoky, pull them off. Transfer to a bowl and cover with hot water. Let them soak for 15 minutes while you do the next step.
Step 2: Char the tomatoes, onion, and garlic
In the same skillet over high heat, place your tomatoes cut-side down, the onion wedges, and the unpeeled garlic cloves. Don’t move them. Let everything char for 4 to 5 minutes until the tomatoes are deeply darkened underneath and the onion edges are blackened. Flip and char the other side for another 3 minutes. Peel the garlic once it’s cool enough to handle. This charring step is what gives arbol chili sauce that deep, roasted backbone, skipping it makes the sauce taste flat and thin.
Step 3: Drain and prep the soaked arbol chili
Drain the chiles, reserving about ¼ cup of the soaking liquid if you want deeper chile flavor in the finished sauce. I actually do use the soaking liquid, a lot of recipes tell you to ditch it, but I disagree. Yes, it can be a touch bitter, but it also carries serious arbol chili flavor that you’d otherwise lose. That said, if your family is heat-sensitive, toss it and just use plain water. Remove any remaining stems.
Step 4: Blend everything together
Add the drained arbol chili, guajillo chiles, charred tomatoes, charred onion, peeled garlic, peppercorns, oregano, apple cider vinegar, salt, and ½ cup water to a blender. Blend on high for 60 to 90 seconds until very smooth. If your blender is struggling, add water one tablespoon at a time. The sauce should be pourable but not watery, think a little thicker than pasta sauce.
Step 5: Fry the arbol chili sauce
Heat the tablespoon of oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat until shimmering. Pour in the blended arbol chili sauce all at once, it will spatter, so stand back slightly. Stir constantly for 5 to 7 minutes as the sauce fries in the oil. This step concentrates the flavor and cooks off the raw chile taste. The sauce will darken slightly and thicken, and the color will shift from bright red to a deeper brick. Taste for salt and adjust. If it’s too thick, thin with a splash of water.
Amber’s Tips
💛 Amber’s Tip: The number one mistake people make with arbol chili sauce is under-toasting the chiles. Twenty seconds per side feels too fast, but those little peppers go from perfect to scorched in a blink. Pull them off the moment you can smell that nutty, grassy heat, your nose is the timer here. Also, don’t blend the sauce cold and call it done. That 5-minute fry in hot oil at the end is where the arbol chili flavor goes from good to something you’ll want to put on everything in your fridge.
Variations
Extra Mild Arbol Chili Sauce
Cut the arbol chiles down to 8 or 10 and add one additional guajillo. The guajillo brings color and a mild, raisin-like sweetness without much heat. This version works great when my toddler is eating the same meal as the rest of us, she’s two and basically fearless, but even she has her limits.
Arbol Chili with Chipotle
Swap two of the arbol chiles for one chipotle in adobo. The smokiness goes way up and the heat becomes more rounded and earthy. This version is incredible as a marinade for pork shoulder or mixed into mayonnaise for a spicy sandwich spread.
Roasted Tomatillo Arbol Chili Sauce
Replace the plum tomatoes with 4 to 5 roasted tomatillos. The sauce turns from brick-red to a deep orange-green and gets bright and tart. Incredible with shrimp tacos. I made this version last spring on a Thursday night just trying to use up what was in the fridge, and my teenager immediately requested it again for the weekend.
Slow Cooker Arbol Chili Braised Chicken
Blend up a double batch of chili sauce, pour it over 4 bone-in chicken thighs in the slow cooker, and cook on low for 6 hours. The sauce becomes the braising liquid and concentrates into something incredible. Serve over white rice and don’t skip a lime wedge on the side.
What to Serve with Arbol Chili Sauce
- Grilled or pan-seared chicken thighs: spoon the sauce over the top right before serving, and let it pool around the plate
- Tacos of any kind: carnitas, grilled fish, scrambled egg tacos on Sunday morning
- Fried or scrambled eggs: a spoonful of chili sauce over eggs with warm tortillas is one of my honest favorite breakfasts
- Roasted vegetables: cauliflower, sweet potato, or zucchini tossed in the sauce before roasting gets a deeply savory, spicy crust
Storage and Reheating
Chili sauce keeps well in an airtight glass jar in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. The flavor actually tends to deepen and mellow after the first day, so making it ahead is genuinely worth doing. For the freezer, pour into ice cube trays, freeze solid, then pop the cubes into a zip-top bag, they’ll keep for 3 months and you can pull out exactly as much as you need.
To reheat, warm gently in a small saucepan over low heat with a splash of water to loosen it up. Microwaving works fine too, just cover the container because chili sauce will find every crack in your microwave door.
Frequently Asked Questions
How hot is arbol chili compared to jalapeño?
Chile de arbol clocks in at 15,000 to 30,000 Scoville heat units. For reference, a jalapeño is generally around 2,500 to 8,000 units. So chili is noticeably hotter, sharp and bright rather than mild and green. If you want less heat, reduce the number of arbol chiles and lean on the guajillo for body instead.
Can I use arbol chili powder instead of dried chiles?
In a pinch, yes, but the sauce won’t have the same depth. Whole dried arbol chilis that you toast yourself carry flavor compounds that pre-ground powder doesn’t. I’d say whole dried chiles are worth tracking down, most grocery stores carry them in the Latin foods aisle or in a bulk spice section.
Do I need to remove the seeds from arbol chiles?
Most of the heat in chili lives in the seeds and the white veins. For a very hot sauce, leave the seeds in. For moderate heat, shake out about half. Removing all the seeds results in a milder, more broadly flavorful sauce, still has kick, just not face-melting.
Can I make arbol chili sauce without a blender?
A food processor works well. A traditional molcajete (mortar and pestle) takes longer but gives the sauce a slightly more rustic, coarser texture that I actually love on grilled meats. What you don’t want is a hand chopper or immersion blender alone, chili sauce needs a serious blend to get smooth.
How do I know if my dried arbol chiles are still good?
Fresh dried chiles should be pliable, not brittle. If yours snap like a cracker when you bend them, they’ve dried out past the point of good flavor. They should still have a little give and smell faintly peppery and herbal even before toasting.
Tried This Recipe?
If you made this arbol chili sauce, I really want to hear how it went, especially if you put it on something unexpected and it was amazing. Leave a star rating below and drop a comment telling me what you served it with. I read every single one.
Arbol Chili Sauce
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Heat a dry cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add the arbol chili and guajillo chiles and press flat with a spatula. Toast 20 to 30 seconds per side until fragrant and slightly darkened, not black. Transfer to a bowl, cover with hot water, and soak 15 minutes.
- In the same skillet over high heat, place tomatoes cut-side down, onion wedges, and unpeeled garlic cloves. Char 4 to 5 minutes without moving, then flip and char 3 more minutes. Peel the garlic once cool.
- Drain the soaked chiles, reserving ¼ cup soaking liquid if desired for deeper flavor.
- Add drained arbol chili, guajillo chiles, charred tomatoes, charred onion, peeled garlic, peppercorns, oregano, apple cider vinegar, salt, and ½ cup water to a blender. Blend on high 60 to 90 seconds until very smooth. Add water one tablespoon at a time if needed to reach a pourable consistency.
- Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Pour in the blended arbol chili sauce, it will sizzle and spatter. Stir constantly for 5 to 7 minutes until sauce darkens to a deep brick-red and thickens slightly. Taste and adjust salt.
- Cool completely before transferring to a glass jar. Store refrigerated.
Nutrition
Notes
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