A friend of mine showed me how to make this delicious salsa several years ago. Since then it has become a crowd favorite at parties and potlucks and a family staple at home. The best thing about making this dish is that you can change it up to suit your tastes. You can add more chili peppers to make it hot and spicy or tone it down for a milder version. The secret is to roast the chilies on the stove top until they are crispy brown.

Six to eight fresh chile peppers

one bunch of cilantro

one medium or three small onions; green, yellow or white

lemon pepper

garlic salt

two cans (or more) of Original stewed tomatoes

You can use different varieties of chili peppers for your salsa. Check your grocery store or local farmers market for fresh Ancho, Anaheim, Jalapeno, Habanero, and Cayene peppers but keep in mind the hotter the pepper, the hotter the salsa. I usually use six to eight peppers depending on the size and type. Wash the peppers and pat them dry. Place peppers in an un-greased frying pan on the stove top over medium high heat. The chili peppers will pop and hiss as they roast and your kitchen will begin to smell delicious!

After the peppers have cooled, split them in half and take the seeds out. Set the seeds aside and save for later. Make sure to wear gloves for this part or just be very careful not to touch your eyes after handling the seeds, the juice will stay on your hands and burn your eyes!

Soak the Cilantro in a bowl of water to rinse off any dirt or sand, then cut off the stems. You can add green onions or any other onion that you prefer. If you don't like onions, leave them out or use onion powder instead.

Place the seeded chilies into a food processor or blender and process until finely chopped. Make sure to leave the roasted skin on the chili, it adds flavor to the salsa. Add garlic salt and lemon pepper to taste (about 1/2 tsp-1 tsp). Add onions and cilantro and continue to process until mixture is paste like. Transfer to a large bowl and set aside.

Drain two cans of original stewed tomatoes and process until chopped fine. Add the chopped tomatoes to the reserved chili mixture and stir together. Taste the salsa and season if needed. If the salsa is too hot add more chopped stewed tomatoes to make it milder.  If you want hotter salsa add some of the reserved seeds to the food processor with a small amount of the salsa mixture then process until finely chopped. Stir the chopped seeds into the salsa mixture but remember, a little bit of chili pepper seed goes a long way in adding heat.

Store the salsa in a tightly sealed container and refrigerate. Enjoy!