Mexican Salsa Macha Recipe for the Mexican Chilli Crisp from Veracruz

This easy Mexican salsa macha recipe makes a spicy chilli salsa with a crispy texture courtesy of ground dried chillies, peanuts and sesame seeds. Often described as a Mexican chilli crisp – the massively popular, textured Chinese chilli-based condiment, the most famous of which is Lao Gan Ma – salsa macha is more like a Mexican version of Sichuan chilli oil.

If you’re a chilli crisp lover, you’re going to adore this Mexican salsa macha recipe for an addictively delicious Mexican salsa from Mexico‘s state of Veracruz, which can be used on everything from tortillas to salads. It’s an essential component of our shredded chicken and corn salad recipe, which is loaded with flavour.

Often likened to the Chinese spicy chilli crisp Lao Gan Ma, it’s a more like a homemade Sichuan chilli oil, textured with crispy dried chillies and seeds. Lao Gan Ma is denser and crunchier due to whole peanuts and beans. Regardless, they’re both delish!

We’ve been cooking Mexican food for almost as long as we’ve been cooking Asian food, yet I have to confess that I could not recall trying salsa macha in Mexico, not on our first trip way back in the 90s when we backpacked all over Mexico and spent time in Veracruz, nor on our subsequent trips to Mexico. And it’s not a salsa you’d forget!

When I tried Terence’s first batch of salsa macha, I was immediately addicted to the stuff. It tasted Chinese to me so I assumed it was a variation of his Sichuan chilli oil. Chinese cooks also use sesame seeds and peanuts in oils and sauces, including Lao Gan Ma, one of our all-time favourite condiments, which we’ve been eating for as long as we’ve been living in Southeast Asia. Fifteen years this year!!!

So when Terence revealed he was testing a Mexican salsa macha recipe, my jaw dropped. If I hadn’t been liberally dousing the salsa macha all over a big salad we were making, in the same way we do another Chinese sesame, peanut and chilli oil (on our bang bang chicken salad), I would have been picking myself up from the floor.

Before I tell you about this Mexican salsa macha recipe, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-supported. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo by buying a handcrafted KROK, the best mortar and pestle ever; booking a cooking class or meal with locals on EatWith; or buying something on Amazon, such as these cookbooks for culinary travellers or classic cookbooks for serious cooks. Now let me tell you about our best Mexican breakfast recipes.Now let me share our Mexican salsa macha recipe.

Mexican Salsa Macha Recipe for the Mexican Chilli Crisp from Veracruz

Before I tell you more about this classic Mexican salsa macha recipe I want to share a little of the rich history of salsa macha, the Mexican condiment hailing from Veracruz state that tastes like Sichuan chilli oil meets chilli crisp.

I was so convinced by the crispy texture and fiery taste of salsa macha that the condiment had to have been Chinese influenced, that I immediately took a deep dive into the history of Chinese migration in Mexico and Chinese-Mexican food in Mexico, a subject I already knew something about.

I knew there was such a thing as Mexican-Chinese food – just as there’s American-Chinese food, Australian-Chinese food and so on – as I’d spent time in Barrio Chino or Chinatown in Mexico City years ago and the Chinese dishes had a Mexican twists.

Although we never got to Mexicali, which I know is home to some of the most intriguing and more innovative Chinese-Mexican cuisine food, so to me it made sense that this Mexican salsa macha recipe that Terence was testing could very well have come from one of those communities.

Through my Cambodian culinary history research for our epic Cambodian cookbook, which I began soon after we moved to Siem Reap in 2013, I was familiar with the Manila Galleons, the Spanish galleons that sailed with the winds on trade routes from 1565 to 1815 between Asia and Spain via Mexico, between the Philippine capital and Acapulco.

I also knew that the Manila Galleon, also called ‘Nao de Acapulco’ or ‘Nao de China’, meaning ‘China Ship’, transported spices, ceramics, ivory, gems, silk, and all sorts of other exotic produces from China and other Asian ports to Mexico and onto Spain – and that they naturally transported people as well as goods, Chinese as well as Filipinos.

Once the galleons arrived in Acapulco on the Pacific Coast, the exotic goods were carted by mule trains along well-worn overland trade routes to the sultry port of Veracruz on the east coast of Mexico, before being loaded onto ships that sailed across the Atlantic bound for Seville in Spain.

The key overland stops en route between the ports of Acapulco and Veracruz were Mexico City, Puebla and Orizaba – and Orizaba is said to be the origin of our Mexican salsa macha recipe. Despite Chinese settling in Orizaba, salsa macha is thought to have been made by the indigenous Totonac people of Orizaba.

The Totonacs of Orizaba are said to have ground dried chillies, sesame seeds and salt into a spicy paste. Interestingly, they apparently didn’t eat corn tortillas, as maize wasn’t a major part of their diet, but they did eat a corn porridge and ate lots of fruit, including plantains, avocados, guavas, and papayas.

I wonder if the Totonacs drizzled their fruit with salsa macha, in the same way that the Khmer people of Cambodia love to eat fresh green fruits doused in a spicy chilli condiment that is very much like a cross between Sichuan chilli oil and Chinese chilli crisp.

Just a few tips to making this classic salsa macha recipe.

Tips to Making this Mexican Salsa Macha Recipe

Terence used a Rick Bayless salsa macha recipe the first time he made salsa macha, but after that deep dive into the history of salsa macha and comparing lots of recipes by Mexican chefs and food writers in Spanish and Northern American cookbook writers and chefs in English, we realised that it was a very classic traditional macha recipe.

The main differences between salsa macha recipes are the types of Mexican dried chillies used – some cooks use several different dried chilli varieties, others just one particular type of dried chilli – as well as the sorts of seeds and nuts used.

That gives you the freedom to use whatever dried Mexican chilli you prefer, or whatever you can get hold of. Although we can get hold of quite a few surprising Mexican products here in Cambodia, we can’t source Mexican dried chillies, so we actually use dried Sichuan chillies at home here in Siem Reap! Shhh…

Traditionally, salsa macha is made by pounding the ingredients in a Mexican molcajete, just as we make our condiments and pastes in a granite mortar and pestle here in Southeast Asia.

While we use our mortar and pestles to make pastes and salads, we use a blender for salsa macha, as it makes it so much quicker and easier. You could also use a food processor, just don’t blitz it for long or you will end up with a smooth tahini like paste. We barely pulse it so it still has loads of texture.

So how can you use salsa macha? Use salsa macha in the same way you’d use other Mexican salsas – or Sichuan chilli oils or Chinese chilli crisps. We do everything from drizzle salsa macha on tostadas to use it as a dressing for spicy salads.

Mexican Salsa Macha Recipe

Mexican Salsa Macha Recipe for the Mexican Chilli Crisp from Veracruz

AuthorLara Dunston

This easy Mexican salsa macha recipe makes a spicy chilli salsa with a crispy texture courtesy of ground dried chillies, peanuts and sesame seeds. Often described as a Mexican chilli crisp – the massively popular, textured Chinese chilli-based condiment, the most famous of which is Lao Gan Ma – salsa macha is more like Mexico’s Sichuan chilli oil

Print Recipe Pin Recipe Rate this Recipe

Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 25 minutes mins

Total Time 30 minutes mins

Course Condiment

Cuisine Mexican

Servings made with recipeServings 1 Jar

Calories 4595 kcal

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 2 cups olive oil
• ⅓ cup roasted peanuts
• 4 garlic cloves - pounded
• 1 tbsp white sesame seeds
• 60 g dried chiles de árbol - stemmed, seeded and sliced into ½ cm pieces
• 1 tbsp cider vinegar
• 1 tsp salt - more to taste

Instructions

 

• To a medium-sized saucepan over medium-high, heat the olive oil, add the peanuts, garlic and sesame seeds, and stir frequently for around 5 minutes or so until the garlic is soft and peanuts and sesame seeds are golden.
• Remove the pan from the heat, stir in the sliced dried chillies, set aside for 5 minutes, stir in the cider vinegar and salt, then set aside for another 10 minutes for the flavours to meld and the mixture to cool.
• Pour the mixture into a blender or food processor and pulse in one-second bursts just until the chillies, garlic and peanuts are roughly chopped and sesame seeds still hold their shape. Take care not to blend into a sauce; you still want lots of texture.
• Pour the salsa macha into a glass jar to store.

Nutrition

Calories: 4595kcalCarbohydrates: 57gProtein: 23gFat: 489gSaturated Fat: 68gPolyunsaturated Fat: 60gMonounsaturated Fat: 346gSodium: 2649mgPotassium: 1623mgFiber: 23gSugar: 25gVitamin A: 15895IUVitamin C: 23mgCalcium: 186mgIron: 9mg

Published 23 May 2023; Updated 27 May 2025

Please do let us know in the comments below if you make this Mexican salsa macha recipe as we love to hear from you.