Salsa Daddy: A Cookbook: Dip Your Way into Mexican Cooking

by Rick Martinez

The James Beard Award–winning author of the New York Times bestseller Mi Cocina is back with a guide to the brightest dish in any Mexican meal, snack-filled afternoon, or sun-drenched beach salsa. From refreshing classics to rich sauces, this collection of over seventy salsas and twenty-four easy meals is a fun-loving introduction to the joy of Mexican cooking.

A WASHINGTON POST BEST COOKBOOK OF THE YEAR

Chips, salsa, happiness. We know that essential truth. But after over 500 years of salsa history, there’s so much more to discover about this staple dish, one that cooks today can customize and riff on freely. Salsa can be an irresistible dip, yes, or a flavorful condiment, or it can be the basis for iconic Mexican meals—not to mention a savior for grilled cheese, burgers, rotisserie chicken, or platters of roasted vegetables.

Rick takes us deep into the world of traditional and modern salsas, where a playful pico de gallo with tomatoes, avocados, and chipotles is chopped up in a few minutes or where you might blend roasted peanuts with caramelized onions and toasted chiles for a nutty-savory spicy sauce. You’ll find smashed salsas, like La Tatemada Cremosa (charred tomato, chipotle in adobo, and crema), chopped salsas, such as Xnipec (tomato, habanero, and sour orange), as well as cooked salsas, like Pipián Verde (pepitas, peanuts, and tomatillo) and specials like Salsa Macha (peanuts, guiajillo, and chile de árbol) and Aioli Rojo (morita, guajillo, garlic, and lime). Turn these incredibly delicious salsas into easy meals like Chilaquiles, Enchiladas Gratinadas, Puffy Tacos, or Pozole Verde con Pollo.

With over seventy salsa recipes and twenty-four easy meals that offer endless variation, Salsa Daddy shows you how salsa can catapult joy into your cooking and become the heart of every table. Like Rick, you’ll learn that salsa isn’t a condiment—it’s a lifestyle.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Food

275 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 29, 2025

Reviews

[Allie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great concept for a cookbook, and the layout, design, and organization are all exceptional. I don't always read all the front matter in a cookbook, but the introduction is both fun to read and informative—the breakdown of chile peppers (with photos!) is a nice touch.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rick Martinez is a third generation Mexican-American, and he grew up with his mother making salsas and putting them on the table for every meal. He avoided them because he wasn’t used to eating anything that hot. Once he hit college and started drinking with his buddies, treating his hangovers with a big spicy breakfast taught him to learn to love heat. And eating a caramelized onion and serrano salsa in Mexico showed him just how much the right salsa can make a meal complete.

Salsa Daddy is filled with 75 different salsa recipes, but that is just the beginning. Each salsa recipe come with serving suggestions, but Martinez wants you to use your creativity to make the salsas your own. As he was experimenting and writing the salsa recipes, he found himself throwing some extra salsa on a roasted chicken before he threw it in the oven, which meant a lot of added flavor with no extra effort. He used it in soups, to add flavor and texture to the soup base. He used it on his breakfast tacos, because why wouldn’t you?

If you’re worried about the heat, you can dial down the spiciness. Because of course there is a primer on chiles, fresh and dried. Martinez didn’t like heat in his food when he was younger, so there is no judgment. He offers several different tips for calming the heat, from removing the seeds to soaking the chiles in clear alcohol to draw out the heat. Even if you’ve never worked with chiles before, he gives you what you need to know to get started and encourages you to taste and experiment to find out what you like.

The salsas range from the restaurant style salsas that make you eat basket after basket of chips at your favorite Mexican restaurant or a classic chunky pico de gallo that you might get on your burrito to complex salsas made with fruits, nuts, or even chocolate. Some of them are quick, just five minutes of chopping or ingredients you can toss in a blender. Others need to be cooked, or the chiles or fruit need to be roasted. Still others are pickled or fermented and need a few days or even a month to fully ripen. There is literally something for everyone.

And because we need more than salsa to eat in a day, there are several other recipes to go with all these salsas. There are recipes for chips, enchiladas, tacos, quesadillas, soups, and there is even a recipe for Besitos de Salsa Macha, or chocolate chip cookies with added flavor from his vanilla-based salsa. The recipes included in Salsa Daddy include a take on Fettucine Alfredo, chicken cutlet sandwich, and meatball sub. Martinex has a way of making Mexican flavors accessible but also celebratory and playful.

Salsa Daddy is full of bright colors and beautiful photos. The salsas are pictured not just as dips for your chips, but they are on an assortment of delicious look dishes, offering ideas and inspiration for delicious meals. Martinez even offers up tips along the way—an easy way to clean a blender, a quick way to season your cast iron. These ideas are not just for Mexican food. These ideas are for delicious cooking in any kitchen.

I am a fan of Mexican cooking, but I wasn’t sure about an entire cookbook based on salsa recipes. I was wrong. The way Martinez talks about salsas is inspiring. And the layout and photography is gorgeous. I love how versatile and vibrant his food is. And while he talks about balance over heat in the salsas, which I appreciate, I would still need to be careful with many of these recipes. Those with a special diet or with certain digestive conditions may have to pass on this one. I struggle with acid reflux, and the heat from the chiles and the acidity of tomatoes and citrus fruits would make many of these salsas problematic after just a couple of bites. I think this is a beautiful and interesting cookbook, but it’s not for every palette or every cook, sadly.

A copy of Salsa Daddy was provided by Clarkson Potter with many thanks, but the opinions are mine.

[Charles Eldridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like my fridge will be overflowing with salsas very soon.

I was a fan of the authors previous book “Mi Cocina” which showcased the different specialties from every state in Mexico. Similarly, this new cookbook highlights the multitude of variations that salsas can encompass.

The cookbook has a great layout with well presented recipes and vibrant photographs.

Will I make every salsa? Probably not. But I do hope to find a few new go-to recipes to use in the many different ways that the author suggests.

[Tanya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes it’s a beautiful book. Yes it has a cool layout. Yes it has a wonderful backstory. But all that doesn’t make a great book. Here was my problem with it. I picked up this book because I wanted to see salsas. Not pictures of food with salsas. But salsas. If you want to add the food pictures (and maybe the recipes for those too) then don’t use them as the main photo. It is too distracting. I don’t have time to discern what I’m looking at. I want to see the salsa. Maybe there was too much fluff and not enough substance where the point of the book got lost.

[Brenda Dickson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clarkson Potter provided me with a free copy of this book; the opinions are my own. This is a beautifully, brightly photographed book by chef Rick Martinez. There is a salsa for almost any occasion - 75 recipes plus a chapter of easy meals. Also included is a pictorial glossary of chiles. Love it! I can hardly wait to start making several of the homemade salsas.

[Wei Tchou · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant lens into Mexican cuisine! Taxonimizing salsas helped me understand regional Mexican foods and flavors a lot better, as well as their chemistry with other world cuisines. Ran to the market this week to grab tomatillos, poblanos, and serranos to get started on some (new to me) salsas for dorados!

[Gina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I made three of these recipes, and all three were excellent. A huge variety of salsas - raw, charred, puréed, chunky, traditional, fusion. A salsa cookbook might seem niche but salsa can really make a whole meal

[M M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic recipe book, the salsas were unique, easy, and delicious. I have 5 new salsa recipes that are forever in my rotation now.

[Trisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

great salsa recipes!!!!

[Dray · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are few cookbooks where I want to make every recipe and this is one of them. It’s all in the sauce, this is a book about it.

[Chandrabrown80 Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is absolutely beautiful and so well done! There are so many recipes in here I can’t wait to try. Well done!!🙌🏽

[Carlton Logan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent variety of salsas for various types of entrees.