Can you say KILLER salad dressing?????? This salad dressing is so good and so versatile we decided to give it its own post.
This is a spin on a Rick Bayless recipe. We really like his approach to Mexican food and regularly watch his show Saturdays on PBS. One Saturday we were watching his show and we saw his Chayote Salad. Now, I ike chayote but had never considered making a salad; so, I was intrigued. What really caught my attention, however, was the Roasted Serrano, Garlic, Balsamic Vinaigrette. It sounded out of this world and is. It has the sweetness and tartness from the balsamic vinegar coupled with the savoriness from the garlic, olive oil and the roasted Serrano chiles that also add that little extra kick of heat. Not only is this dressing wonderful on the chayote salad but it is remarkably versatile. You can use it with boiled/broiled shrimp, fish, vegetables, etc. I add it to Quicksteps sandwiches either as a drizzle or mixed with the mayo to make a wonderful sandwich spread. We like this dressing so much that we make double batches and it is a regular condiment in the fridge. It really is that good. Give it a try. We know you will like it. Here is what we did.
Ingredients
- 4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
- 1/3 cup Balsamic vinegar
- 2/3 cup olive oil
- 1-2 serrano chile (depending upon you level of heat preference – we used 3 😮 or you can use 1 jalapeño if you like it milder), roasted
- sea salt, to taste
Instruction
First things first, roast the garlic cloves (still in their peel) and the Serrano chiles in a comal over medium heat turning them periodically to make sure they brown and do not burn. The garlic will take roughly 12 minutes while the Serrano chiles will take maybe 8 – 10 minutes.
Measure the balsamic vinegar
and the olive oil
Now, add the oil and balsamic vinegar to the blender carafe.
Next, add the garlic
and the Serrano chiles
Lastly, add the salt.
Now, blend away until everything is a wonderful emulsified dressing.
Serve and enjoy. 🙂
NOTES: * A comal dates back to Pre-Columbian era. It’s a smooth, flat griddle typically used in Mexico and Central America to cook tortillas, toast spices, sear meat, and generally prepare food. Many comals, like ours, are made of cast iron.
REMCooks 
Very nice Richard. That is despite the awful photography of escaping ingredients!
Thanks Conor. I thought Baby Lady did a great job catching the escaping roasted garlic. We both had a good laugh. 😀
Well hello Richard, I hope you and Baby Lady had a nice Easter. I will definitely be making this dressing soon. I like spicy, you know, and once Sprinter is over it will be salad season again soon!
I’m so bad for not replying. I can’t believe I missed your comment. Mea culpa. 😦 We had a good Easter and took everyone out to Easter Brunch at one of my favorite brunch buffets. Quickstep was allowed off of his diet so he started his meal with Apple Pie. It was pretty funny. All-in-all he had 4 pieces of Apple Pie, 1 piece of carrot cake, 1 piece of streusel, short ribs, boiled shrimp, roasted leg of lamb, roast sirloin, cottage fries, pasta salad, champagne, coffee, etc. There is a reason he is on a diet. 😮
I hope you tried this salad dressing. It really is good and relatively simple to make. It also makes a killer sandwich spread with the simple addition of mayo.
I’ve never seen serrano chiles here, but I will certainly try this with jalapeños. I can see why this ‘works’ so I am curious to try.
I hate it when I find I failed to reply to posts. DRAT!!!! I’m going to send you some seeds when I finish your packet of goodies. Serrano chiles are relatively easy to grow but the plant does better in heat and doesn’t need to be watered too often. It also is significantly hotter than jalapeños.
Don’t worry — happens to all of us now and then.
Not sure if the chiles would grow here, both the climate and my gardening skills are not favorable.
P.S. When I first read the title of this recipe, I interpreted “Serrano” as a Spanish cured ham, not as a chile pepper 😉 Serrano chiles are not available here, while jamón serrano is available in every supermarket.
I love Jamon Serrano. I just won’t pay $US 120/lb they want for the Jamon Iberico. We did a huge party in 2008 and I bought an entire Jamon Serrano and slicing board to serve it. It was a lot of fun. There was a lot of the jamon left, so we cut it into blocks, vacuum sealed it and froze it. It lasted over a year and froze remarkably well.
I’ve frozen leftover prosciutto too — it makes for a great pasta sauce!
Luckily ‘Pata negra’ jamon ibérico is available here for about 100 euros/kg, or US$ 50/lb, and totally worth it to indulge.
I saw Rick Bayless make this on PBS last night and had to try it since all our dressings are some variant of basaltic vinegarette. I had 2 jalapenos on hand so I used those. I dry roasted the garlic on the stove in its paper and the jalapenos on the grill. Blended it all in the vitamix. It was a little hot for me so I added some honey and it was perfectly balanced and so delicious. This is my new go-to dressing. I’m always trying to add spice to my meals, now I can add it to my salad dressing! Thanks Richard!
Hi Dawn. Thanks for dropping by and commenting. Did you make the chayote salad, as well? It goes beautifully with the dressing and is a very fun salad. Also, if you like the dressing, add about 1 Tbsp to 2 Tbsp of mayo and slather it on a couple pieces of bread with some roasted chicken, arugula and thick slice of tomato. It’s a killer sandwich!! We really love this stuff.
Omg, what a great idea to add the mayo. I will definitely try that this weekend. Thanks so much again for the recipe. I made the dressing for my step daughter and her husband and they loved it!