What to use instead of salsa
It depends entirely on what it's doing in the dish. Here's the job, what else does it, and what to skip.
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Acid and moisture poured over something fried or rich
It is a sauce here. The tomato acid and the water in it soften fried tortilla and cut the fat of egg, cheese and lard.
Fire-roasted canned tomatoes blitzed with chipotleRan out
1 14 oz can + 1 chipotle in adobo + 1 tbsp lime juice + 1/2 tsp salt, blitzed, makes about 1 1/2 cups
Smokier and smoother than jarred salsa, with no raw onion bite. Thinner, so chilaquiles soften faster.
Enchilada sauceRan out
1:1 by volume
Smooth, chile-forward and darker red. Much less acidic, so add 2 tsp lime juice per cup or the plate tastes heavy.
Salsa verdeRan out
1:1 by volume
Sharper and more sour because tomatillos carry more acid. Green on the plate, and it cuts fried food harder.
Pico de gallo, drained and blitzedRan out
1 1/2 cups pico, drained 5 min, pulsed 4 times
Fresher and brighter with almost no cooked-tomato depth. It waters out on a hot plate within a few minutes.
What doesn't work: Ketchup thinned with hot sauce. Ketchup is built on sugar and distilled vinegar, so under a fried egg the plate goes cloying and sharp at once, with none of the roasted chile flavour doing the work.
Chunky raw relish spooned on top for crunch and lift
Raw diced vegetable holds its structure on the plate, so you get texture and a cold wet contrast against something hot.
Pico de galloRan out
1:1 by volume, drained if it has been sitting
Crunchier and less acidic than jarred salsa. It waters as it sits, so make it close to serving.
CurtidoRan out
1:1 by volume, drained
Far more sour and it stays crunchy for days. Cabbage and oregano instead of tomato, so the plate reads Salvadoran.
Pickled red onionsRan out
1/2 cup per cup of salsa, plus 1/2 cup diced fresh tomato if you want the bulk back
All acid and crunch, no body. It seasons the top of a tostada without adding the moisture salsa would.
PiklizRan out
1/4 cup per cup of salsa
Much hotter and more vinegary, so use a quarter as much. Scotch bonnet heat that keeps building.
What doesn't work: Jarred salsa spooned on as the fresh element. It has been cooked and sat in the jar, so the vegetables are soft all the way through. You get the flavour and none of the crunch that was the reason for putting it on top.
Salsa Lizano as a sweet-tangy brown seasoning
Different animal from a tomato salsa. It is a thin sweet-sour brown sauce carrying cumin and black pepper, used the way Worcestershire is.
British brown sauceRan out
1:1 by volume, plus 1/4 tsp ground cumin per 2 tbsp
Closest widely available match. Thicker, more tamarind and date, and darker on the rice.
Worcestershire, ketchup and honeyRan out
1 tsp Worcestershire + 2 tsp ketchup + 2 tsp honey + 1 tsp hot sauce + 1/4 tsp ground cumin, makes about 2 tbsp
Sweeter and saltier than the real thing and it lacks the vegetable body. Close enough in a gallo pinto that nobody stops eating.
What doesn't work: Any tomato salsa in place of Lizano in a casado or gallo pinto. It is chunky, acidic and raw-tasting where Lizano is thin, sweet and cooked, so the rice ends up wet and tasting of fresh tomato instead of seasoned brown.