Pico De Gallo, Five Ingredient – Better Than Store-Bought

This Easy Pico De Gallo will make you change your ways.

It’s fresh, vibrant, and tastes so much better than store-bought. You also can control the amount of heat and tang to your liking, as well as control the chop. Plus, store-bought Pico De Gallo often contains garlic (which I don’t think belongs here) as well as additives and preservatives.

This recipe only takes around 10 minutes to make, has five ingredients, and uses a single bowl (well, plus a cutting board, of course.) While buying the ingredients may cost a little more upfront than already-prepared Pico De Gallo, this recipe also makes about three or four times the amount, so it evens out to be a lot cheaper.

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Looking for Something to Pair this With?

Chicken Fajitas with Mushrooms – Easy Seasoning Blend, Gluten Free – I love making Pico De Gallo with these chicken fajitas instead of using store-bought salsa.

I also have started using Pico De Gallo in my lunch meal prep taco bowls to replace both store-bought taco sauce and normal diced tomatoes. I love the freshness and flavor it adds. This recipe hasn’t been photographed for the blog yet.

Pico De Gallo is also great served all on its own with chips (like I did here). It makes for a great party or Game Day snack.

What are the Five Ingredients in Pico De Gallo?

• Roma tomatoes. It’s important to buy nice ripe, yet firm tomatoes for Pico De Gallo. I avoid beefsteak tomatoes and the kind you put on burgers because they can sometimes have a mealy or grainy consistency on the inside. Roma tomatoes are usually a safe bet, and they’re pretty cheap too. A good example is to not buy cherry tomatoes for Pico De Gallo, for obvious reasons.

• Jalapeno. This is a must as jalapeno adds so much delicious flavor. You can de-seed your jalapeno(s) completely to eliminate heat or leave some seeds to add heat. I prefer to de-seed completely, sparing a few seeds.
• Yellow onion (or white). Onion is a must in Pico De Gallo as it provides balance to all of the flavors. Yellow onion is less pungent than white onion and a touch sweeter. Note: I also made this recipe without onion (you can see an extra bowl in the background sometimes). My husband is sometimes sensitive to the raw onion. He still liked it without it, but still does prefer it with the onion.
• Freshly-squeezed lime juice. Lime juice makes up the bulk of the moisture (other than from the tomatoes) in Pico De Gallo, as well as the tang. Feel free to add a few squeezes more if you want even more lime flavor. I’m kind of addicted to it.
• Cilantro. Where all the delicious herby flavor comes from, plus it’s a huge compliment to the lime.

How to Make Pico De Gallo:

• Rinse and dry all produce.
• Finely dice tomatoes, then place them in a medium-large mixing bowl. I like to keep mine somewhat chunky, not too fine.

• Finely dice the onion and add to mixing bowl. Note: I used an onion chopper for the onion and jalapeno to ensure all pieces were the same size, but you don’t have to do this. This thing also cuts down the amount of time exponentially, if you’re a slow chopper like me.

• Slice the jalapeno in half. Then, use a spoon to scrape out all or some of the seeds. Either discard the seeds or place them in a mixing bowl. Finely dice the jalapeno and add to bowl. I like to wrap my hand in a sandwich bag to prevent any residual heat from burning my eyes later on. This trick has always worked well for me. Simply grasp the jalapeno with the bagged hand and slice with the other.
• Chop cilantro finely (or to taste), and add to bowl.

• Squeeze fresh lime juice overtop of the Pico De Gallo mixture.
• Salt and pepper to taste. I start with 1/2 tsp of salt and just a few sprinkles of pepper. Don’t over-salt because tortilla chips are salty on their own.
• Stir everything together until evenly-distributed.
• Serve! Here I’m serving with organic yellow and blue corn tortilla chips. They’re the Tostitos Simply Organic brand.

Note: Expect the recipe to yield double of what you see on the left. As mentioned earlier, I reserved half of this recipe to be made without onions for my husband.