Chimichurri with cilantro

The chimichurri with cilantro is an absolutely irresistible sauce perfect for your grilled meats and much more. It´s believed that this tasty seasoning was born during the nineteenth century in Argentina, but since then it has spread as a must in all barbecues in Latin America.

Variations:

As this recipe has spread to so many places, it´s logical that it has been adapted to the local ingredients and flavors, even this recipe is not the original, since the true Argentinian chimichurri is made only with parsley, but I like much more this version that uses equal parts of parsley and cilantro (I love cilantro). If you want to prepare the original version, you must double the amount of parsley and omit the cilantro. The amount of garlic, chilli and salt that I recommend in the recipe is what seems perfect to me, but you can add more or less according to your preferences.

Diference between chimichurri, salsa verde and pesto

As there are 3 green sauces, sometimes it can be a bit confusing, but let’s go by parts: pesto is Italian and is made based on basil, olive oil and garlic, grinding all the ingredients until a thick paste is obtained. So it will never be spicy.

On the other hand the salsa verde and the chimichurri are two spicy Latin American sauces, which are made of parsley and / or cilantro and spices. The biggest difference is that the salsa verde has onion (and a lot) and on the other hand the texture of both sauces is different: the chimichurri contains herbs and spices finely chopped in oil, giving it flavor so that with this mixture we can flavor the grilled meat or whatever you want in your barbecue.

Storage:

Chimichurri should ideally be consumed one day after preparation, so that the spices release their flavor into the oil. Store it in a mason jar, taking care that a layer of at least half an inch of oil remains over the mixture.

Refrigerated in this way it can be kept in perfect condition for 2 weeks. You can also freeze it in a ziploc bag for 3 months.

Pro tips:

1.The most important thing when preparing any chimichurri, is to chop EVERYTHING by hand, as fine as possible, but never use a food processor, since we would bruise the leaves.

2. We must remove the leaves of cilantro and parsley from the stems and while we are doing it, throw them in a bowl with cold water and lemon drops or ice, so the leaves will be more turgid and easier to chop.

3. After peeling the garlic we´ll break it into 2 parts along to remove the “stem” inside, this will make its flavor softer, and then we can chop it.

4. This recipe should be made with red wine vinegar that will give it an acidic touch, if you don´t have, the second option is lemon juice, and the third apple cider vinegar or another clear vinegar. Never use balsamic vinegar.

Uses of chimichurri with cilantro:

This sauce is perfect to baste all the meats on the barbecue: beef, chicken, lamb, pork. It can also be used for these same meats or fish as a sauce, like in this easy baked salmon.