Sauce · Water-bath canned
Tomatillo Green Salsa for Canning (NCHFP Tested Recipe)
Five cups of chopped tomatillo, long green chile, jalapeño, onion and garlic with a full cup of bottled lime juice, simmered 20 minutes and processed 15 minutes. The tested green salsa for the shelf.
Tested process
This is the tomatillo green salsa from the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning and the National Center for Home Food Preservation. Hot pack, ½-inch headspace, pint jars, boiling-water bath: 15 minutes at 0–1,000 ft, 20 minutes at 1,001–6,000 ft, 25 minutes above 6,000 ft. Do not alter the proportions of vegetables to acid. Use bottled lime or lemon juice, never fresh juice and never vinegar. The only safe changes are to the dried spices and herbs, and swapping one pepper type for another at the same volume.
If you started today, in Zone 6, in pots
7 plants. 5 jars. Sauce on Jul 31.
Worked from Zone 6's average last frost (Apr 21) and each cultivar's days to maturity. Your zone and your space change every date below — the builder does that for you.
- Jan 6Order seeds and starting supplies
- Jan 27Sow indoors under lights
- Apr 21Average last frost (Zone 6)
- Jun 12First Hardneck Garlic harvest
- Jul 7First Tomatillo harvest
- Jul 12First Jalapeño harvest
- Jul 12First Spanish Onion harvest
- Jul 17First Marconi Red Pepper harvest
- Jul 31Sauce day — Canning Tomatillo Salsa
- Jul 31Process and seal
Save it
The whole season, one pin
| Yield | About 5 pints — 5 pint jars |
|---|---|
| Active time | 60 minutes |
| Total time | 30 minutes prep, 20 minutes simmering, 15 minutes processing |
| Heat | Mild to medium. Jalapeño (2,500–8,000 SHU) is about 1/4 of the pepper volume. |
| Target finished pH | Below 4.6, fixed by the tested acid ratio |
| Preservation | Water-bath canned |
| Fruit this batch eats | 2.25 lb Tomatillo0.31 lb Marconi Red Pepper0.13 lb Jalapeño1.56 lb Spanish Onion0.07 lb Hardneck Garlic |
What you have to grow
TomatilloToma Verde70 days from transplant
Marconi Red PepperMarconi Red (Capsicum annuum)80 days from transplant
JalapeñoEarly Jalapeño (Capsicum annuum)75 days from transplant
Spanish OnionYellow Sweet Spanish (long-day)110 days from transplant
Hardneck GarlicSiberian (porcelain hardneck)240 days from sowTomatillos carry their own acid and their own pectin, and that is why a green salsa is one of the friendlier things to can. It is still a ratio, not a suggestion. This is the tested recipe from the National Center for Home Food Preservation, adapted from the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning (Agriculture Information Bulletin 539, 2015). We checked the ingredients, hot-pack method, headspace and process times against the live NCHFP page on 2026-11-03. Every vegetable in it comes off your own plants.
If you want the smoky, charred version, that is salsa verde. It lives in the refrigerator and freezer. This one lives on the shelf.
What you need
From the tested recipe, exactly as written. The weights in the right-hand column are our planning conversions for the garden math. Measure by the volume in the middle column.
| Ingredient | Tested amount | Garden weight, approx. |
|---|---|---|
| Tomatillos, husked, washed, chopped | 5 cups | 2.25 lb |
| Long green chiles, seeded, chopped (Marconi picked green) | 1½ cups | 5 oz |
| Jalapeño, seeded, finely chopped | ½ cup | 2 oz, about 3 pods |
| Onion, chopped | 4 cups | 25 oz |
| Garlic, finely chopped | 6 cloves | |
| Bottled lime or lemon juice | 1 cup | |
| Salt | 1 tbsp | |
| Black pepper | 1 tsp | |
| Ground cumin (optional) | 1 tbsp | |
| Dried oregano leaves (optional) | 3 tbsp |
Yield is about 5 pints.
Method
- Husk and wash the tomatillos. The sticky residue under the husk is bitter, so wash it off properly. Chop and measure 5 cups.
- Prep the peppers. Gloves on. Seed and chop the Marconi to 1½ cups and the jalapeño to ½ cup.
- Combine everything in a large pot: tomatillos, peppers, onion, garlic, the juice and all seasonings.
- Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently.
- Reduce the heat and simmer uncovered 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Fill hot pint jars, leaving ½-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles, adjust headspace, wipe the rims and fit the lids.
- Process in a boiling-water bath:
| Altitude | Pints |
|---|---|
| 0–1,000 ft | 15 min |
| 1,001–6,000 ft | 20 min |
| Above 6,000 ft | 25 min |
Start timing when the water returns to a full rolling boil over the jars. Let the jars sit in the water 5 minutes after you turn off the heat, then lift them out and leave them undisturbed for 12–24 hours.
What you can change, and what you can’t
- Dried spices and herbs: Change the cumin, dried oregano and black pepper amounts, or leave them out.
- Pepper type: swap, same volume. Extension guidance allows one type of pepper to replace another. Trade some Marconi for serrano only if the total pepper volume stays the same.
- Tomatillo, onion, garlic and peppers: never more. All of them dilute the acid.
- The acid: never less, never vinegar. It is 1 cup of bottled lime or lemon juice.
- No corn, no beans, no tomatoes. They aren’t in the tested recipe, so they can’t go in the jar.
For any of those, make a fresh batch and refrigerate it. See canning acid math for why 4.6 is the line.
Growing it
Plant at least two tomatillo plants, since a single plant won’t set fruit. Marconi fills the long-green-chile slot without the peeling step, and the jalapeño row supplies the heat. Add Spanish onion and hardneck garlic for the base.
Storage
Store sealed jars in a cool, dark cupboard and use them within a year for best quality. Once opened, refrigerate and finish within about a week. Any jar whose lid flexes, or that spurts or smells off when opened, gets thrown out without tasting. The water-bath canner and jar tools are covered in canning gear.
The kit for this sauce
Each item is selected for a job in this recipe. Amazon listings, sellers, and prices can change; check the current details before you buy.
Toma Verde Tomatillo SeedMust have
Salsa verde is not a green tomato sauce — it is a tomatillo sauce, and the difference is the tartness and the natural pectin that makes it cling. There is no substitute.
Marconi Red Sweet Pepper Seed
A long Italian sweet pepper that roasts and peels far better than a bell. Romesco and any red-pepper paste wants this, not a supermarket bell.
Jalapeño Pepper Seed
The one you smoke into chipotle. Left on the plant to red and corked, then cold-smoked, a jalapeño stops being a taco garnish and becomes the backbone of an adobo.
Yellow Sweet Spanish Onion Seed
A long-day storage onion with enough sugar to sweat down without scorching. The aromatic base under every tomato sauce on this site.
Siberian Hardneck Seed Garlic, 1 lb
Planted in October, pulled in July. Hardneck garlic has bigger, easier-peeling cloves and gives you scapes in June — a free second crop that is itself excellent in green sauce.
Garden Harvest Basket with Tool Caddy
A harvest basket that doubles as a colander means the hose rinse happens in the garden, and the dirt stays outside. On a 20-pound tomato day that is a genuine time saving.
Digital Kitchen Scale, 11 lb, g/ozMust have
Fermentation brine is a percentage of weight, not a number of spoons. Without a gram scale you are not following a fermentation recipe — you are guessing at the one number that determines whether it is safe.
Nitrile Exam Gloves, 200 pcs, food-safeMust have
Capsaicin is oil-soluble and does not wash off with soap. Seeding a pound of habaneros bare-handed means eight hours of burning hands and one unforgettable mistake involving your own eye.
Gourmet Stainless 12-Quart Stock Pot
For twenty pounds of tomatoes, the Dutch oven is too small. Twelve quarts of non-reactive stainless is the batch-scale vessel, and it doubles as a water-bath canner in a pinch.
21.5-Quart Enamelware Water Bath Canner with RackMust have
Water-bath canning is the tested process for high-acid foods — anything reliably below pH 4.6. The rack is not optional: jars sitting on the pot floor crack from direct heat.
Canning Essentials SetMust have
A jar lifter is a safety tool, not a convenience: you are moving glass full of 212 °F sauce. The headspace gauge is the other half — wrong headspace is the most common reason a seal fails.
Pint (16 oz) Regular Mouth Mason Jars with Lids and Bands
The right size for marinara, where a jar is one dinner for a family. Same rules as the half-pints: the glass is forever, the flat lid is not.
Mason Jar Lids, Regular Mouth, 12 CT (Pack of 6)Must have
The flat lid's sealing compound is designed for one heat cycle. Reusing it is the single most common cause of a jar that seals, then quietly unseals in November.
Canning Jar Labels, 360 pcs, removable
Date every jar. In March, three jars of red sauce are indistinguishable, and 'it's probably the one from August' is not a food-safety practice.
Paid links. We earn a commission from Amazon if you buy; you pay the same. Disclosure.
Questions people actually ask
Can I char the tomatillos first, like the salsa verde recipe?
Not in a jar. Charring changes how much liquid and solid goes into the pot, and the tested process was validated for the boiled recipe as written. Char them for the fresh, refrigerated salsa verde and keep this one for canning day.
Why bottled lime juice and not fresh?
Bottled juice is standardised for acidity and fresh juice isn't. The 1 cup of juice is what holds the onion, peppers and garlic below pH 4.6, so its strength can't be a variable. Lemon and lime are interchangeable here. Do not substitute vinegar for the juice.
Can I add more peppers or onion?
Not in a jar. Onion, garlic and peppers are low-acid, and more of any of them raises the finished pH. You can swap one pepper type for another at the same total volume (a cup of serrano for a cup of Marconi), but never increase the total.
Why doesn't this have cilantro?
Cilantro isn't in the tested recipe. Stir a handful into each jar when you open it. The fresh green flavour is better added at the table anyway.
Can I use half-pint jars?
Not with these times. The NCHFP page gives a process time for pint jars only (15 minutes at 0–1,000 ft, 20 at 1,001–6,000 ft, 25 above 6,000 ft). It lists no half-pint or quart time, so use pints.
Last reviewed 2026-11-03 by the SeedsToSauce Test Kitchen. Spotted something wrong?Tell us — corrections get published.