Next up in my sauce series, a true summer favorite of mine: Chimichurri Sauce! I’ve been making this sauce for years now and I probably make at least 5-6 batches every summer because I love serving it with grilled meat and corn on the cob. If you’ve never tried Chimichurri before, buckle up because you’re in for a real treat!

Chimichurri is an herby, uncooked sauce or salsa that originated in Argentina and is now widely found across Latin America. It’s made with lots of fresh parsley and cilantro, plus a few other simple ingredients, and is the perfect zippy accompaniment to freshly grilled meats like flank steak. I like to give mine some kick with plenty of crushed red pepper flakes. Yum!

Here’s what you’ll need to recreate this Chimichurri Sauce recipe at home:

• Fresh parsley – I’ve made this recipe countless times with both flat leaf and curly leaf parsley and I love them both. Flat leaf is most commonly found in Chimichurri and best for textural consistency when paired with the cilantro, but go for whichever you like (and can find).
• Fresh cilantro – Although cilantro isn’t part of all Chimichurri recipes, I personally love bringing it to the flavor party.
• Garlic – Don’t skimp on the garlic, but don’t go crazy either. It’s best to mince or grate the garlic before tossing it into the food processor to avoid having to overprocess the herbs while getting the garlic cut down to size.
• Olive oil – Use a good quality olive oil in this recipe. I like California Olive Ranch’s California blend.
• Red wine vinegar – Adds a bright zip and tang to the sauce! Red wine vinegar is the traditional variety to use, but I’m sure you could get away with white wine vinegar if you had to.
• Spices – The main spices here are red pepper flakes and Mexican oregano, though you’ll need salt and pepper as well. You can adjust the level of heat in the sauce by adding more or less red pepper flakes. The baseline heat of this sauce with the recipe as written is somewhere between medium and hot – it won’t melt your face off, but I definitely feel the heat.

Chimichurri is traditionally made with a mortar and pestle, but most people make it either by chopping the herbs very finely by hand or by using a food processor. Some will tell you to never use a food processor, but I have a few tips to avoid turning this sauce into a creamy looking olive oil emulsion while still saving time by using one:

• Leave the oil and vinegar out: Process the herbs first until they are chopped to 1/8-1/4″ pieces, then hand mix in the oil and vinegar after.
• Pre-mince or grate the garlic: Because you definitely don’t want big chunks of garlic, throwing whole cloves in with the herbs will force you to overprocess the herbs to get the garlic to the right size.
• Use a smaller food processor if adding all the ingredients at once: I’m no food scientist, but I’ve been making this recipe for years, and in my experience a smaller 2-4 cup food processor seems to reduce the amount of air that gets pulled in to the olive oil and helps you to avoid that golden emulsified oil color.

Recipe