Classic Pico de Gallo
This pico de gallo recipe is fresh, delicious and easy to make! You'll need 5 ingredients for this classic Mexican dip—tomato, onion, cilantro, jalapeño, lime.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 27, 2024
Do you love pico de gallo like I do? It’s a classic Mexican tomato dip (or sauce) that adds a fresh, healthy, low-calorie boost of flavor to just about any Mexican meal.
When I was little, I piled pico de gallo on my tortilla chips at our nearby Mexican restaurant and called it dinner (refill, please). I didn’t fully appreciate pico de gallo’s wonder, though, until my family traveled to Mexico one summer when I was in college.
We stayed at an all-you-can-eat resort, which meant all-you-can-eat pico de gallo. Their pico de gallo was super fresh and utterly irresistible, and I piled it onto every single meal. Eggs! Tortillas! Beans! Spaghetti, even! Why not?
It’s funny that I’ve shared so many variations on pico de gallo over the years, but never my classic pico de gallo recipe. Today is the day. Let’s make pico de gallo while the tomatoes are still good.
Pico de gallo is so easy to make. You will need only five ingredients (six if you count the salt): ripe red tomatoes, white onion, jalapeño, cilantro, lime and salt. That’s it!
What’s the difference between pico de gallo and salsa?
Pico de gallo shares the same basic ingredients as traditional red salsa, but the preparation methods are different.
Pico de gallo always uses raw, diced ingredients. It’s less wet, and it adds a wonderful chunky texture and substance to tacos and more. Salsa can call for roasted or stewed tomatoes, and is generally closer to a purée in texture.
Both are delicious, both go great with guacamole, and I often layer pico de gallo over salsa for double the flavor (if only you could see my regular burrito bowl order at Chipotle).
Pico de Gallo Translation & Pronunciation
I bet Chipotle calls their pico de gallo “tomato salsa” since it’s easier to say! You might also see it called salsa fresca (fresh sauce). Pico de gallo literally translates to “rooster’s beak,” but no one’s exactly sure why.
Here’s how to pronounce pico de gallo in unofficial Kate-style mark-up: PEE-koh day GUY-yoh.
Watch How to Make Pico de Gallo
How to Make the Best Pico de Gallo
Here are my top tips to ensure that you make the best pico de gallo you’ve ever had.
1) Use ripe red tomatoes.
Ripe tomatoes are absolutely key to making great pico de gallo. Sad pink tomatoes do not make good pico de gallo. Roma tomatoes are a good choice since they are less watery, but use the most beautiful red, ripe tomato variety available. Core your tomatoes and remove the seeds before chopping. Use every last bit of the red tomato flesh inside!
In the winter, you can use cherry tomatoes, which tend to have good flavor year-round. Be prepared to chop them into small pieces, and perhaps give the finished product some extra time to marinate since cherry tomatoes tend to be more firm than most.
2) Chop your ingredients very finely.
Chop your tomato, onion, jalapeño and cilantro finely and you will be rewarded with more flavor in every bite. This is worth the extra effort!
3) Let the onion, jalapeno, lime and salt marinate while you chop the tomatoes and cilantro.
I learned this trick from this recipe. I’ve tested pico de gallo both ways (marinated onion/jalapeño vs. tossing all the ingredients together at once). The marinated onion/jalapeño batches were indeed my most flavorful batches.
Full disclosure: It’s possible that my tomatoes for those batches were better, so I’m not entirely convinced that the method made the difference. This “step” doesn’t take any extra time, though, so I recommend it.
4) Let your pico rest for 15 minutes before serving.
This step gives the flavors time to mingle and brings out their best. As the tomatoes and remaining ingredients rest, the salt draws the moisture out of the ingredients and condenses their flavor.
Try your pico de gallo before and after marinating, and you’ll see what I mean! If you won’t be serving the pico de gallo immediately, you can refrigerate it for several hours or even overnight.
5) Serve with a slotted spoon.
Tomatoes release a good amount of moisture, so you will see some tomato juice pool at the bottom of your bowl. The easiest solution here is to serve your pico de gallo with a slotted spoon or large serving fork.
This way, you don’t transfer a ton of moisture with your pico. Say no to soggy nachos!
Uses for Pico de Gallo
You can basically treat pico de gallo like salsa. It’s a healthy and refreshing condiment welcome on any of the following:
- Tacos
- Nachos
- Quesadillas
- Burritos and burrito bowls
- Tostadas
- Huevos rancheros
- Enchiladas
- Or serve it as a dip with tortilla chips, of course!
Pico de Gallo Variations
Remember, tomatoes are a fruit! You can simply replace the tomato with other tender fruits like mango, peaches, pineapple strawberries, or even sweet corn, and adjust to taste.
Sometimes, I’ll use red onion instead of white, or add a red bell pepper for crunch, or throw in an avocado. Here are some variations on pico de gallo that I’ve made and loved:
- Chunky avocado salsa
- Corn salsa
- Mango salsa
- Peach salsa
- Pineapple salsa (or see my cookbook, page 106)
- Strawberry salsa
Looking for more classic Mexican dips and sauces to pair with your pico de gallo? Don’t miss my favorite red salsa and guacamole recipe (seriously, they’re the best). More Mexican recipes here!
As always, please let me know how you like this recipe in the comments! I’m excited to hear how you serve your pico de gallo, and please share any tips you might have.
Classic Pico de Gallo
This pico de gallo recipe is fresh, delicious and easy to make! You’ll need only 5 ingredients to make this classic Mexican dip—tomato, onion, cilantro, jalapeño and lime. Recipe yields about 4 cups (about 8 servings).
Ingredients
- 1 cup finely chopped white onion (about 1 small onion)
- 1 medium jalapeño or serrano pepper, ribs and seeds removed, finely chopped (decrease or omit if sensitive to spice, or add another if you love heat)
- ¼ cup lime juice
- ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt, more to taste
- 1 ½ pounds ripe red tomatoes (about 8 small or 4 large), chopped
- ½ cup finely chopped fresh cilantro (about 1 bunch)
Instructions
- In a medium serving bowl, combine the chopped onion, jalapeño, lime juice and salt. Let it marinate for about 5 minutes while you chop the tomatoes and cilantro.
- Add the chopped tomatoes and cilantro to the bowl and stir to combine. Taste, and add more salt if the flavors don’t quite sing.
- For the best flavor, let the mixture marinate for 15 minutes or several hours in the refrigerator. Serve as a dip, or with a slotted spoon or large serving fork to avoid transferring too much watery tomato juice with your pico. Pico de gallo keeps well in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 4 days.
Notes
Change it up: Add a diced avocado to the mixture, or see my list provided above the recipe for alternatives to tomatoes.
Cilantro haters: You can significantly decrease the amount of cilantro used, or omit it completely if you insist! I don’t recommend substituting parsley here.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
This is a great recipe. I’m Vegan and grow much of my own food.
I love making this with the yellow mangoes which are more tart. It compliments this mix so well. I looked this up after I was done making mine to make sure I didn’t forget anything. Now I am exited to try the marinated method next time!
Just made some! Smells delicious and I can’t wait to try it with my nachos!!!!
This is just so good. I only recently discovered your recipe and now I make it almost every day.
Amazing! I’ve never had luck with making pico de gallo at home, but with your recipe, I finally had success.
Hooray! That’s great to hear, Jennifer. I appreciate your review.
Use one of those slap-chop devices such as Pampered Chefs “food chopper” for the peppers and onion. I do not like it for tomatoes….. hand chopping them is best to avoid turning them to mush.
Thanks for the tip!
It was amazing!! Next time I’ll take a pic.
Excellent and easy to do recipe!! All in my family loved it. Thank you so much!!! Greetings from Germany
You’re welcome, Maria!
This recipe is the same as the one I use except that I use dried cilantro. I’m one of those odd individuals that experiences the soapy taste to cilantro. I frequently take it to potlucks wirh tortilla chips. There is never any left.
Hi, I tried your pico de gallo recipe, and the flavor was excellent. I wanted heat, so I added 2 decent sized jalapenos. I don’t remember how much heat there was after tasting, before refrigerating, but after keeping in the refrigerator, there was absolutely no heat at all the next day. When I looked at the ratio of all the ingredients, I could see there was a lot of diced jalapeno. Can you tell me if you might know of a reason there was no heat at all or possibly let me know what I need to do for the next batch to get plenty of heat. Thank you.
Hi Diane! You could leave in some of the seeds of the jalapeno. That would give you more heat for sure!
Thank you so much, Kate. I’ll definitely try that.
I made this and couldn’t resist putting in a touch of freshly ground cumin. (my favourite spice)
Absolutely delicious! Thank you
Loved reading your Pico recipe, can’t wait to try it. You sound like a gal who knows what she’s doing. Is there a FB to follow?
Hi Timothy! You can follow me on Instagram or Facebook! @cookieandkate
I made it and it was good the first night but by the second night exceptional is a better way to describe it. But I am not an overly fond of Mexican dishes and sadly the time has come to throw it out and hope the next batch tastes as good. 4 days is just not long enough for keeping it.
My boyfriend and I use this recipe every time we want pico de gallo, which tends to be when we do Carne asada tacos and guacamole. It comes out awesome every time! We like quite a bit of kick though, so we tend to leave some of the seeds when cutting the jalapeno and its adds a decent amount of spice.
You’re a dang writer!
Good recipe. Jalapenos very in both size and heat so I’d suggest tasting and deciding how to go with them. I used 4 peppers which were medium heat. I also zested 2 limes and put the zest as well as the juice into the bowl. I liked your tip regarding putting the peppers, onion, and lime juice together to marinate while cutting up the tomatoes and cilantro. I think it helped smooth out the onion taste.
A tip that I’ve picked up from Mexican cooks is to chop the white onion, put it into a strainer and dip it into some cold water for a few minutes, then pull out and drain the water. It makes the onion a little more mellow.
This is a great, authentic tasting Pico de Gallo! I made it to serve with my tortilla soup like my favorite Mexican restaurant serves it! I am the only one who eats it so I decreased the ingredients to make a smaller batch. I omitted the jalapeño because my soup was really spicy! Loved it!
I’m happy you like it, Kathy! Thanks so much for sharing.
I’ve made your recipe got Pico-de-Gallo quite few times now and it’s fabulous granted I’m making minor changes depending on ingredients and I made your Mango Salsa a couple of times both are absolutely lovely and very very tasty
This recipe is magnificent. I reduced chili powder to 1 tsp and omitted the cumin due to intolerance. I also made a fresh pico de gallo and made fresh black beans. It was unbelievably delicious.
I love this recipe, stumble on it and now i make it often, to serve with my Carne Asada , i like to add a little Garlic and cucumber to it.
Excellent recipe but I decreased ingredients as only needed about 1 cup in total, thanks
Absolutely delicious! Because in these times, my grocery store didn’t have cilantro and I did use parsley instead. I was obsessed, whole thing gone in like 8 hours.
Since you are removing the seeds from the tomatoes, have you ever tried saving and planting the seeds? The process may not work so well with hybrid or store bought tomatoes but if you’re getting the tomatoes from your garden, it’s easy to do and is a great way to have seeds to start next season’s plants! We did this was some San Marzano style Roma plants we found last year and started the seeds in February and just moved them to the garden. If you haven’t tried it, I got the tips here.
Hey John, I hadn’t thought of that, but what a fun idea! I’m growing tomato plants for the first time right now, from some heirloom seeds I purchased on Etsy. Thanks for sharing!
I add bell pepper, finally chopped for some added crunch and nutrition. I also discovered this at a State Fair with a hand crank food processor. The presenter added half a jalapeño which adds some heat.
Thank you for sharing, Jim!
Got off to a rough start… I used regular tomatoes rather than romas. The serrano pepper apparently didn’t make it past the checkout line so I had to sub a few slices of pickled jalopena and it didn’t give off enough heat for my taste and then while I was busy making fish tacos my wife transferred from mixing to serving bowl without using a slotted spoon so it was wetter than it should’ve been. However, even with those mistakes, it was fantastic! The best pico I’ve ever had!
It was great on the fish tacos and we finished off the remains next day with nachos. It sounded like there would be too much so we only made a half recipe but now that we’ve tried it the next run will be a full recipe and I’m sure it will be better once we correct our mistakes! I also expect it will only get better once our home-grown romas start arriving. This is going to be a regular occupant of our refrigerator for sure!
Can I make this without the pepper? Food sensitivity in my house?
Sure! Just omit it.
Made it to go with our carnitas tonight! Loved! Thank you for the recipe ❤
You’re welcome, Sine!
Made exactly as written. Would have given you 20 stars if I could .Delicious thanks for the recipe
Esta receta es muy similar a como preparamos el Pico en Latino America. Los que protestan tener que picar los vegetales no son cocineros de raiz. El arte de la cocina esta en la preparacion. Picar es un arte, no una escalavitud. Gracias por compartir para que los Norte Americanos puedan disfrutar los sabores deliciosos de nuestros paises. Besos y abrazos.
Delicious!! Made the Perfect topping for fish tacos.
This is truly my go-to recipe for pico de gallo. My husband and I love it, and we use this stuff often and in so many ways. Thanks so much!
Very good, made in food processor, used a bit more lime. Delicious.
I love this… fresh, healthy and delicious. I put it on top of avocados on my avocado toast. Yum.
I’ve used your recipe and love it. For a different taste, try mixing in a chopped up fresh peach or some mango.
The excess well marinated juices actually make a great base for a delicious homemade vinegrete. I love topping my leafy greens with pico so this comes in handy often.
Thank you for the lovely recipe! I sadly detest any and all onions (I want to like them, believe me) and raw jalapenos, so we made it with pickled/marinated jalapenos instead, and it was *mwah* perfection! Thank you again!
I made this today, exactly as the recipe says too. OMG delicious! I tasted to see if it needed extra salt but nope it was perfect. It is now sitting in the fridge for 15 minutes. Can’t imagine it will taste any better but you’ve been right so far, so 15 minutes it is.
Diana
Can’t often say this, but that was a perfect recipe. The lime is so yum. I like a little heat, so I left half the ribs/seeds in from the jalapeno.
Made it today.
Didn’t take long and I like the idea of mixing the onions jalapeño and lime juice and let marinate while chopping the tomatoes.
Thank you my wife and I enjoyed it
I’m happy you both were able to enjoy it, Jay! Thank you for taking the time to review.
Wonderful recipe. Can I can this?? Or, so I need to c ok it first?
Hi Deb, I’m not a canning expert so I don’t have insight for you. Sorry! I do believe some type of cooking would need to take place to can.
Saved my life as I missed up and put too much onion and not enough tomato also couldn’t remember if I needed lime or lemon juice. Only seen this after it was done so and given to some-one, so had no idea what type of juice to put in either. Looks beautiful!!!!
I can’t wait to try this recipe, it’s a little different than the way I make mine. I have a question though: you don’t use any garlic, why not? I’m wondering if my Pico de Gallo would taste better, if I didn’t put any in. I usually use about 5-6 cloves of garlic.
Also, try it over cream cheese as a dip, with tortilla chips, it’s so yummy. Thanks.
-Debi
Hi Debi, I really like the results of this recipe. If you have other preferences, I say go for it!
Don’t discard the pico liquid. Add it to the seed arils (which should always be saved).
Strain thru sieve. Use for fabulous Bloody Marys. Or add to oil for a tasty vinaigrette. Or, sometimes I whip with cream cheese for a yummy dip.
Absolutely LOVED this! Made a. Arch for friends, rave reviews, made a batch for my family..gone immediately, took neighbor the goodies from my garden so she could make and gone faster than fast! Do you ever can this? I’ve seen options with similar recipe booked then canned.
I’m glad it was a hit, Lori! Thank you for letting me know. This one wasn’t designed for canning, sorry!
I’m fanatic about celery so adding 1 large stalk, diced, could be a crunchy counterpoint to jalapeno. Also esthetically mixes more green veg to the
predominant RED of the Pico.
If not celery I suggest scraped diced okra, adding an unexpec-
ted flavor for readers who may
have used too much jalapeno.
The marinating definitely makes a difference! I also added some green bell pepper and same Goya Adobo seasoning instead of straight salt.
Absolutely phenomenal!!! My sister in law is from Mexico and this is far superior to hers (shhhh, don’t tell her!). I could eat this all on its own haha. Thanks so much!
Hi Kate,
First time garden grower here. I decided to try a garden. Wow! Have I enjoyed this adventure more than I could of guessed! Now I have a bounty of tomatoes more than I can eat! Came across your Pico de Gallo recipe and love it!! I am putting it on darn near everything!
Thanks for being there for me!!
Steve, in Idaho.
This is the authentic restaurant style pico de gallo I have been looking for. Instant success at home! I am from Norway but my wife is from Chile and even she had to admit this was better than pebre :-)
I made it. It was a party hitter. Thanks for the recipe. Everyone enjoy.
This is the best pico de gallo ever! WHY would I ever buy it premade again?? Great way to use up fresh tomatoes and serrano peppers from my garden. My 11 year old and I devoured it! Thank you!
I agree! Thank you for sharing this was a hit for your family, Jennifer.
Hello – A friend brought us a large box of beautifully red tomatoes that we have been enjoying. BLT’s on the menu! So as not to let the gift go to waste, I went in the hunt for a Pico recipe. I read a few & then thankfully found yours! I whipped up a double batch and now I have a delicious go-to recipe – plus very happy guys at my house! Thank you!!