Pico De Gallo Recipe Pioneer Woman

Pico de Gallo salad made with fresh tomatoes, red onions, jalapenos, cilantro and lime juice. You would expect it to be spicy, but the flavors work perfectly and this dish stands out as a delicious side to a great Mexican meal. Go ahead and add some cheese to your tacos because this salad has no fat!! You could eat the whole bowl completely guilt free!

You know those people (I am one of them, guilty as charged) who you see order a gluttonous meal and then ask for a diet soda? You know, the jumbo super-large bacon cheeseburger meal with onion rings and a diet coke please! I totally judge (and self judge) when I hear those orders but the logic is sound! If I am going to go nuts on my main meal, I should definitely reign it in with the drink. That is what I LOVE about this dish. And who better to come up with the idea than the Pioneer Woman herself.

When I make Mexican food I load it up with sour cream, cheese, guacamole and a braised tender fatty (normally) cut of pork or beef. Nevermind all the tortillas and Mexican Rice that go along with it! So because I am sparing no caloric expense I love making sides to the meal that I can binge eat so I only eat a small taco filled with the rich ingredients and still leave the table happy. This salad fits the bill perfectly. It tasted spicy, salty, fresh, sweet and has a bit from the onion. The flavor of the limes and the kosher salt give it a depth of flavor and when you take your first bite after putting one little spoonful on your plate (c'mon who are you kidding, you weren't going to give it a real chance when braised beef tacos are available!) you'll head back into the kitchen immediately to get a bowl to eat as much as you can! While you are at it, if you want a second healthy Mexican side dish, make my favorite Chipotle Jalapeno Lime Corn Salad. It also has no added fat, but it does have carbs… which this dish does not. Man I love this recipe, can you tell?

It could not be any easier to make either, which takes this salad from good to FANTASTIC. So let's do a checklist here:

5 ingredients (c'mon salt does NOT count!)
EASY!
No fat!
Healthy
Mexican Food
You get to eat more tacos because this half of your meal is so incredibly healthy
Inexpensive ingredients!

Selling the positives of this dish reminds me of one of my favorite episodes of The Office:

Michael: Oh, and another fun thing. We, at the end of the night, are going to give the check to an actual group of Boy Scouts. Right, Toby? We're gonna…

Toby: Actually, I didn't think it was appropriate to invite children since it's… You know, there's gambling and alcohol, and it's in our dangerous warehouse and it's a school night… And, you know, Hooters is catering. You know, is that enough? Should I keep going?

I could rattle off a TON of reasons why this dish is great, but nothing is going to be more convincing than giving it a try yourself. And what do you have to lose? I never, and I repeat never make Mexican food in this house without serving this on the side. Take that to mean I give it my highest praise because I cook Mexican food a lot!

I would have taken food shots of the prep, but it is such an easy dish I didn't want to slow down your load time with a bowl of chopped tomatoes so I will just leave you with the recipe card here. 🙂

▢ 10 whole plum tomatoes , cut in 1" chunks
▢ 1 medium red onion , diced finely
▢ 2 jalapenos , halved, seeded and finely sliced
▢ 1 cup fresh cilantro leaves , chopped
▢ 4 limes
▢ 1 teaspoon Kosher salt

Add the tomatoes, red onion, jalapenos and cilantro to a large bowl. Toss.
Add the zest of one lime and the juice of all four.
Add kosher salt to taste, in ¼ teaspoon increments.
Mix between each addition so you can taste for salt.
Let sit for 20-30 minutes if you can. Do not refrigerate, the tomatoes will become mealy

Recipe adapted from Ree Drummond, my favorite Pioneer Woman.

Keyword: Fresh Pico de Gallo Salad, pico de gallo

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the upcoming cookbook: Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients which is being published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

See more posts by Sabrina

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