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Mojo Sauce

4.6

(30)

Bright green Mojo Sauce recipe

This zippy chile-and-garlic-packed Cuban sauce is often used to marinate slow-roasted pork, but we’d be happy putting it on just about everything. If you’re spice sensitive, split the chiles in half lengthwise and remove the seeds; they hold much of the heat.

Recipe information

  • Yield

    Makes 1 ¼ cups

Ingredients

Juice of 1 orange

Juice of 2 limes

1

serrano chile or jalapeño, stem removed, split lengthwise

1

garlic clove

½

cup cilantro springs

⅓

cup olive oil

2

tsp. sugar

1

tsp. Diamond Crystal or ½ tsp. Morton kosher salt

Preparation

  1. Blend orange juice, lime juice, chile, garlic, cilantro, oil, sugar, and salt in a blender until mostly smooth but still specked with herbs. Transfer sauce to a small bowl.

    Do Ahead: Sauce can be made 2 days ahead. Cover and chill.

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Reviews (30)

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  • Looks wonderful.....about 'sauce sauce', we are a country that says shrimp scampi, so redundancy isn't always paid attention to, although many of us believe it should be paid attention to.

    • gyrrabwh

    • Los Angeles, CA

    • 9/9/2022

  • Question: Where can I use the zest in this recipe? I juiced the lime and the orange both specifically to do this, but the recipe strangely omits any usage of the lime zest. Would it be usable anywhere? Thanks!

    • Curious

    • Waterloo, ON

    • 4/1/2022

  • As a preface, I just found this recipe so I obviously haven't made it yet, but I have a few comments on the recipe. It would be nice if you could give approximate liquid amounts with your orange and lime juice ingredients so I know what I'm aiming for, because as you know - oranges come in many sizes and limes are often not very juicy. Also, you've got a typo. It's cilantro sprigs, not springs. Additionally, you need to review your Morton salt measurement for clarity, because I have Morton Kosher that is not in the blue box and those granules are huge.

    • BL

    • San Francisco, CA

    • 9/11/2021

  • Can't wait to try this mojo next time I have pork loin or chicken on the menu at home. I only will change the juice of an orange to what most likely would be bitter oranges, the ingredient used in Cuban/Puerto Rican homes when making mojo. Thank you, BA!

    • Carlos Prugue

    • Rehoboth Beach, DE

    • 9/9/2021

  • "Mojo" (pronounced moe joe) means a sort of magic. But this is a Cuban sauce and like many languages there are more than one word for the same meaning. In Cuban Spanish mojo (moe hoe) means sauce where a more common word in other Spanish dialects the word might be salsa. Ricardo was right, it sounds weird to say "sauce sauce" but most people knows what Molly means. :) And this is a delicious mojo/salsa!

    • Sanaro

    • Santa Barbara, CA

    • 6/28/2021

  • Ricardo's linguistic comment may be accurate about Spanish, but not about English. In English, "mojo" means a "magic spell," "hex" or "charm" for almost a century. The origin is thought to be African. Here, the name implies that this sauce works magic on the foods it touches. Sorry, Ricardo.

    • Kenn

    • California

    • 6/1/2021

  • Sorry guys. It's just really weird to be reading "Sauce Sauce" as "Mojo" stands for Sauce in spanish.. :/

    • Ricardo

    • Portugal

    • 5/11/2021