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Tomatillo canning recipes turn that tart, citrusy little husk fruit into the backbone of Mexican cooking, from salsa verde to green enchilada sauce. If you’ve grown tomatillos, you know a plant or two can produce far more than you’ll use fresh, and canning is how you keep that bright green flavor on the shelf.
Tomatillos are easy to grow and easy to put up, since most of what you’ll make with them is water bath canned.
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There’s a lot you can do with a tomatillo in a jar. You can can them whole, cook them into salsa verde, simmer them into a smooth green enchilada sauce, chop them into relish, pickle them, or build them into a chili verde with pork or chicken. Most belong with the rest of my salsa canning recipes, ready for taco night all winter.
One thing to know before you start. Tomatillos are in the tomato family and sit right at that same acidity borderline, so plain canned tomatillos need a little added acid in each jar, just like tomatoes. Tested salsas and sauces have the acid built in and go through the water bath canner, while anything with meat, like chili verde, has to be pressure canned.
Green Tomatoes and Tomatillos Are Interchangeable
Here’s a trick that opens up a lot more options.
According to the NCHFP, green tomatoes and tomatillos can be swapped measure for measure, since they’re both tart, firm, green, and acidic. A recipe written for one generally works with the other, as long as you keep the added acid and the proportions exactly as the tested recipe calls for. Tomatillos run a touch tangier and more citrusy, while green tomatoes are a little milder, but they behave the same way in the jar.
This matters because there are far more tested green tomato canning recipes than tomatillo ones. Green tomatoes were a staple for canners back in the early 1900s, when every garden ended the season with a load of unripe fruit ahead of frost, so generations of pickles, relishes, traditional chow chows, and chutneys were built around them.
Folding those into your tomatillo options nearly doubles what you can make. You’ll find the full collection in my green tomato canning recipes, and I’ve worked several into the lists below with a note where you’d swap in tomatillos.
Canning Whole Tomatillos
Canning tomatillos whole gives you a blank canvas for green sauces and salsas later in the year. You husk them, wash off the sticky coating, leave them whole, and pack them in water. Like tomatoes, they need bottled lemon juice, bottled lime juice, or citric acid added to each jar to be safe on the shelf.
A jar of whole tomatillos blends straight into salsa verde, simmers down into green sauce, or drops into soups and stews. Bottled lime juice is a nice acid choice here, since its flavor suits the green, citrusy direction most tomatillo recipes take anyway.
Tomatillo Salsa (Salsa Verde)
Salsa verde is what most people grow tomatillos for, and for good reason. Tomatillos, peppers, onion, and lime or vinegar cook down into a tangy, bright green salsa that’s a tested recipe away from being safe to put up. The acid does double duty, keeping it shelf-stable and sharpening the flavor.
I keep a few versions on the shelf, since they each have their own character. A raw or simmered classic, a roasted version with deeper flavor, and a chipotle one with smoke and heat. Spoon any of them over tacos, eggs, or enchiladas, and browse my full list of salsa canning recipes for more.
- Salsa Verde (Tomatillo Salsa)
- Roasted Tomatillo Salsa
- Chipotle Tomatillo Salsa
- Green Tomato Salsa Verde (sub in tomatillos)
- Tomatillo Green Salsa
Tomatillo Sauce (Green Enchilada & Simmer Sauce)
Tomatillo sauce is the smoother cousin of salsa verde, strained into a pourable green sauce that’s ready to become dinner. It works as an enchilada sauce, a simmer sauce for chicken or pork, or a base you thin with broth for soups.
My canning tomatillo sauce is built to do all of that from a single jar. If your tomatillo harvest comes up short, a green tomato enchilada verde sauce gives you a similar bright, tangy result from the tomato patch instead.
- Tomatillo Sauce (Enchilada or Simmer Sauce)
- Tomatillo Sauce & Salsa Verde
- Green Tomato Enchilada Verde Sauce (sub in tomatillos)
Tomatillo Relish, Chow Chow & Chutney
Tomatillo relish is a tangy, chunky condiment that puts the fruit’s natural tartness to work alongside peppers, onion, and vinegar. The NCHFP recipe below is the tested tomatillo standard, with the vinegar carrying it safely through a water bath.
This is where the green tomato swap really pays off, since old-fashioned relishes, chow chows, and chutneys were built for tart green fruit and take tomatillos in equal measure. They’re condiments for tacos, hot dogs, grilled meat, sharp cheese, and beans, with that bright, tangy bite tomatillos do so well.
- Tangy Tomatillo Relish
- Southern Chow Chow (sub in tomatillos)
- Green Tomato Chow Chow (Canadian Style) (sub in tomatillos)
- Green Tomato Piccalilli (New England Style) (sub in tomatillos)
- Green Tomato Chutney (sub in tomatillos)
Pickled Tomatillos & Green Tomatoes
Tomatillos pickle beautifully, staying firm and turning even tangier in a vinegar brine. There isn’t a dedicated, tested pickled-tomatillo recipe I’d point you to just yet, but the green tomato pickle recipes below all take tomatillos in their place.
Pack them whole, halved, or in wedges, depending on size, and remember the vinegar brine is what carries the acid. Keep the recipe’s proportions exactly as written and simply swap the green fruit.
- Pickled Green Tomatoes (sub in tomatillos)
- Dill Pickled Green Tomatoes (sub in tomatillos)
- Sweet Spiced Pickled Green Tomatoes (sub in tomatillos)
Chili Verde & Green Meals (Pressure Canning)
Chili verde is where tomatillos turn into a full meal in a jar, simmered with pork or chicken and green chiles into something you’ll be glad to find on the shelf on a busy night. Because these recipes combine tomatillos with meat, they have to be pressure canned rather than water bath.
A jar reheats into tacos, burritos, or a bowl of stew with very little work. A meatless southwestern vegetable soup leans on tomatillos as well.
However you put them up, tomatillos are one of the more rewarding things to grow and can, since good salsa verde and green sauce are hard to find on a store shelf and easy to make at home.
And once you realize green tomatoes can step in almost anywhere a tomatillo can, that endless end-of-season harvest of green fruit becomes an opportunity instead of a problem.
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