The most popular hot sauce in Mexico is Valentina! You can keep it right on your table and drizzle it on everything. A lot of Mexican food, especially at restaurants, isn't super spicy. The table sauce is where the spicy heat comes in.

I took a look in the pantry to see what we have in there. Valentina is obviously in our pantry. Thank goodness we can find it easily in the US. Herdez, San Marcos and El Pato brands are also easily found here. 

I LOVE Chipotle Salsa and it's my secret weapon for this Italian Sausage Chili. It's like Chipotle in Adobo but mixed together. El Pato is a popular brand and most people simply tell you which color can to get (green, yellow or red) when shopping.

The question becomes, "Can you make the sauce yourself?" The good news is that you CAN make a great table sauce and you can even make a variety of different sauces. As we all know, making fresh anything is going to be better than canned, right?

I've pulled together my 10 Top Mexican Sauce Recipes for you.

My favorite sauces are red, "salsa roja". The best part of a good red sauce is that you can use dried red chiles, which are stable and keep a long time. You can keep them in your pantry so you can make a good sauce without an extra shopping trip.

You'll find table sauces like Tomatillo Red Chili and Guajillo, but you'll also find my favorite Enchilada Sauce and Tamale Sauce. You no longer need to buy it in a can with all those preservatives!

Green sauce, "salsa verde" is usually made with fresh chiles. You can use Poblano, Anaheim, Jalapeño, and Serrano. That is the order of spicy heat from low to high. 

I'm not brave enough to try any of the orange and yellow Mexican chiles. But, you could easily switch out orange peppers for the green peppers to customize any sauces.