Delicious homemade enchilada sauce that cooks up in minutes! When you see how easy (and cheap!) this stuff is to make, you'll never want to use store-bought again.
I'm switching up how I do things a little bit! For most of the life of this blog, whenever I posted a recipe that included something like enchilada sauce, like...hmmm...enchiladas, I'd include the sauce recipe for the sauce as part of the enchilada recipe. I'd just go and give you the whole enchilada. (<-- Haha! Sorry.)
But I have two problems with doing things that way. First off, not all of you guys want to make your own sauce. Which I totally get! I have plenty of busy days where I go for store-bought sauces. Or maybe you already have an enchilada sauce recipe you love, and you want to use that. That's cool with me!
And also, I tend to make my sauces a little differently every time, which means I end up with half a dozen slightly different versions of enchilada sauce on the blog. And really, any one of them could go with any of my other enchilada recipes.
So from now on, I'm going to just share recipes for sauces and accompaniments and other stuff like that as stand alone recipes, and when I post a recipe that uses that sauce or accompaniment, I'll link you up! So you've got a choice now: use my recipe, use store-bought, or make it yourself!
And yes, as you might have guessed, I've got a recipe that features enchilada sauce coming up.
How to Make Enchilada Sauce
Enchilada sauce starts with some flour and oil. The flour is your thickener, and the oil is what you'll be cooking your flour in. Heat the oil in a saucepan and whisk in the flour. Get it to a relatively mixture and cook it until it starts to bubble up. Let it bubble for about a minute, whisking the whole time.
Next, whisk in your spices: cumin, onion powder, garlic powder, and chili powder. You'll be using lots of chili powder (¼ cup!), as this is the main flavor to your enchilada sauce.
Finally, add some water, tomato paste and salt. Bring everything to a simmer and let it cook until the mixture thickens up.
That's it! So even though I went on above about how you have a choice between making your own sauce and buying it, you'll probably want to make it yourself, right?
Tips for Making Perfect Enchilada Sauce
- Make sure you use regular old chili powder for this recipe. The mild kind that you'd put in chili — such as this one. If you go with hot chili powder, chipotle chili powder, ancho chile powder or any other variety the flavor will be wrong and there's a good chance it'll be too hot and/or bitter to eat.
- Having said that, you can, once you get the hang of making it, experiment with adding small amounts of additional spices to your enchilada sauce. Start with a small amount (½ teaspoon or less) of smoked paprika, chipotle chile powder, or cayenne pepper (for extra kick).
- Homemade enchilada sauce will keep in a sealed container in the fridge for about 2 weeks, or in the freezer for about 3 months.
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📖 Recipe
Easy Enchilada Sauce
Ingredients
- ¼ cup canola oil, or neutral-flavored high-heat oil of choice
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup mild chili powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 2 ½ cups water
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- ½ teaspoon red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
Instructions
- Coat the bottom of a medium saucepan with the oil and place it over medium heat.
- When the oil is hot, whisk in the flour. Slowly heat up the flour, whisking constantly. After a few minutes it will begin to bubble. Continue whisking and cook the mixture for about 1 minute more.
- Whisk in the chili powder, cumin, garlic powder and onion powder.
- Whisk in the water, tomato paste, red wine vinegar, and salt. Continue whisking until the mixture is fully blended and there are no lumps.
- Raise the heat and bring the mixture to a simmer. Lower the heat and allow it to cook, uncovered, for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens up a bit.
- Remove the pot from the heat and allow the sauce to cool. It will continue to thicken up as it does.
- Use the sauce immediately, or transfer it to an airtight container and refrigerate or freeze for later.
Notes
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This sauce is absolutely delicious! I could eat it with a spoon, like soup. Thank you so much for creating this recipe.
have made many of your recipes. this one is a winner. did not have tortilla wrappers so did this. corn, black beans topped with macaroni and this wonderful sauce and with emmental cheese. txs
I'm trying this for Christmas. I accidentally bought tomato sauce. Can I use that or does it have to be paste? I'm in a pickle😞
Tomato paste is much thicker, so I'm thinking you could make it work by using extra and cutting back in on the water. Try 1/2 cup of sauce and cut the water back to 2 1/4 cups. I think it will be fine!
This recipe has been a game changer for me. It is so delicious and easy to prepare that we now have enchiladas anytime the mood hits. That has been wonderful during the pandemic when we can't just run to our favorite Mexican restaurant. Thanks!
i make this with bob's red mill all purpose gluten free flour and it works fine.
I'm glad to hear it! Thanks Fred!
Love your recipes. As we are a celiac household, do you know if this can be made with say cornstarch to replace the flour?
Thanks Gail! I think that would work. I'd use a much smaller amount though - maybe a tablespoon - and mix it with some cold water to make a slurry, then add it during the last minute of cooking. I'd love to hear how it works out if you try!
Really looking forward to trying this. So many commercial Enchilada sauces contain MSG.
Thanks Dave!! I hope you enjoy it!