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I’m going to let you all in on a secret today. Upon completion of the first part of culinary school, I was fairly certain I wanted to be a Saucier. The seeming simplicity of the job title is a duplicitous disguise for what a Saucier actually does, and their rank in the Brigade de Cuisine.
The Saucier is an integral part of the professional kitchen, and in my eyes, he (or she) is the (wo)man. A Saucier exudes patience and dedication to their craft. Their ability to take simple ingredients and whip, stir, spin, blitz or whisk them into a mind blowing, delicious sauce, with subtle layers of flavors, is nothing short of culinary magic. My love and respect for the process of sauce making is something that has stayed with me long since graduating culinary school.
I genuinely like to spend a Saturday or Sunday preparing a stock or sauce, allowing it to simmer, sometimes for hours, and reduce into a thick, intense sauce bursting with robust flavor. I find the process therapeutic and the reward of the finished product is icing on the cake… or should I say sauce on the plate?
So today, I’m going to bring it back to basics with a simple sauce that is a staple in my house. Homemade Enchilada Sauce. Now, do not worry or run away, this sauce is not one that requires hours or for you to dedicate an entire day to preparing it. Plus, the reward of homemade enchilada sauce is definitely worth the miniscule amount of time it takes to prepare. Homemade anything is always a million times better than canned or boxed, and this enchilada sauce is no exception.
This enchilada sauce is spicy, smoky, thick, creamy and flowing with savory flavor. Boy and I are addicted to this stuff. It is our go-to sauce and it pairs well with so much more than just Mexican food. It tastes delectable on everything, including your fingertips. It is divine on top of eggs or avocado toast, stirred into rice or macaroni and cheese, as a dip for fries or roasted cauliflower florets, drizzled on roasted chicken, as a dressing for a roasted chickpea salad… you name it and I am willing to bet this enchilada sauce tastes down-right delicious paired with it. And, just in case you haven’t guessed by now, I am obviously going to be using this sauce in my next post. 🙂
You simply must try this homemade enchilada sauce for yourself. Besides, you need to be prepared for what I have in store for you up next on No Spoon Necessary. Therefore, I recommend you double the ingredients and make twice the yield. Trust me, you are going to want smother everything with this sauce. Until next time, warm wishes for a wonderful weekend and Cheers!
-xoxo-
Cheyanne
Table of Contents
Homemade Enchilada Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 Oz Dry Mexican Chiles * - stemmed and seeded
- 2 Cups Chicken Stock *
- 2 TBS Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 small Yellow Onion – roughly small dice (roughly 1 heaping cup)
- 1 tsp Kosher Salt
- 2 tsp Cumin
- 1 tsp Dried Mexican Oregano
- 1 tsp ground Coriander (can substitute 1 tsp dry cilantro leaves)
- 5 cloves Garlic - minced
- 1 tsp Tomato Paste
- 1 (14 ounce) Can Fire Roasted Tomatoes - drained
- 1 tsp Granulated Sugar
- 1 ½ tsp Lime Juice
- Sea Salt , to taste
Instructions
- Place chiles in a deep, medium sized sauce pan. Add 2 cups of chicken stock and bring to a boil over high heat, pushing chiles down into stock to cover. Cover pan and remove from heat. Set aside for 20-25 minutes to allow chiles to rehydrate.
- Drain chiles into a strainer over a large pot or bowl, reserving cooking liquid. Transfer chiles to a clean cutting board and finely dice.
- Heat oil in a large skillet, over medium to medium-high heat, until shimmering. Add the minced chiles, onions, kosher salt, cumin, oregano and coriander. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until onions are soft.
- Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds- 1 minute.
- Add the tomato paste, stirring to coat all the vegetables.
- Add 1 ¼ cup reserved cooking liquid to deglaze pan, scraping up brown bits on bottom on pan.
- Stir in the tomatoes and sugar.
- Bring the mixture to simmer. Reduce heat to medium/ medium-low to maintain a gentle simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes. If sauce becomes too thick, add more reserved cooking liquid, ¼ cup at a time.
- Remove from heat and stir in lime juice. Taste and adjust for seasoning. Set aside and allow to cool slightly.
- Working in batches, transfer sauce to a blender, only filling the blender half full. Pulse sauce until blended and smooth. Transfer to a container with a tight fitting lid and continue blending remaining sauce.
- Use in your favorite Mexican recipes or store in the refrigerator.
Notes
*You can substitute water for chicken stock to rehydrate Chiles
*Enchilada Sauce will keep, stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 1 week.
*Enchilada Sauce can also be stored in the freezer.
Nutrition
Did you make this recipe?
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Nancy
We don’t have access to guajillo or ancho chiles in our area (northwestern MN). I can grow my own, but not until next year. I have cayenne, jalapeno, and habanero peppers in my garden that I can dry; as well as a number of sweet and paprika peppers.
What can I use to make my own enchilada sauce now?
PS: I loved reading the comments on this post. Now that I am retired, I have more time for creative cooking. I love going down to my ‘pantry’ of food I have preserved – canned, frozen, dehydrated, or fermented.
Cheyanne Bany
Hi Nancy! Thank you so much for stopping by and taking the time to leave a comment! I have never tried to make enchilada sauce with anything other than dried Mexican Chiles, so I can’t really speak as to how the sauce would come out with a substitution. I do know you can purchase dried chiles on Amazon for a cheap price if you don’t have access to them. But, if you are looking to make this enchilada sauce with what you have on hand, I’d say just give it a try with whatever combination of peppers/chiles you like… although, again, I can’t say how it will turn out. I’m sorry! But, if you do use your own fresh peppers or chiles, obviously you can skip the first step of reconstituting the chiles in the recipe and simply finely dice them. I’m sorry I couldn’t be more help! Let me know if you have any other questions, and again, thank you so much for stopping by! Cheers!
Joey
This sauce is amazing! I will admit I play with it, though. As I always have an abundance of tomatoes in some form I don’t use the canned or the paste. I sub what I have for the canned and use frozen oven roasted instead of paste, the rest is exactly as you have written. I have to make at least a gallon at a time because it disappears within days (sometimes I get lucky and can hide some in the freezer for quick meals). It is lick off the spoon good and I can’t compliment or thank you enough for the recipe!
Cheyanne Bany
Hi Joey! I’m absolutely thrilled you love this enchilada sauce! And I LOVE that you tweak it to make it your own! Using fresh tomatoes, or oven roasted tomatoes is such a delicious substitution! Thank you so much for coming back and leaving me a comment. You just made my day! Cheers! 🙂
Kris
My bf is a chef and is hard to impress. He tends to not like my cooking, which is cool because that means he usually cooks. Well he had a rough week at work and I wanted to treat him and made enchilada’s using this sauce. Totally knocked his socks off!!! He kept saying how impressed he was, rated it a 10….I loved it as well. Not too tomatoey, nice and smokey, very well balanced…really really beautiful recipe. It is a keeper! Thanks so much!
Cheyanne Bany
Oh, I am so THRILLED you and your BF loved the enchilada sauce!! More importantly, thank you SO much for choosing my sauce to make! I’m so happy I didn’t let you down and that your enchiladas rocked the house!! Hope the remainder of the week goes much smoother for you two! Cheers, and thank you for making my day with your comment!! 🙂
Kris
I’ve made it half a dozen times since and it comes out perfect every time. We live in Texas and are constantly disappointed by Tex Mex, it’s so tomatoey and bland. Tex mex enchilada sauce tastes more like maranara, gross. Your recipie is totally perfect, smokey, authentic, perfectly balanced. We can’t even order enchiladas anymore because we know we can make them better at home using your recipie. He, being the chef, usually wants to make adjustments, but we’ve left yours alone, follow as is. Thank you so much for sharing! Really fills a craving! And so easy, quick, and inexpensive to make. Sorry if I’m going overboard, just get super excited when I can make him something he thinks is perfect. I kinda stole it but totes gave you credit and props
Cheyanne Bany
Thank you so much, Kris, for the kind words!! I am beyond thrilled you guys like this enchilada sauce and have made it so many times! You made my day with this comment! It is people like you that making having a food blog, developing recipes and sharing them worth it! Thanks (again) for coming back and commenting! Cheers- to non bland enchilada sauce! 😉
P.s. french fries dipped into this sauce are amazing.
Colleen Flanigan
Love this recipe but can’t handle the heat. Will leaving out the peppers ruin it?
Cheyanne Bany
Thanks for stopping by, Colleen! I wouldn’t recommend leaving the peppers out completely- since enchilada sauce is based around the dried peppers. What I would do, to kill some of the heat, is half the amount of peppers and REALLY be sure to scrape the seeds out! The seeds and ribs of peppers hold about 95% of the heat. Hope you do give this a try, with those adjustments and you enjoy it as much as I do! Cheers! 🙂
April @ Girl Gone Gourmet
After some recent experiments in sauce-making I can appreciate the work and focus that goes into making great sauces – so much goes into making even the most simple concoctions. I love this enchilada sauce — it’s a staple in my house so definitely going to give it a try!
Cheyanne Bany
April, I figured you would apprechiate this post! I know we both share a love of homemade anything, especially sauce! Cheers, girlfriend! xo
Ben Maclain
Such a hot stuff happening on here here even though this sauce looks so innocent! That would definitely be great on avo toast. Thanks for introducing a number of options – I’m just not familiar with this recipe!
Cheyanne Bany
Ben, You are going to love this on avocado toast! The sauce does have heat to it, which you can increase by leaving in some of the seeds, if you like things spicy (I do)! Cheers buddy!
Crystal
Hi Cheyanne, fantastic recipe, and thank you for sharing it with us! Just a couple of questions … [a] What’s the final quantity produced? (Would be helpful to know for storage purposes; e.g, makes 4 × 8oz jars or ? … [b] How long will keep in the freezer? … and [c] Would it be an appropriate recipe for true canning, with sterilized jars and water bath, etc? Thanks!
Cheyanne Bany
Hi Crystal. Thanks for stopping by! The final yield is 2 1/2 cups which is 20 ounces, how many jars you get depends on the size of your mason jars. It will keep in the freezer for a few months… I would say 3 is a pretty safe bet. I’ve always devoured it well before that. I have never tried to “can” this, so I can’t answer that question with any certainty. However, I will say I do not see why it can’t be canned, if you follow the proper and safe procedure. Hope that helps! Cheers and warm wishes for a wonderful day!
Sneha
Hey..
I love the lime in there and I bet it really brightens this sauce up. I can’t wait to see what you are going to make with it next.. :)This sauce looks so good! And truth be told, I never have any of the canned stuff on hand anyways, so whenever I’m craving enchiladas or whatnot, I just say forget it because I’m too lazy to go buy the canned stuff. This looks like the perfect option, thank you!
Cheyanne Bany
Hi Sneha! The little bit of lime does brighten it up, if you are a fan of lime juice and like a more acidic sauce the amount of lime juice can absolutely be increased! The can stuff stinks, so you aren’t missing anything by never having tried it! 😉 Thank you so much for stopping by and the kind words! Cheers to a terrific day!
Olivia @ Olivia’s Cuisine
Love your pictures! And I definitely need to try this enchilada sauce. I also don’t like using store bought sauces and prefer to make them from scratch! 🙂
Cheyanne Bany
Thank you so much, Olivia! 🙂 Kind words always bring a ginormous smile to my face! I’m with you on making everything from scratch, given the time. Homemade everything just has that element of love, plus it taste a million times better. 🙂 Cheers and thank you for the kind words!
Beeta @ Mon Petit Four
This sauce looks so good! And truth be told, I never have any of the canned stuff on hand anyways, so whenever I’m craving enchiladas or whatnot, I just say forget it because I’m too lazy to go buy the canned stuff. This looks like the perfect option, thank you!
Cheyanne Bany
I’ll be honest as well, Beeta… the last time I had canned enchilada sauce I was still learning to tie my shoes 🙂 I’m not really a fan of anything store purchased that can easily (or even difficultly) be made at home. I like knowing what is in everything, maybe thats the control freak in me? lol. Regardless, I completely understand you saying “forget it” and being too lazy. We are all guilty of that!! Cheers and I hope you have a beautiful weekend! 🙂
Matt Robinson
Nothing beats homemade and this is no exception, looks amazing!
Cheyanne Bany
Thanks, Matt! Anytime you say anything of mine looks good I get a HUGE smile on my face. Biggest compliment. Ever! Cheers and warm wishes, to your and your family, for a wonderful weekend!
Gaila
Cheyanne! I am going to try this recipe!! I am sure we are going to love it!…beautiful pictures!
XOXOXO
Cheyanne Bany
Thanks, Gaila! If you do end up trying it, you will have to let me know what you think! Cheers, my little chicka! Hope you have a great weekend! xoxoxoxo
Rachelle @ Beer Girl Cooks
I had no idea there was such a special place for Sauciers in the Brigade de Cuisine! Oh my! Weekends are definitely the best for slow cooking sauces and dishes. This enchilada sauce looks wonderful! I’ve never made enchiladas or the sauce before. I love the lime in there and I bet it really brightens this sauce up. I can’t wait to see what you are going to make with it next!
Cheyanne Bany
Rachelle, Sauciers rock the dang house if you ask me 🙂 They actually perform more tasks than just making sauces, but I didn’t want to go into a ton of detail and bore anyone! Weekends were totally made for anything lazy and slow cooked.. the way the aroma fills your house. I.Die. You must try and make your own enchilada sauce! You will never go back to the canned crap ever again. I promise! Cheers, girlie and warm wishes for a fantastic, fun & food filled weekend! xo