This easy red enchilada sauce is perfect for making red enchilada sauce that is flavorful and delicious without a blender or dried chiles! It uses spices and dried herbs that are perfect for preparing an enchilada sauce that is spicy and tasty. Plus, it's super quick and easy to make!
If you're looking for a quick and easy way to make enchilada sauce without a blender or soaking dried chiles, then this easy red enchilada sauce recipe is perfect! It only uses ingredients that are easy to find in most grocery stores and it's super quick to prepare.
It's also super flavorful and delicious, making it perfect for whipping up your favorite Mexican dishes at home! You can use this red chile sauce for enchiladas, huevos rancheros, tacos, or chilaquiles. It always tastes amazing!
Red Enchilada Sauce Ingredients
To make this red enchilada sauce you'll need the following ingredients:
- Chicken broth: For the base of the sauce, I recommend using either chicken broth or vegetable broth. Just pick the one you like for your recipe. I often use chicken broth or a combination of both.
- Seasonings: This recipe uses dried spices and herbs that you may already have sitting in your pantry. You'll need ground chili powder, ground cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, dried oregano, salt, and black pepper. The great thing about this recipe is that you don't need any fresh ingredients or specific types of dried chiles that may be hard to find.
- Tomato paste: You'll also need some tomato paste for this red enchilada sauce. Although classic enchilada sauce often doesn't use tomato sauce or tomato paste, I recommend using some tomato paste for this recipe as it adds a lot of depth to the sauce.
- Flour: You'll need all-purpose flour to thicken the sauce.
How to make this easy red enchilada sauce
Preheat the olive oil. First, preheat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat.
Add the flour. Next, add the all-purpose flour to the olive oil and whisk until combined.
Season and simmer. Now add the seasonings and tomato paste. Slowly pour in the chicken broth and whisk to remove any lumps. Let the sauce simmer for around 5 minutes until it has thickened. While the sauce simmers, give it an occasional stir.
Finish. When the sauce has thickened, season with black pepper and more salt if needed. Use the sauce immediately or store it in your refrigerator or freezer.
Tips & Notes
- Make sure to use ground chiles, not American chili powder. American chili powder is a spice blend that uses different spices like ground cumin and paprika powder. To make enchilada sauce, you'll want to use chili powder that only uses ground chiles. There are different types of ground chili powder, make sure to pick something that isn't overly spicy.
- Add more chili powder to taste. I'd recommend starting with one tablespoon for a milder sauce and two tablespoons for a spicy sauce. When you check the sauce, it is going to be quite spicy. But once you've used it in your recipe, you'll notice that it doesn't taste as hot.
- Prepare a large batch of enchilada sauce and store some of it in your freezer. When you make this sauce, I recommend making multiple batches. You can store the sauce in your freezer and take it out whenever you want to whip up delicious enchiladas or tacos.
How to use red enchilada sauce
- Enchiladas: This sauce is perfect for making enchiladas! It is spicy, flavorful, and just delicious. I often use it to make my ground turkey enchiladas.
- Tacos: Another way to use this sauce is to sauté your taco filling in it! It makes any kind of meat or vegetable taste so much better and adds delicious Mexican flavors!
- Huevos rancheros: Huevos rancheros is a delicious Mexican breakfast dish that can be made with this red enchilada sauce. It makes it taste so much more flavorful and delicious!
- Chilaquiles: Another Mexican dish that can be made with this sauce is chilaquiles. Usually, chilaquiles are made with a sauce that uses blended tomatoes, soaked dried chiles, and aromatics. As with enchiladas, this sauce can be used as a shortcut way with pantry ingredients if you want to prepare your dish quickly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Enchilada sauce is a chile sauce that is spicy and super flavorful! It has all the delicious Mexican spices (like ground cumin and ground chile powder) and flavors and complements a variety of dishes. If you want to make enchiladas, I recommend giving this sauce recipe a try!
Authentic enchilada sauce is made of dried chiles, aromatics, and some type of liquid. This recipe uses chile powder instead of dried chiles as it is meant to be a quick and easy recipe that can be made with spices that you may already have at home. Plus, it tastes super delicious!
I'd say that it is moderately spicy. If you prefer it milder (but still spicy) use one tablespoon of ground chili powder. If you want more heat, use two tablespoons. I usually use two tablespoons of ground chiles for this recipe. Keep in mind that the sauce is going to taste less intense when you use it with other ingredients in a recipe.
This recipe is a shortcut that tastes similar to authentic enchilada sauce. It uses pantry staples that are easy to find so that you can whip up this sauce whenever you want to make enchiladas or other Mexican dishes. Authentic enchilada sauce uses dried chiles with other fresh aromatics that are blended. But just like authentic enchilada sauce, this sauce is chile-based. It's really delicious and very quick to prepare!
You can use this red enchilada sauce to make enchiladas or other Mexican dishes like huevos rancheros! Feel free to check out the post for more ideas.
Yes, and I recommend preparing a large batch to freeze some of it! This way, you'll always have a delicious enchilada sauce on hand that you can use to whip up your favorite Mexican dishes.
More simple and delicious Mexican-inspired recipes
If you love Mexican flavors, I recommend checking out the following recipes. They are super easy to make and taste delicious!
Easy Red Enchilada Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1-2 tablespoons ground chili powder not the American spice blend
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
Instructions
- Preheat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat.2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- Add the all-purpose flour and whisk until combined.2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- Then add all the seasonings and tomato paste, except for the black pepper. Slowly pour in the chicken broth while stirring continuously. Then let the sauce simmer for around 5 minutes until thickened. Occasionally stir everything.1-2 tablespoons ground chili powder, 1 teaspoon ground cumin, ½ teaspoon garlic powder, ½ teaspoon onion powder, ¼ teaspoon dried oregano, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon tomato paste, 2 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth
- Season with black pepper and more salt to taste. Use the sauce immediately or store it in your refrigerator or freezer.¼ teaspoon black pepper
Leave a Reply