Homemade Enchilada Sauce
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Made with whole dried chiles, this will take your enchiladas to the NEXT level! No more store-bought sauce!
I am all for a good shortcut here and there when you are in a pinch. But once you make enchilada sauce from scratch, it’ll be very difficult to go back to store-bought. (Similarly to homemade pasta.)
There are a few steps involved here but I promise, it is well worth it.
Now the recipe does call for New Mexico or California chile peppers as they are on the milder side, but please feel free to use your own combination of peppers if you prefer a bit of a kick.
Either way, this homemade sauce will take your enchiladas to the next level. I use it all the time for these weeknight enchiladas. It’s an absolute game-changer!
Homemade Enchilada Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 ounces dried chile peppers, such as New Mexico or California
- 1 medium yellow onion, quartered
- 2 Roma tomatoes, halved
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 2 ½ cups chicken stock
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 ½ tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
Instructions
- Heat a medium cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Add chiles and cook until toasted and fragrant, about 30-45 seconds per side. Set aside and let cool; remove and discard seeds and stems.
- Add onion and tomatoes to the skillet and cook until blackened, about 3-5 minutes per side; set aside.
- Add garlic to the skillet and cook until blackened, about 1 minute per side; set aside.
- Place chiles into a 3 quart saucepan. Stir in onion, tomatoes, garlic, oregano, cumin and chicken stock; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Bring to boil; reduce heat and simmer until chiles have softened, about 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat; cover and let stand 15 minutes.
- Combine chili mixture and honey in blender until smooth.
- Heat canola oil in the saucepan over medium heat. Working carefully, add chili mixture to the saucepan. Bring to boil; reduce heat and simmer until thickened, about 10 minutes; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Transfer to an airtight container and place in the refrigerator for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 2 months.
Did you make this recipe?
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This sauce is 50 shades of great!
We tried this recipe when the can of enchilada sauce turned out to be awful and now we’ll never go back. Very easy to make AND better than any restaurant. I’m stuffed
Any pie, using homemade pie crust!! And chocolate chip cookies 🙂
Maybe this enchilada sauce, too. I’m gonna make it tonite.
Hi Chungah!
This looks excellent and I’m considering giving it a try tomorrow for my husband’s bday dinner. I notice most other recipes online use chicken stock. Why did you eliminate that? I just signed up for your emails and liked your FB page. So looking forward to your suggestions and new recipes this year! Thank you!
Michelle
I need a not spicy enchilada sauce. Will this be ok minus the chili powder and/or cumin? My kids and hubby don’t like the heat.
I always find myself back at your site for great recipes. Thanks!
Fantastic sauce! I made this tonight because my family wanted enchiladas and I am out of sauce. I will never buy canned sauce again! My only question is can you freeze it? I am a full time college student, cub scout leader, and all the other busy duties of a wife and mom. I can and freeze a lot when I am on break. Thank you for sharing!
This was amazing. Made it as specified in the recipe. Will make this again and again! Thanks for a great recipe!
So easy peasy and delish Damn delicious is always my go to !!!
Loved the recipe…. Reduced the chilli as it was an Indian one but still really good.
Thank you so much for this recipe! I made it two days ago and it is the best enchilada sauce we’ve ever tasted.
I love to make any condensed soup from scratch!
What kind of chili powder do you use? Some of them have added ingredients like garlic and oregano and some are straight ground chili.
Thank you SO much for this recipe! I just made it and my kids are DEVOURING it. They say they’ve never had better Enchiladas. And it’s all because of your sauce. Delicious! Thank you 🙂
Can the sauce be frozen??
This looks so delicious and enchiladas are my specialty. It’s the one thing I get asked to make for most family pot lucks. Will definitely try it! I have to say that whenever I find a great looking recipe on Pinterest and want to check it out, more often than not I end up at your website. Seems like everything you post snags me and I’m not even a foodie! Thanks for the inspiration and ALL the great recipes of course!
Just discovered this enchilada sauce today. It’s delicious. I have moved from AZ to England, and outside of London Mexican food and Mexican products are quite limited. So this is amazing. Can’t find crushed tomatoes, so used chopped and my immersion blender – perfect. Thanks so much. k
Best.enchilada.sauce.ever! Thanks so
Much for the recipe!
Gonna try this. Store enchilada sauce is too hot for my family – so I like the sound of making my own where I can control the “heat” level. Thank you!!
Do you have to store it for two weeks???
The directions state, “Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.” This does not mean you must store it for two weeks before consuming.
Thank you so much 🙂
I made this sauce to use with some Taco Stuffed Shells for dinner tonight. It was fantastic! I do not like spicy food, so I loved that I was able to control the heat level to my liking by altering the amount of chili powder in this recipe (knocked it down to about 1.5 Tbsp). So good. Thank you! I will be using this in many different things going forward!
I made this exactly like the recipe and it is the best enchilada sauce Ive ever tasted. I will never buy the canned stuff again. Wow – thank you for sharing this on your blog 🙂