How to Make Red Enchilada Sauce
This recipe is for a classic Mexican red enchilada sauce or enchilada salsa. Try the out the recipe. You will use it over and over because it’s so good.
The main ingredients which give the sauce most of its flavor are ancho chiles and chiles de arbol. The chiles de arbol are what give this enchilada sauce its heat. Reduce their number if you want to prepare a milder sauce.
Provecho!
Ingredients for the red enchilada sauce:
- 12 ancho chiles (large chiles in the photo above)
- 4 chiles de arbol (small chiles in the photo above)
- 2 Roma tomatoes
- 1 small onion chopped into 4 chunks
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 teaspoon of Mexican oregano
- 1/8 teaspoon of cumin
- salt to taste
Prepare the red enchilada sauce:
1. Rinse the ancho chiles and the chiles de arbol under cold water and pat dry. Tear open the chiles and remove the seeds and veins. Toast the chiles, the onion, and garlic in a dry pan or comal over medium low heat until fragrant. This should take about five minutes. Keep turning the chiles so that they do not burn.
2. Bring six cups of water to a boil and add all of the chiles, onion, and garlic. Reduce the heat and simmer for fifteen minutes.
3. Transfer the contents of the pan to a blender and add the oregano and cumin. Blend for two minutes until the mixture is very smooth. Place a towel over the top of the blender while blending to protect from any splatters. Be careful because the mixture is very hot.
4. Return the contents of the blender back to the pan by forcing the mixture through a strainer with the back of a spoon to remove the tough bits of chile skin that remain. Don’t skip this step it greatly improves the texture of the finished sauce.
5. Simmer the strained enchilada sauce for 15 minutes to blend the flavors. Add salt to taste.
This recipe makes about 4 cups of finished salsa. Store the salsa in the refrigerator for 3 days or in the freezer for one month. The recipe for red enchilada sauce also works really well for chilaquiles.
More Mexican Salsa Recipes
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
uhhhh…you did not add the tomatoes into the recipe in the decription…when are they added?
This was the only red enchilada sauce recipe I could find using dried peppers instead of chili powder. I made a couple of minor changes and it was fantastic! I had no fresh tomatoes so I substituted 6 oz tomato paste and I used Adobo (original) for seasoning. (Adobo is garlic, onion, oregano and cumin anyway.)
I also sauted the onions first. Thank you so much,
Deb
Glad you liked the recipe. Grilled onions taste great too. The sauce will be just a bit sweeter.
yes, you left out the tomatoes! I assume they should be boiled…
b
I made this today, I panicked because I realized after I put it all in the blender that I had tomatoes left, I didn’t know what else to do so I put them into the blender! Needles to say it was aweful, it tasted way to bitter, besides the tomatoes, what did I miss?
The original mexican recipe of enchildas doesnt have tomatoes, thank for your recipe I finally found the original recipe!.
I have looked for the recipie for enchaladas made by the original Pan American restaurant in San Antonio Tx. Pan American was located on Nachadoches Road at Division Ave. Has been closed about 20 years. In my opinion they had the most unique and best tasting enchaladas ib town. If you know the recipie I would really appreciate your input.
Thanks,
Dick Agnew
rwagnew@swbell.net
use the chilis that i’m going to send you instead but the rest is ok except for the tomatoes, use 1small can of tomato sauce. you can also add a t. of sugar and ad a dash of cinnamon.
I’m pretty sure that you chop & seed the tomatoes and add them to the boiling water with the chilies/garlic etc.. if it’s bitter a pinch or two of sugar (not too much) will take that edge off. This has got to be the most authentic mexican enchilada sauce I’ve seen on the web. 2 thumbs up
I forgot to use tomato and ended up adding tomato sauce during cooking. Everyone really enjoyed this sauce. No leftover enchiladas!!
thank you for sharing