To make enchilada sauce, cook two tablespoons each of oil and flour into a light roux, stir in three tablespoons of chili powder with a teaspoon each of cumin, garlic powder, and oregano for thirty seconds, whisk in two cups of stock and a tablespoon of tomato paste, and simmer eight minutes until it coats a spoon.
What is enchilada sauce?
Red enchilada sauce in the Tex-Mex tradition is a chili gravy: the roux technique of the American South pointed at the chili shelf. Fat and flour build the body, chili powder blooms in the hot roux the way it never can in watery sauce, and stock carries it to a pourable gravy with a spoon of tomato paste for roundness. It is the sauce of enchilada plates from San Antonio to everywhere.
It sits one branch away from the older Mexican tradition of sauces built entirely from dried red chiles, soaked and blended, no flour anywhere. That version is deeper and fruitier and worth making when anchos and guajillos are in the house. The chili-powder gravy is the honest weeknight answer, fifteen minutes from jars you already own, and dramatically better than the can it replaces.
What goes in enchilada sauce?
- ·2 tbsp neutral oil
- ·2 tbsp all-purpose flour
- ·3 tbsp chili powder
- ·1 tsp ground cumin
- ·1 tsp garlic powder
- ·1/2 tsp dried oregano (Mexican if you have it)
- ·1 tbsp tomato paste
- ·2 cups chicken or vegetable stock, warm
- ·1/2 tsp salt
- ·1 tsp cider vinegar, at the end
Two tablespoons each of oil and flour to two cups of liquid is a standard medium gravy, the three tablespoons of chili powder are what make it enchilada sauce. American chili powder is a mild blend, not pure ground chile, so three tablespoons builds flavor, not fire.
How do you make enchilada sauce?
- Heat the oil over medium, whisk in the flour, and cook one to two minutes to a pale gold roux.
- Add the chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, and oregano and stir thirty seconds, no longer, spices scorch fast in hot fat.
- Whisk in the tomato paste, then the warm stock in a steady stream.
- Simmer eight to ten minutes, whisking now and then, until it coats a spoon. It thickens more in the pan with the enchiladas.
- Season with salt and finish with the teaspoon of vinegar, the small acid lift the can never has.
- Use immediately or refrigerate up to five days. It also freezes cleanly for three months.
What should you know before making enchilada sauce?
- Bloom, do not toast. Thirty seconds of chili powder in the roux unlocks it, a full minute burns it bitter, keep the stock within reach.
- Make it slightly thinner than seems right. Tortillas drink sauce in the oven, and a too-thick sauce bakes into paste.
- Dip the tortillas through the warm sauce before rolling, the enchilada move that separates saucy from soggy.
Where did enchilada sauce come from?
Enchiladas are old Mexico, tortillas dipped in chile appear in the earliest Mexican cookbooks, including El Cocinero Mexicano of 1831. The flour-thickened red gravy poured over them is a Tex-Mex development, born where Mexican chile traditions met the Southern roux, and it became the signature of the combination plate.
What can you make from enchilada sauce?
Common questions.
What is enchilada sauce made of?
The Tex-Mex red version is a roux of oil and flour with chili powder, cumin, garlic, and oregano bloomed in it, thinned with stock and a little tomato paste. Traditional Mexican red sauces skip the flour and build from soaked dried chiles instead.
Why does my enchilada sauce taste bitter?
The chili powder burned in the roux. It needs about thirty seconds in the hot fat, not minutes. Bitter sauce cannot be walked back, but a spoon of tomato paste and a pinch of sugar can soften a mild case.
Can I use this sauce for something besides enchiladas?
Yes, it is a general red chili gravy. Smother burritos, spoon it over eggs, braise shredded chicken in it for tacos, or thin it into the base of a tortilla soup.