Enchilada Sauce

This red enchilada sauce is a classic and comes together in about 5 minutes!

Course condiment

Cuisine American, Mexican

Keyword sauce

Prep Time 2

Cook Time 3

Total Time 5

Servings

Calories 65kcal

Author Emma Chapman

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon onion powder
¼ teaspoon oregano
¼ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons tomato paste
2 cups chicken stock
½ lime

Instructions

In a small to medium pot, melt the butter over medium heat.
Whisk in the flour, this will make a thick paste.
Turn the heat down to low and quickly add in the other spices, salt and tomato paste. Cook for another 30 seconds, this will make a very fragrant and thick paste.
Now whisk in the stock. Turn the heat up just a little and continue to whisk until the sauce thickens.
Remove from heat and stir in the lime juice.
Taste and add more salt if you feel it needs it.

Notes

This recipe will make about 2 cups of sauce. Typically, I use about one cup for a pan of enchiladas, so I will freeze the second cup to use for another meal. You can cut this recipe in half if you don't want leftover sauce.

This sauce comes together quickly, so it’s best to have all your ingredients ready and measured out before you begin. The aim is to toast the spices and tomato paste, not burn them.

If you feel the sauce isn’t thickening up to your liking, you can whisk together 1 teaspoon cornstarch with 2 teaspoons of water, then pour this into the sauce and continue to cook (before adding the lime juice) until it thickens to the level you prefer. I like my enchilada sauce thick enough to coat a spoon, but not like syrup, so I rarely find this necessary.

If you want to make this vegan, you can swap the butter for oil and the chicken stock for vegetable stock. Sometimes, I will use vegetable stock anyway, if I have it on hand. I think both work well in this recipe.

If you want to add more heat than the chili powder provides, try adding 1/4 teaspoon cayenne or blending a chipotle pepper into the sauce.

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