How to Make Enchilada Sauce
Enchilada sauce is so easy to make! This red enchilada sauce recipe comes together in ten minutes. I've tried all the other recipes and this is the best!
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 28, 2024
I’ve been working on my enchilada game lately, for both the cookbook and an upcoming enchilada recipe. There is an art to making great enchiladas, and the sauce is a key component.
I thought I’d share my tested and perfected enchilada sauce recipe today, in case you want to try it on your favorite enchilada recipe. It’s ready in under ten minutes, and I promise, it’s so tasty you won’t want to go back to the store-bought kind again.
When I developed my go-to sauce (first seen on my spinach artichoke enchiladas), I tried at least five of the top sauce recipes on Google, all with different ingredients and techniques.
I tried making sauce with tomato sauce, which tasted too raw and was kind of goopy. I tried making sauce with blended diced tomatoes, and it had the same issues. I tried sauce without any tomato ingredients, and it didn’t taste quite like the enchilada sauce I grew up eating, or the sauce at my favorite Mexican restaurants. I tried sauces made without any thickener (like flour or cornstarch), and they pooled at the bottom and turned my enchiladas into a soupy, texture-less casserole.
Finally, after some experimentation and cross-referencing with America’s Test Kitchen, I landed on the perfect enchilada sauce. Vegetable broth forms the base of the sauce, but it’s only added after you make a simple roux of flour and oil. You need a full three tablespoons of each to properly thicken the sauce. I tried making this sauce with a gluten-free flour blend and that worked great as well.
The Best Enchilada Sauce
Four reasons to love this recipe:
- This sauce is full of authentic Mexican flavor. It comes from a combination of dried spices, which are sautéed in oil to bring out their best, and umami-rich tomato paste.
- The cinnamon is optional since some people just don’t like it in savory applications, but just a pinch adds some lovely warmth and complexity.
- The final kicker is a tiny splash of vinegar, which really amps up the flavor.
- Unlike canned enchiladas sauces, this homemade sauce is free of unnecessary processed ingredients and MSG (that’s monosodium glutamate, which gives my mom migraines).
I love this sauce and I’m confident you will, too, since it’s gotten rave reviews on my spinach artichoke enchiladas and veggie black bean enchiladas.
Please let me know how this recipe turns out for you in the comments! Your feedback keeps me going.
Watch How to Make Enchilada Sauce
Homemade Enchilada Sauce
This homemade red enchilada sauce has authentic Mexican flavor! It’s so good and easy, you’ll never go back to store-bought sauce again. You can even make a double batch and freeze half of it for later. Recipe as written below yields about 2 cups (16 ounces) sauce.
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 tablespoons flour (whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour and gluten-free flour blends all work!)
- 1 tablespoon ground chili powder (scale back if you’re sensitive to spice or using particularly spicy chili powder)
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon salt, to taste
- Pinch of cinnamon (optional but recommended)
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar or distilled white vinegar
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- This sauce comes together quickly once you get started, so measure the dry ingredients (the flour, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, oregano, salt and optional cinnamon) into a small bowl and place it near the stove. Place the tomato paste and broth near the stove as well.
- In a medium-sized pot over medium heat, warm the oil until it’s hot enough that a light sprinkle of the flour/spice mixture sizzles on contact. This might take a couple of minutes, so be patient and don’t step away from the stove!
- Once it’s ready, pour in the flour and spice mixture. While whisking constantly, cook until fragrant and slightly deepened in color, about 1 minute. Whisk the tomato paste into the mixture, then slowly pour in the broth while whisking constantly to remove any lumps.
- Raise heat to medium-high and bring the mixture to a simmer, then reduce heat as necessary to maintain a gentle simmer. Cook, whisking often, for about 5 to 7 minutes, until the sauce has thickened a bit and a spoon encounters some resistance as you stir it. (The sauce will thicken some more as it cools.)
- Remove from heat, then whisk in the vinegar and season to taste with a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper. Add more salt, if necessary (I usually add another pinch or two). Go forth and make enchiladas!
Notes
Enchilada sauce recipe adapted from my spinach artichoke enchiladas.
Storage suggestions: Extra enchilada sauce will keep well in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Or, freeze it for up to 3 months. Let it cool to room temperature before transferring to a wide-mouth mason jar, leaving some room at the top for expansion (don’t screw on the lid completely until the mixture is fully frozen), or a freezer bag (remove excess air before sealing).
Make it gluten free: Just use gluten-free all-purpose flour blend. I tried with Bob’s Red Mill brand and it worked great.
Make it tomato free: You can omit the tomato paste. You might want to up the spices a bit. The sauce won’t taste quite like the enchilada sauce you might buy at the store, but it will still be good!
Change it up: The chili powder, cumin and garlic powder are essential here, but feel free to change up the other spices to suit your preferences.
If you love this sauce: Check out more of my Mexican recipes here!
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
Nope. Nope nope. None of this is authentic and my ancestors would be rolling over in their graves if I tried to pass this off as enchiladas
Hi L, I appreciate your feedback. I try to stay true to the essence of the dish, while adding my own spin as a recipe developer. If you have a chance to try this one out, I’d love to hear what you think!
I’ve been trying to learn how to cook on my own since my mom’s a little too busy to always be teaching me. I made these for breakfast and she told me my grandma would cry at this. 0/10 authentic. It doesn’t taste awful, I was able to eat it, but it is definitely not what I’m used to, coming from a Mexican family. My mom said most of the ingredients (like the flour) were plain weird to add. I will now have to beg her to not tell anyone what I’ve made
(T-T).
Gosh I really wanted this to work, but it is so far from the authentic enchilada sauce. We gave it a go and it just did not taste even close to real Mexican enchilada sauce. :/ sticking to our homemade recipe…. thank you for trying.
Hi Kate,
Made this sauce about 6 weeks ago making it again tomorrow with some Burritos I’m making. I like that it’s easy to make and tastes great.
Excellent!!!
Peter
I just made these with the your enchilada sauce, and it was AMAZING!
We supplemented cheese with some vegan cheese, and we also used frozen spinach instead of fresh.
Will definitely make these again, thank you so much!
I made your enchilada sauce last night to get ready for today’s dinner. It is very tasty. The enchiladas are in the oven now. Can’t wait for that first bite. The sauce came together just as quickly as you said. I’m glad I followed your advice and had everything ready to gom
I love this recipe.
Thank you.
What is the music in the video?
Shazam doesn’t know.
Hi Brianna! I’m so glad to hear it. The song is called “Latin Adventure” but it’s from a song download site, so that’s why you didn’t find it on Shazam.
I wanted to make enchiladas with some leftover veggies and beans, but I had no canned sauce on hand.
Turns out, I will never need it again! This is SO tasty and easy.
I ended up using a bit more water than indicated on the recipe to get the right texture. Next time I think I’ll add some fresh tomato chunks just for texture.
Will definitely be making this over and over.
This enchilada sauce is an awesome sauce! I enjoy cooking not only because it always tastes better but, because it’s a mindfulness exercise for me in these stressful times. Thank you for sharing your recipe with us!
Hi, Kate! Love your website and recipes! (And love that you are a fellow Kansas Citian!) This is my go-to enchilada sauce recipe after having tried several others from different websites. It’s fast, easy, delicious and I can make it low sodium (which is required for my family right now). I made it last night for probably the 5th time and decided I really needed to leave a comment and some stars. Thanks for continuing to serve up amazing, tasty food!
Thank you for sharing. Best enchilada sauce recipe!
Can I just say.. YUM! First time making enchiladas and this sauce definitely made the whole dish! Hubby gobbled them up. Can’t believe the sauce was so easy to make, I had every ingredient pretty much already in my pantry. I omitted the vinegar and substituted tomato paste for sauce. I also only had Chile y Lime powder but I feel like it complimented it well!
Delicious and super simple! Had all the ingredients handy at home too. Will be using this from now on! A little spicy for me though so next time will cut back on the chilli powder! Thanks
Super quick and easy! Who knew!?! I will never buy the canned stuff again! Thanks for the great recipe.
You’re welcome, Virginia! I appreciate your review.
DH and I tried this tonight as the base for Chilaquiles and it’s definitely a keeper for us. Thanks for the heads up to measure everything out first. It went together FAST and would have gotten away from me if I hadn’t gathered everything up first.
Absolutely perfectly fantastic! Followed recipe exactly!
This sauce is delicious and easy to make! I made it with oat flour and it turned out perfectly.
Kathryne, this sauce is absolutely divine. I may have measured the ingredients a little under or over than the suggested measurement, however it came out so yummy. Something about cucmin and cinnamon…what an aromatic mixture. Will cherish this recipe with the uttermost appreciation and admiration.
Excellent job and I made a large batch and canned some for future.
I’m mediocre at best at making a roux, so my first attempt at this was an epic fail (burned the flour). The second try was slightly burnt and lumpy, but salvageable. The flavor was good though, so if I make it again, I think I’d try to make the sauce first and then thicken it in a more foolproof way, or just leave it thin.
Have you tried using Masa Harina (corn meal flour) instead of regular flour? I use it in my chili and it gives it such an authentic flavor. I think if I make yours I will use the masa harina.
I haven’t, Nancy! It sounds interesting. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you so much! This was the best recipe I found with a video & great directions. I did adjust it a bit but followed all your directions. I decreased the oil to 1/2 tsp (I took out the flour & used a 6 oz can of tomato paste instead of making a roux) but followed your directions about mixing the oil & spices but then added the tomato paste to mix with the spices before adding the chicken stock; added 1 TBSP honey & 1 TBSP sugar (I might omit the sugar next time); used 2 clove of minced garlic & 1 large onion minced (recently sauteed together) plus 3 TBSP of minced carrots previously steamed (so our sauce was a bit chunky). I was a bit skeptical about the cinnamon (as I usually don’t like it with savory items) but a pinch is exactly what was needed! The sauce was very tasty & the perfect pairing with my cream cheese white sauce I put on top. Thank you for making my enchiladas better than they would have been. :)
Thank you for sharing how you adjusted this to fit your needs!
This sauce is amazing! I added some cayenne for heat and juice of half a lime for a bit more acidity. We had it with your black bean enchiladas. I have yet to find a recipe of yours that I don’t love. Thanks!
I butchered your recipe adding all the ingredients in the wrong order but it’s a very nice tasting enchiladas sauce
Hiya, Sorry if you’ve answered this question somewhere else but do you have a recipe for chilli powder that you use? In Australia chilli powder is ground up chillies and a tablespoon would make the sauce inedible. I understand that chilli powder in the USA is a blend of spices with paprika, garlic powder etc? Looking forward to making this sauce. Thanks.
Hi Bec! I don’t have a recipe. And yes, I have heart that about Australia. I know others have tried a teaspoon and then adjusted in your case. Let me know what you think when you try it!
I made the sauce (with chicken broth) and it was AMAZING. The flavours achieved in this sauce blew my mind! I would definitely recommend it and will be using it again and again x infinity. Thank you for the great recipe.
Hi! The sauce sounds amazing, want to make it but unluckily not able to get my hand on veg broth anywhere. Please can you tell me a vegetarian broth recipe please to use in the sauce. Thank you!
I just made this enchilada sawce and it turned out bomb! I didn’t have tomato paste or vegetable broth but I did have a large can of diced tomatoes, so I pureed the tomatoes and followed the recipe from there. Looks amazing!
This enchilada sauce was the bomb! Husband and I both agree it was the best we’ve ever had. I reduced the chili powder by a tablespoon and added that much smoked paprika plus 2 tablespoons of ketchup because we like a hint of sweetness. So good!
Thank you for sharing!
I will never buy canned sauce again. This was AMAZING! Usually I spend more time on the filling because enchilada sauce is bland… this sauce was the star!
Thanks for sharing!
Love you’re recipes Kate! I used your enchilada sauce and made a vegetarian enchilada filling with Swiss chard, sweet potato, zucchini, black beans, onion and garlic. It was delicious!
Made this recipe when my husband decided he wanted tamales and I didn’t have any canned sauce in the house. I liked that I had all the ingredients in my pantry and it was super easy and fast. My husband loved it! Will definitely be making it from now on. Thanks so much!
i’ve made this a few times. My son told me these were the best enchiladas he ever had! It is super easy to make and so flavorful!
I have been making this sauce for quite sometime. I totally forgot to comment! I have been buying canned / bottle enchilada sauce for YEARS!!! Can’t believe how incredibly tasty, easy and fast this sauce is to make. Thank you!!!
P.S I loveeee your blog. You are one of my favorite and go to food bloggers!
THIS IS NOT TRADITIONAL ENCHILADA SAUCE. WHEREEVER YOU LEARNED THIS. BUT MORE POWER TO YOU.
This looks delicious! Do other helathy flours work like spelt? or maybe tapioca flour (I have it in my kitchen so just curious)? also can chli flakes be used instead of chili powder – that doesn’t really exits where I live
Hi Shira, I don’t know if alternative flours like spelt would work as I haven’t tried it. Let me know if you do! Chili powder is a mix other spices you could try instead.
I tried your Enchilada sauce and it was awesome the only thing I found I did not have vegetable broth so I did chicken broth and boy it was so good and I did add the cinnamon. I would recommend this recipe.
Thank you so much for sharing it.
Muy bien! I used ancho chili powder. Your recipes are always good; thanks for sharing them.
Absolutely loved this enchilada sauce. Never buying canned sauce again. Question I have is could this be canned in a ball jar?
I love hearing that! I don’t know about canning this, but do know it freezes well.
Perfect and easy to make.
We are loving your enchilada sauce at my house! I usually have to make a double batch because the teenage boys stuck home love to use the leftovers on quesadillas and nachos and the like. It’s even replaced one’s favorite salsa for dipping Doritos, and the other has started drizzling it into boxed mac and cheese for extra flavor!
Your enchilada sauce along with whatever meat I can get my hands on, plus a few pantry staples = food that doesn’t feel like giving in to stress or getting shortchanged due to supply issues at the grocery store. Thanks for that!
That’s amazing! I love that this is a go-to and you use it on everything.
This was seriously good and super easy. Perfect recipe
So delicious! Comes together so quickly and stores really well. The whole family loves the enchiladas I make with this sauce!
Fabulous recipe!
I will never buy enchilada sauce again, thank you!
Love this recipe. I’ll never buy store bought enchilada sauce again! So simple to make. I added a teaspoon of chile ancho, adds a touch of a smoky flavor.
I used this on Chile rellenos. Not traditional, but it was a nice addition!
My daughter has a lot of allergies and she is too little to eat spicy. I therefore used gluten-free flour and no chillies. Unfortunately, the flour clumped up and I had to modify the sauce. Since I was not aware that enchilada sauce is made without tomato sauce and just uses the paste, which is usually the base recipe for a tomato sauce in Italy, I added half a can of crushed tomatos and used chicken broth instead of veggie broth. In addition, I added generously garlic powder and McCormick garlic & herb pepper and salt mix to make it into a tomato sauce ala Italien style. The apple cider vinegar gave it the real flavor, which I added at last, as described.
So, so good. I had to go gluten free a couple of years ago and some am always weary of sauces in places that are not marked gluten free. I have been missing the enchiladas with red sauce at my local favorite Mexican food restaurant. I would always order them with extra sauce and an extra side of flour() tortillas for just dipping in the sauce. This recipe is spot on and super delicious!!! Thank you for taking the time to perfect it. I agree, the cinnamon puts it over the top.
Really, really good sauce! The only change was to use verjus instead of vinegar-I don’t know if it changed the flavor much but it was tasty. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
This was easy and very good! It is better than the store bought enchilada sauce. I will be making this again!
Hi. We made this recipe last night since I was out of the enchilada sauce from T joes. And omg it was amazing and easy to make. Thank you.