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.
This is a delicious enchilada sauce. I use chicken broth in place of vegetable broth because that is what I keep in my pantry. It subs out fine. I make this all the time! Five stars!
Thank you! I’m happy it worked well for you, Sarah. I appreciate your review.
I love this recipe fresh, but when I froze it, it didn’t come out well – goopy and not homogenized, despite thawing it in the fridge overnight without heat. I allowed it to fully cool before freezing, per instructions. Is there something I can do to smooth it out after thawing?
Hi Jessica! I’m sorry to hear that, did you give it a good stir again? Did you gently reheat it at all?
I did stir it thoroughly, and I added about a half cup of hot water to about a cup of sauce. I still used it in my recipe, and it still had excellent flavor; the texture was just a little off.
I made this as a substitute for store bought. I have to admit it smells and tastes more authentic.
Made this last nite and turned out great! Delicious! You are right I will not buy sauce again! I had all ingredients at home already
Thanks for sharing!
Made this enchilada sauce last night, a first from scratch. Absolutely delicious! The cinnamon gave it a complexity that was rich and fragrant. Great directions, solid timing…Second blue ribbon favorite recipefrom Cookie and Kate in my kitchen! Probably not the last.
Thanks this turned out fabulous! Pretty flexible recipe. I used a mix of straight cayenne and paprika as the chili powder because we like spice. I didn’t have tomatoe paste so I just replaced some of the broth with canned tomatoes and cooked down a bit. Turned out great.
This was easy to make and fantastic. Thank you sooo much!!!
So. Much. Flavor. This recipe is wonderful and has made me excited to make enchiladas more of a regular thing! To anyone trying to decide if they want to take the time to make this–it’s worth it! Be sure to add the cinnamon. Canned sauce, what??
I’m excited you love this one, Amy! Thank you for taking the time to review.
I have made this recipe twice it is as good as mine with all the beef flavoring in it. Actually I like it better ! And very versatile with its uses.
I have made this with chicken broth, veggie broth, and beef broth. All Good!
This is my kind of enchilada sauce. They aren’t all equal.
I’ve only used canned enchilada sauce, even though I’ve never been happy with the flavor. I tried this, and it is so easy and, more importantly, delicious. I’ll never buy enchilada sauce again.
Subbed lime juice for the vinegar – such a yummy sauce!
The enchilada sauce was delicious! I did make it using masa harina and 1/2 chicken stock + 1/2 beef stock. It turned out beautifully and I was able to use it for both enchiladas AND as the base for a pot of chili. Thank you for taking the time to write out your recipe.
We love it! the perfect combination of spices.
I’m glad it was a hit, Tracy! Thank you for your review.
I’ve had a bunch of chili powder that I got from Chimayo, NM in my freezer for quite some time. I started using it in this enchilada sauce and now I’m worried I’ll run out! Enchiladas have become one of my very favorite meals to make and it’s all thanks to this delicious sauce. My favorite enchiladas to make are a combination of some of your other recipes: the red quinoa/black bean mix from your taco salad recipe (in the book) is my favorite filling along with the sauteed red onion/green pepper with cumin/cinnamon from the broccoli enchilada recipe. It’s a delicious combination!
Sauce is incredibly smooth and silky! I was thinking it would be spicy with the full amount if chili powder but it was not spicy enough. Overall, best enchilada sauce i have tried!
SOOOO YUMMY!! We loved it so much we used it as a dipping sauce with tortilla chips, or topping on tacos! Brilliant flavors!
This is impressively good! Quick and easy! I made your recipe out of curiosity as I had just finished making Enchilada Sauce from 3 types dried roasted chilis, ancho, guajillo & pasilla chilis. Along with roasted onion, tomato & garlic, cumin, Mexican oregano & veg broth. I wanted to try your recipe immediately to compare and I must say I was very impressed. I used only ancho chilis powder (two heaping teaspoons) for your recipe and its great. I’m from California living in England now and homesick for Mexican food. Love the Internet!
This sauce is insane. I will never use another recipe after this!
Love to hear that, Jen! Thank you for sharing.
Excellent and easy! Made it last night and followed the recipe exactly. Took note of some comments about flour, so I cooked the flour/spice mix for 6 min to toast out the flour taste.
When done it needed just a little more spice for me so I added 1.5 tsp chili powder, 1tsp lemon juice, 1\2tsp sugar to heighten spice and flavor. YUM
Thanks for sharing!
Very good recipe! Thank you
Mary
Thank you for reviewing, Mary!
First time making homemade. I’m never going back. This was amazing
Hooray! Thank you for letting me know you loved it, Krista.
I just made this tonight and it was really easy and delicious!! Definitely making this again!
This is such a great and simple recipe. I have used the canned/bottled and never was satisfied. My husband who is Hispanic said it was better then our local restaurant’s and amazingly better than store bought. It is so easy and does not take all that long. Perfect on my enchiladas.
That’s a great review! I’m happy to hear it met his standards. Thank you for sharing!
I am I have made this it is so gritty & thin. What’s going on
Hi Kim! I’m sorry to hear that. Did you follow step 4?
I made the Best Enchilada Sauce recipe tonight. My husband really liked it & I was glad it was a “from scratch” recipe as I try to cook from scratch as much as possible and not used processed foods.
I will be making this again in larger quanities to freeze for future use.
Didn’t think making enchilada sauce at home would be this easy!!
I’m happy you loved it, Chan! Thank you for your review.
What does the vinegar do? Doesn’t seem like enough to taste it.
Thanks for the recipe
Hi! It adds in the flavor overall. You don’t want to taste vinegar in it. I hope that makes sense!
This is a great recipe. I doubled it. The only thing I didn’t double the oil and flour. Are you 4 tablespoons of butter in 4 tablespoons of flour.Someone made a comment that it tasted like flour so I cooked butter and flour in the pan first and cooked the flour for a while before adding the rest of the spices. It worked out very well and I love it. I also added about 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper . Excellent results.
I’ve been making something similar to this for a while but used tomato sauce. For your recipe I made it exactly as you listed which I think is the only fair way to judge. Your sauce is an improvement over mine. I still get the good earthy flavor, but your sauce with the addition of the vinegar gave it that aluminum can tang that is kind of a guilty pleasure for me. Anyway great easy recipe. Thank you.
Thank you for your comment, Tommy!
Thank you Kate, your black bean enchiladas with this sauce is my family’s favorite vegetarian meal.
This sauce was absolutely delicious!! I made one change. I am oil free, so i used the tomato paste (i used about 3T.) in the beginning to mix the flour and spices instead of oil. Turned out amazing!
Hi, I was looking for a not very spicy version of the enchilada sauce for my kids.This recipe was delicious and full of flavour.
Thank you very much.
After raving about this recipe and making it for my family and my roommate, I thought I should let you know how much I love it! I never liked enchilada sauce before trying this recipe, and now I literally want to eat this by the spoonful. Thank you for sharing your gift–your recipes are easy to follow and always turn out great!
I’m on a low carb diet. Can I use xanthun gum instead of flour or just skip the flour entirely?
Hi! I don’t know if you would get the same result. If you try it, let me know.
This is absolutely the best enchilada sauce I’ve ever tasted. I will never buy another can! Next time I’m doubling the recipe and adding the cinnamon! Thank you for sharing this recipe. ( I didn’t have vegetable stock so used chicken but still came out amazing)
On a vacation in Mexico I had carrot sauce on enchiladas. They were so good. Any idea how to make that sauce? A carrot based enchilada sauce!
I’m excited you love it that much, Joanne! Thank you for taking the time to review.
I love how savory this sauce came out! Instead of the tomato paste and broth I used a 24 ounce can of stewed tomatoes. The bright zing of flavor from the apple cider vinegar and cumin brought together the sauce. I used this recipe for my enchiladas today. The smoothness of wheat flavor worked great too!
This sauce is freaking awesome I just made it and I used beef broth and added about a tablespoon sour cream and this is delicious. I will never buy canned enchilada sauce again.
Easy, quick and delicious! Thank you.
This is my go-to recipe for enchilada sauce, and everyone I cook for loves it! Thank you for the great recipe :)
Very disappointed! In no way is this even close to the real thing. If you like this flavor this provides then enjoy it, but if you are wanting the taste of an authentic enchilada sauce then DO NOT try this.
Hi Steve, I’m sorry you didn’t like this recipe. I’m surprised since so many have enjoyed it and stated its authenticity. What do you feel it is was missing?
Hi. I have been making enchiladas for decades. I started using your recipe about a year and a half ago, and it is perfect! I use low-sodium chicken broth instead of vegetable because I dislike the sweet taste, but other than that I make it exactly as written (yes, even the vinegar) and it is always super good. I have made it dozens of times. I just wanted you to know. Thanks for a great recipe.
Hi C+K, I have been making enchiladas for decades. I started using your recipe about a year and a half ago, and it is perfect! I use low-sodium chicken broth instead of vegetable because I dislike the sweet taste, but other than that I make it exactly as written (yes, even the vinegar) and it is always super good. I have made it dozens of times. I just wanted you to know. Thanks for a great recipe.
I’m so delighted you are using my recipe and loving it! I appreciate your review.
Made this tonight and added about 1 tablespoon of Chipotle pepper. I then had my husband do a taste test between store bought and your recipe. He liked yours much better. He just thought it needed more heat,hence the Chipotle pepper. Very good, thank you!
Wonderful, Tammy!
Excellent enchilada sauce. As everyone else promises, I will never purchase canned sauce again!
This is absolutely the best enchilada sauce I’ve ever found! Such a deep, rich flavor! I did add the dash of cinnamon, and I am so glad I did. It gave it this other wondrous flavor, almost close to a mole. I’m not sure, given the rather standard spices in it, why they combined to give such a complex flavor. Hubby and I liked it so much, we made it again by quadrupling the quantities to freeze and give some to my kids.
Note: I did make it once more after that, with GF flour, and I might have screwed up the process abit with the heat – follow her directions EXACTLY to get the same, smoky complex flavor. I might have been off technique, or it was the GF that did it (daughter has G issues) I will make again with GF and see if it was the flour or not following the technique.
Thank you, Diane! I’m so glad to hear it. I have made this sauce with gluten-free flour and it ended up exactly the same as the regular version, so I hope yours turns out better next time. GF flours vary from brand to brand. I usually use Bob’s Red Mill!
It’s pretty good. However. The tomato paste doesn’t work. Changes the authentic taste. Being from Texas and all . It works for those who want mild sauce. But true Mexican spunk is missing. I had to add a lot more spice before I realized it was the tomato paste throwing it off. Good for gringos though.
I’m sorry to hear you didn’t love it, Jane. I do my best to keep recipes as authentic as I can, while adding my own interpretation. I appreciate your feedback.
Excellent recipe! Needed it in a pinch when I realized I forgot to pick up sauce from the store. The only change I made out of necessity was instead of two cups vegetable broth, using one cup tomato sauce and one cup water. Delicious and the family loved it!
I’m glad it worked out with your changes, Meliss!
Super easy and was fantastic! So much flavour! Anyone can cook this no matter how new to the kitchen you are. I added some smoked paprika for a bit more heat. 10/10
Thank you, Hudson! I’m happy you loved it.
This has the perfect amount of chili powder. I used ancho chili powder. I used marjoram instead of oregano. I think they’re in the same family and I like it better. I added some cayenne pepper b/c we like it spicy. Forgot the vinegar at the end, will add it next time.
Thank you for sharing, Cheryl! I appreciate your review.