Red Enchilada Sauce For All Your Latin Dishes
Red Enchilada Sauce is the base for many Latin dishes. This easy recipe is made with powdered chili, Mexican spices and diced for a fresh tasting sauce!
Be sure to incorporate this delicious sauce in this Vegetarian Enchilada Casserole dish!
Red Enchilada Sauce
I’m a pro at making Tomatillo Salsa Verde and love to add it to my meals, but can you believe that I’ve never made a red enchilada sauce?
I’ve been relying on a couple of popular ready made brands that I always see in my grocery store and they taste good, but I recently noticed they are made with not so desirable ingredients like soybean oil and modified food starch, which is not food.
This easy enchilada sauce is made with simple ingredients and it’s simple to make!
Plus, the flavor is delicious!
If you want an enchilada sauce that will tempt you to use it in ways you never imagined (over scrambled eggs, as a dip for meatballs!), then you need to make this enchilada sauce!
Homemade Enchilada Sauce from A Dish of Daily Life!
This recipe is from my friend Michelle who blogs over at A Dish of Daily Life. Michelle recently had a serious surgical procedure done to alleviate some pain she has been dealing with, and thankfully she is recovering nicely, but it’s hard for her to keep the same pace she was used to prior to surgery.
When you have your own business there is no sick-pay or vacation days that you can pull from when you are forced to take a break.
All bloggers rely on traffic to pay for a multitude of things. From the web hosting fees to the energy bill!
To help Michelle out several of her friends are sharing her recipes so she continues to get new eyes on her awesome recipes!
Have you tried her Southwestern Black Bean Corn Salad? I have and it’s fantastic! You also might want to check out this Quick Beef Stew! It looks like it would warm up some hungry bellies!
Easy Enchilada Sauce
You won’t need any special kitchen equipment to make this sauce. All you need is a saucepan, but If you have an immersion blender it’s handy for this recipe.
Although a regular blender will work just fine, so don’t stress over that tidbit.
For this red enchilada sauce Michelle added carrots! Carrots adds a natural sweetness that cools down the chili and it also acts as a natural thickener.
It’s always a good idea to sneak in extra veggies whenever you can!
Can enchilada sauce be frozen?
Yes, Michelle says that this sauce can be made in advance and frozen.
When I made this I used it all up, but boy do I wish I would have made a double batch just to store some for another time.
To freeze, let the sauce completely cool, then put it freezer bags, vacuum bags, freezer safe glass or plastic jars.
This recipe makes about 3 1/2 cups of sauce and if frozen use within 3 months.
Ways to use red enchilada sauce
I used it in place of the green sauce in this Skillet Chicken Enchiladas Recipe and also used in for these delicious low carb enchiladas.
In addition, how about –
- Adding enchilada sauce on eggs
- Enchilada sauce on homemade tamales
- Over burittos
- In tacos
- Inside quesadillas
- Over chicken, beef, fish or porl
Give this recipe a try. I know you’ll love it as much as I do!
Love Green enchiladas? Be sure to try this Green Chile Chicken Enchilada recipe too!
Healthy Red Enchilada Sauce
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil I used 2 tbl butter and 2 tbl olive oil
- 1 medium onion diced
- 1 large garlic clove minced
- 1 cup carrots diced
- 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup chili powder about 2 1/4 of chili packets – see photo
- 2 1/2 cups water
- 1 teaspoon Mexican oregano
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- In a small sauce pan heat oil over medium heat.
- Add onion, carrot, and garlic. Saute until softened and fragrant (about 3-4 minutes).
- Stir in flour and chili powder and then add water slowly, stirring while adding it. Whisk until all ingredients are smooth. Stir in oregano and cumin.
- Bring the mixture to a boil, and then reduce heat to a simmer. Cook for 20 minutes.
- Puree with an immersion blender or carefully transfer to a blender.
- Season to taste with salt.
Notes
Nutrition
Disclaimer
Please note that the nutritional information provided are guidelines and may vary based on the brand of products used. For your specific nutritional goals use My Fitness Pal or Verywell Fit recipe calculators. All content within this site is not intended as medical diagnosis or treatment and should not be considered a substitute for professional medical expertise.
This was my first time making enchilada sauce, and I’m so glad I took the time to make it myself rather than use a jarred sauce. This was so so so so good! I used a really cheap chili powder, so it had a strange bite to it – just added a little bit of sugar and it was perfect. Definitely a keeper!!
Awesome! So glad you made this sauce from scratch! Wasn’t it easy to make and so delicious?!
Thanks for this recipe as I can’t tell you number of times I thought to have enchiladas but did not want to make a special trip to the store just to get the sauce. Just pinned!
Yum! I bet this tastes so good, can’t wait to try it!
You’re so sweet posting your friends recipe! I love the idea behind this sauce. I wonder if I can find Mexican Oregano up here in Canada.
What a great recipe. Now I can make my own enchilada sauce, great! Thanks for sharing.
Yum! This looks tasty! I would probably put this on everything! 🙂
Yum! For some reason I always forget enchiladas as an option for dinner. They are so good! This is a great sauce recipe, thank you!
Enchiladas are really big in this house! We love our Mexican food. I always buy the canned sauce, but I like the idea of making my own! Saves money and I get to know what is going into my food!
I’ve been meaning to try making my own enchilada sauce for a while now! This looks amazing and I can’t wait to try it out!
That looks utterly fantastic! I like the idea of making my own so very much! It’s a money saver too.
I LOVE YOUR BLOG!!! And this sauce sounds delightful! Gonna have to try it out… Thank you!
This looks delightful! We love cooking Latin cuisine at home – I don’t do the cooking though (haha I wish) but my spouse would love this. A perfect complement to our favourite meals!
This sauce looks great! I love making my own enchilada sauce – it’s something that’s almost always in my fridge!
I need to make this soon. My daughter has food allergies and the canned stuff is a no go for us. I didn’t realize it was so easy!
Mexican food is dear to my heart and this does sound like a good sauce.
This sauce looks incredible! It’s always so great to have a homemade sauce that you can just whip out and make anything taste AMAZING. I bet it freezes well, too!