Ditch the can, this Homemade Enchilada Sauce will make you feel like you’re at your favorite Mexican restaurant in fifteen minutes!
Make your favorite Mexican Food dishes at home with this homemade sauce that’s perfect on everything from yummy Oven Baked Beef Tacos to savory Enchiladas to filling Casserole Bakes!
This homemade Enchilada Sauce recipe is the base recipe used in many of our inspired Mexican recipes. It is so easy to make you can keep it in the fridge and ALWAYS have it in the freezer because truth be told, making this in bulk will be a game changer. This recipe is scaled down so you could make a quantity for one meal, but after you make it once you’ll be doing in it bulk too!
Enchiladas themselves are a culinary dish developed in Mesoamerica before the time of Columbus. It was, and continues to be, a staple food amongst the peoples living in the region. Enchilada meals simply consists of a corn tortilla rolled around a filling of your choice. It is often topped with a yummy sauce, like this Enchilada Sauce.
If you master a few simple sauce recipes, you can make several meals on a weekly basis right out of your Kitchen Pantry. Find the ones you like and repurpose them into various dishes that your family loves, so when it is 6:00 pm and you are completely drawing a blank on dinner you can go into the freezer, grab a sauce and make an easy dinner, like Classic Chicken Enchiladas.
How to Make Enchilada Sauce
This is so easy to make! It is literally heating and mixing simple ingredients on the stovetop!
- Step One: Heat flour and chili powder on medium-high heat, mixing well.
- Step Two: Mix the other ingredients in a medium bowl and add to the pan.
- Step Three: Whisk for a bit until thickened and ready to serve!
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Frequently Asked Questions
If you’re looking for an option that doesn’t have so much heat, try using a light chili powder. The dark chili powder used in this recipe has more spicy heat than the light counterpart.
It can be hard sometimes to introduce spice into the diet of young kids, so this recipe is a perfect one because you can adjust the spice level to suit your family, and it complements lots of food that young kids like. Try marinating chicken in this sauce before grilling to add a ton of flavor that the kids will enjoy right alongside you.
Want to make a spicier enchilada sauce? Just add a couple teaspoons of cayenne pepper, or to taste.
If you are using low sodium tomato sauce, the sauce might come out a bit more tangy for your preference. You can add a tablespoon or two of sugar to cut the tang.
You can use cornstarch or arrowroot as a thickener instead. At the grocery store, there are also gluten-free flour options as well.
Additionally, just add a small 6oz can of tomato paste to the pot while cooking. Stir it in really well.
We don’t think so. If you’d like less of a chili flavor, use a light chili powder and only use 2 tablespoons instead of three.
This recipe makes 2 cups of sauce by volu
No. You’ll never again want or need to use canned sauce after having learned this recipe.
The glass in the picture is a great versatile kitchen item. They are old school French glasses that you buy with lids that you can put on the top and store. They are inexpensive and heavy duty, and they double for drinking glasses!
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Key Ingredients in Enchilada Sauce
The simple pantry ingredients listed here should be regularly stocked up at home so you never run out of amazing meals to cook for your friends and family.
- Tomato: This recipe uses canned tomatoes. Be sure to look for the one’s that aren’t pre-seasoned. Just check the ingredient list.
- Spices: This recipe is using garlic cloves and powders like cumin, chili, and onion powder to bring a depth of flavor. Of course, you’ll season with salt to taste and can even add a bit of black pepper for a kick.
- Broth: You can use the chicken broth for deeper flavor. Vegetable broth and water are fine substitutes as well.
Variations and Substitutions on Enchilada Sauce
Take your favorite enchilada recipe and make it your own!
- Tomato Sauce: An equal amount of pureed jarred salsa works great in a pinch!
- Broth: You can use vegetable broth or low sodium chicken broth if you prefer without problem. You can also simply use one or two cups water instead.
- Oil: Any low flavor oil like avocado, canola, and olive oil also works in this recipe. We don’t suggest using coconut oil or oil past its expiration date.
- Green Enchilada Sauce: The chili powder and tomatoes give Enchilada Sauce its red coloring. If you’d like to try a green one, simply replace the tomato sauce with an equal blend of green tomatillos and green chili, like in our copycat Green-Chili Salsa recipe. To turn the chunky Green-Chili Salas into enchilada sauce, simply continue to purée until completely smooth before serving. Too spicy? Try adding a quarter cup of sour cream or half and half to the blender for a creamier version of green enchilada sauce.
10 Ways to Use Enchilada Sauce
This sauce is a versatile sauce beloved in traditional Mexican households. Here are 10 of the best ways you can use this sauce that includes enchilada recipes and other favorite recipes.
- Chicken Enchiladas: These cheesy and delicious enchiladas are perfect for a midweek dinner. (Tip: Because pre-shredded cheeses contain an additive to avoid clumping, they also don’t melt as well as you’d hope so it’s a good idea to always shred your own.)
- Mexican Lasagna: You can use tortillas instead of noodles, layered with Mexican shredded cheese, and ground beef to make a fun and easy meal
- Chicken Tamale Bake: Spicy and made from scratch, this yummy chicken recipe is all natural and amazing!
- Taco Sauce: You can add a dash or two of smoked paprika to the recipe to make an amazing sauce to put on your tacos.
- Burritos “Enchilada Style”: top your Burrito with this homemade Enchilada Sauce, some shredded cheese, and bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes.
- Creamy Enchilada Sauce: Mix with sour cream for a creamy spicy sauce (top almost anything with this, like the Cheesecake Factory Tamale Corn Cakes).
- Taquito Dip: Mix with sour cream as a dip too, for things like taquitos and Ultimate Totchos which are nachos made with tater tots instead of chips!
- Taco Salad Dressing: Mix with Ranch Dressing for a taco salad dressing your whole family will love.
- Huevos Rancheros: Top your layered tortillas and fried eggs with Enchilada Sauce for easy huevos rancheros, a traditional brunch served on rural Mexican farms. Serve with Easy Refried Beans.
- Yummy Marinade: This recipe works as a great marinade for chicken/pork too! Just scrape off the excess and grill on a cast iron griddle until ready.
Bonus: Serve your homemade enchiladas with a refreshing Avocado Tomato Corn Salad and some Beans & Rice for a complete feast! And don’t forget Cinnamon Sugar Tortilla Chips for dessert!
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How to Store Enchilada Sauce
- Serve: Refrigerate sauce after allowing to cool to room temperature. Keep it out for no longer than 2 hours.
- Store: Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
- Freeze: This sauce freezes so well, and can be heated straight from the freezer in a pinch. If you do have time, thaw in the refrigerator overnight. It can be stored in the freezer up to 6 months.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 3 tablespoons chili powder
- 1 8 ounce can tomato sauce
- 1 cup chicken broth , (water can work too)
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon garlic , minced
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Heat the vegetable oil in a saucepan on medium heat.
- Add the flour and chili powder and stir.
- Cook until the bright red color turns a bit brown while stirring.
- In a small bowl mix the tomato sauce with the rest of the ingredients until it is fully blended.
- Add to your saucepan and whisk until fully mixed.
- Cook for 8-10 minutes on medium heat until thickened.
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Photo used in a previous version of this post.
can you double this or triple it?
thank you
Yes 🙂
Awesome sauce! Easy and delicious!! Teresa
If you have access to an Indian Marke try this with fresh ground Kashmiri Chilies (instead of the stale store bought Chili Powder), than add a dash of Cayenne or Chipotle for some heat.
Kashmiris are incredibly mild, yet flavorful, and are known as one the brightest reds of any chilis grown.
Thanks for your suggestion.
Made this tonight and used it in my chicken enchiladas and it was so delicious. I had never made my own enchilada sauce before and will never buy canned stuff again! Super easy and so yummy. I could eat it by the handful. Thank you for sharing and will make often. ?
I used a pint jar of fresh canned whole tomatoes. I used an immersion blender to get it to a sauce. Best sauce ever.
I don’t have any canola oil on hand…would it be best to sub woth vegetable oil or corn oil?
You can use either as a substitute. Enjoy!
Going to try this enchilada sauce. Sounds easy and yummy!?
I hope you love it!
Love this recipe. Came out very good and my kids loved it too. I cook alot of mexican food and this was flavorful. 1 thing i did add was a 1/2 teaspoon of creamy peanut butter. I use it in another enchilada recipe. And instead of the onion powder i minced 1qtr onion with the fresh garlic cloves. Came out good.
This sauce is AMAZING!! I have to make enchiladas almost every other week now because the sauce is so good! So happy I found this recipe 🙂
Yay! I’m so glad you love it!
Me and my 13 yr. old son tried your enchilada sauce recipe and it is definitely delicious, it is now on our list of favourites, thank you very much 🙂
Can you make the enchilada sauce and freeze?
Yes 🙂
I made it for seven people. Way too spicy! When I looked back at recipe thought wow 3 tablespoons of chili powder. Was this an error? Do you mean 3 teaspoons? Might still use recipe but definitely reduce chili powder. I only use two tablespoons in a whole pot of my chili recipe.
3 tablespoons is correct but feel free to adjust to your liking.
Making it now, tastes so much better than anything in the store. I used Better than Bouillion Beef because I’m making enchiladas from left over carnitas (with cheese, chopped onion and cilantro). I know this sauce will make this a perfect leftover dish. Thank you.
3 TBsps of chili powder too much . I used 2 and it was too much.
Rude. If you don’t like it don’t make it again. Or adjust how much chili powder you use and give the woman credit for her time and effort sharing her recipe…
Thanks for the recipes.
Thus stuff is awesome. I used two fresh romas, boiled, skinned and hit with a stick blender instead of canned sauce. Perfect!
Sabrina, this is an absolutely great, simple sauce recipe. I used brown rice flour instead of wheat flour to thicken it, and it worked just fine. I also added 1/4 tsp. of ground cloves. I made a double batch of the sauce and used it to make a layered chicken enchilada casserole in a 13×9 baking dish. Great way to use up leftover chicken and vegetables!
Made this tonight and it was really good!! I tripled the recipe , it was enough for two 9×13 pans of enchiladas with about a quart left over. I followed the ingredients as written, I was a little concerned it may be to spicy for my family but it wasn’t because they went back for seconds. I do find that some chili powder brands are spicier than others so maybe start with less to test the flavor and then ramp it up if you feel like the heat is okay for you. I have been using a different enchilada sauce recipe and wanted something thicker and this one is just perfect for me and so easy! Thank you!!
Many are talking about chili powder vs powdered chilis. This is the recipe I use all the time, just mix them up and wah-lah! Store bought, USA chili powder:
2 tablespoons paprika
2 teaspoons oregano
1 1?4 teaspoons cumin
1 1?4 teaspoons garlic powder
1 1?4 teaspoons cayenne pepper
3?4 teaspoon onion powder
I saw a similar recipe but with way too much cumin, which tastes like tacos more than chili.
Hope this helps!
Ps. Excellent recipe, only I like 1 TBS of butter and three oil (instead of 1/4 oil). 🙂
The sauce taste great but mine came out rather thick do u have any idea what I could have done wrong I cooked according to recipe with no changes. Thank you!
If you followed everything, I’m not sure why it would be thicker. If you’d like to troubleshoot, send me an email at contact @ dinnerthendessert .com and we can try and figure it out.
This looks and sounds DELICIOUS! Can’t wait to try it!
is it ok to use cornstarch instead of flour? If so, do we need to change the measurement at all?
I’ve not tested it but the general rule is use half as much cornstarch as you would flour when substituting. If you decide to try, I’d love to know how it turns out. Thanks!
Try Gebhardt’s chili powder. It is not hot at all and gives a delicious chili taste. That way, you can add cayenne or other types of chili pepper powder and adjust to your heat level. Gebhardt’s is the only chili powder I use for seasoning and then I add cayenne powder to give it a little kick.
I just made this after realizing that the tomato sauce in my recipe would not do the trick, needed more! Thanks for sharing, never thought of making my own Enchilada Sauce. I found this a little too hot for me, guess I can just cut back on the chili powder.
I made this and it was delicious but it came out WAY darker red than what you show.. how can I fix this?
I’m thinking it could that the chili powder you’re using is darker than the one I’m using. Try using a lighter colored one and see if that helps. 🙂
This is so darn GOOD! Im tempted to eat it as soup it tastes so good hahaha. AMEN!
Haha, love it! Thanks for the 5 stars, Rose.
This is always my go to recipe and always tastes great. Fast and simple directions.
Good idea, but IMO the proportions are wrong. 1.5 TBS of chili powder, not 3. 1 tsp of cumin, not 2. 1 tsp of onion powder, not 1/2. 1/2 tsp of salt, not 1/4. Finally, use a 14.5 oz can of chopped tomatoes, instead of an 8 oz can of tomato sauce.
Feel free to customize this how you’d like. 🙂
Thank you for a simple recipe that is going to work as a base for many yummy meals to come, tonight it’s enchiladas! I had a small can of sauce, but needed more. I had all ingredients on hand so I dove right in. So glad I did! Very good taste, too easy to prepare and the many different preparations you listed I’m sure will be sensational.
Love this!
Very nice sauce!
Hi Sabrina, trying this now but only have vegetable and olive oil. Would I be able to substitute? And which would be better?
You can use either. 🙂
Thank you again for this wonderfully easy sauce…I am making homemade chilli from scratch and decided to start with this sauce as my basic mix…smelling amazing in my kitchen currently!!!
Thanks for dropping by to let me know! Thanks for the 5 stars, Cheryl!
Did I already review this recipe (I made it about a month ago)? I love this recipe! I made it the first time with tomato paste and water since I was out of sauce. It was fantastic, but I forgot to add what would have been the broth, so it made just enough for one tray. Today, I made it again with tomato sauce and veggie broth since I’m making vegetarian and vegan enchilada trays tonight. Even more outstanding! (I used ground guajillo chile powder to keep it mild for my kiddo.) I keep eating the sauce while I am making the fillings for the enchiladas. I’m so impressed you got this exactly right. Phenomenal, cheap sauce.
Thank you so much, Laurel! I’m so glad you enjoy it!!
I just made this sauce…absolutely amazing and easy!!! I cook mexican food all the time but have always steered clear of enchilada sauce because I so dislike the canned version. I found your recipe and decided to give it a try…thank you so very much!!! I can’t wait for my family to try it tonight!!! I totally give it 5 stars!!!
Love your pics and recipes. Everything looks so inviting….you know how they say” YOU EAT WITH YOUR EYES….SO TRUE”
Definitely true! Thank you so much for the compliment.
I made this recipe and it turned out really dark brown, not red at all. What did I do wrong??
I’m thinking the color might come from the the chili pepper you used for this recipe. Is it brown or red?
OMG, so easy and flavorful! I may never buy canned sauce again.
Susie
I was really surprised that I only found one comment about the amount of chili powder in this recipe. I checked several times to make sure I had done everything as the recipe said as I was confused because I never had a bright red (orange) color——it was a rusty brown right off the bat from the chili powder.I am going to try this recipe again as we did like the flavor but found it to be kind of bitter with all the chili powder——–I will use only 1 tablespoon next time.I
Feel free to adjust to your liking. 🙂
This was easy and very good. I had to add some more broth because it was too thick. I will keep this for sure and not buy canned sauce again. I’m sold!
Delicious!
Thanks for the 5 star rating!
Really good, but I found it needed 1/4 tsp of cocoa powder to really pop.
is it really 3 tablespoons of chili powder?
Yep 🙂
This was a very well balanced sauce, it starts savory, then the tomato, an follows with some heat. I did swap out 1 tsp. Of the regular chili powder for a tsp. of ancho chili powder to give it a smoky flavor.
Thanks for the substitution suggestion! So glad you enjoyed it Jeff!
When you say ‘tomato sauce’, do you mean ketchup or something like Italian passata? Pureed, seived tomato?
Pureed seived tomatoes 🙂
Way too much Camino (Cumin) for that amount of Sauce. Cumin leaves a bitter aftertaste if you use to much. 1 Teaspoon Cumin for this amount of sauce is plenty. Otherwise recipe very similar to Emiril Lagasse’s Easy Enchilada sauce.
I made this sauce today and it was wonderful!!! I love spice and flavor in general, so the 3 tbsp of chili powder wasn’t too much for my or my husband’s taste… I saw several posts stating that it was too spicy, but chili powder isn’t actually spicy (hot), but rather adds a deepness of flavor, I’d describe it more as smoky. It was darker than the picture, but that could be because I let the chili powder, oil, and flour cook for a few minutes longer.. Just a thought, perhaps some people might be confusing chili powder with a different hot spice containing chili peppers? Either way, Great recipe and I’ll never use a canned enchilada sauce again! Thanks for sharing!
Easy and very tasty.
Sabrina, as I reviewed the recipe for Frito Pie i was getting hungry! then I saw enchilada sauce and was almost set to delete it when I saw the HOMEMADE sauce! I have dietary restrictions and salt is one. This is why I love your recipes…not alot of canned and processed foods. Tomorrow is Frito Pie for me! Tytyty!
Awww, this just made my day! Thanks Linda!
I love your recipes! Please include a few of your favorite vegetarian dishes. Houseguests are coming…Thank you!
I have a whole category of vegetarian dishes for you to look through, but some of my favorites are Olive Garden’s Ziti al Forno, Thai Noodle Salad, and Parmesan Garlic Crash Hot Potatoes.
I have never commented on a recipe I made from Pinterest(that I can remember) but this one is worth taking the time. After avoiding making enchiladas for a couple of years because of the yucky canned sauce from the market I decided to make my own. Pinterest offered many, many recipes. This one caught my eye because of the cute glass container pictured. Logic is my middle name. I made a double batch of this because I had faith it would be good. Score! This is a definite keeper! I did only use 4 tablespoons of chili powder for the double batch). It was spicy enough for us but I may put in a scoshe more next time. I have enough left to freeze which Is great!
I’m so glad you loved it! I’m honored to be your first recipe you commented on 🙂
We had one enchilada left from last evening’s dinner and some leftover Mac and cheese from a couple of days ago. We split the enchilada and had the Mac and cheese with it for lunch today. I put some of that awesome sauce on my m&c and OMG, it was sooo good. I love a recipe that makes me want to have it A LOT!