Homemade Red Enchilada Sauce
For years, I relied on enchilada sauce packets for my enchiladas. Desiring to cut down on sodium and processed ingredients, I sought out an easy homemade red enchilada sauce. The version I found on All Recipes became a staple, though I’ve made a few tweaks to suit my taste, as shared below.
Recipe Steps
This recipe for red enchilada sauce is wonderfully simple yet bursting with flavor. It yields a generous amount of enchilada sauce for a pan of 12 enchiladas.
Begin by sautéing garlic and onions until the onions are translucent. Then, add the remaining ingredients to the pan and simmer for 25 minutes. I’ve made a few modifications to this enchilada sauce, such as swapping tomato sauce for drained Rotel, reducing half a cup of water, and adjusting the spice quantities for a thicker sauce. I often use Frontera Tomatillo salsa, as it’s a leftover ingredient from the Cilantro Crema I often make. Homemade salsa is also an excellent alternative.
While you can leave the sauce chunky, I prefer a smooth consistency, so I blend it before assembling the enchiladas.
As I mentioned above you can see the full original recipe at All Recipes.
Homemade Enchilada Red Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp. Avocado Oil
- 3 Cloves Garlic minced
- ½ tsp. Dried Oregano
- 1 Tbsp. Chili Powder
- ½ tsp. Dried Basil
- 1 tsp. Dried Parsley
- 1 tsp. Ground Cumin
- ¼ tsp. Salt
- ¼ tsp. Cracked Black Pepper
- 3 oz. Tomato Paste
- ¼ C Salsa
- 1 Can Original Rotel drained
- 1 C Water
Instructions
- Heat 1 Tbsp. avocado oil in a sauce pan then saute the garlic and onions until the onions are translucent.
- Add the remaining ingredients to the pan and bring to a slow boil. Then reduce heat and simmer for20 minutes.
- Use an immersion blender (or regular blender) to blend the sauce until smooth. Then it is ready to use to make Enchiladas.
Nutrition
Victoria Cook
Victoria is a passionate home cook who became the host and chef of over 100 episodes of a private cooking show tailored for wellness practitioners and their patients. With a love for ethnic cuisines, she enjoys using a variety of spices and fresh ingredients to create flavorful, healthy meals for her husband and son. Always up for a culinary challenge, Victoria finds joy in experimenting with new recipes—and if she can whip them up in an electric pressure cooker, she’s even happier.