My favorite homemade enchilada sauce recipe is easy to make with pantry ingredients, it only requires about 5 minutes of prep time, and it tastes so flavorful and delicious.
My best tip for kicking your homemade enchiladas up a delicious notch?
Use this homemade enchilada sauce! ♡
This recipe for Southwestern-style red enchilada sauce has been the starring ingredient in my favorite enchilada recipe for years and years. And every time I bake up a batch of enchiladas for a gathering, friends always ask for the recipe.
By contrast to many Mexican-style enchilada sauces, this recipe does not include tomatoes but rather centers its flavor around a rich blend of seasonings that you likely already have in your pantry (chili powder, cumin, garlic and oregano). On its own, the sauce is naturally fairly mild, although you are welcome to amp up the heat if you’d like. And its deliciously warm, toasty, earthy flavors pair perfectly with any variety of enchilada recipes.
The good news too is that this recipe only takes about 5 minutes to prep, plus an additional 15-ish minutes to simmer on the stove. It’s naturally vegetarian, vegan and can also be made gluten-free if you’d like. It’s made entirely with pantry ingredients, and can be customized to be more spicy, smoky, tomato-y, or even creamy if you prefer. And I must say — it’s a million times better than the canned stuff!
Thousands of our readers have made and loved this recipe over the years. So if you have yet to give it a try, I say it’s time!
Homemade Enchilada Sauce Recipe | 1-Minute Video
Homemade Red Enchilada Sauce Ingredients:
To make this easy enchilada sauce recipe, you will need the following ingredients:
- Oil and flour: These will form the roux to thicken the sauce. You’re welcome to use any type of neutral-flavored oil (or butter) that you prefer. And while I typically use all-purpose flour, you are welcome to sub in a 1-for-1 GF flour blend instead to make this recipe gluten-free.
- Chili powder: For all of our international readers, please note that this recipe calls for American-style chili powder, which is actually a blend of various chilis and seasonings, including a typically small percentage of cayenne. (Most chili powders sold outside of the States are 100% cayenne, which will not work for this recipe.) I recommend investing in a good-quality brand of chili powder for this recipe, since it is the primary seasoning for this sauce. But keep in mind that chili powder blends vary from brand to brand, so it’s worth experimenting with a few to find the one that you love best!
- Garlic powder, ground cumin, dried oregano: These are the other dried seasonings that we will use in the sauce. Feel free to increase the amount of any one of these once you have tasted the sauce, if you would like.
- Veggie or chicken stock: I also recommend using some good-quality stock in this recipe, which will add a delicious depth of flavor to the sauce.
- Fine sea salt: And finally, don’t forget to season the sauce! I typically add in about 1/2 teaspoon, but the amount needed will likely depend significantly on the brand and saltiness of the stock that you use.
How To Make Enchilada Sauce:
Here are the basic steps for how to make enchilada sauce (full instructions included in the recipe box below):
- Cook the roux and spices: In a small saucepan, we’ll first cook the flour and oil together to form the roux, and then whisk in the spices to briefly toast them in the saucepan before adding in the stock.
- Simmer: Gradually add in the stock while whisking the sauce, in order to blend in any lumps. Then bring the sauce to a simmer and let it cook (you want to maintain a low bubble) for 10-15 minutes, or until it has reduced to your desired thickness.
- Season: Season with salt (or any extra seasonings that you might like to add) to taste.
- Serve: Then serve it up in a pan of enchiladas or whatever recipe sounds good…and enjoy!
Possible Variations:
This recipe is quite flexible, so please feel free to tinker around with ingredient amounts and customize it however you prefer! For example, you could…
- Make it gluten-free: You can either use an 1-for-1 gluten-free flour blend, in place of the AP flour. Or you can omit the flour and instead add a cornstarch slurry (equal parts cornstarch and cold water whisked together) to the sauce once it is simmering to thicken it.
- Make it creamy: Whisk in 1/2 cup of heavy cream to turn this recipe into a delicious creamy enchilada sauce.
- Make it spicier: Feel free to add in a pinch or two of cayenne to make this sauce even spicier. Or alternately, you can choose to use ancho chili powder in place of standard American chili powder, which has a smokier and slightly spicier flavor.
- Make it milder: American chili powder should naturally be quite mild. But if you are wary of heat, feel free to start with 2 tablespoons (instead of 4 tablespoons) of chili powder in the recipe. Then once the sauce has simmered, give it a taste and feel free to add more if you would like.
- Make it smokier: Feel free to swap some of the American chili powder for chipotle chili powder, if you would like this sauce to have a smoky chipotle kick. (Also note that chipotle powder is considerably spicier, so this version would pack more heat too.)
- Add tomato sauce: If you would like to have a more tomato-y enchilada sauce, you are welcome to add a few tablespoons of tomato paste to the sauce.
Ways To Use Enchilada Sauce:
Here are a few of my favorite ways to use this easy enchilada sauce:
- Enchiladas: This red sauce works on just about any kind of enchiladas, such as my favorite chicken enchiladas, beef enchiladas, or roasted cauliflower enchilada.
- Soups: Enchilada sauce is a fantastic way to season soups, such as my slow cooker chicken enchilada soup, cheesy chicken enchilada soup, or sweet potato enchilada soup.
- Casseroles: If you don’t feel like rolling up your enchiladas, try ‘stacking’ them into a casserole, such as this chicken enchilada casserole (one of our readers’ favorite recipes!).
- Nachos, Cups, Skillets and More: I also love using this sauce in other enchilada-inspired recipes, such as my easy enchilada cups, chicken enchilada nachos and this easy enchilada skillet.
Red Enchilada Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil or olive oil
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup chili powder (see note below)
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
- fine sea salt, to taste
Instructions
- Cook the roux and spices: Heat oil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add flour and cook for 1 minute, whisking constantly. Add in the chili powder, garlic powder, cumin and oregano and cook for 1 more minute, whisking constantly.
- Simmer: Gradually pour in the stock, whisking constantly to combine until no lumps remain. Continue cooking until the sauce reaches a simmer. Then reduce heat to medium-low to maintain the simmer (the sauce should continue lightly bubbling) for about 10-15 minutes, uncovered, until the sauce has slightly thickened.
- Season: Give the sauce a taste and season with salt, as needed. (I typically add 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, but the saltiness of the sauce can vary depending on the brand of stock that you use.)
- Serve: Use immediately in your favorite recipe and enjoy!
Notes
Did you make this?Let me know how it turned out in the comments below!
Instead of canola or vegetable oil, wouldn’t a good virgin olive oil give better flavor?
We feel like in this particular recipe, a neutral oil works best, but you can certainly use olive oil if you want!
Who knew it was this easy?!??! So yummy, I loved it and will be making another batch very soon!! Thank you :)
Awesome, we’re so glad you enjoyed it Holly! :D
Chili powder varies in spiciness between brands. Some countries have a consistency of heat and flavor. North American chili powder is more commonly mild to not spicy at all. Where areas of Eastern Asia have a much more hot spiciness.
This is in a group of Tex-Mex recipes but this is *not* Tex-Mex thank goodness! This is more like our traditional Mexican enchilada sauce. I have secret ingredients that I add but this is great.
I use a very mild chile powder and add Kashmiri chile powder for heat and less garlic. Kashmiri has a nice flavor and I prefer it to cayenne.
If this were Tex-Mex, which we don’t like and we live in Texas, it would be loaded with tomato products that were initially added to appeal to non-Mexican people. Thus, most people who make their own these days add tomatoes because they think that is where the red color comes from. Tomato products of *any* kind are not used in traditional enchilada sauce! LOL
I personally love New Mexico enchilada sauce too and it is really orangy and really hot. It has a completely different flavor you might like to try.
Nice job! : )
OH EM GEE!!! This recipe is amazing! Thanks for rescuing me :)
Thanks Nisi — we’re glad you enjoyed it! :D
This was way too salty for me ( I didn’t even ADD any salt either) and needed the flavor balanced out for my palette. I added a few tablespoons of tomato paste, a dash of jalapeño Tabasco and would probably add some sautéed puréed onion when I make it again in the future. I’ll also use a higher quality chili powder since this seems to be the soul of the sauce.
We’re sorry to hear that! The only thing we can think of is the type of chili powder. We really have found that the nicer brands make a huge difference in taste. We hope that helps — we appreciate your feedback!
Okay, I’m baffled… why gluten free flour? I know it’s trendy to go gluten free these days and if you’re gluten intolerant or have Celiac Disease than of course gluten free flour. But I don’t regularly have gluten free flour on hand and I’m wondering if I can use regular all purpose flour, or corn starch as a substitute. I’m dying to try this in your enchilada soup recipe.
Hi Audrey, we’re a bit confused. The recipe states “all purpose flour or gluten-free flour.” We use all-purpose flour when we make it, but we know several folks have gluten intolerances or Celiac’s, which is why we list gluten-free flour as an option.
OMG! I made your red enchilada sauce along with the stacked chicken enchiladas and my oh my what
a hit!! Totally loved it, the sauce is so tasty and so easy. Since I love the taste of cumin, I added a half teaspoon instead of a quarter! A keeper, glad I came across your website!
We’re so glad you enjoyed the sauce and the enchiladas Velma! Thanks for giving the recipes a try, and for taking the time to comment! :)
Ok, so a few things:
First, i definitely have the chili powder that makes the sauce brown, not red, which was a little off putting for me, but that obviously has nothing to do with you guys! second, i followed the recipe exactly (I’ve been over it a dozen times!) and it just tastes grainy, and a little burned. like the time it took (for me, less than a minute) for the flour and oil to combine was too much. Where did I go wrong? I added extra broth because it tasted so off. I can’t say that I’m an expert in enchilada sauce, but i did grow up in SoCal on some pretty good mexican food, so I was kind of surprised. I’m certain that it was me who got it wrong, but i can for the life of me figure out what!
I almost didn’t even continue with the enchiladas, but i decided to go ahead and see if the whole thing together tastes better. i made myself a little mini enchilada and it was pretty good, but i only added a little sauce. so we will see!
note: I am not a natural cook.
Hi Liisa! Different chili powders have different colors, but that shouldn’t affect the taste. Depending on your stove, it’s possible that your burner was just really hot and might have burned the flour/oil roux. We would recommend you whisk the roux constantly so that it doesn’t burn, and then follow the rest of the recipe as directed. Some brands of chili powder might also taste a little more charred, so you could also try experimenting with a different brand. We’ve found that nicer-quality brands really do taste better. We hope this is helpful!
This is the second time I have used this receipe it is totally awesome, I actually had to search to find it again. I have saved it this time though. I like it hot so I add a teaspoon of cayenne pepper, that’s just me though.
Thanks for sharing Bob — we’re so glad you enjoy it! :)