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!
So what makes this chili powder red? I’m in Australia. Used only 1/2 tsp chili powder but mine isn’t red. What am I missing. Do I need to find red American chili powder ?
American chili powder almost always has paprika in it, which lends to the red color.
Your recipes look amazing and oh so healthy. Can’t wait to try roasted cauliflower with enchilada. Should be easy as I have all ingredients. Let you know. Thanks
I just made the roasted cauliflower enchiladas last night but added broccoli and mushrooms to my roasting pan. Paired with this enchilada sauce, they were so, so good. I usually prefer meat (or at least eggs) for the main course, but the veg enchiladas held their own.
Shockingly good. Used it for veggie enchiladas (zucchini, mushrooms, spinach, bell pepper, onion) tonight and even our picky 3 year old cleaned her plate. Being from Austin I’m picky about my Tex-Mex, but this is definitely a keeper.
ALERT TO AUSTRALIANS: Our chilli is definitely WAY hotter and this is far from a mild sauce, I even tried going easy and only using 2 tablespoons of the chilli powder – I can’t recommend this sauce because we could barely eat the enchiladas and had to scrape most of the sauce off before we could eat them and I’m usually okay with spiciness.
After research on your comments and others it seems American “chilli powder” isn’t that at all if you live outside the USA. It’s a blend of herbs and spices that you use to make the Mexican dish chilli.
Here’s a recipe from another site as to what goes into the chilli powder ( hardly any actual “chilli or cayenne” mainly paprika, cumin etc.)
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/237172/chili-powder/
Hi Renee, I’m Australian and am making this sauce with a mexican chilli powder I found at woolworths I tasted it before and still has some kick but nothing compared to the masterfoods ground chilli, alternatively you can make your own chilli powder blend and control the heat. I hope this was helpful cheers mate!!!
So does this sauce turn out red like traditional enchilada sauce? Or do I have to add tomato sauce or paste?
Hi Ali, I’m hoping you can help me. I enjoy making new and different meals for the two of us. We live way up in Ontario Canada and most people don’t seem to make Mexican dishes. I’d like to change that for us by starting with your red and green enchilada sauces and progress to all your posted recipes that use your homemade sauces. My problem is I’m not familiar with chilies, chili powder etc.. I also can’t handle even medium spiced dishes but my husband can. Could you please guide me through your sauce recipes by possibly keeping the flavour profiles but not much of the heat. I certainly may be asking too much and taking too much of your time. If that’s the case I shall muddle through on my own with absolutely no negative feelings what so ever. Thank you for reading my lengthy post and enjoy what’s left of our summer season! Sincerely, Kendra
This was a flavorful sauce made with my from scratch chili powder (Alton Brown’s recipe). I doubled the recipe plus I added a couple of tablespoons of chipolte chile powder to my chili powder. OMG – spicy but delicious sauce for my chicken enchilada casserole. A great base recipe to tweak to my liking. Thanks for sharing.
How would I use real chilis? Or dried California chilis?
I made my own w/ real chilies instead, but rest of recipe as written is what I do as well and its delicious :)
2 dried ancho chiles, stemmed, seeded, and torn into 1/2-inch pieces (1/2 cup)
Dried chiles vary in size and weight. You’ll get a more accurate measure if you seed and tear them first; you need about 1/2 cup of prepped chiles.
Toast chiles and other spices you’re using like whole cumin, in 12-inch skillet over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Transfer to spice grinder and let cool for 5 minutes. Add garlic powder and oregano and grind to fine powder, and you have home made chili powder!
Hope i wasn’t annoying adding directions to an already amazing recipe I just really love this dish <3
I can’t ever imagine ever buying enchilada sauce again after using this recipe. It was so delicious and had such depth of flavor. I used it in your Chicken Enchilada recipe. As a bonus, it’s a snap to whip this up. I used Penzey’s spices for all the dried spices called for.
Anyone not in America – BE AWARE American style Chilli Powder is NOT the same as Ground Chilli Powder… I made this last night with 4 tbsp Ground Chilli, and wow it nearly blew my socks off! After a bit of altering, it was certainly tasty, and a very good sauce. I will use the recipe again, but will amend the amount of chilli that goes into it and find a good ratio of spices to replace it with.
yep… made this last night.. Australian chilli powders must be made from ghost chillies!! Blew my head off – tried to adjust with tomato paste and sauce plus sugar… Was still waaaaaay to spicy even for my “Add’s hot sauce to literally everything” husband. Plus I am 4 months pregnant.. I couldn’t finish what I was craving and had to throw the whole batch of enchilada’s out :(
Sorry to hear that, Melissa. Yes, unfortunately that’s why I include so many recommendations for American chili powder. I tried making this once when visiting our family in New Zealand, and the chili powders down there are completely different (so much spicier).