Enchilada sauce is one of my very favorite things, ever. I love when it soaks into tortillas while baking and makes everything all tangy, spicy, and good. Mmmmm. 🤤 But when the selection of enchilada sauce at my local grocery store was less than impressive, I decided it was high time to make some red enchilada sauce myself. This Easy Red Enchilada Sauce is a total game-changer and now I can never go back to store-bought. It has ten times more flavor than anything I’ve ever had from a can and literally takes minutes to make. It’s a total winner.
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Quick Method, Big Flavor
This EASY enchilada sauce is not an authentic enchilada sauce made with dried chile peppers that you’ll find in Texas or Mexico, but it’s a quick and easy version that anyone can whip up in their kitchen using basic pantry staples. But I promise, once you taste it, you won’t regret the shortcuts. It’s still bursting with flavor and you’ll want to pour it over everything. If you want a made-from-scratch with dried chiles enchilada sauce, check out this Authentic Enchilada Sauce recipe from Isabel Eats.
How Spicy is Red Enchilada Sauce?
The “chili powder” listed in the recipe below is a store-bought mix of spices used to season chili. It is not straight chile powder, or pure ground chile peppers, which can be extremely spicy. The brand of chili powder I use is completely mild, but other brands can sometimes carry some heat. If you are using a spicy chili powder, simply reduce or eliminate the cayenne powder from this recipe to compensate. The heat level of the recipe below, using McCormick’s chili powder, is medium spicy, like a medium salsa.
How to Use Enchilada Sauce
Enchilada sauce is not just for Enchiladas! Here are some other great ways to use red enchilada sauce:
- as a simmer sauce for meat (in a slow cooker or skillet)
- as a rich sauce to smother burritos
- combined with eggs and fried tortillas for Migas
- combined with sour cream to make a creamy and spicy dip
- as a replacement for taco sauce
- a soup base (Chicken Enchilada Soup or 30 Minute Posole)
- to sauce up casseroles like Mexican lasagna, enchilada casserole, or Taco Stuffed Shells
But if you do want to use it for enchiladas, make sure to check out these great enchilada recipes: Cheese Enchiladas, Chorizo and Sweet Potato Enchiadas, Black Bean and Avocado Enchiladas, and Weeknight Enchiladas.
Easy Red Enchilada Sauce
Servings 8 ¼ cup eachIngredients
- 2 Tbsp cooking oil ($0.10)
- 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour ($0.02)
- 2 Tbsp chili powder ($0.30)
- 2 cups water ($0.00)
- 3 oz. tomato paste ($0.27)
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin ($0.03)
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder ($0.03)
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper ($0.02)
- 3/4 tsp salt or to taste ($0.03)
Instructions
- Add the cooking oil, flour, and chili powder to a sauce pot. Turn the heat on to medium and whisk the ingredients together. Continue to whisk as the mixture begins to bubble. Whisk and cook the mixture for one minute once it begins bubbling.
- After one minute, whisk in the water, tomato paste, cumin, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper until smooth. Allow the sauce to come up to a simmer. Once it reaches a simmer it will begin to thicken slightly.
- Starting with a 1/2 teaspoon, add salt to taste. I used about 3/4 teaspoon total. The sauce is now ready to use!
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Notes
Nutrition
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How to Make Enchilada Sauce – Step By Step Photos
Start by adding 2 Tbsp flour, 2 Tbsp chili powder, and 2 Tbsp oil to a pot. I use McCormick’s chili powder, which is not spicy, just flavorful, so don’t be frightened by the large quantity in the recipe. All of the heat comes from the cayenne pepper.
Whisk these ingredients together and allow them to come up to a bubble over medium heat, whisking the whole time. Whisk and cook for one minute. This will toast the flour and chili powder, adding to the flavor depth and making sure that the flour doesn’t taste like paste.
After one minute, add 3oz. tomato paste, 1/2 tsp ground cumin, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/4 tsp cayenne, and whisk in 2 cups water (or broth).
Let the sauce come up to a simmer and it will begin to thicken. Taste the sauce and add salt to your liking. Start with about 1/2 teaspoon and add more if needed. The salt will really help bring out the flavors. If you’re using broth in place of water, you might not need to add any at all.
And now you’re good to go! Drizzle this thick and flavorful enchilada sauce over all of your favorite foods and enjoy!
I have avoided this recipe for YEARS because I am an enchilada sauce snob. Coming from Arizona, it’s hard to beat any enchilada sauce (and there are plenty of options to choose from). Now that I’m living in the northwest and sorely missing decent Mexican food, I thought to myself “why not?” And took the plunge. I am a believer now! Next time I’ll try out chicken broth to bring out the flavors a bit more. But this is SO GOOD!
Yay! I’m so glad it passed your test! :)
I will never buy enchilada sauce from the store again! This recipe is amazing!!!! I discovered your recipe after I started dinner only to realize I didn’t have a can of enchilada sauce so I pulled your recipe up and after using it with our enchiladas, quickly decided we don’t need to look any further. So yummy!!!! Thank you!
Has anyone made this gluten free? I’m doing Whole 30 for the month of January and I’ve read Arrowroot powder is a good thickener. Beth do you have other suggestions?
Unfortunately I haven’t tried this with any other types of thickeners. :(
I brought a few tamales home from a family Christmas party. Tomorrow I will be making this red exchilada sauce to top the tamales.
Layers:
Tamales
Enchilada Sauce
Avocado Slices
To put in the oven at 350°
Until Warm.
So looking forward.
I love so many of your recipes, but this is one of my favorites. I make a double batch and store the extra in the freezer. It is so good and easy!
I always thought I didin’t care for red sauce, until this recipe. I’ve been making this for probably 3 years and we LOVE it. There is just so much flavor and it tastes so fresh compared with canned sauce. Thank you!
And I love those ideas from Cynthia Ann Garza, I’ll be making bone broth for the first time day.
This sauce was excellent! Thank you!!!
I’ve always used this recipe for the past 5 years or so, but I finally wanted to comment and say THANK YOU! <3
I'm on a super, super tight budget as of right now, and was about to buy 2-3 cans of Enchilada sauce for $1.50/each. Then it came to me… That I should just use your receipt! Instead, I bought a can of tomato paste (41 cents!) and made 4 cups from scratch with spices that was already in the pantry.
Thank you, thank you for saving me $4.50!
Awesome!! That makes me so happy to hear! :)
Just used this recipe for dinner & it came out sooooo great. I prefer more garlic powder so I used a lot more than you suggested lol but it’s still so delicious!
Since tomato paste comes in 6 oz cans, I always just double the red enchilada sauce recipe. I always use one part of the double batch for enchiladas of different kinds, some discovered here.
I freeze the other half. I use it for adding spice kicks for other foods. This past few days, I have moved from the freezer to the refrigerator a single batch of the enchilada sauce and a few cups of chicken bone broth and a few cups of leftover slowcooker chicken–these 3 food items that I learned how to make here. I have used these 3 items to make quick I-have-a-respiratory-problem food. Semi-homemade chicken soup–bone broth, red enchilada sauce for tomatoe-y spice kick to which I added some Birdseye’s basic mixed vegetables. I added some instant brown rice. Could have been egg noodles or instant white rice or even just some crackers or croutons.
Tonight I used bone broth rather than just regular broth in my pantry-item tomatoe soup. To this I added some of the red enchilada sauce to give my soup a spice kick. I topped with some cheese but anything that the cook prefers to top his/her tomatoe wpsoup would work.
Just in case anyone is interested.
Such a wonderful recipe! I made a tweak though because I had no Tomato Paste. I drained a can of tomatoes including using a masher to get the juice out. The 2 cups of resulting juice I heated up and added (2) chicken bouillon (organic with no salt) while the tomatoes were put on a baking tray with parchment paper and into a 350degree oven for about 45minutes stirring them a couple of times. This dried the tomatoes out including roasting them for extra special smells and flavours. I then added everything (juice and dried tomatoes) into the flour roux and blended it until smooth (using a hand blender) along with the other ingredients on the recipe. The dimension of flavours is totally awesome! Thank you for such a great recipe!
I was forced to make some alterations. I thought I had cumin, turned out I was wrong. I did not have tomato paste, but I did have tomato sauce, so I altered the water mix and added granulated sugar to taste when I found it was full of flavor and not quite sweet enough… due to lack of tomato paste. Also, while I was measuring the ‘dark’ chili powder, as I had to choose between ‘mild’ or ‘dark’ with my supplies… the chili powder broke loose and hard telling how much I actually wound up with. A LOT. It turned out kind of dark and quite spicy. I was worried about how chunk it seemed, but I let it cool and put it in the fridge and when I pulled it out and heated it back up it was quite smooth and ABSOLUTELY AWESOME. I will never ever buy enchilada sauce again. I will be buying some tomato paste and cumin and trying the actual recipe in the future… but the way it came together was FABULOUS. Thank you!
I’ve been making this sauce for…5 years now? I found it when I was just figuring out how to cook, and I’ve never bought a can of enchilada sauce since. I have my own tweaks; I use chicken broth instead of water and adjust the salt accordingly. I also use butter instead of oil and cornstarch instead of flour. It’s the magic I crack out for first-time company and it never fails to impress. Thanks for posting this so many years ago. I’ll never deviate!!!
LOOKS YUMMY
Omg, we love it!!!
Never again going to buy enchilada sauce in a can !!!! Nope!!!
I’m going to use this easy red enchilada sauce recipe from now on!
This is my fourth time making it! !! Lol
Thank you!!!