Homemade enchilada sauce?

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My first husband's mom and sister, who were from Mexico, used to make it from scratch. They would buy those big dried red arbol chiles, soak them, then hand-squeeze the pulp from them and used that to make the sauce. I tell ya what, it was the best enchilada sauce I ever had in my life. My ex-mother-in-law has passed away, so I cannot call her and ask her how she made the sauce, but I will keep my eyes and ears open for a good recipe. I wouldn't mind making/canning some of this myself. I'm growing all kinds of peppers this year.
 
HHandbasket said:
My first husband's mom and sister, who were from Mexico, used to make it from scratch. They would buy those big dried red arbol chiles, soak them, then hand-squeeze the pulp from them and used that to make the sauce. I tell ya what, it was the best enchilada sauce I ever had in my life. My ex-mother-in-law has passed away, so I cannot call her and ask her how she made the sauce, but I will keep my eyes and ears open for a good recipe. I wouldn't mind making/canning some of this myself. I'm growing all kinds of peppers this year.
Click to expand...

Sounds like your husbands mom really knew what she was doing. Maybe someone from BYC knows how to do this. If not I'm sure theres a recipe some where that can be shared.
fl.gif
 
The good new is that it is SIMPLE to make, the bad news is there are thousands of variations! It really depends on your tastes and what you are accustomed to. This is a favorite at our house, courtesy Jamie Renee at food.com
You will probably want to double the recipe, I do.
  • 3 tablespoons chile powder
  • 3 tablespoons flour
  • 1 tablespoon chicken bouillon
  • 1 teaspoon cocoa powder
  • ½ teaspoon garlic salt
  • 1 teaspoon oregano
  • 3 cups water You may not need so much depending on how thick you like it.
  • 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
Directions:

  1. Combine all dry ingredients in a small bowl.
  2. Stirring constantly, slowly add enough of the water to make a thin paste.
  3. Pour into pan and add rest of water.
  4. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens.
  5. Stir in tomato sauce.
  6. Use in your favorite enchilada recipe.
  7. The amounts on the ingredients are very flexible.
  8. For instance, if I am feeding my kids who do not like"spicy", I will halve the chili powder and double the tomato sauce.
  9. Experiment to suit your taste, but don't leave out the cocoa.

I would highly recommend you head over to food.com and look through the 1500 plus that show up.

​
 
Last edited:
Sounds very good and easy. I'll give it a try. Thanks HudokFarm!
smile.png


HudokFarm said:
I used this sauce recipe a few weeks ago when I made enchiladas with some leftover pork I had: http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/condiments/homemade-enchilada-sauce/

The only thing I changed was that I added part of a can of chipotles in adobo sauce and I used bacon grease instead of vegetable oil. It was excellent and very easy to make.
Click to expand...


This looks like a good recipe too. If there are that many variations it sounds like I'll have to just try them all until I find the one I like best!
big_smile.png
Can't wait until next enchilada night!


Frogdogtimestwo said:
The good new is that it is SIMPLE to make, the bad news is there are thousands of variations! It really depends on your tastes and what you are accustomed to. This is a favorite at our house, courtesy Jamie Renee at food.com
You will probably want to double the recipe, I do.
  • 3 tablespoons chile powder
  • 3 tablespoons flour
  • 1 tablespoon chicken bouillon
  • 1 teaspoon cocoa powder
  • ½ teaspoon garlic salt
  • 1 teaspoon oregano
  • 3 cups water You may not need so much depending on how thick you like it.
  • 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
Directions:

  1. Combine all dry ingredients in a small bowl.
  2. Stirring constantly, slowly add enough of the water to make a thin paste.
  3. Pour into pan and add rest of water.
  4. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens.
  5. Stir in tomato sauce.
  6. Use in your favorite enchilada recipe.
  7. The amounts on the ingredients are very flexible.
  8. For instance, if I am feeding my kids who do not like"spicy", I will halve the chili powder and double the tomato sauce.
  9. Experiment to suit your taste, but don't leave out the cocoa.

I would highly recommend you head over to food.com and look through the 1500 plus that show up.
Click to expand...

​
 
Here in Texas the most common sauce is a Tex-Mex gravy. It's so good and you can put it on many things besides just enchiladas. It's really good for making Wet Burritos.

4 Cups of Red Sauce


4 Tablespoons of lard or bacon drippings
6 Tablespoons flour
4 cups water
5 chicken bullion cubes
1 tsp. ground cumin
2 Tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4-cup tomato sauce
dash of Cayenne Pepper

Melt the fat in a large saucepan over low heat. Add the flour and
cook and stir until the flour is lightly browned. Add the water and stir with a wire whisk until smooth. Add the bullion, chili powder and cumin and tomato sauce, cook until smooth and bubbly. Cover and simmer on lowest heat, about 10 or 15 minutes – I let it cook while I put the rice together. Gravy should be very thin, if not add a little water to thin it out.
 
Those recipes ALL look good! I'll have to try them. I may see if I can get in touch with my ex-sister-in-law and find out how she made her sauce. I can tell you this much... they never, EVER used tomatoes or tomato paste or tomato sauce in their enchilada sauce. Personally, I don't know how they did it without tomatoes, so I'll try to see if I can get in touch with Alice and see if she'll share her secret. Besides, it'd be nice to pass that on to my sons and their families.

ETA: I use Las Palmas Enchilada Sauce. Of all the canned sauces, it tastes the closest to what my former in-laws used to make from scratch. Old El Paso is sweet & the wrong consistency. El Pato is pretty good. When we lived in Louisiana, it was really hard to find Las Palmas sauce. I used to have my mother ship it to me from California.
 
Last edited:
I've read that Trader Joe's is the best canned on the market, I thought I would pick up a can next time I go to try. I have made it without tomatoes as well, the kids didn't like it because it was pepper (dried then soaked) based, that one went into the recycle bin.
 

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