Enchilada Sauce Recipe (2024)

Enchiladas is one of our favorite meals for a weekend and even a week night dinner. It’s made by rolling meat and vegetable mixture inside a tortilla, covering them in sauce and cheese, and baking rolled tortillas with sauce. Between the sauce, soft tortillas, cheese, and meat filling it is a very flavorful and comforting dish.

I have made so many different Enchiladas, we can’t possibly narrow down to the best one. Although some of our favorite ones include Shrimp Enchiladas and Beef Enchiladas Verde.

For many enchilada variations, I made its own sauce to compliment the filling but when it comes to the classic chicken or beef enchiladas, I make the classic sauce. This sauce is made with a base of canned crushed tomatoes and onion and in addition, it’s flavored with chipotles in adobo sauce, chili powder, garlic, and a few other spices.

You can also easily adjust this recipe if you plan to make beef enchiladas or chicken enchiladas. For beef enchiladas, use beef stock in the sauce and for chicken enchiladas, use chicken broth.

Crushed tomatoes– use plain or fire roasted crushed tomatoes but not flavored ones.

Chipotles in Adobo Sauce – Chipotles in adobo sauce provide a great flavor boost but don’t overdo it. If you add too many chipotles, the sauce will become more bitter. I add a little bit of sugar to balance out the slight bitterness from the peppers.

Flour – all purpose flour works well and you can substitute gluten free all purpose flour if needed.

Beef stock/broth – you change change the stock depending if you’re making chicken enchiladas or beef enchiladas. Use homemade stock if you happened to have some on hand.

Seasoning – Chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, oregano, garlic powder, salt, and sugar. Sugar provides the perfect balance to the spicy and savory flavors.

See recipe card for complete information on ingredients and quantities.

This is a pretty quick recipe, so have all of you ingredients ready before starting to cook.

Preheat a cooking pot over medium heat and add oil and onion. Sauté until until onions are softened and sprinkle flour over the onion (1). Stir until onions are evenly coated.

Slowly pour in beef stock while stirring constantly (2). Add can of crushed tomatoes (3) and all remaining ingredients (4).

Stir well and bring the mixture to simmer and lower the heat to medium-low. Let it simmer for a few minutes (5).

Transfer the content of the pot into a food processor and blend well until smooth (6). The sauce is ready for making enchiladas!

How to Make Enchilada Sauce More Spicy?

Can I Make Enchilada Sauce Ahead of Time?

How To Make Enchilada Sauce Gluten Free?

Storing Instructions

To store Enchilada Sauce – Before storing, make sure to let the sauce cool to room temperature. Pour cooled sauce into a glass jar and close it with an air-tight lid. Store it in the refrigerator for 5-7 days.

To freeze Enchilada Sauce – pour cooled sauce into a zip-lock freezer bag, let all the air out, and close it tight. Label the bag with a date and what is inside and lay flat on a cutting board. Let it freeze for about 2 hours and then you can stand it up or stack it in the freezer. Frozen sauce can be stored for 2-3 months.

Note: you can also make a double batch of this sauce and portion it into 2-4 freezer bags.

To thaw – pull the bag of frozen sauce out of the freezer and into the refrigerator about 24 hours before you need to use it. Let it slow-that in the refrigerator until thawed, up to 24 hours.

Some More Recipes To Try

Creamy Steak Enchiladas

Homemade Enchilada Soup

Cheesy Vegetable Enchiladas

Enchilada Cheese Dip

Spanish Rice

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