Easy Red Enchilada Sauce

I have made this Enchilada Sauce a few times now and have enjoyed it as an addition to my favorite recipes. I appreciate the relative ease of its creation. It tastes like it should be harder to make for how much of a punch it packs!

I’ve poured this twice over vegan enchiladas, and today poured it over Mexican Stuffed Peppers. It bakes well and provides rich moisture to both dishes.

I made this recipe only with New Mexico Chiles and the flavor is decidedly mild, which is to my taste.

Thank you Minimalist Baker!

I made a number of adjustments due to not having all ingredients called for but it turned out sooo good! I roasted two jalapeños, six garlic cloves and one medium onion cut into large wedges. I had no more peppers so I added ancho and chipotle powder in addition to New Mexico chili powder. Instead of water I used one 15 1/2 oz can of tomato sauce and the same size can of diced tomatoes and a tablespoon of vegetable bouillon, plus the other spices called for in the recipe. I think I’m going to use it for salsa this time. Oh, I blended everything in the blender till smooth. So yummy! Sorry I had to substitute so much but I had to work with what was on hand.

I made this enchilada sauce to use in the stuffed butternut squash recipe. It was excellent. I used 5 mild New Mexico, 1 Guajillo and 2 chilies de arbol. I didn’t have enough tomato paste, so I threw in a few sun dried tomatoes while everything was cooking. I did use more liquid to thin and at the end added some sherry vinegar and 3 drops of stevia. It was delicious, seriously delicious. Not too spicy and I think the zing of the vinegar gives it little push. If you use chipotle in adobo, I think you’d get a similar zing.

My first time making enchilada sauce and it turned out great!! I used guajillo peppers, 2 arbol peppers and followed the exact recipe. It has a nice smokey/spicy flavor but would suggest using 1 or even 1/2 of an arbol pepper if you don’t like heat. I used the sauce to make roasted veggie enchiladas and they were delicious. The recipe was easy to follow and I was able to make the sauce while roasting my veggies. Will definitely be making again!!

bitter and seedy. needed to put the sauce through a strainer at the end. recipe should state to remove seeds from the ancho chili first. not loving it….. added maple syrup to take the bitterness away a bit. disappointed. not my go to enchilada sauce.

Love love the smokiness of this enchilada sauce. I used avocado oil first to sauté the onions and garlic and added a total of 4 chiles de árbol for a little more spice. It came out perfect and still not super spicy. Made this tonight with some Mexican rice for my boyfriend and son (both picky eaters) and they loved it!

This is an incredible authentic enchilada sauce recipe. We double the amount of cumin. A must make recipe. Great on huevos rancheros!

I’ve been researching how to make enchilada sauce using guajillo chillis and this recipe was exactly what I was looking for. I made other enchilada sauces that were similar to this recipe and the tomato paste was a great addition. I didn’t have other types of chilies and it still turned out great. The only thing I would do differently next time is to take out most of the seeds because the sauce was a bit bitter.
Thanks for this recipe!

I made this enchilada sauce along with the recipe for black bean enchiladas on your website, everything turned out so good. I made the enchilada sauce just as you have it on here, it was a little spicy for me so I added a dash of maple syrup- turned out fantastic and was just the right amount for 16 enchiladas, it was also easier than expected. This will definitely be my go-to enchilada sauce recipe.

Thank you!!

This is delicious!! I like a little heat so I used 5 arbol chilies, and a mix of guajillo, ancho and pasilla chilies because that’s what I had on hand. I also used chicken stock and only half a tsp of cumin. This will be my new go to enchilada sauce recipe. Thanks!!!

Excellent! I made exactly as per the recipe but used only 1/2 tsp smoked paprika because it is a very strong flavor. Very delicious. Thanks for all your great recipes!

Hello from the UK!

I didn’t have the chillies in the recipe, but used all the spices and my own home grown chillies -variety unknown. Labelling not my strong point. However I loved the method, and turned out well.

Similar to many of the other MB recipe’s this has become the new staple that will replace store bought sauce. Came out incredible with using guajillo chilies and 2 fresh lemon peppers from the garden. Kept the Enchiladas simple and this sauce made them outstanding! Another incredible recipe!
BTW – Froze the MB Veg Broth & Enchilada sauce successfully.

Just made, absolutely delicious!! So good am making another batch. Live in Vancouver, Canada but grew up in California. Thank you for giving me a taste of home. Made exactly as written.

I have made this 4-5 times, along with a few others that I have found on the internet, but this is by far my favorite. I don’t use the “spicier” chiles because someone in my house isn’t into any heat, and that’s easy for us flame throwers to add separately. This recipe is the reason to always have dried chiles on hand…I also add a pasilla chile because that’s my personal favorite.

I LOVED this enchilada sauce. I made my best batch of enchiladas to date. I used two arbol chilis and 7 guajillo chilis. At first, I was worried it would be too spicy once I blended the sauce but once everything was compiled, it was perfectly spiced!

Very easy – incredibly good! I will be using this recipe again.

Next time, I will probably use a little oil to cook my onions though – it was difficult to keep my garlic from burning.

After searching enchilada sauce recipes, yours was the one I found using dried Chile’s. This is a keeper!

Oops forgot rating :-)

Yum! So delicious and way easy. Thank you, and so do my burritos and nachos!

This sauce is delicious and rich. I chose to use New Mexico dried chilies and skipped the Arbol peppers because my husband does not like spicy heat. Even without the Arbol peppers, this sauce packed a spicy heat punch, so be aware of that. The flavor is wonderful though!

I made this for the black bean plantain enchiladas. I debated getting store-bought because this looked like so much work. SO. WORTH. IT. And I was able to save half and put it in the freezer for next time!

First time making an enchilada sauce from scratch was a success thanks to this recipe! Super easy and tastes great! I did omit the arbor chilies as I was concerned about the sauce possibly being too spicy, and because I didn’t have any on hand. Without them the sauce is very mild. I plan on adding them next time I make this recipe.

I love sauces from scratch and this one is easy and doesn’t disappoint. I use a mix of New Mexico Chiles and ancho and add a chipotle Chile when blending. I’ve made it a couple times and it’s my new go-to.

I made it with guajillo, ancho, New Mexico and árbol chiles. Thank you for recommending which to use. I seeded and stemmed because my daughter finds everything too spicy. This was still a little too spicy for her but it was fantastic. Unbelievably easy and vegan too. I had to make it in a flash since I didn’t tealize I was out of enchilada sauce and the specialty store I get good sauce from was too far for me to leave in the middle of cooking. Thanks for this. Really turned out nicely.

Made this last night and it was so easy and delicious! So, so much better than store-bought.

I’m looking forward to trying again with different chillies and seeing how the flavour varies. I used 7 x dried guajillos and 1 x chipotle (from a can in adobo), and I used Vegeta as my veggie stock. I did find it was a bit too overpoweringly spicy (and I have a pretty high threshold) but I just put in a bit more tomato paste and about 100ml of cream and it fixed it right up.

Definitely would make a double batch next time!

This was so, so good and so easy. I’ll definitely be making it regularly.

Fabulously easy to make, with brilliant results. I used some home made veggie broth, guajillo peppers, and left out the extra chillies. It was the perfect level of medium spicy for me. The texture is velvety and the sauce goes with everything- I tried it on millet burgers, on pierogis and on avocados. Super yum in all cases. Thanks for your wonderful and inspiring recipes!

Wow, I just made a crockpot chorizo black bean potato stew and it was missing something. Then I remembered I had about cup of your leftover enchilada sauce in the fridge. Bingo! It really added a depth of flavor that was missing. I love it when I can creatively use up bits and bobs in my fridge and appreciate when your recipes do the same.

Nice Sauce! Sure love to have that.

I used guajillo chilies but had no arbol. So for heat, I added one small can of el pato hot tomato sauce. Seriously, that stuff rocks, my Mexican neighbor turned me on to it. I also skipped the blender and transferred everything to a large mouthed mason jar and used my immersion blender. Really tasty and easy!

Ya, I love this sauce so much. I tried this recipe with my friend. Thanks

Followed the recipe with exception of chilies (used ancho instead of New Mexico). When I removed the stems, I also discarded much of the seeds in the ancho and arbol chilies. It resulted in a very smokey, rich, dark sauce that we will definitely make again. We topped the enchiladas with cilantro, avocado, lime juice and vegan sour cream.

Oh mamasita! As a newbie to Mexican food (and loving it!), I’ve been looking for an easy, delicious red salsa for tacos and burritos for some time. My search is over!! When this arrived in my inbox, I knew I had to give it a try. So, I just made it and it is so easy and so delicious…I wish I would have followed your advice, Dana, and made a double batch! Having said that, the recipe as is makes a healthy amount of sauce. I did add a handful of cilantro to the blender at the end. A keeper of a recipe for sure! Muchas gracias, Dana!!