This quick and easy Enchilada Sauce recipe uses simple pantry ingredients and only takes 15 minutes to make. It’s cost effective, healthier, and tastes better than anything in a can.
Looking for more Mexican recipes? Try my Tacos Al Pastor, Chicken Quesadillas or Horchata.
The Enchilada Sauce that ruined me (in the best way)
The Enchilada Sauce that ruined me (in the best way)I’m going to stand proudly on my soapbox for a moment because this homemade red enchilada sauce recipe deserves our attention, and will steal your heart. It’s the easiest way to next-level some of our favorite dishes, like enchiladas, wet burritos, and tamale pie, with unbeatable flavor. But besides the fact that the taste superior to it’s “canned” counterparts, here are three more reason you should make enchilada sauce from scratch:
- Healthier, lower in sodium, and less inexpensive.
- Pantry ingredients – you probably have what you need to make it. And, if you’re looking for a more authentic version made with dried Mexican chiles, use this red chile sauce recipe, with beef broth in place of the pork broth.
- Quick – you can have this whipped up in just a few minutes, and the taste is unmatched to anything in a can.
Ingredients Needed:
- Tomato Sauce
- Flour: to thicken the sauce. For a gluten-free version, substitute 1 tablespoon cornstarch for the flour.
- Beef Broth: Vegetable broth of chicken broth would also work.
- Oil: vegetable, canola or avocado oil.
- Dry Spices: Oregano, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper
- Garlic
How to make Red Enchilada Sauce:
Stir oil, flour, chili powder, cumin and oregano in a saucepan on low heat until bubbly.
Add beef broth, tomato sauce, garlic and salt.
Simmer on low heat for 15 min, stirring occasionally.
Make Ahead and Freezing Instructions:
To Make Ahead: Homemade enchilada sauce will keep in the fridge for up to one week.
To Freeze: Freeze in a freezer bag or freezer-safe container for up to 3 months.
Use Enchilada Sauce with:
- Cheese Enchiladas
- Chicken Enchiladas
- Vegetarian Enchiladas
- Wet Burrito
- Mexican Pizza
- Huevos Rancheros
- Tamale Pie
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Recipe
Red Enchilada Sauce
Ingredients
- 3 Tablespoons oil (vegetable, canola, or avocado oil)
- 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup chili powder
- 1 Tablespoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
- 2 cups low-sodium beef broth
- 2 1/2 cups tomato sauce
- 1 clove garlic , minced
- salt to taste
Instructions
- In a saucepan stir oil, flour, chili powder, cumin, and oregano together. Cook on medium heat for 2 minutes.
- Add beef broth, tomato sauce, garlic and salt. Simmer on low heat for 15 min, stirring occasionally.
- Store in the fridge for up to 1 week. Use in a variety of recipes, like cheese enchiladas, loaded chicken enchiladas, and veggie enchiladas.
Notes
Nutrition
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*I originally shared this recipe in March 2013. Updated February 2019, April 2022 and April 2024.
This post contains affiliate links.
The best enchilada sauce EVER! What a difference from the canned versions. I will never buy it again!
Super easy and unbelievably delicious!!!
Delicious! Best enchiladas sauce recipe!
Glorified tomato sauce. For enchilada sauce, you need ancho peppers, pasilla peppers, or the like.
Never in my years of cooking enchilada sauce have I ever used beef broth, you use chicken broth.
This is just tomato sauce with chili and cumin.
My family really liked this recipe. We have never made homemade enchilada sauce before. We made the recipe as stated. We found it to be medium spicy some heat but not overwhelming. I used inexpensive spices from Aldi/Walmart. Definitely will make again!
Unfortunately this recipe did not work for me. I think 1 tbsp of cumin is too much. I should have started with 1 tsp and went from there. The amount of cumin really made everything stink. I think the chili powder I used was too spicy as well. My husband loves really spicy food, and he was choking on this. I wasted good ingredients on this and am really disappointed. Don’t recommend
Tried it. Love it. Mods: addtn of 1/2 tsp garlic powder (instead of clove), 1 tsp onion powder, 2 c Vegetable broth (Better Than Bouillon). No salt/pepper.
Thus far I have tried and loved your gumbo, chicken stock, key lime pie, and now this. Might have to have your cookbook. Thank you for the time and work you putting into all of this. 🙏❤️
There is no “clove” in this recipe.
There isn’t? I see a garlic clove.
Oh my goodness 😳
This was so easy and my husband loves it! ❤️
I love this enchilada sauce, but the chilli powder I used was really spicy and I didn’t know that. I even halved the amount of chilli powder you called in the recipe. I assumed all chilli powders were mild 🤣😅… my 2 1/2 year old son and his grandpa couldn’t handle it. If I use the same one again (Fiesta brand from the Mexican section in Walmart) then I’d probably have to cut it down to a teaspoon or two.
Note to self: read the labels and check to see if chilli peppers are the first ingredient in the chilli powder 🤣 or choose mild chilli powder
This sauce is the best sauce I have ever had! It reminds me of the sauce I ate as a child on enchiladas. I make refried beans and spanish rice to go with my enchiladas, and I always add a little sauce in the beans and rice, too! Thank you so much for this recipe!
The so called enchilada sauce recipe
Looked so bad I didn’t try it, I thought it looked more like a meat loaf sauce recipe.
Finding it was very confusing too.
Looks can be deceiving, but hey, meatloaf enchiladas might just be the next culinary trend! 😄 Thanks for the feedback; we’ll aim for clearer and less “mysterious” recipes in the future.
You’re reviewing a recipe that you didn’t even try? That takes a special brand of stupid…congratulations.
Rita Fraysure, for the rest of us, don’t rate it if you don’t try it. Your comment wasn’t helpful.
This sauce was very tasty. Much cheaper also than canned enchilada sauce.
I found your sauce recipe a couple years ago and I’m so happy I did. I use it make your cheese enchiladas recipes. I wish corn tortillas were easier to roll (even if I heat them up).
I’ve passed this recipe along to my friends.
I dip them in the warm sauce, and then roll them up. It works!
I made a half recipe of this for the Tamale Pie recipe and it is soooooooooooo much better than canned enchilada sauce! Love the flavor!
This has now become my go to red sauce recipe. Have now made it several times always comes out great. It’s a keeper for sure!! Quick and easy.
Delicious and so easy to make!! We use it in enchiladas and quesadillas and we’ll never buy in a can now. Thanks!
This is now my go to enchilada sauce. Perfect spices – not to spicy, just right. You can spice it up if you like with other hotter chili powders. Made it now over five times. Hubby loves it. Will never buy it in a can.
Does this come out spicy? Is there a way to make it mild? My kids won’t eat spicy
I don’t find it spicy! My two year old eats it just fine 🙂
I made this tonight and it was the first time I’ve ever made wet burritos. I followed the recipe to T and it came out perfect for my wet burritos. It was easy and yet still had a lot of flavor. Thank you I will be using this recipe again for sure.
This recipe is delicious! My husband prefers red enchilada sauce but I don’t like the ones that come from a can. Even my picky son liked it! I’m keeping this recipe!
Excellent!! Tossed out my favorite enchilada sauce that i make because this recipe has so much more flavor. Awesome compliments from family and friends about the richness of taste. I used low sodium Chicken Broth since that was in my pantry. Thanks for the recipe!!
After making your sauce I’ll never buy canned red sauce again. So much flavor!!!
I started preparing my husband’s favorite enchilada casserole by request when I realized I didn’t have any enchilada sauce (I always keep one can in the pantry). Since I have been using your recipes for a while now, instead Googling it and wishing to pick a good one, I decided to just go to TBFS. Best move ever. It’s so easy to make and delicious. Much more delicious than the canned ones. Thank you so much. You made me look good.
Hello,
My family and I LOVE ALL of your recipes (I should comment on them more LOL). I’ll try to do that! I am putting this on my menu for next week and was wondering if I could use olive oil in lieu of veg/canola oil? Thank you for being so awesome!
Thanks Tara! That would be fine–just use a mild flavor olive oil.
Yay! Thank you! 🙂
Love making anything from scratch when I can especially when I have all the ingredients. This sauce came out delicious! In hindsight it s a little spice for my 10 and under crew. Is there a way to lessen the kick a bit at this point?
I basically cook from TBFS everynight!
I LOVE enchiladas, I can’t handle spicy food. That being said, I found this recipe and was finally able to make the food I love without buying canned spicy sauce that I couldn’t eat. This has been my go-to since 2018. I switch the cumin and chili powder ratios, making this a flavorful family recipe. Sometimes I will use the broth from my beef roast (which I shred for the beef enchiladas) and use that with the traditional beef broth, making it even richer in flavor.
Great recipe– I made some minor adjustments. 1. added a bit of tomato paste (had a can open) 2. 7-9 dried arbol chilis, stemmed/ seeded/ rehyrdated to add a bit of extra depth and a tad bit of spice.
Wife asked me to save this sauce recipe.
I absolutely love this recipe! Would I be able to can this sauce in a pressure canner or water bath?
This was really amazing! The only change I made was to halve the oil and really I just dumped all the ingredients at once into my Pampered Chef cooking blender. 20 minutes later we had the most amazing sauce. My husband said it didn’t taste bitter like canned enchilada sauces, and asked me to save the recipe (he NEVER asks that). So YAY!
I love your recipes! I want to make this sauce for a dinner with my sister-in-law who can’t have gluten (she has celiac disease). Should I substitute the flour with cornstarch? Also do you canned tomato sauce? Thanks so much!
Yes, you could use cornstarch (use half as much). And yes, canned tomato sauce. Enjoy!
Made this with the loaded chicken Enchiladas. All I can say is delicious! My whole family loved them!!
Made cheese enchiladas with this red sauce for valentine’s eve, February 13, 2021 for my wife and daughter BIG HIT! We also made sopapillas and honey. Great meal!😋
Excellent recipe! The best I have made yet! Very easy also ✨
Fabulous recipe, I just made it this afternoon. I used a cbo of Anchor, Aleppo and chipotle (but just a pinch of the last one) for the chili powder, and it is wonderful. Making shredded beef enchiladas today. Never going back to the canned stuff again!
writing again. your web is the best ever. Im making aomething from you every night this week and we are all loving it. so glad I found you.
What type of chili powder do you recommend using ? I’ve used blended reconstituted dried chilis in the past.
How spicy is the sauce with 1/4 cup chili powder?
I don’t think it’s “spicy” at all (heat level)–my toddler eats it just fine! . It just adds flavor.
Thank you. My husband is a wimp when it comes to spicy. Your recipes sound delicious. I grew up in So. California & love Mexican food.
I’m a vegetarian. What substitute would come closest to matching the flavor of the beef broth?
Vegetable broth would be the best substitute.
Can you substitute chicken broth for the beef broth?
Yes, it will just have a different and milder flavor.
This sounds delicious! I cannot eat tomato based products due to the acidity, any suggestions for substitutions for the tomato sauce? Thank you!
Just made this tonight. No more buying red enchilada sauce anymore. This is delicious!
This is one of the best enchilada sauce recipe I have tried. However, the 1/4 cup chili powder was too spicy. I had to add honey to balance out the spice. I would decrease the chili powder by 1/2 next time.
Hi we are gluten free. what can I substitute for the flour?
The flour just acts as a thickener, so you could stir in a little cornstarch slurry, or use arrowroot. Enjoy!
by the way, WANT to love this, just need a little help. ty
hi, just made this for chicken enchiladas for tomorrow’s dinner. has a bit of a bite (don’t know if that is the correct descriptive). what could I add honey? lime juice? I REALLY need a little-no a lot of direction.
Hi Ali,
You could add honey. I would probably add more tomato sauce to tame the spice!
ty so much! will try tomato sauce.
Can. I use vegetable broth instead? I’m vegetarian
Yes,for sure.
I just finished making this for the first time and WOW! This was easy, and so so so good! I didn’t buy back up sauce so I was really counting on this and it didn’t let me down. My husband and I tried it after it simmered for 15 minutes and we both couldn’t believe how much better it was than the canned sauce. I’m making the cheese enchilada recipe (which is where I came across the recipe for the sauce) tomorrow night and made the sauce ahead of time to make dinner a breeze! If you’re thinking about making this but have some reservations, JUST GO FOR IT!
Thanks so much for the great feedback, Leah!
Just made this for my beef enchiladas tonight. This is so good! I never knew how easy it is to make such a great sauce. I doubt that I will ever buy the canned sauce again. This is a definite try!!!
I would love to make this – but all I have for the oregano is the ground oregano would this be ok and for the tomato sauce – is regular kind ok?
Thanks
That will work! Let us know what you think!
I served this at my daughter’s family birthday party along with your Mexican rice and 5 minute salsa. It was like eating at a Mexican restaurant. Everyone was amazed! Thank yo!!
That’s amazing! I’m so happy everyone enjoyed all of that yummy food! Thanks for coming back to comment.
Can I freeze the remainder of the sauce I don’t use tonight?
Thank you so much for s delicious, easy and fresh meal. Lindsey
That should work great! Hope you enjoyed it.
Thanks for the recipe! It is my favorite on I have tried so far. I did use only one cup of water, as I prefer a thicker sauce. I did use the original amount of spices called for. It is my new go to recipe!
Lauren,
I did a Mexican theme party and used several of your recipes and they were an immense success! Since we had some vegetarian guests I substituted the beef broth with a vegetarian broth The sauce was delicioso!
Thank you,
Anita
I also love Mexican food but typically go out for it. Your homemade cheese enchiladas and enchilada sauce sound great to bring to a Cinco de Mayo party next week. As I read the recipe, 1/4 cup of chili powder in the sauce sounds like a lot of powder. Is that amount correct? Do you have a chili powder brand you recommend or will any brand do just fine?
Hi Patrice, you are right to use 1/4 cup chili powder. I usually get spice islands or simply organic, or mcormick 🙂 Hope you enjoy them!
This was fantastic. I surprised my wife with my first from scratch meal I’ve ever cooked and it turned out great. The cheese enchiladas with this sauce were delicious.
The flavor was great but I’d like it to be more spicy. What suggestions do you have to increase the spiciness without sacrificing the flavor?
Thanks again!
Thanks for sharing Kevin! To make it spicier, next time you could replace some of the regular chili powder with some chipotle chile pepper powder, or you could puree hot peppers like jalapeños and add them to the sauce.
Is tomato sauce a cooked sauce, tomato ketchup or just tinned toms or passata? Thanks!
I buy tomato sauce in a can. Here is what it looks like (affiliate link) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000Q3PPD8/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=taste03e-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B000Q3PPD8&linkId=092e23e9341c66aba45718fd114a53c0
Forgot to give it a rating! 5 stars. 🙂
So I have literally NEVER left a comment on any recipes I find on the internet.. until today! I made this sauce last night and I couldn’t stop eating it straight out of the pan, it’s that good. And it’s so simple! I will never again buy enchilada sauce
From the store. Thank you so much for this recipe and I can’t wait to try more!
Hi Bri, Thanks so much! I flattered to earn the rights to your first comment :). I’m so glad you liked the recipe. It really is so much better than the store version!
I really liked this recipe. This was my first time trying homemade sauce an I actually liked it! I added some red pepper flakes and dried cilantro after tasting.. Really Yummy! Thanks!
LOVE this recipe!! I’ll never use another homemade enchilada sauce recipe again because this one is PERFECT.
Did you use vegetable oil for this recipe? I saw 3 Tbsp oil, which oil would be best?
Vegetable or canola would work great 🙂
Avocado oil would best but others well just fine…
Hi Lauren, would it work to switch out the beef broth for vegetable broth?
Hi Diana, that should work great–it will definitely change the flavor, but I think it would still be yummy–just more mild tasting.