13 Tips For Making Delicious Enchilada Sauce

Enchiladas are a humble staple of Mexican cuisine: Corn tortillas wrap around a meat or vegetarian filling and are then drenched with a complex, flavorful sauce. There are two traditional enchilada sauces. Red enchilada sauce (also called salsa roja, salsa roja para enchiladas, or mole rojo) is made from any combination of ancho, pasilla, and/or Cascabel chiles, plus tomatoes. Green enchilada sauce has tomatillos, fresh green chilies, and sometimes additional fresh serrano or jalapeño peppers for more heat. A third variety, white enchilada sauce, uses green chilies and adds cheese, but this is more a feature of Tex-Mex cuisine.

Both red and green enchilada sauces require some time in the kitchen and careful consideration of ingredients. Sure, you could buy a tiny can of enchilada sauce at the store and doctor it up, but that robs you of the pleasure of carefully crafting a customized silky, spicy sauce that's all your own — and homemade enchilada sauce is worth the effort.

The best part about making your own enchilada sauce is the creativity that it involves. Within certain parameters, the flavor variations are nearly endless, and each sauce has its own unique characteristics. When you're ready to join the pantheon of cooks who have undertaken the quest to build their perfect enchilada sauce, here are a few things to consider.

The different types of chiles used in enchiladas add not only heat but also flavor to the finished sauce. Any sauce made with a single variety of pepper can become boring in a hurry, and that's the antithesis of this condiment.

If you're concerned about heat level and feel like sticking to the jalapeños and serranos you are already familiar with, take some time to explore dried chiles that are less well-known to you. Branching out to experience different aspects of another cuisine is an important part of making your own enchilada sauce.

Peppers commonly used in red enchilada sauce include ancho, guajillo, or pasilla peppers. Ancho peppers are dried poblano peppers. As they dry, they take on a smoky depth of flavor that can turn bitter if you're not careful with the roasting (more on that below). Guajillo peppers are widely used in Mexican cuisine. They are not as hot as ancho chiles but impart a bright, fruity flavor that lifts some of the heaviness that can cloud enchilada sauce. Pasilla peppers can be very mild or incredibly hot, with a deep, rich flavor.

When selecting the chiles you will use, take care to balance their heat with their flavor. If you only select for heat, you'll have no tastebuds left to detect any nuances in your finished sauce. Keep in mind that you can always add heat when you serve your enchiladas with hot sauce but once finished you can't dial back.

Your roasted chiles are now bursting with flavor. It's time to let that flavor release into the sauce, but you'll need to activate it first. To do that, you'll need to rehydrate them.

When your chiles are nearly done roasting, put some water on to boil. Place the roasted chiles in a large bowl and cover them with boiling water. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap to trap the steam inside. You'll notice the water darken as the chiles soften and release all their flavors. When you're ready to make the sauce, remove the hard stems and proceed with the soft chiles. Do not discard the water. Some recipes call for a good quantity of it (instead of or in addition to stock), while others suggest you use the soaking water to thin the sauce if needed.

Note that some recipes suggest you remove the stem and seeds before soaking. This is a matter of preference, but it can be easier to remove seeds and stems after soaking when the pepper is soft.

Your sauce has been cooking slowly with fragrant spices, rich, homemade stock, and all of your softened, delicious chile peppers. Even as each element breaks down and mingles with the others, it's still difficult to know what your flavor profile is. You can only know where you stand after blending and straining your sauce.

You can blend your sauce in a variety of ways. The first and easiest way is to use an immersion blender. This can be placed directly in the pot in which the sauce is being cooked, making for no messy or dangerous transfers to a blender. A blender also works very well, but it can be dangerous if you overload a blender with hot liquid. If you don't have an immersion blender, a countertop blender will work fine — proceed with caution and blend until very smooth.

Once you have blended your sauce, you'll need to pass it through a chinois, a sieve, or a fine mesh strainer. Even the smoothest-looking purée may still contain seeds or bits of chili pepper skin that will be unpleasant to eat. Your goal here is a silky smooth, velvety texture, and that can only be achieved by straining.

You may need to strain your sauce more than once. Depending on the amount of sauce, you may also need to strain it in batches. Once strained, return the sauce to the cooking pot and proceed.

Enchilada sauce is not a one-note condiment. The beauty of this traditional sauce is its complexity: the balance of sour, sweet, spicy, and bitter. If you find your sauce feels heavy on the palate and has muddy flavors that don't develop as the flavor lingers, chances are good you'll need to add acid.

Adding acid to food lifts and defines each individual element. Each ingredient becomes more deeply itself so that it can hold its own. When it comes to adding acid to enchilada sauce, you have options. A traditional addition is citrus in the form of lime, but any citrus works. Adding acid with an orange adds a hint of sweetness that can be interesting, while grapefruit adds more bitterness along with the sour.

Some cooks prefer to stir in a splash of apple cider vinegar as the cooking time ends. This is a more neutral option that doesn't lean any one way when it comes to the flavor profile. It's also a good rescue if you skipped this step and can't figure out at the last minute why the sauce tastes slightly off. Before you add salt, try vinegar.

The best enchilada sauce develops on your palate as you eat. If you tasted earlier in the cooking process and found a bitter or sour aftertaste, this could mean that your chiles or tomatoes are highly acidic and have not had time to tone down. Bitterness is easy to balance with a sweetener, and when it comes to sweeteners, you have many different options.

Agave syrup or brown sugar are two good places to start. Agave is used in traditional Mexican cooking and can keep your recipe authentic while adding a mellow sweetness. Brown sugar is refined white sugar mixed with molasses, and this imparts another layer to the final sauce.

Maple syrup is also an option, as is regular granulated sugar. It is possible to add other sugar substitutes such as stevia or monk fruit, but these can adversely affect the flavor. Monk fruit is very sweet and should be used at half the amount of regular sweeteners, and many people find that stevia has an unpleasant aftertaste. Honey is another natural option that has no aftertaste. A good guide for sweetening is to add half a teaspoon at a time. This prevents you from adding too much.

Because making enchilada sauce is such a time-intensive process, it makes good sense to cook up huge batches for those days when you have less time. Don't let that hard work go to waste by improperly storing your leftover sauce.

There are several different ways to preserve your enchilada sauce. Before choosing the one that works for you, let your sauce cool completely. If you think you'll use leftovers in a couple of days, store them in an airtight glass container in the refrigerator (plastic containers can become stained and retain the flavor of the enchilada sauce).

Freezer storage keeps your leftovers fresh for even longer (six months to a year). Use ice cube trays or egg cartons to freeze individual portions of enchilada sauce. For family-size leftovers, scoop sauce into plastic freezer bags and remove as much air as possible as you seal the bag. Lay flat in the freezer to save space. Enchilada sauce can also be canned for long-term dry storage. You can either water bath or pressure can — whichever you are more comfortable with.