Enchilada sauce can obviously be used to smother enchiladas. It can also be used for many other things. This sauce is a good taco sauce. It works very well as a marinade for fajita meat. Cook the fajita meat in the sauce for optimum flavor transfer. Also, use this sauce as an addition in soups, stews and casseroles.
By making your own enchilada sauce, you control the flavor, consistency and quality of that sauce. Feel free to adjust this simple recipe to fulfill your own expectations and preferences. See the tips at the end of this article for variations and alterations.
The preparation of this particular red enchilada sauce is very simple. Look below - There are only two steps! When you have settled on your preferred variation, make several recipes of the red enchilada sauce and freeze it in small portions. Whenever you need a Mexican dish with some red sauce, just pull some out and half of your meal preparation is already complete.
Red Enchilada Sauce
(makes about 2 cups of sauce)
Ingredients:
- 1 can of chopped tomatoes
- 2 small cans of chopped green chiles
- 1 pepper from a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
- 1 T lime juice
- 1 T of cilantro leaves
- 1 jalapeno (seeded and chopped)
- 1/2 roasted red bell pepper (seeded and chopped) - see tip below
- 1 T sugar
- 1 T chili powder
- 1/2 t cumin
- 1/4 t salt
Instructions:
- Combine all ingredients in a food processor.
- Blend until smooth.
To roast peppers, use a stove burner, grill or broil setting on your oven. Turn the peppers frequently to achieve even cooking. When the skins are almost completely blackened, place the peppers inside a sealed baggie. Wait ten to fifteen minutes and then remove the peppers and use your fingers to pull off the loosened skins.
Variations:
- Fresh Ingredient Enchilada Sauce - Use fresh ingredients instead of canned ingredients. Substitute 3 large tomatoes and 6 - 8 roasted and peeled green chiles.
- Spicy Enchilada Sauce - To increase spiciness, use more chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. Additionally, try roasting the jalapeno pepper before chopping.
- Mild Enchilada Sauce - To decrease spiciness, substitute 1 T of BBQ sauce for the chipotle pepper in adobo sauce.
- Red Sauce Chili - To use the enchilada sauce as a chili ingredient, eliminate the lime juice and increase the chili powder to 2 T.
- Mexican Casserole - As a casserole ingredient, do not puree the tomatoes, but add them after the other ingredients have been pureed.
There are certainly more variations to be tried than the ones listed above. Try making sweet enchilada sauce or chunky enchilada sauce. Feel free to experiment as this extremely simple recipe is also extremely forgiving. As long as you use tasty ingredients that you trust, the end result will be a perfect ingredient for some delicious dish.
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