How To Make Classic Enchilada Sauce

Dried chiles make up the base of this classic, authentic enchilada sauce with tomatoes, cumin and chocolate rounding it out. One can certainly use any number of sauces for enchiladas, and we do, but we wanted to dig into the classic sauce that would seem familiar to most people. Once you have the sauce we have a recipe and video for making the enchiladas here.

This sauce is naturally gluten free.

The Chiles

The chiles used in this sauce are Pasilla Negra, New Mexico, Ancho and Arbol. You can substitute for some of these chiles but try to have some smooth skin chiles and some rough skin chiles so you have a good blend of the different flavors.

Watch a Video

Here is a video of 2 Cooks in the Kitchen making Classic Enchilada Sauce:

The Ingredients For Classic Enchilada Sauce

• 6 Pasilla Negro Chiles
• 6 New Mexico Chiles
• 8 Ancho Chiles
• 4 Arbol Chiles
• 4 Cups Turkey or Chicken Stock
• 1 Onion, Chopped
• 2 Tomatoes, Chopped
• 6 Cloves Garlic
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Mexican Oregano
• 1 tsp Cumin
• 1/2 oz Baking Chocolate

Sweat the Dried Chiles

We will process the dried chiles to start. For this recipe we want to sweat them in a dry cast iron pan on medium high heat. Just put the whole chiles in the pan a few at a time, cook for one minute, then turn and cook for one minute more. Remove them from the pan right away and continue until all chiles have been sweated. Watch this closely and make sure not to burn them.

Stem, Seed and Soak the Chiles

When all the chiles have been cooked a little remove the stems and seeds, tear them into strips and place them in a large bowl. Pour 4 cups of boiling turkey broth over the chiles and let them soak for 30 minutes. You can also use chicken broth. Homemade is best but the store bought kind works just fine.

Onions, Tomatoes, Garlic and Spices

Cut the onion and tomatoes into large chunks. We are just going to put this in the food processor so they don’t have to be too small. Peel the garlic and then put the chiles, onions, tomatoes and garlic in the food processor. Pulse it a few times and then add the Mexican Oregano, Cumin and Salt. Process until smooth.

Cook the Sauce In Oil

At this point you can push the sauce through a fine mesh strainer if you want a super smooth sauce. We like it to have a little bit of texture so we don’t do that with this sauce. Either way, the next step is to get some oil hot in a stock pot over medium heat, pour the sauce in and cook it for 30 minutes. You’ll want to stir this frequently and keep it covered so it doesn’t spit all over your kitchen.

Add Chocolate

At the end of the 30 minutes, add the baking chocolate. Use Mexican chocolate if you have it for authenticity. We purchased a large package of Ghirardelli baking chocolate a while back and have been using it up at a good pace. All for sauces and not desserts. Once the chocolate is incorporated the sauce is ready to use.

Now you have a large batch of Classic Enchilada Sauce to use as you see fit. Obviously enchiladas would be a good choice. We have a recipe for turkey enchiladas that can also be chicken enchiladas using this sauce.

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You might like to try some of our other Mexican inspired sauce recipes:

• Poblano Sauce
• New Mexico Red Chile Sauce
• New Mexico Green Chile Sauce
• Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
• The Best Tomato Sauce Ever
• Red Rocoto Hot Sauce
• Chile Oil

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