My favorite homemade enchilada sauce recipe is easy to make with pantry ingredients, it only requires about 5 minutes of prep time, and it tastes so flavorful and delicious.
Prep time: PT5M
Cook time: PT15M
Total time: PT20M
Rating
4.69 stars (586 reviews)
Keywords
gluten free, vegan, vegetarian
Ingredients
2 tablespoons avocado oil or olive oil
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup chili powder (see note below)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
fine sea salt (to taste)
Categories
Sauce
Cuisine
Mexican
Steps
Cook the roux and spices: Heat oil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add flour and cook for 1 minute, whisking constantly. Add in the chili powder, garlic powder, cumin and oregano and cook for 1 more minute, whisking constantly.
Simmer: Gradually pour in the stock, whisking constantly to combine until no lumps remain. Continue cooking until the sauce reaches a simmer. Then reduce heat to medium-low to maintain the simmer (the sauce should continue lightly bubbling) for about 10-15 minutes, uncovered, until the sauce has slightly thickened.
Season: Give the sauce a taste and season with salt, as needed. (I typically add 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, but the saltiness of the sauce can vary depending on the brand of stock that you use.)
Serve: Use immediately in your favorite recipe and enjoy!
Reviews
chris on 2025-12-19 (4 stars): Nice recipe. Usually buy canned and thought I'd try from scratch. Worked out well.
Brianna Darling on 2025-11-15 (5 stars): We love the enchilada sauce so much and make it frequently. Do you think it would can well?
Marshall on 2025-10-14 (5 stars): You could try subbing a portion of your chili powder with paprika (or even better, smoked paprika). Not very spicy, and great color.
E Keith Tipton on 2025-08-28 (5 stars): This is exactly the enchilada sauce I've been looking for. My wife doesn't do well with cooked tomato sauce. I had to leave out the peppers. Otherwise I followed your recipe. It turned out great. Thanks
Kat on 2025-08-24 (5 stars): Easy and flavorful. It didn’t get to the thickness I was hoping for so I added a bit of cornstarch slurry. If it’s too thin I feel like it dissolves my corn tortillas. I like a little viscosity to coat but not soak them.
I will absolutely make again and thank you for a very rare tomato-free version of a red enchilada sauce.
Bernadette Chute on 2025-08-16 (5 stars): I didn’t have any chicken stock so I used water and used a little extra garlic powder. Turned out great. Tasty and easy recipe! I will definitely use it in the future.
Star on 2025-08-03 (5 stars): This was easy and delicious! I will never by canned enchilada sauce again!
Jess on 2025-07-24 (5 stars): Obsessed with this recipe. We make it all the time!
Anna on 2025-07-24 (1 stars): I've rarely found a recipe on this site that failed but this one failed miserably. All I could taste was chili powder. Tried to "save" it by adding additional spices and diluting further then using cornstarch slurry but could not be saved. Had husband check behind me to confirm I followed all steps! Maybe it's my chili powder but literally the only recipe on this site I've tried that I will probably never make again.
Rosemary Gander on 2025-05-17 (4 stars): Easy to make! Only issue I have is that recipe says sauce is fairly mild but mine is very hot. I am in Canada so maybe chili powder here is hotter but I did make sure it was a blend of spices rather than straight chili powder…. Next trip to States I will buy another brand. That said, it is great on the enchiladas if I use soaringly
Katie Aschero on 2025-05-09 (5 stars): The only recipe I use!
