Mail Order 'powder-Free' Red Enchilada Sauce

"Where I live, decent canned enchilada sauce is not available. Since most recipes for homemade call for 'chili powder' (which is also suspect in these parts) I now buy many varieties of dried chiles via mail order. This recipe is fairly easy and does the trick for me."
 
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photo by Katzen photo by Katzen
photo by Katzen
Ready In:
50mins
Ingredients:
11
Yields:
3 cups
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ingredients

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directions

  • Wipe off the chiles with a damp cloth.
  • Tear the stems off the New Mexico and ancho chiles, then open them up with your fingers and pluck out the seeds and membranes, making jerky-sized pieces of chile.
  • Heat up the big sauce pan you will need later and 'stir-fry' the chile pieces until they smell nice (2-3 minutes).
  • Dump the toasted chiles and the chipotles into a medium-sized bowl, barely cover with hot stock, then float a smaller heavy glass bowl onto everything to keep the bits submerged. Soak for about 30 minutes.
  • Place the garlic, onion, spices and drained tomatoes into a blender.
  • Add the soaked chiles (including liquid), and puree until smooth.
  • Pour into the saucepan, add the tomato sauce and simmer for 30 minutes, adding stock to get the thickness you like. Season to taste.
  • To serve, I simply POACH corn tortillas right in the sauce for a minute or two (low fat trick), then pull them out one at a time with tongs, roll them around some pre-warmed filling (right on the plate), then smother with more sauce. No baking(impatient guy trick). Finish with a dollop of sour cream and a single black olive if you like.

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Reviews

  1. Excellent recipe. Thank you so much for sharing. I had red chili sauce already prepared and had used this recipe: http://www.recipezaar.com/Red-Chili-Sauce-314038 I keep that sauce, as a base for many recipes as it saves me time. I prefer a very smooth sauce so I pureed the tomato (diced) with the chicken stock (I use better than boullion stock base). This really is a lovely sauce no matter how you how you alter the preparation. Thank you so much for sharing!
     
  2. This is an intricate sauce, with wonderful depth of flavour - well worth the time to make it, although I didn't find it an unreasonable amount of time for what is an authentic enchilada sauce from scratch! One thing I'd suggest, although I didn't realize this until it was too late for this batch, is to press or mince the garlic and stir it in after the blending is complete - garlic, when processed in a blender or food processor, can impart a bitter flavour - I don't recall the science behind it, but read that on Elizabeth Baird's blog, and since changing that one piece of prep work when I make hummus, have definately noticed a difference. I'd really like to can some of this stuff to keep it handy, and give away to some of my spice-lovin' friends! I did use vegetable stock (homemade) in place of the chicken stock. Thanks for sharing this recipe, SpicyDoc! Made for PAC Fall 2009.
     
  3. I was looking for a recipe to use a supply of dried chiles I had in my pantry and this one looked wonderful. The sauce was very easy to prepare and I found it very spicy on its own, but when paired with the black bean enchiladas I made it was excellent. The only change I made was to use homemade vegetable stock rather than chicken. Thanks for posting!
     
  4. Tasty! This is not a recipe for someone looking for a quick enchilada sauce. If you are looking for an authentic style sauce with lots of flavor, this recipe fits the bill quite nicely. I had to salt the sauce to taste (probably because I used low sodium chicken stock). Thanks for the recipe!
     
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

I live in a town about 1 hr outside of Toronto. I have 2 toddler sons and a wife (who is past toddling) at home. I like to cook, my wife doesn't so I have a free rein in the kitchen. Cooking is probably my main hobby, except in Summer, when golf dominates. I LOVE spicy foods but DW doesn't, so I either cook separate dishes or make something I can spice up on my own plate. my current favorite cookbook is 'Some Like It Hot' by Clifford A. Wright--my first posting is from this book. My pet peeve is when someone turns up their nose at a new dish before actually trying it--she is getting better tho :) Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the words YUM or YUMMY make my skin crawl.
 
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