Name: Homemade Enchilada Sauce Recipe
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 16 ounces
Ingredients: 1 Tablespoon Olive oil (or canola or vegetable oil); 1/2 Medium Onion (minced or sub 1 teaspoon onion powder); 2 Whole Garlic cloves (minced or sub 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder); 2 Tablespoons Chili powder (if you want a little extra kick add another Tablespoon or two); 2 teaspoons Ground cumin; 2 teaspoons Sugar; 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt; 2 Tablespoons Tomato paste, optional; 8 Ounces Tomato sauce; 8 Ounces Water

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

Ditch the can, homemade enchilada sauce is the way to go. Easy, delicious, inexpensive and so many ways to use it.

Notice our enchilada sauce is chunkier than most others. I like it that way. If you want a smooth sauce put the enchilada sauce in a blender, food processor or use an immersion blender.

Homemade enchilada sauce is so easy to make and takes your cooking to a new level in a way that canned enchilada sauce can’t do. Ours is gluten free and tomato based sauce.

How To Make Homemade Enchilada Sauce

Oh my gosh, this is the easiest sauce! You basically chop and sauté the onion, add the spices and tomato paste and then the tomato sauce. You are done! Don’t you love it?! If you’d like to learn the right way (read safe way) to chop or dice an onion click here.

See our post on how to dice an onion

You’ll find lots of recipes out there that add flour to thicken the sauce, I think my enchilada sauce has the perfect consistency without the flour and the great thing is you have a gluten free enchilada sauce for any guests that need it.

Several sauces also ask for chicken or vegetable broth, again, my sauce has great flavor without those additions and just makes the ingredient list that much easier. Also keeps it a vegetarian and vegan enchilada sauce.

Why Add Tomato Paste? What Does Tomato Paste Do?

The tomato paste is an optional ingredient but is a chef’s secret ingredient. The key is how to use tomato paste.

Tomato paste is concentrated tomatoes with the skin and seeds discarded. Many of us, me included, use it when stated in a recipe without really understanding why. And to top it off most recipes have us using tomato paste in the wrong way.

Enchilada sauce mixed with beef for Mexican pizza

Add the sauce to browned ground beef or chicken for Mexican pizza, tacos or sloppy joes.

In our homemade enchilada sauce recipe, we use the tomato paste for added flavor. But if you add it without browning or caramelizing the paste first you’re missing out on a whole lot of flavor.

Saute the onion and when ready, add the garlic and spices for 30 seconds, then add the tomato paste for about 3-5 minutes or until it turns a brick red color. Don’t overcook it or you’ll have a burned mess!

Now add the tomato sauce. If you don’t have any tomato paste around then just skip it, the homemade enchilada sauce will still be excellent. You’ll have extra tomato paste so freeze in an ice cube tray for about 2 hours, then remove from the tray and place in a labeled resealable freezer bag. Each well of the ice cube tray holds about 2 Tablespoons or 1 Ounce of liquid.

How To Freeze Homemade Enchilada Sauce

Once the homemade enchilada sauce is completely cool, place in resealable freezer bags. I typically freeze by 1 cup or 2 cup increments because that’s what many recipes call for. If you are cooking for one go down to ½ cup servings.

Enchilada sauce makes homemade Mexican pizza a real treat.

How To Use Homemade Enchilada Sauce

If you like Mexican food then the options are endless.

Try the obvious like chicken enchiladas, tacos, or burritos
Mexican pizza
Quesadillas (mix with meat or use as a sauce topping)
Over eggs like a shakshuka
Topping for meatloaf
Use as a sauce with chicken or ground beef for sloppy joes
Mix with sour cream or mayonnaise for a dipping sauce

Substitutions For Homemade Enchilada Sauce Ingredients

Tomato Sauce – you can substitute with canned whole tomatoes by pureeing in a blender. In our homemade enchilada sauce recipe you can use 16 ounces of tomato sauce or substitute water for 8 ounces (8 ounces tomato sauce and 8 ounces water).

Fresh garlic clove – we call for 2 garlic cloves, if you don’t have fresh use ¼ teaspoon of garlic powder

½ fresh onion – if you don’t have fresh onion you can substitute 2 teaspoons onion powder

Chili powder – sorry you really can’t substitute the chili powder, that’s the base of the homemade enchilada sauce. Actually, traditional enchilada sauce doesn’t even have tomatoes in it, the sauce is purely chilies with spices

Cumin – no real substitution but you can leave the cumin out if you don’t like the taste

Sugar – again, no real substitution but you can leave it out. I think the sugar does a nice job of mellowing out the acidic taste so I always add it

Tomato paste – see above for why you want to use tomato paste and how to cook it. But if you don’t have any, just skip it. The sauce has a richer taste if you add the caramelized tomato paste

You won’t see many prep pictures for our homemade enchilada sauce recipe because it’s just so easy it didn’t seem necessary. But sometimes I miss things, if there is a step you’d like clarified better with more pictures please let me know. Love your feedback.