Recently I started using the canned enchilada sauce for my enchiladas. I am on my 3rd batch in about 3 months since I started. Each time I find I have to cut it a little bit more with tomato sauce or it is too hot and chili like.
Does anyone want to share their homemade sauce recipe?
If they’re too spicy, you might also want to look up entomatadas. That’s cooked in a tomato sauce (with perhaps a little chile) as opposed to in a chile sauce (with possibly some tomato.)
I suggest you pick up a used copy of Cheryl & Bill Jamison’s TEXAS HOME COOKING.
It’s my go-to for all Tex-Mex, has lots of great suggestions for sides and relishes, and provides interesting reading on beefsteak, BBQ, and chili. The section on German immigrants in Texas is where I first learned how to make Chicken & Dumplings, and buying a copy is worth it for that alone.
Choose the specific seasonings but the basic process is to start by heating a 1/4 cup of oil in a saucepan, saute diced onions in it, then stir in a can of tomato paste to form a sort of tomato roux. Add chili powder and/or diced peppers to this then slowly stir in about 1 - 2 cans of water to form the sauce. I usually add some cumin and coriander.
I do a variety of green sauce w/ tomatillo/chile/sour cream.
I eyeball it, but I think this is close:
In a sauce pan simmer until soft and reduced somewhat:
1-2 tomatillos (fresh is best, but if that’s not an option, you can use canned tomatillos or even tomatillo salsa)
2 smallish or 1 largish onion
2 cloves garlic
2 cups chicken stock
dash of salt
2-4 mild green chiles, roasted, seeded, and peeled (Hatch chiles preferred, but Anaheim or poblano work well. Taste the chiles to see how hot they are. They vary even within the variety!)
(I also add hotter chiles, but this can be made mild)
Once everything is tender, I transfer to a large glass measuring cup to cool a bit.
Add:
1 handful chopped fresh cilantro
Use blender. Then add:
the juice of 1/2 lime
1/2-1 cup sour cream (this is a guess. I scoop fairly randomly until it hits the taste I’m looking for)
I then blend this just to mix it in.
If you don’t have a stick blender or stand blender, you can chop the ingredients very fine to start with and it will still be delicious. I’m lazy, so I leave them in big chunks.
I made Emeril’s enchilada sauce recipe from Food Network’s website recently. It blew me away. Sooooo good on beef tamales.
Basic, but there it is.
I’m with you so far, as the only difference between yours and mine is that I roast instead of boil, and use serranos only. But then you go on with…
WTF? I’m not sure if you’re brilliant, or if you’re crazy. I can visualize how my salsa verde might be quite different. Are you using sour cream, or crema mexicana? Granted I don’t make enchiladas, but I use salsa verde for lots of other things. I need an excuse to try this this week. 
I am now in love with jsgoddess
I either wing it and end up with something much like jsgoddess’s recipe (although never did the sour cream thing - will have to try that) or lately I’ve been very much liking this recipe for red enchilada sauce.
Whatever I do, I make extra and freeze it so next time I can just thaw it out instead of making it from scratch. Given that I do the same with enchilada filling (pork or chicken or whatever), enchiladas and/or tacos tend to be common meals chez Athena.
Oh, I’m brilliant. Trust meeee.
My favorite combination is to use hot Hatch chiles, plus some jalapeno (the combination of those two peppers is beautiful) with the sour cream. I haven’t done it with crema, though that would work very nicely indeed.
Flatterer!
Did you try it? I hope the recipe is close, considering the amount of eyeballing I tend to do.
Enchiladas are the ambrosia of the gods. I’ve worked at coming up with my own recipes for red enchilada sauce combining various* red chiles and tomato, but never found anything that tasted quite right. I’ve come to theorize it wants either red chile or tomato, but not both at once. In practice, I make salsa verde for enchiladas all the time now instead, sometimes with both green chiles and tomatillos, sometimes just green chiles with cilantro and lime. I started out making enchiladas with béchamel, but haven’t done that for ages.
*fruity, earthy, smoky, etc. varieties, mostly ancho. I seem to have developed an idée fixe that ancho is the quintessence of all chili powder, but I haven’t yet learned how to make it perform neat tricks. I get the best results from plain New Mexico reds. They used to be all over the stores here; I don’t know why they’ve become scarce lately, forcing me to experiment with other chiles I normally use only for mole poblano, a world away cuisine-wise. I find Californio chiles to be insipid things that can only wish they could be like New Mexican ones.
My basic enchilada sauce starts with guajillos or a combination of guajillos and ancho (soaked), onion, garlic, a little bit of Mexican oregano (and/or cumin), salt, and pepper. No tomatoes in my standard red enchilada sauce. But I do the fried style enchiladas. You just dip the tortilla in the enchilada sauce, fry it up in some lard (or oil) on each side (just enough to warm it and make it pliable; they don’t get crispy. Maybe 5-10 seconds a side.), add your filling , and serve with a bit of queso fresco and whatever garnishes you like. Fast, easy, delicious. This is close to how I make them (and explained in English.) When I have leftover mashed potatoes, I make that something very close to that recipe (and if I have any chorizo around, stick that in with the potatoes for the filling.) Divine!
For enchiladas suizas or any of the baked enchiladas, I’ll do something more like Emeril’s recipe above.
Whatever recipe you use…add a tablespoon of fresh grated Horseradish.
Makes it POP…
I have never made them myself but my Texas mother makes great enchiladas. I can promise you the sour cream versions are awesome when made correctly in many different versions. They are Tex-Mex but there is nothing wrong with that.
This recipe is originally from Diet for a Small Planet:
Roast and chop 2 chili peppers. Sauté 1 cup chopped onions in 2 Tbsp olive oil. Add 2 cups canned tomatoes, 1 8-oz can tomato sauce, 1 clove minced garlic, chili peppers, ½ Tbsp chili power, 1 Tbsp honey, ½ tsp salt, ¼ tsp cumin, and a pinch of cayenne. Simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes, at which point it will spit at you.
Sorry I didn’t get back on this thread, I actually had forgotten I had posted it. Going over the recipes now and some of them look great. The post was on red chili sauce but I am enjoying the green chili recipes as well as the green is my normal favorite. Thanks for all the replies!