Homemade Red Enchilada Sauce
by Sommer Collier — last updated on May 6, 2025 
How to Make Enchilada Sauce from Scratch – This homemade red sauce recipe is surprisingly easy to prepare with simple pantry staples, like canned tomato sauce and bold spices! It’s the perfect robust, smoky sauce to make veggie, cheese, or meaty enchiladas and other savory Mexican dishes.
Why We Love This Easy Red Enchilada Sauce Recipe
Savory, cheesy, melt-in-your-mouth enchiladas are one of our favorite dishes to order at Mexican restaurants. We love chicken enchiladas with red sauce, as well as beef enchiladas with red sauce. But to make the most scrumptious enchiladas at home, you need to make your own Red Enchilada Sauce from scratch!
Sommer’s Recipe Notes
This easy recipe combines a handful of pantry staples to make a quick and ultra-flavorful homemade enchilada sauce on the stovetop. It starts with a quick roux, then we add canned tomato sauce, spices, and savory broth. In less than 20 minutes, you have a smooth and perfectly thick, smoky, deeply flavorful, versatile red sauce!
Use it to make any type of cheesy, meaty, or vegetarian enchiladas. Or use your authentic restaurant-style red enchilada sauce to add zest to nearly any other Mexican dish.
Ingredients You Need
- Butter – unsalted
- All-purpose flour – to thicken the sauce
- Canned tomato sauce – your choice of regular or unsalted (Or 1 part tomato paste + 2 parts water)
- Spices – chili powder, ground cumin, onion and garlic powder, dried oregano, salt and pepper
- Vegetable broth – or water
How to Make Red Enchilada Sauce from Scratch
Find the full Red Enchilada Sauce recipe with ingredient proportions, detailed instructions, cooking tips, and a video tutorial in the printable form at the bottom of the post.
Recipe Variations
- Gluten-free – Make this sauce GF-friendly by using your favorite gluten-free flour substitute.
- Dairy-free – Easily swap regular butter with whatever plant-based nondairy butter alternative you like.
- Spicy – Want some kick in your sauce? Include a pinch (or two!) of cayenne pepper.
- Broth – We use vegetable broth in our homemade enchiladas recipe, but feel free to use chicken broth or just plain water if you like.
- Batch Size – As-is, this recipe yields approximately 4-5 cups of red sauce. It’s enough to make a large batch of enchiladas, but it can easily be doubled if you’d like to prepare one round of enchiladas now and another in the future.
Ways to Use Red Enchilada Sauce
Use this bold red sauce to make the best enchiladas with vegetable, seafood, pork, beef, chicken, or cheese fillings! But really, you can use it to add some deep, smoky, and savory flavors to nearly any Mexican-inspired dish…
Here are a few of our favorite ways to use homemade red enchilada sauce in recipes:
- Black Bean Sweet Potato Skillet Enchiladas
- Cheesy Enchilada Rice
- Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup
- Mexican Cornbread Stuffing
And it’s a delicious sauce to drizzle over nachos, inside and/or on top of burritos and Quesadillas, and onto Homemade Chipotle Burrito Bowls and Taco Salads.
We even love to use it as a sauce on top of Turkey Tacos, Shredded Chicken Tacos, Carne Asada Tacos, and yes, Vegan Tofu Tacos!
Frequently Asked Questions
Enchilada sauce refers to any smooth sauce used to make, well, enchiladas… And there are several different versions. So it’s a good idea to be specific about whether you’re making enchiladas with red, green, mole, or other sauces.
Store the sauce in an airtight container and keep it in the refrigerator for up to a week.
You sure can! Cool the sauce completely before transferring it to a freezer-safe container. Store it in the freezer for up to 2 months, then thaw in the fridge overnight.
Looking for More Easy Mexican-Inspired Recipes? Be Sure to Try:
Red Enchilada Sauce Recipe
Video
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 15 ounce canned tomato sauce
- 3 tablespoons chili powder or ground ancho chile
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- 3 cups vegetable broth or water
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- Set a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the butter and flour. As the butter melts, whisk the butter and flour together to create a roux. Allow the roux to simmer, whisking continuously for 2-3 minutes until golden.
- Pour in the canned tomato sauce. Then whisk to combine the sauce with the roux. Mix in the chili powder, cumin, onion powder, garlic powder, and dried oregano. Stir in the vegetable broth.
- Bring the sauce to a simmer, then lower the heat a little, and simmer for 8-10 minutes to thicken.
- Cool the red enchilada sauce. Either store it in a jar in the refrigerator, or use it to make a recipe!
sounds very similar to Cookie and Kate’s
recipe, which I have been using for years with excellent results.
Hi Bill,
That’s a good site, I’m sure Kate’s recipe is great! Why not give ours a try and let me know what you think. :)
Absolutely amazing! This red enchilada sauce was so simple to make and added such delicious flavor to my enchiladas. I love knowing exactly what’s in it, and it’s way better than anything I’ve ever bought!
I can’t believe how easy and delicious this red enchilada sauce is! It has the perfect balance of spices and richness that took my regular enchilada recipe to the next level.