Green Enchilada Sauce
With a zesty blend of tomatillos, peppers, and spices, this green enchilada sauce is perfect for adding flavor to your favorite Mexican-inspired dishes.
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Table of Contents
- About Green Enchilada Sauce
- What is green enchilada sauce?
- What’s in this green sauce?
- Is this sauce spicy?
- Can you make enchilada sauce spicier?
- What’s the difference between green enchilada sauce and salsa verde?
- Can you make this sauce in advance?
- How should you store it?
- How long is green enchilada sauce good for?
- Can you freeze enchilada sauce?
- What can you serve with this sauce?
- Notes & tips for green enchilada sauce
- Other tasty dips and sauces
- More recipes with a kick
- How to make green enchilada sauce
- Recipe Details
About Green Enchilada Sauce
Get ready to take your taste buds on a wild ride with this delicious green enchilada sauce! This sauce is a staple in Mexican cuisine and for good reason – it’s packed with complex, vibrant flavors that are sure to wow your taste buds. Whether you’re a seasoned pro in the kitchen or just starting out, this recipe is easy to follow and will leave you with a flavorful sauce that you can use in a variety of dishes. So get your apron on and let’s get started!
What is green enchilada sauce?
Made with fresh green chilies, tomatillos, garlic, and other spices, green enchilada sauce is a staple in Mexican cooking and can be used in a variety of dishes like enchiladas, burritos, and tacos. It’s known for its vibrant green color and tangy taste.
What’s in this green sauce?
In order to whip up your own batch of this sauce for tasty Mexican cuisine, you’ll need to track down the following ingredients:
- Tomatillos – The main ingredient that helps give this sauce its trademark hue! You can also use green or red tomatoes instead – but of course, using red tomatoes will give this sauce a slightly different color.
- Jalapeno, poblano chili peppers, and white onion – Delicious vegetables that add flavor and depth. The recipe instructions say to remove the seeds but feel free to leave some (or all!) for an extra spicy kick to this sauce.
- Chicken broth and chicken bouillon – Helps with consistency and a touch of savory flavor.
- Cilantro, garlic, cumin, Mexican oregano, salt, and lime juice – A tasty mix of seasonings and flavors that enchilada sauce is known for.
Is this sauce spicy?
Despite there being jalapenos in this recipe, enchilada sauce is typically considered to have mild to medium spiciness. This recipe is written to reflect that, so there are only enough peppers included in the recipe to give a little taste but not too much bite.
Can you make enchilada sauce spicier?
If you’d like a little more kick, it’s easy to adjust this recipe to your tastes:
- Add more jalapeno peppers. This recipe calls for only one pepper, but you could easily go up to two or three without changing the flavor too much.
- Include the jalapeno seeds. There’s a lot of spice in those little seeds, so if you’re looking for a fiery sauce, the easiest way would be to chop the jalapenos whole without removing the seeds.
What’s the difference between green enchilada sauce and salsa verde?
It’s true that green enchilada sauce and salsa verde are not the same things, and purists of either sauce may argue that they shouldn’t be confused with each other.
However, it’s important to note that there are many recipes out there that blur the lines between the two – and this is not necessarily a bad thing. After all, both sauces share some common ingredients, such as tomatillos, onions, and green chilies, and they are both used to add a tangy, slightly spicy flavor to dishes.
Ultimately, whether you choose to make green enchilada sauce or salsa verde sauce – or a combination of the two – depends on your personal taste preferences and the dish you are preparing.
As far as the specific differences, there are a few characteristics that can help you tell the two sauces apart:
- Green enchilada sauce tends to roast or boil (or both) the vegetables before blending, includes more seasonings, the consistency tends to be thinner, and many recipes will use tomatoes over tomatillos.
- Salsa verde tends to have a higher ratio of tomatillos, less seasoning, and sometimes the vegetables are not cooked (with the raw ingredients simply blended) resulting in a thicker, chunkier sauce.
Can you make this sauce in advance?
Yes! In fact, making this sauce and storing it will allow the flavors to meld together.
How should you store it?
For best results, prepared and cooled green enchilada sauce should be stored in a sealed container in the refrigerator. It is not a shelf-stable sauce.
How long is green enchilada sauce good for?
Depending on the freshness of the ingredients used, salsa verde should remain good in the refrigerator for up to one week.
Can you freeze enchilada sauce?
Yes, you totally can! Normally I don’t recommend freezing vegetables with high water content, but because these veggies have been cooked and blended, there’s no harm in losing texture or consistency from freezing.
To freeze, make sure you store it in a tightly sealed container or freeze it flat in a freezer bag.
Once frozen, enchilada sauce should remain good for up to three months.
What can you serve with this sauce?
Green Enchilada Sauce can be used in a variety of dishes, including chicken enchiladas, chile verde, pork tacos, and burritos. It’s also delicious as a dipping sauce for tortilla chips, as a topping for scrambled eggs, or a marinade for meat like chicken or shrimp. The possibilities are endless!
Notes & tips for green enchilada sauce
- Never worked with tomatillos before? No problem! It’s easier than you’d think to husk and prepare them. Check out this video on how to do it: Preparing Tomatillos.
- Whenever you are preparing jalapenos, be sure that you are wearing food safety gloves while handling them and avoid any contact with your eyes while you work. Also, you have a crucial choice to make: to include the jalapeno seeds or remove them. The seeds are where this pepper gets its trademark fire, so only include them if you want the extra kick. For a full tutorial on cutting jalapeno peppers, check this out: How to Cut a Jalapeno Pepper the Right Way.
- If you don’t have access to fresh tomatillos, canned tomatillos can be used instead. Just be sure to train them thoroughly before using them in the recipe.
- If roasting the vegetables isn’t an option, they can also be boiled in water for 15 minutes instead.
- Feel free to adjust the amount of spices or peppers to your own tastes.
- The sauce will thicken as it cools. If you feel it’s become too thick you can add more chicken broth or water thin it out again.
- When reheating the sauce, it may help to add a few tablespoons of chicken broth or water to help with consistency.
- You will need a blender of some sort to make this sauce. I recently got this KitchenAid food processor and highly recommend it!
Other tasty dips and sauces
More recipes with a kick
How to make green enchilada sauce
This next part is only a photo tutorial of the recipe steps. If you’re looking for the full recipe measurements and instructions, scroll down to Recipe Details.
Step 1 – Preheat your oven and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Arrange your tomatillos, jalapeno, poblano peppers, and white onion in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet, cut side down.
Step 2 – Bake!
Step 3 – Once done, remove the vegetables from the oven and let them cool slightly.
Step 4 – Add the cooked vegetables, chicken broth, cilantro, garlic, cumin, Mexican oregano, chicken bouillon, and salt to a food processor. Blend the ingredients on high until it’s smooth or reaches your desired consistency, which should take about 2-3 minutes.
Step 5 – In a large saucepan, pour in the blended sauce and cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Once done, remove the saucepan from the heat and add lime juice. Give it a thorough stir to ensure everything is combined.
Step 6 – Serve and enjoy!
Green Enchilada Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds tomatillos, husked and washed (about 10-12 tomatillos)
- 1 jalapeno, cut in half and seeds removed
- 4 poblano chili peppers, cut in half and seeds removed
- 1 small white onion, halved
- 1 cup cilantro, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
- Arrange tomatillos, jalapeno, poblano peppers, and white onion in a single layer on prepared baking sheet, cut side down.1 1/2 pounds tomatillos, 1 jalapeno, 4 poblano chili peppers, 1 small white onion
- Bake for 15 minutes, flipping halfway through.
- Remove vegetables from oven and allow to cool slightly, about 10 minutes.
- Add cooked veggies, chicken broth, cilantro, garlic, cumin, Mexican oregano, chicken bouillon, and salt to a food processor. Blend on high until smooth or desired consistency is reached, about 2-3 minutes.3 cups chicken broth, 1 cup cilantro, 2 teaspoons fresh minced garlic, 1 teaspoon ground cumin, 1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano, 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon, 1 teaspoon salt
- In a large saucepanskillet over medium heat, pour in blended sauce. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.
- Remove saucepan from heat. Add lime juice and stir thoroughly.1 tablespoon lime juice
- Serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
I do my best to provide nutrition information, but please keep in mind that I’m not a certified nutritionist. Any nutritional information discussed or disclosed in this post should only be seen as my best amateur estimates of the correct values.
