Homemade Green Enchilada Sauce adds an explosion of fresh flavor to so many dishes! Thanks to the tomatillos, roasted chilis, garlic, cilantro, and cumin, it will elevate everything from cheesy enchiladas, casseroles, soups, and the spoon from which you are licking it off! This made from scratch green sauce is heads above any store-bought enchilada sauce, a family favorite, and is ready in less than 30 minutes!
After making homemade salsa verde I had a few more tomatillos to use up, and was craving green enchiladas. So I decided to make a batch. This is the most perfect green enchilada sauce because it has so much flavor, stores well, and can be used in many different ways, making it an easy weeknight meal option when you want to add a boost of flavor or take taco night to the next level.
If you love all things Mexican inspired, whether a dish or a sauce, you must try Mexican rice, grilled Mexican street corn, and this green chicken chili recipe. And then, you should invite me over!
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🟢 Ingredients:
- Sweet white onion – A sweeter, less pungent onion than yellow. When sauteed with the garlic, the natural sweetness comes out.
- Garlic cloves – Garlic and onion are a powerhouse duo. Sautéeing them together brings out the best in both of them and elevates the other ingredients in the sauce.
- Anaheim or Hatch chiles – If you’re wondering why the different spelling (Chili, Chilli, or Chile), it’s because they are all used interchangeably, depending on where you live! The Anaheim peppers or Hatch chilis are a bit milder and usually larger than the jalapeño pepper, but if that’s all you can find, go ahead and use that instead. Cans of green chiles could also be used.
- Olive oil
- Fresh tomatillos, rinsed and roughly chopped – You can use canned as well. They look like smaller unripened tomatoes and can be found in most grocery stores, usually with a husk around them. In fact, the drier and crispier the husk, the better the tomatillo.
- Fresh cilantro – Whether you love it or hate it, add it anyway!
- Cumin – A nice balance to the citrus and heat. Brings a bit of earthiness and a different layer of flavor.
- Chicken or vegetable bouillon – Your choice!
For a full list of ingredients and their measurements, 📋 please view my printable recipe card at the bottom of the post.
Optional Garnish:
You can use homemade enchilada sauce to make enchiladas verdes, in place of red enchilada sauce in most recipes, to dip tortilla chips in, or on top of tacos.
Substitutions and Variations
- Heat Level: If you want more heat, leave in more seeds, or add even more peppers. If you want less heat, make sure to remove all of the seeds.
- Peppers: A blend of poblano peppers and a serrano pepper could be used as well; the serrano peppers have some good heat, also.
- Green chicken enchiladas: Pour a little of your own green enchilada sauce into the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish. In a large bowl, toss shredded chicken breast in enough sauce to coat. Add a little sour cream, cheese, and the chicken mixture to your corn tortillas and roll them up. Place in the dish, top the green chile chicken enchiladas with more green sauce and cheese. Bake at 375 for 20-30 minutes or until they are warm.
- Beef enchiladas: Follow the same instructions as above but replace the chicken with beef.
🔪 Instructions:
PREP: Preheat the oven to broil and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Set it aside
Step 1: Saute the onions with a little bit of oil in a large saute pan. Once they’re soft, add the minced garlic and continue to saute until fragrant and beginning to brown. Then remove it from heat and set aside.
Step 2: Rub the peppers with olive oil. Place them on the prepared baking sheet and broil on the top rack of the oven. Once one side is charred and blistered, rotate until all sides are blistered. Remove from the oven to cool and once you are able to handle them, remove the stem and most of the seeds.
Step 3: Remove the husk and stem from your tomatillos and rinse. Cut into quarters and place in a blender or food processor.
Step 4: Pulse until broken down into small chunks. Add the chile flesh and cilantro and pulse once more. Pulse until the enchilada sauce is the consistency you would like.
Pro Tip: The more seeds you leave in, the hotter your sauce will be. So, you do you!
Step 5: Pour the contents of the blender/food processor back into the sauté pan. Add water, cumin, and bouillon and bring to a simmer until the sauce thickens, flavors have married and your desired consistency has been reached.
Step 6: Pour it all over whatever dish you’ve got going on in the oven right now or save it for later!
Recipe Tips for Green Enchilada Sauce
- Freeze in ice cube trays for easy access to small portions at a time.
- Stock up on ingredients when they are in season, make a double batch and freeze or can for later.
- If you have an immersion blender you could use that as well.
- I was only half kidding about adding the cilantro no matter what. It does add a nice finishing flavor and an added freshness. For me, it’s one of the signature flavors in this sauce, but you can still make a tasty sauce without it.
- If you like the flavor of the roasted chiles, you might even enjoy roasting the tomatillos.
Fun Fact
It’s possible that enchilada recipes date all the back to Mayan times. -Mashed
Recipe FAQs
Green enchilada sauce, known as “salsa verde” in Spanish, is a tangy and slightly spicy sauce typically used in Mexican food. The sauce is made primarily from tomatillos, which are small, green fruits that resemble tomatoes but have a brighter, more acidic flavor and green chilis.
Keep leftover sauce in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for 10 days or in the freezer for later uses for 6 months.
Green enchilada sauce is made from tangy tomatillos and green chili peppers, giving it a bright flavor, often enhanced with cilantro and lime. In contrast, red enchilada sauce is derived from red chili peppers like ancho or guajillo, offering a deeper, sometimes sweet or smoky flavor, enriched with spices such as cumin or Mexican chocolate. While green sauce is zesty and bright, red sauce tends to be richer and more robust.
Hatch chile peppers are grown in one area of New Mexico and are available seasonally in the Southwestern U.S. We typically get an influx here in California in the late summer. Anaheim chiles make a great substitute, but if you do not have access to either of these chili peppers, look for a chile pepper with an earthy flavor and mild/medium heat.
You sure can. Fresh are always best, but canned tomatillos are easy to find at the grocery store and make a great substitute.
The sauce is mildly spicy as the recipe is written. You can adjust the spice level by adding more chile seeds and/or adding roasted peppers with a spicier/hotter flavor. Hatch and Anaheim chiles are about ⅓ as spicy as your average jalapeno.
Use it on top of everything from tacos, quesadillas, tamales, enchiladas, fish, chicken, beef, shrimp, casseroles, or macaroni and cheese. You can even thin it out even more and use it as a salad dressing. The sky is the limit with this great sauce!
More Mexican Inspired Recipe Ideas
If you tried this Green Enchilada Sauce Recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how you liked it in the 📝 comments below.
Green Enchilada Sauce
Ingredients
- ½ sweet white onion diced
- 1-2 garlic cloves
- 2 large Anaheim or Hatch chiles
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 4-5 cups fresh tomatillos rinsed and roughly chopped (or canned)
- 1 cup fresh cilantro
- 2 cups water
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon chicken or vegetable bouillon
Instructions
- Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a large saute pan and heat over medium. Saute diced onions until soft. Add minced garlic and continue sauteeing until the garlic is fragrant and mixture is just beginning to brown. Remove from heat.
- Meanwhile, rub chiles with olive oil. Place them on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Broil on the top rack of the oven, rotating the chiles until they are blistered on all sides. Remove from the oven and allow to cool enough to handle. Remove stem and most seeds from the chiles and scoop the flesh away from the peel, if desired.
- Prepare fresh tomatillos by removing the outer paper-like skin and trimming the stem. Rinse any sticky residue from the tomatillos and cut into quarters. Place tomatillos in a blender or food processor and pulse until the tomatillos are broken down into small chunks.
- Add chile flesh and cilantro to the blender and pulse a few more times until desired consistency is achieved.
- Pour sauce back into saute pan. Add water, cumin, and bouillon and bring to a simmer.
- Simmer over medium-low heat until sauce thickens to desired consistency and flavors have meddled.
- Cool. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 10 days or freezer for up to 6 months.
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Notes
Nutrition
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Comments & Reviews
Anne says
This was easy and delicious!!!
Stefanie says
So glad you liked it! I just made another batch, too. Yumm!