I love enchiladas, but I absolutely hate buying enchilada sauce at the store. I’ve always found it pricey. So, I started making my own ever since (same with refried beans. Don’t get me started there.)
Inspired by other food bloggers and All Recipes (one of my go-to cooking sites), here’s what I’ve crafted.
INGREDIENTS
1/4 c. canola or vegetable oil
2 T. flour
3 T. chili powder
1 8 oz. can of tomato sauce
1 cup of water (I have 1 extra cup of water on standby to make this the consistency I like)
1 cube or 1 tsp. of chicken bouillon
2 tsp. ground cumin
2 cloves of minced garlic (1 tsp.), but more certainly is OK by me!
1/2 tsp. onion powder
DIRECTIONS
1. Heat up your oil in a saucepan over medium heat.
2. Stir in flour and chili powder. You want this to cook like a roux you’d make for gravy, where you let it brown just a bit.
3. Whisk in remaining ingredients. I recommend doing this a little bit at a time. Sometimes when working with a roux, if you put things in too fast, it clumps. I’ve never had an issue here, but putting in a little liquid and whisking should avoid this just fine.
4. Cook until sauce is thickened.
Personally, I like a runnier sauce. So, toward the end, I may add up to an extra cup of water to the sauce mix. Stir it and let it thicken up a little.
I use the sauce immediately. You can freeze the leftovers. When defrosting it, you may notice the consistency is a little clumpy. I recommend microwaving it and whisking it. It will get back to the desired smoothness you’d expect with this sauce.