Green chile enchilada sauce is roasted green chile, stock, onion, garlic and a spoonful of flour cooked in fat. That's it. Forty minutes of mostly unattended simmering gets you two to three cups, which is enough to sauce a full pan of enchiladas, and the only step that asks anything of you is the one where the flour goes in.
It isn't salsa verde, and that's worth saying plainly, because most of what you'll find online under this name is tomatillo sauce wearing a New Mexican label. If you came here because a recipe called for green chile enchilada sauce and what turned up was a blender full of tomatillos, cilantro and lime, you weren't going crazy. You were looking at a different sauce from a different tradition.
Jump to
Why this is not salsa verde
Both are green, and that's where the resemblance stops. Here's what's actually different.
Nothing's wrong with salsa verde. It just isn't what goes on enchiladas here, and substituting it gives you a dish that tastes tart and thin where it should taste roasted and round. The state's own published green chile sauce, on the New Mexico True recipe page, is chile, onion, garlic, a tablespoon of flour, stock and salt, with no tomatillos anywhere. That's the shape of the thing.
The recipe
Green Chile Enchilada Sauce
- Yield2 to 3 cups
- Prep10 minutes
- Cook40 minutes
- HeatYour choice
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
- 1 to 2 garlic cloves, finely minced
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 1/2 cups low sodium chicken or vegetable broth
- 1 cup flame roasted Hatch green chile, Medium or Hot
- 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 medium jalapeño, finely diced, optional
Method
- Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cover. Cook 5 to 6 minutes, stirring once or twice so nothing sticks, until the onion is soft but not browned.
- Stir in the flour and cook 2 to 3 minutes, stirring constantly. It'll clump around the onion. Keep stirring until it smells toasted and turns pale gold. This step is what separates a sauce from chile in broth, and rushing it leaves a raw flour taste that no amount of simmering removes.
- Add the broth gradually, whisking constantly to work out the lumps.
- Add everything else. Bring to a boil, drop to low, and simmer 30 minutes, stirring now and then. It's ready when it coats a spoon but still drips off.
- Salt to taste. Blend it if you want it smooth. Leave it as is if you want to see the chile, which most people here do.
A word on the chile ratio, because it's the one real decision in the recipe. As written it runs about one part chile to one and a half parts broth, which gives you a sauce you can pour freely over a whole pan. Plenty of New Mexican cooks go heavier than that, closer to equal parts, which is what the state's version does. If you want it to taste more like chile and less like sauce, take it to 1 1/2 cups chile and hold the broth where it is. It comes out thicker and you use less of it per plate, and that's the way I'd make it for people who already know what green chile tastes like.
How much sauce you actually need
This is the question the recipe doesn't answer and neither does anyone else's, which is strange, because it's the only thing standing between you and a pan of dry enchiladas.
There are two rules of thumb sitting behind that table. Sauce a pan more generously than feels right, because the tortillas drink it as they bake and a pan that looked wet going in comes out dry. And hold back half a cup to pour over the top at the table, which is where people notice it. One 16 oz jar of chile is roughly what a single batch calls for, give or take, so a jar and a pan of enchiladas line up about right.
Controlling the heat
The heat comes from the chile, so control it there rather than trying to fix it at the end. Medium chile makes a sauce most people can eat a plateful of, which is the safe call when you're feeding people you don't know well. Hot chile makes a sauce that announces itself. It's still eatable by the plate, but nobody will mistake it for mild. Mixing the two is how you land in between, and half a jar of each is far more controllable than trying to tame a hot sauce after the fact.
The jalapeño is optional, and it changes the character rather than just the level. It brings a brighter, sharper heat that sits on top of the roasted flavor instead of inside it. Leave it out the first time and see whether you miss it.
If it does come out hotter than you wanted, dairy is the fix. Stir in a couple of tablespoons of sour cream or a handful of cheese off the heat. Adding water thins the flavor without touching the heat much, which is the mistake people usually make.
Make ahead, storing and freezing
In the refrigerator it keeps 3 to 4 days. That's USDA guidance for cooked leftovers, and New Mexico's own published green chile sauce says three days. Cool it and get it covered and cold within two hours.
In the freezer it'll go several months, and it freezes cleanly because there's no dairy in it. Freeze it flat in a bag and it stacks and thaws fast. The trick worth adopting is freezing it in half cup portions, which is one burrito or one plate of eggs, so you're not thawing three cups to sauce one thing.
One thing people get wrong: freezing doesn't reset the clock. If the sauce sat in the refrigerator two days before it went into the freezer, it has one or two days left after it thaws, not another four.
It also thickens in the cold and loosens on reheat, so don't judge the consistency straight out of the fridge. Warm it gently and add a splash of broth if it needs it. Making it ahead isn't a compromise here at all. A day in the refrigerator rounds the flavor out, and I'd plan for that rather than apologize for it.
If it tastes like raw flour or came out thin
It tastes like raw flour
Step 2 was too short. The flour needs 2 to 3 full minutes in the fat before any liquid goes in. There's no rescue once the liquid is in, so next time give it the time. Simmering longer won't fix it.
It's lumpy
The broth went in too fast. Whisk hard, and if that fails, run it through a blender. Nobody will know.
It's too thin
Simmer it longer, uncovered. If you're in a hurry, whisk a teaspoon of flour into a little cold broth and stir that in, then cook it a few more minutes.
It's too thick
Broth, a splash at a time. Not water, which dilutes the seasoning along with the texture.
It tastes flat
Salt first, and then more chile. Flat green chile sauce is nearly always underchiled rather than underseasoned, and that's what happens when a recipe was written around a 4 oz can.
The shortcut, and when to take it
Here's the honest version. If you've got good roasted chile and forty minutes, make the sauce. It's better than anything in a can and the technique is one roux and a simmer.
And if you're in New Mexico in September, buy a sack, have it roasted and put it up yourself. For a lot of families that weekend is the point rather than the chore, and a freezer you filled yourself carries you clear through the winter. If that's your situation, you don't need anything from us.
The rest of the year, and everywhere that isn't here, that isn't an option. There's no roaster down the road in February in Tacoma. That's the gap we exist to fill:
- 16 oz jars of flame roasted Hatch green chile in Medium or Hot, shelf stable, four ingredients: Hatch chile, salt, garlic, lime juice. A jar is about one batch of this sauce.
- Frozen Hatch green chile in 10 or 20 lb orders if you want a freezer that lasts the year. It ships UPS air in two days or less, and if it arrives warm to the touch we refund the entire order plus shipping, no questions asked.
- The red and green blend if you want Christmas without keeping two jars open.
- In New Mexico, the store locator has who carries us.
- Restaurants working out plate cost should start at the wholesale page.
As for what to do with the sauce once you've got it, the obvious answer is enchiladas, but it's better than that on eggs in the morning, and it belongs in rolled tacos alongside its red counterpart. If you've got chile to get through rather than sauce to stretch, green chile stew is the heavier lift, three cups of chile for a pot that serves eight against one cup here. If you want the other half of the pair, our New Mexico red chile sauce is built the same way from the other pod. Green chile beer queso uses a jar faster than anything else we publish, and the full recipe archive is free.
Common questions
Is green chile enchilada sauce the same as salsa verde?
No. Green chile enchilada sauce is built on roasted green chile with stock and a little flour. Salsa verde is built on tomatillos and is usually bright and tart. Swapping one for the other changes the dish completely.
How much green chile enchilada sauce do I need for a pan of enchiladas?
About 3 cups for a 9x13 pan of 12 rolled enchiladas, which is one full batch of this recipe. Roughly 1/4 cup per enchilada. Sauce it more generously than looks necessary, because the tortillas absorb it as it bakes.
How long does homemade green chile enchilada sauce last in the fridge?
Three to four days, per USDA guidance for cooked leftovers, and it should be covered and refrigerated within two hours of cooking. Freeze it for anything longer.
Can you freeze green chile enchilada sauce?
Yes, and it freezes well because there's no dairy in it. Freeze flat in a bag, or in half cup portions so you can thaw exactly what one dish needs. Freezing doesn't reset the refrigerator clock, so freeze it while it's still fresh.
Can I use canned green chile instead?
You can, and the sauce will be thinner and milder, because a 4 oz can is a small amount of chile that has usually been diced fine and packed in liquid. If you use cans, use more of them than the recipe implies and expect to add salt.
How do I make it hotter or milder?
Change the chile, not the seasoning. Hot chile for a hotter sauce, Medium for a milder one, or mix the two to land in between. To cool a finished sauce, stir in sour cream or cheese off the heat rather than adding water.
Why does my sauce taste like flour?
The flour didn't cook long enough before the liquid went in. Give it a full 2 to 3 minutes in the fat until it smells toasted. Once the broth is in, more simmering won't remove the taste.
Do I need to blend it?
Only if you want it smooth. Left unblended you can see the chile in the sauce, which is how most people here prefer it.
The short version
Roasted green chile, stock, onion, garlic and a spoonful of cooked flour. No tomatillos. Forty minutes gets you 2 to 3 cups, which sauces one 9x13 pan of enchiladas, and it keeps three to four days in the refrigerator or months in the freezer.
If you've got a freezer full of chile you roasted yourself, you're set. If you don't, a jar is about a batch.