I love enchiladas, especially New Mexico style. But I haven’t really tried making them very often because I just don’t like the taste of the “enchilada sauce” that you buy in a can. It always has a faintly metallic taste that I don’t care for.
So, I took off on a quest to come up with a recipe for enchiladas and a homemade sauce that fit “Cheap Bastid’s” criteria: inexpensive (OK, cheap), tasty and easy to make. And, I think that I was able to get that done reasonably well. I searched the web for recipes and came up with several which I kind of cobbled together to come up with the one I’m using here. There’s 2 recipes and 2 blogposts—one for enchilada sauce and one for enchiladas. Both are easy although the enchiladas get just a bit messy when you’re assembling them.
Homemade enchiladas with Semi-Homemade Enchilada Sauce
Recipe: Semi-Homemade Enchilada Sauce
Summary: Do you like Mexican food? Get homemade flavor from this quick and easy to make Enchilada Sauce.
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp cooking oil
- 3-4 tbsp flour
- 2 tbsp cup good chili powder (New Mexico or Cali)
- ½ tsp chipotle or cayenne pepper (more if you like it hot)
- 1 tsp Ground cumin
- 1 tsp Granulated Garlic
- 1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
- 1 10-12 oz can red enchilada sauce
- 1 cup broth (chicken, turkey, beef or vegetable—or plain water)
Instructions
- Mix chili powder & all the other spices in a small bowl.
- Put skillet on medium heat and add oil. You’re going to make a simple roux. Add the flour and immediately start to whisk it.
- Whisk until it just starts to blend together and then add ½ of the spice blend and keep whisking until its smooth which will only take a couple of minutes.
- Add tomato sauce and enchilada sauce and turn to medium low—a simmer. Taste it! Add more of the spice blend a teaspoon at a time if you want a bit more chili flavor.
- When it’s slowly simmering, check the consistency of the sauce. If it’s a bit too thick—closer to ketchup than gravy—add about 1/3 of the broth. You want a consistency about like gravy and not “gloppy”.
- Taste it again. Add another teaspoon of the spices if needed. How much spice to add? Enough! We like cumin so I go a bit “heavy” on it. But remember, add spices—then taste it! You can always add more and the longer the sauce simmers, the more the spices will blend in.
Preparation time: 5 minute(s)
Cooking time: 12 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 6
Here’s a link to Cheap Bastid’s Homemade Enchilada Recipe: http://www.cheap-bastid-cooks.com/incredible-enchiladas/
Bear in mind that when you use the sauce on the enchiladas that it will thicken up a bit more in the oven. Taste the sauce as it simmers and adjust the spices to your taste (in other words if you want it spicier add some more chipotle or cayenne). I added a couple of good squirts of habanero sauce because we like things spicier than most people.
Now you’re ready to get making the enchiladas. Or you can also use this as an “all purpose” Mexican-style cooking sauce. It’s tastier than just using the canned kind which can taste a bit metallic.
The Cheap Bastid Test: This is really inexpensive and good. The can of enchilada sauce is $1, the tomato sauce is $.33 and the other ingredients combined cost about $.50. The total is about $1.83 for plenty of enchilada sauce.
That’s the Cheap Bastid Way: Eat Good. Eat Cheap. Be Grateful
