Easy Green Enchilada Sauce
Make this light and tangy Easy Green Enchilada Sauce recipe in just 30 minutes. It’s a delicious blend of onions, green chiles, tomatillos, and garlic. Use it to smother enchiladas, burritos, or over chicken with rice. In addition, it’s a good dipping sauce with, for example, chips or taquitos.
The best part of making green enchilada sauce from scratch is that you control what goes into it. Make it hot or mild, your choice.
Green enchilada sauce is typically served over chicken, pork, and turkey.
I was afraid that by calling this an “enchilada sauce,” people would think that’s all you can use it on. It’s not.
It’s great over burritos, in tacos, over chicken and rice (like a gravy), in soup stock, plus more.
Try it on my Homemade Green Chicken Enchiladas, which are my favorite.
What do you like on your cheese enchiladas? I use green sauce over my Homemade Cheese Enchiladas. It’s a delicious low-calorie recipe loaded with flavor.
Making Easy Green Enchilada Sauce
First, cook the onions. Cook them until they’re soft and opaque (clear). This takes about 5 minutes.
Next, add everything else. That’s right, just dump it all in there.
Now, you do have to drain the tomatillos first. That should take an extra 30 seconds.
Oh, and the garlic has to be minced, unless you buy pre-minced garlic in a jar, which is a great time savor.
Bring it to a boil, then simmer for 25 minutes. Is this easy, or what?
All that’s left to do now is to blend it into a relatively smooth sauce.
I say, “relatively,” because it will still have tiny chunks in it, which is nice.
Ok, so either use a stick blender (immersion blender), a regular old fashioned blender, or a food processor.
A word of warning, the mixture will be hot. Use a soup spoon to transfer the sauce into the blender or processor so you don’t get burned.
The last thing you want is a hot tomatillo to plop out and splash you with hot enchilada sauce.
Ok, so once you’ve blended the sauce, it’s ready to use. Add more salt and/or pepper as you wish.
So, that was the Easy Green Enchilada Sauce. Ready in about 30 minutes.
How to use fresh tomatillos instead of canned.
If you have the time and the inclination, you can buy fresh tomatillos and roast them. The roasting adds additional flavor, no question.
First, peel them if they have the rough husks on, coat them in olive oil, and sprinkle with a little salt.
Second, roast them in a 400° oven for 60 – 70 minutes, stirring half way.
Cook them until they look like they’ve popped. To clarify, things are going to get messy.
While the tomatillos are still roasting and you reach the half-way mark when you stir them, that would be the time to start the rest of the sauce.
If you want to use this method instead of using the canned, I must confess that I cannot give you an exact measurement of how many tomatillos to roast. I eye-ball it.
As I sit here typing this, I would guess at least 2 – 3 cups of the roasted tomatillos to 1 28 oz. can. Maybe more?
The good news is it won’t make too much difference if you have more or less tomatillos.
One more thing, you just roasted the tomatillos, so they don’t need to simmer.
In other words, simmer the sauce without the tomatillos, they’ll be roasting anyway. When the sauce is done simmering and the tomatillos are done roasting, blend them together.
Both ways are scrumptious, one is just faster and easier.
Loving Mexican food?
Check out these recipes:
- Green Chile Cheese Quesadillas
- Baked Chicken Taquitos
- Shredded Beef Wet Burritos
- Almost Homemade Salsa
- Mexican Bruschetta
- Chicken Chilaquiles Casserole
Easy Green Enchilada Sauce
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 2 medium onions, chopped
- 28 oz. can tomatillos, drained (or 2 - 13 oz. cans)
- 7 oz. can diced green chiles
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 3 Tbsp. lime juice
- 2 tsp. dry oregano leaves
- 1 tsp. ground cumin
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Add oil and onions to large saucepan on medium-high heat. Cook, stirring often until soft, approx. 5 min.
- Stir in remaining ingredients, bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered; stir occasionally for 25 minutes.
- Blend with an immersion blender (a.k.a. stick blender), or carefully pour sauce into blender or food processor. (see notes) Blend until smooth or leave a few chunks for character. Season with salt to taste. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Easy Green Enchilada Sauce
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