Enchilada Sauce

Misplaced Texan's Note:

A very good sauce from one of our favorite cooking shows.

• Total Time: 25 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 2.5 cups

• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1/4 cup chili powder
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 10 ounces tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. In a saucepan, heat oil and add flour; smoothing and stirring with a wooden spoon for approximately 1 minute.
2. Add chili powder and cook for 30 seconds.
3. Add chicken stock, tomato paste, oregano and cumin.
4. Stir well and bring to a boil.
5. Reduce heat to low and cook for 15 minutes.
6. The sauce will thicken and smooth out.
7. Adjust seasonings, as desired.

Reviews

[stlguy83]

This is what I call a GRG (Great Recipe for Gringos). These are recipes that help free us from the bondage of bottled and jarred sauces. Tonight was the second time my fiancee and I have tried this sauce, and, while tasty, we found two main issues. One, the amount of tomato paste made it a little too sweet for our tastes. Two, we felt it needed a little bit more heat than what just the chili powder was bringing to the party. So, we used a 6 oz. can of tomato paste and 4 oz. of plain canned tomato sauce to cut down on the sweetness, and "kicked it up a notch" (Sorry Emeril. Please, don't sue me.) with some habanero hot sauce. For those of you who like it somewhere in the middle, a teaspoon (give or take) of cayenne would do wonders. Buena suerte mis amigos en la cocina.

[HiAltitudeTexan]

Great recipe! We substituted vegetable broth for the chicken stock and upped the amount a bit to get a more saucy consistency. It turned out awesome!

[Deb's Recipes]

This enchilada sauce tastes pretty good, but is quite thick. Several times I tried to thin this tomato paste-based sauce by adding more chicken stock, but each time it quickly thickened back up. Then during baking, the sauce on my enchiladas dried up a lot more than I would have liked. So while this is a quick and easy recipe, it's one I probably won't make again.