Homemade Green Enchilada Sauce is a quick and simple 8-ingredient sauce that you can use in many of your Mexican-inspired recipes. Simply the BEST enchilada sauce - you'll love the homemade taste! This recipe uses frozen or canned diced green chiles for convenience. Let's get started, shall we?
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❤️ Homemade Green Enchilada Sauce
"If you love Mexican food, you are gonna love this sauce! It's quick, easy, tastes better than the store-bought canned variety - and it's healthy! Homemade is always best!" 🙂 -Kori
I have two more homemade enchilada sauce recipes you might like: Tomatillo Enchilada Sauce (another green enchilada recipe) and this classic Red Enchiladas Sauce Recipe.
Best Enchilada Sauce
Making your own homemade green chile sauce is quite easy, and this recipe is a great substitution for any variety you get find in the grocery store. It tastes so much better too!
Quick and Easy
This recipe is intended to be a quick and easy enchilada sauce recipe. There are several ways to make this beautiful Mexican green sauce - like roasting your own chiles, for example, but I was looking for a substitution you could make in a pinch - it also needed to taste amazing and be as authentic as possible!
1 recipe = 1 (28 oz) can of store-bought green enchilada sauce
Freezable
This homemade green chili enchilada sauce recipe is freezable! I love to batch cook a bunch and freeze it for later uses!
Side note! I plan on growing my own anaheim peppers and hatch green chili peppers this summer. I know there will be an abundance, and I'll be looking for something to make with them.
With this green chili sauce recipe, I'll be ready no matter how many peppers my garden throws at me! 🙂
Healthy
I think you'll love that this beautiful green sauce is low carb, keto, vegan, dairy-free, Whole30, gluten-free, and has no added sugar! Yay! So, on top of being easy, it's also quite healthy. 🙂
There are only 2.6 net carbs as opposed to the store-bought variety, which has 4 per serving.
While the full nutritional value is provided at the end of the recipe card, here are the most important if you're following a low carb keto diet:
2.9 g fat | 2.6 g net carbs | 0.3 g protein
🥘 What You'll Need
Here are the green enchilada sauce ingredients you'll need:
Avocado Oil - you can use avocado oil or olive oil, whichever you prefer.
Onion - I used a yellow onion, but you could also use sweet.
Garlic
Diced Green Chiles - we used frozen hatch green chiles for convenience, but you can also use canned (equally convenient) or roast your own chiles in the oven. You can find instructions for roasting your own peppers in the FAQs below!
Vegetable Broth - you can use vegetable broth or chicken broth.
Cumin
Oregano
Salt - we use kosher salt or sea salt
Pepper - fresh ground pepper always tastes best!
Optional - jalapeno pepper for more heat
🔪 How To Make Green Enchilada Sauce
The best enchilada sauce! Here's how to make it:
Saute Onion and Garlic
Heat avocado oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Saute onion until soft. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute.
Add Remaining Ingredients
Reduce heat to medium. Add diced green chiles, vegetable broth, cumin, oregano, salt, pepper, and optional jalapeno.
Simmer
Simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes until the liquid is reduced by about 25% or 3 cups in volume.
Blend
Use an immersion blender to blend ingredients to your desired consistency. If you don't have an immersion blender, transfer to a regular blender and pulse until desired consistency is reached. Transfer back to your skillet.
Use or Store For Later
If the sauce is for later use, let it cool, then store it in an airtight container for storage in your refrigerator or freezer.
🌯 How To Use It
This is a pretty diverse and easy green chili enchilada sauce recipe that can be used in many Mexican-inspired recipes! Here are some additional ways to serve if you want more inspiration!
- 1 recipe is equivalent to 1 (28 oz) can of store-bought sauce.
- Makes a great topping for chicken enchiladas, pork, fish, and beef.
- It's a great sauce over tacos, burritos, and such!
Recipes That Use Green Enchilada Sauce
I have several delicious recipes that use this homemade sauce. Try making my Green Enchiladas Chicken Soup Recipe either in the slow cooker or in a pressure cooker. Then I have 3 enchilada recipes I think you will really love - Seafood Enchiladas, Chicken Enchiladas with Green Sauce, and Chicken Zucchini Enchilada Boats. Happy Cooking!
💭 Top Tips
- Feel free to adjust the ingredients to your liking. If you like more heat, add fresh diced jalapeno peppers.
- Use fresh green chili peppers in place of canned ones. Depending on the heat level you are looking for, you could use poblano, anaheim, or jalapeno peppers. See FAQs below for how to roast green chiles.
- The recipe calls for reducing the total volume from 4 cups to 3 cups, but you can reduce further for a more intense flavor.
- If you don't have an immersion blender, add the ingredients to a blender and pulse until you reach your desired texture. I prefer something between smooth and chunky!
❓FAQs
Green enchilada sauce is most often made of diced green chili peppers (such as anaheim peppers, poblano, hatch, jalapeno, etc.), garlic, vegetable stock, cumin, oregano, salt, and pepper. Additional jalapeno peppers may also be added for more spice. Sometimes recipes will add tomatillos as well.
Both use very similar ingredients, but green enchilada sauce is cooked, and salsa verde uses raw ingredients. Not all green enchilada sauce recipes use tomatillos, whereas most salsa verde recipes use tomatillos.
Making your own homemade green enchilada sauce is quite simple.
Saute onion until soft, add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer. Simmer uncovered for about 15 minutes to reduce and thicken the liquid slightly.
Use an immersion blender to blend the ingredients to your desired consistency. Allow the sauce to cool if storing for later use.
Use a combination of peppers depending upon the heat level you are looking for. Poblano and Anaheim peppers are on the milder side, while jalapeno peppers are spicier.
Broil them whole on a baking sheet covered in foil for 10 minutes, until blackened and skin is bubbled, flipping halfway through. Remove from oven.
Wrap tightly in the foil you used to line the baking sheet, and let sit for about 30 minutes.
Once cool, rub the skin off the peppers. I highly suggest using gloves if possible.
Remove the tops of the peppers, cut them in half lengthwise, and remove the seeds. Use as needed in your recipe.
If you don't feel like making your own green chili sauce, here are a couple of good canned green chile sauce brands that I've used in the past. These are brands that you should be able to find in your local grocery store.
Old El Paso Green Enchilada Sauce
Las Palmas Enchilada Sauce
Yes, this recipe is freezable! Cool your sauce and place in a freezer-proof container. Freeze for up to 4 months.
✔️ More Easy Mexican Recipes:
If you're a Mexican food lover, be sure to check out these recipes:
- Chicken Enchilada Soup
- Carne Enchiladas
- Instant Pot Chicken Fajitas
- Chicken Tinga Tostadas
- Avocado Dressing (Vegan Salad Dressing)
- Chicken Fajitas Bake (Low Carb and Keto)
- EASY Jalapeño Popper Chicken Casserole (Keto Low Carb)
- Crockpot Chicken Fajita Soup (Low Carb Keto Soup Recipe)
- Easy Fresh Homemade Guacamole
If you made this recipe, I'd love for you to come back and give it a star rating and/or a review in the comments! 🙂 Let's stay connected, so please share photos of your creations with me and others on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest!
📋 Recipe
Green Enchilada Sauce Recipe
Homemade Green Enchilada Sauce is a quick and simple 8-ingredient recipe that you can use on many of your Mexican-inspired recipes. You'll love the homemade taste!
1 recipe = 1 (28 oz) can of store-bought green enchilada sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil (or olive oil)
- 1 cup onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 cup green chiles (diced or chopped; frozen or canned, do not drain)
- 2 cups vegetable broth (or chicken)
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 3/4 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- Optional: 1 jalapeno pepper, diced (if you like it spicy)
Instructions
- Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Saute onion until soft. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute.
- Reduce heat to medium. Add green chiles, vegetable broth, cumin, oregano, salt, pepper, and optional jalapeno.
- Simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes until the liquid is reduced by about 25%. (3 cups in volume)
- Use an immersion blender to blend ingredients to your desired consistency. If you don't have an immersion blender, transfer to a regular blender and pulse until desired consistency is reached. Transfer back to your skillet.
- If the sauce is for later use, let it cool, then store it in an airtight container for storage in your refrigerator or freezer.
Notes
Nutrition Information:
Serving Size:
10 servings ( approx. 2.5 oz each)Amount Per Serving: Calories: 38Total Fat: 2.9gSodium: 246mgCarbohydrates: 3.4gNet Carbohydrates: 2.6gFiber: .8gSugar: 1.5gProtein: .3g
Best GREEN ENCHILADA SAUCE RECIPE! A quick and easy 8-ingredient sauce recipe that you can use on your Mexican-inspired recipes. Making your own homemade green chile sauce is a great substitution for the store-bought canned sauce you buy. Homemade tasty! This recipe is low carb, keto, vegan, dairy-free, Whole30, gluten-free, and has no added sugar.
Lisa B Januska says
This does not call for tomitiallas, but you stated the difference between red and green sauce in your Green Enchilada Soup recipe and had them listed?
Kori says
Hi! This recipe does not call for tomatillos, only green chilies. The Green Enchilada Soup calls for green enchilada sauce. Some green enchilada sauces will have tomatillos, but most do not. This one does not. I'm actually about to post new recipes for Tomatillo Enchilada Sauce and a red enchilada sauce this week. LOL 🙂 Hope you enjoy!
Lisa says
The sauce looks amazing! I would like to make it but I would like to use fresh chili's. I don't know what kind of chilis to buy for the "green chilis". Are you talking green bell peppers, jalapenos, etc?
Thank you.
Kori says
Hi! I would use a combination of peppers depending upon the heat level you are looking for. Poblano and Anaheim peppers are on the milder side, while jalapeno peppers are spicier. I usually use a combination but you can use just one kind if you prefer! Just for reference, I have a tomatillo enchilada sauce recipe you could look at to see the volume of peppers I used for that recipe. 🙂 Hope you enjoy!