Red Enchilada Sauce Recipe

Name: Red Enchilada Sauce Recipe
Total time: 30 min
Ingredients: 4 medium guajillo chiles (about 1 ounce); 2 medium cloves garlic, peeled; 1 (28-oz) can fire roasted diced tomatoes (such as Muir Glen); 1/4 teaspoon cumin; 1/4 teaspoon black pepper; 1 tablespoon olive oil; 2 cups chicken broth; Kosher salt, to taste; Sugar, to taste

Why This Recipe Works

First toasting the guajillo chiles in the oven adds further depth to their already rich and earthy flavors.
Simmering the strained chiles, garlic, tomato, cumin, and black pepper purée with oil creates a concentrated base that's thinned with chicken stock and seasoned to taste.

Cinco de Mayo is my all-time favorite food holiday—there can never be enough Mexican or Tex-Mex in my life. Most Mexican cooking I know I learned from Rick Bayless's Mexican Everyday at Amazon, which I've used so much that it's less a book than bunch of loose pages with a broken spine. Luckily, I have most of my favorite recipes memorized, like this incredible red enchilada sauce.

It's the procedure that develops the deep and rich flavors of this sauce. It starts with toasting moderately spicy guajillo chiles, followed by pureeing them with garlic, tomatoes, cumin, and black pepper. The sauce is then strained into a saucepan with hot oil and cooked into a thick paste. This is the messy part—as the sauce reduces, it also wants to splatter everywhere. Constant stirring helps combat this, but doesn't alleviate it completely... you've been warned. Finally, chicken stock is added, the sauce is simmered, seasoned, and it's good to go.

The guajillos really define the sauce, giving it an earthy heat throughout, while the reduction step creates a very robust tomato base. Spread this sauce over chicken-stuffed corn tortillas, top with cheese, bake, and you'll be in enchilada heaven.

May 2012