Verde (Green) Enchilada Sauce

This recipe for Green Enchilada Sauce is made-from-scratch with fresh green tomatillos, chilies, garlic and spices. Not too spicy, and with exceptional depth of flavor with one special ingredient.. it is the best enchilada sauce, to have in-hand, for Mexican verde enchilada dinner. Needs only 10 minutes prep. Refrigerate well for 1 week or freeze up-to 6 months for an easy weeknight Mexican, at home!

Often, I see Red Enchilada Sauce gets all the vote. But Green Sauce is equally bold and flavorful. If you are new to Verde Enchiladas? I highly recommend trying some. Specially this recipe shares the most basic and authentic way to make lush-green enchilada sauce. Once sauce is ready, enchiladas are as easy as stuff, roll, pour sauce and bake. 

If you like my homemade Tahini Sauce, Ranch Sauce, Red Enchilada Sauce. I guarantee this sauce will make you even happier.

So, let's make some Enchilada Sauce. Shall we?!

Green Enchilada Sauce or enchilada sauce in general is the base sauce used to make Enchiladas. Think Enchilada like a baked Mexican Lasagna casserole. Mexican flour tortillas are stuffed with chicken or veggies, and rolled like cigar, snuggled together in casserole topped with Enchilada Sauce, cheese and toppings.. then baked until sauce is bubbling and kitchen smells like waiting for order in Mexican Restaurant. Yummoo!

Green Enchilada Sauce Ingredients:

The main ingredients in green Enchilada sauce are green tomatillos, garlic, fresh green chilies such as jalapeno, or poblano/serrano (if you like lots of heat in the sauce), onion, oregano and chicken bouillon (my special ingredient). The depth of flavor a bouillon adds to enchilada sauce can't be missed. You will love it.

There are multiple ways to cook main ingredient of enchilada sauce. With recipe I'm sharing the most authentic way of preparation i.e. boiling the tomatillos, onion and chilies until tomatillos are soft and turn olive green (best way to know when ready). This takes about 10 minutes.

That's it! Once tomatillos, onion and chilies are cooked, a quick round of blender with seasonings and Green Enchilada Sauce is ready.  My Vitamix Blender does great job of making sauces. 1 minute on medium to chop everything and 1 minute on high for fine pureed sauce as you can see in pictures.

Vegetarian Sauce:

This recipe can be easily adapted to make vegetarian enchilada sauce. Just replace chicken bouillon with vegetarian or use veggie stock (read notes). Rest all ingredients are plant-based. so go-ahead, make vegetable enchilada verde for meatless  Monday next week! I recommend spinach, mushroom, and cheese filling. (Don't forget to share with me.)

Really, there is nothing like comfort of a homemade sauce. Isn't it? No preservatives, heat and spice as you want, plus fix as needed. So many options!

Make-Ahead:

The best part of this sauce is you can make it up-to a week in advance. (keep refrigerated in air-tight container) Or freeze it up-to 6 months. Since the season of chilies is right around the corner… This sauce is best made and frozen to use multiple times in week.

..another cooking method is to roast green tomatillos, onion and garlic. Sauce prepared has beautiful char and depth of flavor of  roasting. But that is completely different recipe. 

This sauce is fully cooked. Once made and refrigerated.. The Verde Enchiladas are as easy as stuff four tortillas with cooked chicken and cheese. Roll and snuggle together in a casserole with layer of Green enchilada Sauce at bottom and top. Top with cheese and bake until sauce is bubbling.

That’s it!

Verde Chicken Enchilada are ready to devour! Try it once. I promise you will not buy packaged sauce again. 

Many-more request for homemade Green Enchilada dinners. :-)

Enjoy!

PS: My brain-fog days are finally over. Get ready for lot more recipes on blog. Happy cooking!