Roasted Tomatillo Sauce

This Tomatillo Sauce has delicious smoky flavor from roasted green tomatillo, and easy to find pantry ingredients - cumin, oregano, garlic, and chicken stock. Perfect to make homemade Chicken Enchiladas smothered in Tomatillo Sauce. Make-ahead up-to 1 week. Freeze for 6 months. I recommend make a big batch when tomatillo are in season. 

Roasted Tomatillo (Green Tomato) Sauce is Mexican restaurant staple Verde Sauce. Any order of Green Enchiladas, Verde Chimichanga or Burrito will have generous coat of green sauce with delicious flavor of roasted green tomatillo. This is what makes this recipe on blog today. I wanted to give you recipe to make same sauce (with roasted, charred tomatillo flavor) at home. Make sauce once then use with any Mexican-inspired homemade meal. Enchiladas, burrito, drizzled on tacos or verde nachos. I even love to make Chile Quile with this sauce. Really, possibilities are endless.

If you like to make homemade Mexican sauces. I recommend trying more recipes on blog: Red Enchilada Sauce, Green Sauce, Chipotle Adobo Sauce and Mole Sauce.

Roasted Tomatillo Sauce Ingredients:

The main ingredients in Tomatillo Sauce are tomatillo, chile poblano (roasted), garlic, onion, oregano, cumin, lime juice,  and chicken stock or chicken bouillon (my special ingredient). I highly recommend making sauce with stock/bouillon for that extra depth of flavor just like sauce you get at restaurants. (for vegetarian option, read ahead)

How to Roast Tomatillo for Sauce:

The signature flavor of this sauce comes from roasting the tomatillo. To make the sauce, I first remove husk of green tomatoes. Whip these with wet tissue. Place in a bowl, coat in olive oil and drizzle some salt and pepper. You can roast tomatillo various ways:

1. Grill - To grill (gas or charcoal), transfer tomatillos to a perforated grill pan. If your grill can fit tomatillos directly on grill. That should be fine as well. Roast on high heat until skin of tomatillos has various black spots (nicely charred). Once roasted, transfer to same bowl and set aside. 
2. Oven Roast/Broil - This method works best when making tomatillos sauce at moment's notice and have no time to switch on grill. Simply transfer seasoned tomatillos on sheet pan. Place oven rack in top most shelf. Preheat oven to boiler setting. Broil tomatillos until nicely roasted.
3. Stove Top - Yet another easy way to roast tomatillos for the sauce. Simple place perforated or grill pan on stove top. Roast tomatillos until dark and spotty (nicely charred).

Tip: For more flavor, roast the Poblano pepper as well. After roasting, leave in a bowl covered to loosen the skin. Once cool to handle, scrape off skin and seeds. 

That's it! Once tomatillos, and chilies are cooked, a quick round of blender with seasonings and Roasted Tomatillos 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 adapted to make vegetarian sauce by replacing chicken stock with vegetable stock. Rest all ingredients are plant-based. Vegetarian Sauce is good fr meatless Mondays. Also great if you are vegetarian. I recommend trying with Verde Enchilada with spinach, mushroom, and cheese filling. 

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. It is a good sauce to make and freeze in peak season of tomatillos. Make once and enjoy multiple times. Life saver!

In my home, this is the most recurring Roasted Tomatillo Enchilada Sauce. Try it once and I promise you will never buy pre-prepared Tomatillo Sauce again!

Many-more request for homemade Enchiladas! Get cooking and enjoy!