Hey there enchilada fans! I had forgotten about this thread until Sweet Willie sent me a gentle reminder today.

I came up with my own recipe after watching a few cooking shows. Prior to that I used mild red chile enchilada sauces made by La Victoria, Las Palmas, El Pato, and others. Surprisingly, the Target store brand green sauce is very good although it has a lot of salt in it.

I don’t have a formal recipe or exact measurements to make red enchilada sauce, but it’s pretty easy. I use the following ingredients:

Dried chiles: A 6-ounce bag is about 20 dried and costs me about $3.50. I use mild chilies, (Guajillo, California, Colorado, or New Mexico)

A yellow onion: Cut into large chunks

One or two cloves of fresh garlic (OK, I use a lot more than two—maybe six or eight, YMMV)

And this is what I do:
Place dried chilies, onion, and garlic (and any other spices/salt/seasonings/herbs you may want to add) in a stockpot and fill the pot with water, and bring to a boil, cover pot, reduce heat to simmer for 30 minutes. When the chiles and onions are soft, remove from heat and allow the whole mess to cool a bit (20-30 minutes).

In a blender (in small batches) blend the mixture of chiles, onions, and liquid until smooth. Pour mixture through a fine sieve. Use a soft rubber spatula/Scotch spoon to push the liquid through the sieve—you want to trap and discard the stems, seeds, and small bits of chile skin that didn’t soften up.

Muy importante! Be very careful when blending warm or hot liquid, as the heat can cause the liquid to come out of the top of the blender or even blow the top off of it. No one needs a faceful or an eyeful of hot enchilada sauce. I never fill the blender more than half way, and I cover the top of the blender with a thick towel and hold it firmly while the blender is going. The liquid will be thin. Pour it into a large skillet and cook it over low to medium heat until it reduces and thickens.

I apologize for anything that seems vague. I came up with this “recipe” on my own, so I just go by how I want it to taste and how thick I want the sauce to be. This makes a fair amount of sauce (again, sorry to be vague) which can be refrigerated for about a week. The sauce can also be frozen.

I find that the fresher the tortillas, the less they fall apart. I used to soften the tortillas with oil, or warm sauce, to but now I use a cast-iron skillet or comal to soften the tortillas so they are flexible enough to fill them and roll them up. If you don't have a cast-iron skillet or a comal, you can nuke each tortilla for a few seconds in the microwave.