Green Enchilada Sauce Recipe

4.79 from 14 votes

Green Enchilada Sauce Recipe

This homemade green enchilada sauce is made with tangy tomatillos, garlic, and fresh herbs roasted to perfection and blended to a smooth puree. It's the traditional sauce for green enchiladas with roasted chicken or tex mex simmered ground beef.

Course Sauces & Condiments

Cuisine Tex Mex

Keyword enchiladas, green enchilada sauce, mexican food, recipes, tex mex, texas cooking. tomatillos

Cook Time 25

Additional Time 5

Total Time 30

Servings quart

Calories 28kcal

Author Sarah Penrod

Ingredients

12 large tomatillos (should be 2 pounds before roasting)
1/2 onion cut into pieces as shown in the photos
1 jalapeno pepper quartered
1 garlic clove
1 t. kosher salt
2- inch bunch of cilantro about 2 T. chopped *optional see notes*

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Tear the paper husk off all of the tomatillos and discard the husk. Wash the tomatillos as they will be sticky. Take the white onion and cut it into 4 pieces. For the jalapeno, cut off the step and then quarter the jalapeno as shown in the photos.
On a cookie sheet, place the tomatillos, onion, and jalapeno pepper. Place in the oven at 425 degrees for 20 to 30 min. The vegetables should be roasted and soft. (See photo for more.)
Remove the roasted vegetables and cool, about 10 minutes. Transfer all of the vegetables to a blender. Add 1 chopped garlic clove, and the salt. Blend on high for 1 minute or until smooth. Add in the fresh chopped cilantro and blend well into the sauce. (This is optional for people who don't enjoy cilantro.)
Taste for seasoning and add additional salt if you like.
Store in Tupperware in the refrigerator until ready to use. The sauce will stay fresh for 5 days in the refrigerator and can also be frozen for 2 months. It's enough to make 1 large batch of our chicken or beef green enchiladas, which can be found on the blog.

Notes

The 2-inch bunch of cilantro adds green flecks of color for beauty and extra flavor. It can be removed for those who don't enjoy cilantro. You could also experiment with using a few pieces of fresh spinach to achieve the beautiful little flecks.

Nutrition