Green Enchilada Sauce

Let’s chat enchilada sauce.

I learned last year that making red enchilada sauce is ridiculously easy.  Not as easy as opening a can, mind you, but if you want to kick it a recipe up a notch, it’s a fairly easy way to do so.

Fast forward to me finding a recipe for a soup calling for green enchilada sauce (recipe coming soon).  I’ve seen green enchilada sauce on the grocery store shelves, but I’ve never actually used it as an ingredient.  So instead of just buying it, I decided to see what a homemade green sauce would be like.

Turns out green is a bit more involved than red and there’s a lot of variability from brand to brand.  Some call for a variety of different peppers, some call for tomatillas, and some call for both.

I felt like the ones using both would probably be the best, but I’ve also never used a tomatilla in my life.  So I started watching YouTube videos about tomatillas.  Then, the tomatillas available at the grocery store were a pretty sad state of affairs, so I nearly scrapped the recipe.  I tried other stores to no avail.

But then luck shined down on me!  I was at church (did I mention this was mid-fall?  Sorry it was mid-fall - important detail) and there was a table set up for people to share their garden abundance and even though it was the very end of growing season, there in the middle were 6 tomatillas in their prime!  So excited!  I picked them up (along with the poblano peppers I also needed - the jalapenos were in my own garden) and away I went!

The flavor of this was fantastic, though I have to say I almost wish I hadn’t added the chili powder, which dulled the vibrant green sauce to a muddy green color.  But, it was perfect for the recipe I needed and made the equivalent of 2 two 10-ounce cans, so I froze the second half to use in a later recipe!

Green Enchilada Sauce

Recipe adapted from Chili Pepper Madness

1 pound tomatillos, husk removed and scrubbed

2 cloves garlic, unpeeled

2 poblano peppers

2 serrano peppers

2 jalapeno peppers

1 tablespoon chili powder

½ tablespoon cumin

2 cups chicken broth

2 tablespoon lime juice

Salt, to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Cut the tomatillos in half and place cut side down on a baking sheet.

Cut the peppers in half and remove seeds and ribs and place cut side down on the same baking sheet.  Place the unpeeled garlic onto the baking sheet as well.

Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until the pepper skins are blackened and the garlic is soft.

Cool for a few minutes.  When cool enough to handle, gently peel the blackened skins away from the tomatillos and peppers and discard.

Put the remaining pepper and tomatillo flesh into a food processor.  Squeeze the garlic out of the skins and blend.

Add the spices, lime juice, and chicken broth and blend until smooth.

Pour the sauce into a medium saucepan and simmer over medium heat for 5-10 minutes to thicken slightly.

Use as needed.

Makes about 2 ½ cups of sauce (equivalent to about 2 cans)