Green Enchilada Sauce

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This authentic homemade Green Enchilada Sauce recipe is surprisingly easy to make. You need tomatillos, tomato's shy cousin who is hiding some incredible flavor behind those crinkly coats. They have that flavor you will recognize right away. You also need Anaheim chili peppers, cilantro, lime, onion, jalapeno, all the good stuff. Roast it, blend it up and that's it! You are on your way to the most amazing Green Chicken Enchiladas of your life.

Prep Time20

Cook Time40

Total Time1

Course: Main Course, Sauce

Cuisine: Mexican

Servings:

Calories: 42kcal

Author: The Food Charlatan

Ingredients

To roast:

1 head garlic
1/2 teaspoon vegetable oil to go on garlic head
1 pound tomatillos peeled and halved
1 white onion roughly chopped
2 jalapeños halved, not seeded
2 teaspoons vegetable oil for rubbing on roasted veggies
1 teaspoon kosher salt to sprinkle on roasted veggies
2 pounds Anaheim chilies left whole; these go DRY on a separate pan

To go in the blender:

1/2 bunch cilantro
1 lime juiced, at least 2 tablespoons
2 teaspoons Better Than Bouillon Chicken Base
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon oregano
1 and 1/2 teasoon cumin
1/4 cup water plus another 1/4 cup, if necessary

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Set out two half baking sheets. Arrange two oven racks near the center of the oven.
Prep the garlic for roasting: Remove the outer most papery layers of the garlic head. Cut off the top 1/4 of a head of garlic. (see photos) Lay out a sheet of foil and place the head of garlic on it. Drizzle the garlic with 1/2 teaspoon oil and rub it in. Wrap the head of garlic in foil so it's covered. Place it on one of the baking sheets.
Prep the tomatillos. Peel 1 pound of tomatillos, removing all the papery skin. Wash and rub them to get the slimy stuff off. (tomatillos are a little weird guys.) Cut each one in half, and cut out any stems that are very large (if they are tender tomatillos, I often don't bother cutting out the stems.) Place them on the pan with the garlic in foil.
Onions and Jalapeno. Chop a white onion in half, then chop into wedges. Cut off the stems of two jalapenos (Cut out the seeds and membranes if you like, leaving them in will make it more spicy. I like to leave them in!) Add the jalapenos and onions to the pan with the tomatillos.
Measure out 2 teaspoons of oil and drizzle it over the tomatillos, onions, and jalapeno. If you use too much oil, they won't roast and blacken properly. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon kosher salt over the top of the veggies. Use your hands to rub the oil and salt in. Arrange the tomatillos so they are cut side down.
Anaheim peppers. On the other DRY baking sheet, add 2 pounds of whole Anaheim peppers. (you need about 10 peppers). Do not cut them, slice them, oil them, or do anything at all to them. Put them directly on the dry pan and make sure each pepper has an inch or two of space; they should not be touching.
Roast the two pans of vegetables at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Open the oven door and switch the pans. Use tongs to turn the Anaheim peppers over, if one side is roasting more than the other. The skin will start to look brownish black.
Continue roasting for another 10 minutes, until the tomatillos are blackened on top. Set aside the pan of tomatillos to cool. Roast the Anaheim peppers until the skin on all sides of the peppers looks papery and dry and parts have become browned/blackened.
Steam the peppers. Immediately after you take the peppers out of the oven, they need to steam in an enclosed space. You can place a metal or glass bowl directly over the top of the peppers on the pan, if you can get a good seal. Or you can add all the peppers to a ziplock bag and seal it. Let the peppers steam for 10-15 minutes.
Peel the peppers. After the peppers have cooled and steamed, use your hands to pull out the stem and seeds. Peel the papery skin off the peppers, saving the fleshy part. You will end up with about 2 cups of peppers.
Everything that was roasted goes into the blender. Open the foil around the garlic. Squeeze each garlic clove into a blender or food processor. Try not to eat it all.
Scrape all of the tomatillos/onions and any juices from the pan into the blender.
Add all the Anaheim chili flesh (no seeds, no papery skin) into the blender.
Add the remaining ingredients to the blender: 1/2 bunch cilantro (stems cut off), about 2 tablespoons of fresh lime juice, 2 teaspoons Better than Bouillon Chicken Base, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, 1 teaspoon oregano, 1 and 1/2 teaspoons cumin, and 1/4 cup water.
Blend it all together for at least 1 minute, scraping down the sides. If the mixture is very thick (does not pour easily), add an extra 2 to 6 tablespoons water and blend until smooth.
Taste your enchilada sauce and see if it's missing anything! More salt? More lime juice? Adjust to taste.
Use this sauce to make Chicken Enchiladas! It's also an amazing dip for tortilla chips, use it to make these 10 Minute Chicken Quesadillas, as a salad dressing on Taco Salad, as a topping on Fajitas, as a dip for Chicken Flautas or Black Bean Taquitos, or top some Chili Nachos with it.
Storage: Add any leftover sauce to a container with an airtight lid, and store in the refrigerator for no more than 4-5 days. You can eat it straight out of the fridge if you like cold dips or salsas, or warm it up in the microwave for a minute or two until it's warm.
Freezing: Add the cooled sauce to a freezer ziplock bag and seal well. It will stay good in the freezer for 4-6 months! Then when you want enchiladas, you can thank your former self for being a queen. To use the sauce, thaw it in the refrigerator overnight or on the counter for 3-4 hours.

Notes

*If you are not in a stage of life where roasting tomatillos for 45 minutes sounds like a good time 😝 check out the cheater green enchilada sauce found in the notes section on my Green Chicken Enchiladas Recipe. It's super easy (just dump and blend) and it's super tasty! My family loves both versions!

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