New Mexican Style Red Chile Sauce
New Mexican Style Red Chile Sauce straight out of The Land of Enchantment - enchilada sauce doesn't get better than this!
Ingredients
- 20 dried New Mexico red chiles
- 10 cups water
- 1 tbsp salted butter
- 1 tbsp flour
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp oregano
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- Break off the stems of each chile. Dump out as many seeds as you would like, depending on your heat preference.
- Bring red chiles and water to boil in a large pot. Boil for about 10 minutes, until bright red and soft.
- Turn off the heat and let the pot cool for five or so minutes. Don't throw out the water just yet!
- Transfer red chiles + 2 cups of reserved water into a large blender. Blend thoroughly until smooth. If you have a smaller blender (like I do!), you're going to have to do this in batches; start with half the chiles and half the water. Have a bowl handy to pour the blended mixture into before starting on the second batch.
- Once all of your chiles have been blended together, add 2 more cups of reserved chile water to the mixture. You can throw out the remaining water now.
- Rinse and dry your large pot. Over medium heat, whisk together butter and flour to form a roux. Let cook, stirring often, for about a minute.
- Add your pureed chile mixture to the pot and whisk together thoroughly with cumin, oregano, garlic powder and salt.
- Lower heat to a simmer. Let simmer for another hour or so, stirring occasionally. When stirring, try to disturb the light yellowish-red foam that builds on top as little as possible; instead keeping the motion more focused on scraping up the bottom of the pot. When all the foam on top disappears, your sauce is done.