Elevate Your Southwest Cooking with Homemade Red Chili Paste & Enchilada Sauce

If you love the bold, smoky flavors of Southwestern cuisine, mastering a basic red chili paste is a game changer. This easy, versatile recipe is the perfect way to deepen the flavor of dishes like enchiladas, tacos, soups, and even roasted meats. Best of all, it’s completely customizable—you choose the types of dried chilies to control the heat level and flavor profile to suit your taste.

With just a few simple steps, you can create a rich, flavorful red chili paste that freezes beautifully and becomes the foundation for countless meals. Whether you’re looking for a mild kick or a bold, spicy bite, this chili paste lets you be in charge of your seasoning. Once you’ve made a batch, you’ll be ready to whip up an authentic enchilada sauce that’s far superior to anything from a can—rich, satisfying, and infused with homemade flavor.

RED CHILI PASTE 

If you appreciate Southwestern flavors, learning how to make a basic red chili paste is a great extension of those flavors and will add authenticity to your existing Southwestern-type sauces. 

This paste is made from dried red chilies. There are several varieties to choose from 

and you can learn about their heat content and specific flavors by going online. You can make the paste with a single kind of chili or a variety, which is what I usually do. When selecting the chilies, look for chilies that are dry but not brittle. A brittle chili has not been dried properly and will not yield the pulp required; you want chilies that are dry but still somewhat pliable. You can use any quantity you want. If it’s your first time you may want to start with eight or ten. Here are the steps involved, very easy: 

Basic technique:

1. Place the chilies in a saucepan and cover the chilies with water.

2. Take the chilies to a burner and bring the water to a steady boil.

3. Remove the pan from heat and set a bowl inside the saucepan with something to weigh it down so that the chilies are submerged during the soaking period.

4. Allow the chilies to soak for at least 2-3 hours or overnight.

5. Pour off half the liquid and save the other half. Remove stems from the chilies and place the chilies in a food processor or blender, tearing into pieces as you make the transfer. Puree the chilies, adding just enough soaking liquid to process the mixture, until it is somewhat smooth.  Any leftover soaking liquid can be used in soups or as the liquid for enchilada sauce.

6. Pass the mixture through a sieve, doing so in small batches, and pressing the solids with the back of a spoon or spatula.  Paste will cling to the underside of the strainer. Be sure and spoon off all you can. The seeds and skin will be caught in the strainer and should be scraped out and discarded after each pressing batch. You are left with the essence of the pepper, which is your paste.

7. Divide into small airtight containers or bags in usable portions, perhaps ¼ cup increments. Label and freeze. Can be frozen for several months.

Advanced technique:

Blacken chilies before soaking by laying them on the surface of a dry hot pan and allowing them to blister (discolor) and smoke slightly. It doesn’t take long for this to happen. Do both sides and you get an even more intense, complex flavor. Proceed with step one.

How to use the red chili paste:

This paste can be used almost anywhere. It can take the place of chili powder and be added to enchilada sauce, tacos, burritos or enchilada filling, soups, chili, used in making mole sauce, spread over roasting meats, tossed with vegetables. It will provide a most authentic and original flavor. 

RED CHILI PASTE OVERVIEW 

It’s important to remember that the paste is an essence. It needs to be incorporated with other ingredients to yield an appealing flavor. For instance, in mole, the paste would be blended with nuts, dried fruit, herbs, etc. to complete the flavor. If you were using it as a spread over roasting meats you would need to season it with salt and pepper, oil and maybe even add some roasted garlic. The paste can be thinned to any consistency. The original recipe for which I was using the paste was a tropical red chili sauce. In this case the paste was thinned down quite a bit with water and then small amounts of diced pineapple, mango and banana were allowed to simmer in the liquid for 20 minutes. That mixture was pureed, seasoned and served with halibut. The paste itself is not the final product but acts as a base for developing other flavors or is used to add complexity to flavors in other dishes.

The following is an enchilada sauce recipe that incorporates the red chili paste or 

chili powder. It is the simplest of sauces, reminiscent of what you will find in a Mexican restaurant. So easy to make you will never again buy canned enchilada sauce. 

ENCHILADA SAUCE BASE RECIPE 

The following is an enchilada sauce recipe that incorporates the red chili paste or 

chili powder. It is the simplest of sauces, reminiscent of what you will find in a Mexican restaurant. So easy to make you will never again buy canned enchilada sauce. 

Ingredients: (makes 3 cups) 

¼ cup vegetable oil 

¼ cup flour 

3 cups water or chicken, beef or vegetable broth 

¼ cup red chili paste OR 1 tablespoon chili powder 

Salt and pepper to taste 

Optional added ingredients: 

2 teaspoons ground cumin 

1 teaspoon ground coriander 

Oregano leaves 

Tomato paste or ketchup, to taste 

Directions: 

In a medium saucepan warm oil and then whisk in flour and cook until bubbly. Add your choice of liquid and bring to a boil, whisking periodically to yield a smooth sauce. Simmer for a minute. Include the red chili paste and taste for salt and pepper. As you are tasting, if you feel the need to use more or less chili paste or chili powder, do so! What you have made to this point is a copy of what they serve in Mexican restaurants. You can add additional spices and herbs if you want to customize the sauce further. If you want the sauce to have a more tomato color and flavor, then include some tomato paste or ketchup. Once again, this sauce freezes beautifully. 

Use this sauce in place of canned or jarred enchilada sauce in any recipe.

Hungry for more? Check out Chef doughty’s book; The Chef Within Dinner Edition.  Find more information and order your copy online here:
https://www.thechefwithinbook.com/bookstore/dinner-book

Meet Chef Doughty

We know her as part owner of Silvercreek Realty Group and the smiling face behind the brokerage accounting department, but did you know that Joyce Doughty has an affinity for culinary arts?

Chef Doughty is a successful food writer and restaurateur who hosted the nationally syndicated daily Public Radio food program “Food for Thought” for 17 years and was also host of the local ABC affiliate morning program “In the Kitchen” highlighting practical recipes and techniques for the kitchen. Recipient of the James Beard Foundation Top Three Chefs in Idaho Award and owner and chef of Idaho’s critically acclaimed Doughty’s Bistro. Chef Doughty was trained at Le Cordon Bleu and received her executive chef certification from the American Culinary Foundation.