New Mexico Red Chili Sauce (2024)

This sorta-insanely well-tested Red Chili Sauce is the perfect cure for otherwise kinda boring enchiladas, tacos, and more. A perfected New Mexico classic sauce needs to be balanced and lightly smokey, and why shouldn’t it be stupid-easy and fast to make too?

Made from dried New Mexico chilis, this sauce can be varied in heat according to your taste, but consistently delivers a smoky flavor to perk up vegan fajitas, is great over vegetarian Mexican rice, and takes your vegan burrito bowls with vegan chorizo to the zeta-level where angels play a trumpet while you try to eat breakfast in peace.

So, why mess with store-bought sauce when making your own is so simple and rewarding? I can think of only 3 reasons: (1) You prefer bad-tasting sauces, (2) you got upset and threw your blender out of an airplane to its perilous fate below, or (3) you like your food to taste plain and sad (your favorite food is plain spaghetti that you eat out of a ziplock bag on the subway).

Follow this tried-and-true method, and you'll have a homemade red chile sauce that's gonna start a dang riot at the next potluck you go to.Trust me, print and bring copies of the recipe to share, because people are gonna ask you for it! Let's get cooking and unleash the true potential of these incredible hatch chiles!

🥰Why you'll adore this recipe

✊ Vegan AF & GF: Like all of my vegan sauces, this bad boy brings the heat and flavor without a single animal product. What’s that? You hate gluten so much, and you are mad at soybeans too?!? No worries, this is one of my soy-free gluten-free vegan recipes, so you can have a meal that you don’t throw at the wall in a rage for once.

🔬 Rich, Smoky Flavor: Part of the secret to this sauce’s deep, aromatic flavor lies in the roasting of the New Mexico chiles, which enhances their natural smokiness. This process bumps the sauce's flavor and fragrance and maximizes the release of capsaicin, which is known for its antioxidant properties.

🌶️ A unique flavor: This recipe has balanced acidity from the subtle use of vinegar and a tiny bit of sugar. While this method is not 100% traditional in New Mexican chile sauce, both my testers and I preferred this more fine-tuned flavor that brings out some lovely nuances of the dried chilies.

✅Tested and Approved Worldwide: Like all the vegan recipes I share, this sauce was first replicated successfully by a massive crew of testers from all around the world. It is a reliable choice for your sauce game.

🌶️Ingredients & substitutions

Dried Chilies

Dried New Mexico, Hatch, Anaheim, or Pasilla chilies form the backbone of your New Mexico Red Chili Sauce, providing a smoky, mildly spicy base. In their native Mexico, these chilies are often called "chile ancho" or "chile Colorado."

Additionally, Hatch chilies are almost exclusively grown in the Hatch Valley of New Mexico, known for its nutrient-rich soil and unique growing conditions, contributing to their distinct taste profile. Hatch chilies are traditionally either sun-dried or air-dried, which allows them to slowly dehydrate while retaining their flavor and developing a deeper, more robust taste. While both Hatch and New Mexico chilies belong to the annum species and share similar characteristics, the drying method and growing region result in nuanced differences in flavor, heat level, and culinary applications.

Ancho chilies are a great option, too, because you can use them to make these killer vegan tamales with jackfruit. If you can’t get any of those, dried guajillo or mulato chilies can be used as substitutes.

Oregano

Mexican oregano, or regular ol’ dried oregano adds a sweet herbal earthiness that pairs wonderfully with cumin and coriander in the sauce. Mexican oregano is preferred for its more citrusy and less bitter profile than the Mediterranean oregano used for making vegan marinara. That being said, regular oregano will work in this recipe too.

Tomato Paste

While a lot of recipes call for using tomato sauce, I like having more of the flavor come from the natural ingredients that are part of this recipe. Since tomato sauce can vary so much in flavor, thickness, and saltiness, I opted to write this recipe using tomato paste that becomes a sauce when combined with the other ingredients so that the results are predictably great for folks all around the world. However, if you want to double down on the pepper flavor of this sauce, a great alternative is to use tatli biber salcasi, the classic Turkish pepper paste that absolutely slaps in recipes like Kisir, Lahana Sarma, and Mercimek Kofte.

Sugar

A tiny bit of either Brown Sugar, Coconut Sugar, or Palm sugar is essential to balance the acidity of the tomatoes and the heat of the chilies. Brown sugar provides a deep, molasses-like sweetness, while coconut or palm sugar offers a more subtle sweetness with a hint of caramel, which is why that is my go-to sweetener for desserts like klepon and bubur sumsum.

*See the recipe card at the bottom of the page for exact quantities, nutritional info, and detailed cooking directions.

📖 How to make Red Chili Sauce

Master this sauce on your first shot by following these step-by-step photos with helpful tips. Or scroll down to the bottom of this page for the easy-to-print recipe card.

Step One

Heat Wave Starts:

Warm your oven to 350°F (175°C). Spread the dried chilies on a tray and toast them briefly—just until they emit a tempting aroma but haven't darkened—about five to seven minutes. Take them out and let them cool off.

Step Two

Soak in the Heat:

Transfer the toasted chilies into a bowl and douse them with boiling water. Cover them and let them steep for about 15 to 20 minutes until they become tender.

Step Three

Sizzle and Spice:

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Toss in the onions and garlic, and cook for 4 minutes until they're just softened and aromatic.

See Also

Unveiling Grandma's Recipe Secrets to Winning Over Potluck Crowds Oven Roasted Turkey Tenderloin

Step Four

Base Flavors:

Stir in the oregano, cumin, and coriander. Keep everything moving in the pan for a few minutes as the spices become fragrant.

Step Five

Bubble and Tenderize:

Add the softened chilies and their soaking liquid to the pan along with the tomato paste, vinegar, your chosen sweetener and salt. After four minutes, turn off the heat when the liquid starts to boil.

Step Six

Blend to Perfection:

Dump the sauce mixture into a blender and let it cool for ten minutes. Then, blend on medium speed for 90 seconds until the sauce is smooth.

Step Seven

In Strain in the Membrane:

Pour the sauce into a saucepan through a fine mesh strainer to remove any bits of seed or pepper that didn’t totally blend.

✅For a thicker consistency, simmer over low-medium heat for about ten minutes to concentrate the flavors.

Step Eight

Cool and Jar:

Take the sauce off the heat and allow it to cool. Then, if not using immediately, pour into a jar. The sauce lasts in the refrigerator for up to 6 days. Use it to jazz up your favorite dishes whenever you like.

💡Serving Ideas

This vibrant New Mexico Red Chili Sauce is a versatile condiment that adds a tasty and tolerable heat to whatever you want to pour it all over.

Drizzle it over Vegan Elote for a smoky take on classic Mexican street corn, or mix a generous spoonful into Vegan Cheese Sauce to make the best nachos in the darned galaxy.It's great to use as a finishing sauce to cook homemade seitan in.

You wouldn’t be wrong to dip vegan fried chicken into the stuff (don't freak out, you can totally make it in your air fryer, if that's your jam). Basically think of using is as a less tangy, more robust sauce to use in place of vegan buffalo sauce.

🤷‍♀️ Recipe FAQs

✌️My faves to serve this sauce on:

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