CANNING: Enchilada Roja Sauce (Pressure-Canner or Freezer Recipe)

• Serving Ideas for Enchilada Roja Salsa
• How to Can or Freeze Enchilada Roja Sauce
• Enchilada Roja Sauce Ingredients
• What kind of tomatoes can you use for this enchilada roja sauce?
• About the dried peppers for the Enchilada Salsa Roja:
• How to Make Enchilada Roja Sauce
• How to Can Enchilada Roja Sauce
• Enchilada Roja Sauce

This salsa canning recipe makes a big batch of rich, smoky-sweet authentic red enchilada sauce. Once you try this rich, flavorful homemade salsa roja you’ll want to have a few jars on your pantry shelves all the time. Dark and delicious, with a blend of toasted dried chiles, onions, tomatoes, garlic, and spices, it’s so good!

Of course, this sauce makes fantastic meat, bean, veggie or cheese enchiladas, but it’s a lot more versatile than that! It’s a great simmer sauce or salsa on its own, or you can use it as the foundation and a shortcut to making lots of different recipes.

Spend a Saturday afternoon making and canning or freezing this big batch of enchilada sauce, and you’ll save a ton of time on busy weeknight meals that are packed with homemade flavor.

Serving Ideas for Enchilada Roja Salsa

• Use your enchilada roja salsa as a simmer sauce for easy one-pan stove-top or baked chicken, beef, pork, or your favorite meat replacement. This makes great tacos, burrito filling, or just serve as a simple saucy entree with a side of rice and beans or a vegetable.
• It makes a zesty sauce for Mexican meatloaf or meatballs (try thinning with stock and simmering with chopped vegetables and the meatballs for an easy caldo de albondigas, or Mexican meatball soup).
• Add the red chile sauce to canned beans and ground or chopped meat in a crock-pot for a quick and flavorful chili base.
• Add the salsa roja to a pot of seared pork stew meat or chicken along with stock, a healthy pinch of Mexican oregano and canned hominy for an easy pot of easy posole (top with sliced radishes, fried tortilla strips or chips, avocado, and a squeeze of fresh lime).
• Use it as sauce for tamale filling or savory baked casseroles (tamale pie, anyone?)
• Make saucy breakfast burritos or tacos with chorizo, eggs, and potatoes, rolled up in homemade tortillas and garnished with chopped onion, cilantro, and crumbled queso fresco.
• Mix with scrambled eggs and make migas or chilaquiles with leftover tortillas or chips.
• Enjoy it as a dip for fresh tortilla chips or quesadillas, either straight from the jar or mixed with sour cream, yogurt, or mayo for a zesty red pepper crema.

How to Can or Freeze Enchilada Roja Sauce

A Note On Pressure Canners and Equipment:

You’ll need a pressure canner to can this salsa safely, but you can always freeze it in meal-size portions or wide-mouth jars (leave room at the top of the jar for expansion and fill regular-mouth jars below the shoulder), or just throw a giant fiesta with your big batch of salsa!

• The TL;DR is that to be a USDA-approved pressure canner, the pot must accommodate at least four quart jars vertically with the canner lid closed, have a way to vent steam for the allotted amount of time before pressurizing, and a calibrated dial gauge or weight to verify that the canner is at the proper pressure for the entire processing time.
• If you’d like a longer explanation of why you need a pressure canner, not a pressure cooker or Instant Pot to can low-acid foods, you should read this detailed article on the subject from the National Center for Home Food Preservation that I have linked.

Safe recipes for water-bath canning are high-acid, low pH mixtures, which this is not. As always, can safely but can at your own risk! This is a low-acid canning recipe, so again, do not attempt to water-bath can this salsa, or to can in an Instant Pot or smaller pressure cooker.

If you need to water-bath process your salsa, try this roasted tomato and ancho salsa roja recipe instead for a similar rich, deep smoky flavor that is safe to water-bath can.

Improperly canning low-acid recipes like this enchilada sauce puts you at risk for botulism, a potentially deadly food-born illness. There is no reason to fear pressure canning when using modern recipes and equipment, but you do need to respect the process!

Recipe Volume and Alternatives to Pressure Canning:

The original tested recipe from Ball lists processing times for pint jars only. You can safely can it in pint or smaller jars with a pressure canner (not an Instant Pot or small pressure cooker). If you want to store this sauce in quarts you’ll need to freeze it (in wide-mouth jars or freezer-safe containers or zip-seal freezer bags).

• You can also freeze or refrigerate any extra jars that don’t fit in your canner if this batch is too large for you, or scale it in half if you want less salsa.
• Store any unprocessed jars of salsa in the fridge and use within 5-7 days, or in the freezer for up to several months.

This recipe makes 16 pints, which is one full canner load for most common medium-large to large size pressure-canners (any that will fit two stacks of pint jars).

If you have a smaller canner that only does a single stack of pint jars, you can halve the recipe or process the jars in two batches (keep remaining sauce hot while the first batch is processing).

The only safe way to preserve this enchilada roja sauce and any other low-acid foods is with a pressure-canner, or by freezing or refrigerating the sauce.

This recipe is also a good candidate for dehydrating or freeze-drying, if you have the right equipment. It may stain your fruit leather dehydrator sheets. I have not tried dehydrating this sauce yet, but if you do, let me know how it went in the comments! I would recommend reducing or omitting the olive oil if you plan to dehydrate this sauce, and adding it when you re-hydrate the mixture.

Enchilada Roja Sauce Ingredients

This recipe is based on a tested enchilada sauce recipe from Ball, with only safe substitutions made in the dry seasonings, the varieties of dried peppers (taking total pepper weight/volume into consideration), and increasing the total recipe volume.

You can safely reduce or omit the dry seasonings, but do not increase quantities of onions, dried peppers, or other ingredients or make other changes unless you are very familiar with safe, tested canning substitutions.

Do not use prepared taco seasoning mixes that contain cornmeal or other starches (check the label- most packets of taco seasoning have unsafe ingredients for canning).

What kind of tomatoes can you use for this enchilada roja sauce?

• This recipe makes a big batch of red enchilada sauce, and is scaled for a #10 can of tomatoes (from Costco, Sam’s Club, or your favorite restaurant store).
• You can also use multiple smaller cans of diced or whole peeled tomatoes (102-106 oz total volume of tomatoes) if you don’t have access to #10 cans.
• Don’t use tomato paste, but whole or diced tomatoes are fine.
  • You are going to puree the canned tomatoes before adding them to the sauce, so tomato passata or puree will work too (but most plain tomato sauce is too thin to be ideal here).
• You can make the sauce with fresh tomatoes, preferably Roma or other paste style, but there are additional steps if you do.
  • To use fresh tomatoes, you’ll need to first blanch or roast whole fresh tomatoes to remove the skins, and then weigh them with the juice.
  • Sauce made with fresh tomatoes may need to simmer longer to get the right consistency, especially if your tomatoes are watery, or a mix of paste-type and slicing tomatoes.

About the dried peppers for the Enchilada Salsa Roja:

You can find the dried peppers at most grocery stores with a good selection, or order them online. They keep well for a long time if stored in a cool, dry place, although of course freshly dried chiles will have the best flavor.

The original recipe calls for just dried New Mexico chiles, but I have adjusted this recipe to use a more authentic mix of dried peppers that will give your sauce a richer, more complex depth of flavor, while keeping the same total volume of dried peppers to not alter the density and pH of the sauce.

Adding the pasilla and ancho chiles gives this sauce a deeper, richer, sweeter flavor without adding extra heat! The New Mexico dried chiles in the original are harder to find where I live, but guajillo are a good substitute. They’re a bit hotter and fruitier, but any extra heat is balanced out by the mild, sweet ancho chiles.

Don’t be intimidated by the number of dried chiles used in this sauce, as most of them are relatively sweet and mild with a gentle, smoky heat and chocolatey flavor, not just spicy-hot!

How to Make Enchilada Roja Sauce

Toast & Soak Peppers:

• Pick over the dried peppers and discard any that are excessively dirty. Rinse the dried peppers to remove any dust or dirt.
• Preheat a griddle or large skillet and toast the peppers a few at a time.
  • Toast for about 10-15 seconds for each side, until fragrant but not burnt. Peppers may puff or blister but do not blacken them or they will be bitter.
• Start to heat a pot or kettle to bring the water up to a boil.
• Let the toasted peppers cool, then remove the stems and seeds (discard or compost these).
  • Tear or cut the peppers with kitchen shears into smaller pieces (a couple inches each) and place in a large heat-proof bowl or 1½-2 quart pot.
• Pour the boiling water over the toasted pepper pieces, cover the bowl or pot, and let the dried peppers soak to rehydrate for at least 20 minutes.
  • You can put a heat-resistant plate in the bowl to weigh down the peppers or just stir them down occasionally.

Saute Onion, Garlic, & Spices:

• Preheat a large, heavy stockpot or dutch oven (large enough to hold all sauce ingredients, at least 5 quarts) over medium heat.
• Add the olive oil, and when the oil is shimmering but not smoking, add the minced garlic. Saute lightly, stirring for about 30 seconds, then add the chopped onion and stir again.
• Add the salt (this will help the onions release moisture so they caramelize without scorching) and sweat the onions for 5-10 minutes, until they are beginning to color.
• Add the rest of the dry seasoning ingredients (brown sugar, coriander, cumin, paprika, chili powder, cayenne, and cocoa powder), stir again, and remove from heat.

Puree & Strain Soaked Peppers, Tomatoes, & Sauteed Onions:

• Strain the soaked dry peppers, reserving the liquid. Puree the soaked peppers with one cup of the reserved liquid… add a little more if needed to get a smooth puree.
  • Save the rest of the soaking liquid and set aside in case you need to thin the sauce as it simmers.
• Puree the onion and garlic mixture with the pepper puree (use a bit more of the pepper soaking liquid if you need it to get a smooth puree, but remember that the tomatoes will also add a lot of liquid).
  • You can do this with an immersion blender in the large pot, or in batches with a regular blender- be careful of the hot liquid and use a kitchen towel to hold down the blender lid.
• Return the pureed pepper and onion mixture to the large pot and stir. Turn heat up to medium.
• Using an immersion blender or working in batches with a regular blender, food processor, or food mill, puree the tomatoes.
  • You can strain them through a coarse wire mesh sieve, strainer, or metal chinois to remove the seeds and any remaining coarse bits of skin or woody stem end if you like.

Simmer & Reduce Enchilada Sauce:

• Add the tomato puree to the pot and bring the whole mixture back up to a strong simmer or low boil. Taste the sauce and adjust seasonings if necessary (using safe seasonings for canning).
• Stir regularly and let simmer and reduce for 25-35 minutes, or until sauce is smooth, dark, and flavorful.
  • You can partially cover the sauce to reduce splatters but don’t cover it completely.
• Check the consistency- you want the sauce to lightly coat a spoon. If it’s too thin, simmer longer to reduce, and if it’s too thick, thin it out with a bit of your reserved pepper-soaking liquid.
• You can strain the entire sauce through a wire strainer, chinois, or food mill if you like to get a smoother, more velvety sauce, or skip this step for simplicity. If you strain it again, use a large ladle to press the sauce through the strainer.
• Follow instructions below to pressure can your sauce. Sauce can also be frozen for several months, or refrigerated for up to a week.

How to Can Enchilada Roja Sauce

Prep canner & jars:

• Fill your pressure canner with several inches of water and add the perforated bottom rack (check your canner instructions). Preheat the canner by bringing the water up to a simmer over medium-low heat.
• Wash your jars and lids with hot soapy water, rinse, and keep hot. Do not boil your lids (except certain types of reusable lids- follow manufacturer instructions).
• Protect your work surface- I like to use a baking sheet pan lined with an old kitchen towel.
• Place the hot jars on the sheet pan or counter lined with a towel- this helps protect them from temperature shocks and also makes for easier clean-up!

Pack salsa in jars:

• Using a jar funnel if you have one, ladle the enchilada sauce into the hot jars.
• Leave 1″ of headspace at the top of the jars (slightly more if you are using reusable-style lids with gaskets like Weck or Tattler- check and follow manufacturer instructions).
• Debubble the jars by stirring carefully with a thin spatula, spoon, or debubbling tool to release any trapped air, and wipe the top rims of the jars with a clean paper towel or lint-free cloth that has been dipped in hot water or vinegar to ensure a good clean seal.
• Place the canning lids on the clean jar tops and screw down the rings- don’t overtighten, just snug.

Pressure-can the salsa roja:

• Using your jar lifter, tongs, or the canning jar rack, carefully place the hot filled jars in the preheated canner. Use a perforated disk or second jar rack for the second row of jars if you are canning the whole batch in a large canner.
• Check that the canner vent isn’t clogged and close & seal the lid.
• Bring the canner up to pressure over medium heat with the vent open, and once the canner is venting a steady stream of steam, set a timer for 10 minutes.
• When the canner has vented for 10 minutes, regulate the heat if necessary and drop the weight over the vent (or close the petcock if you have an unweighted dial-gauge canner).
• Can at for 50 minutes at 10 PSI (up to 1000 ft) with a weighted canner or 11 PSI on a dial-gauge canner for up to 1000 ft.
  • If you are above 1001 ft in elevation, can at 15 PSI on a weighted canner or consult the Ball altitude adjustment chart if this applies to you (if you are canning at above 1000 above sea level you need to increase the pressure in the canner to get the same results).
• Start your processing timer for 50 minutes only once the appropriate PSI has been reached , or when the weight is jiggling to indicate that the proper pressure has been reached.
• Watch or listen carefully, adjust heat as needed to maintain pressure at or just above the recommended PSI.
  • Reset the timer to zero and restart processing time if you lose pressure below the correct processing pressure at any point.
• After the processing time is complete, turn the heat off. Once the pressure canner has cooled and returned to neutral pressure (the dial will drop to zero, and no steam escapes from the weight or petcock if jiggled) you should open the canner and remove the jars (follow your canner instructions for opening).

Cool jars, check seals, and store sauce:

• Remove the jars from the canner carefully and place them on a heat-resistant surface (I like to use a sheet pan lined with a kitchen towel).
• Let the jars cool in a draft-free place where they can rest overnight or for up to 24 hours.
• Don’t touch the jar rings until the jars have cooled and the seals are set (disregard for reusable lids, and follow manufacturer instructions to tighten rings immediately).
• Remove the rings and check the seals on the jars after they have rested at least overnight.
• Promptly freeze (in a wide-mouth or other freezer safe container) or refrigerate any jars of salsa that did not seal and use within a few days, or reprocess unsealed jars within 24 hours with new lids.
• Gently wash all sealed jars with soapy water, label clearly, and store in a cool, dark place.
• Protect sealed jars from freezing in storage. Safely discard the contents of any jars that lose their seals in storage and sterilize jars before reuse.