I love roasted poblano for chiles rellenos. I love a good green chile enchilada sauce too! But how often to you prepare a roasted poblano sauce? I tend to favor the green Anaheim peppers for that sauce and never think to use poblano. The rich dark green colors of the roasted poblano will make any dish delicious without adding too much heat. I will usually purchase 6 large poblano peppers with the intention of preparing rellenos, but often I find myself roasting them off for salsa recipes.
This is an easy and quick sauce recipe that includes that masa harina, that I enjoy so much, as a thickener. It’s naturally gluten free and adds a subtle corn flavor to the sauce. For today I share just the sauce recipe, but on the next blog post I will share with you the delicious Carne Asada Guacamole Enchiladas that I prepared using this sauce. I am still on the fence on which is my favorite sauce….red or green….really pulling towards the green!
Not just for enchiladas!
Try the sauce on taquitos/flautas, smothered burritos, spaghetti verde and all of your favorite garnachas!
On this day I served the poblano sauce over flautas de pollo(Chicken Flautas)
Here is the sauce over some carne asada enchiladas!
Roasted Poblano Sauce
Ingredients
- 6 large roasted poblanos
- 5 cups chicken broth
- Avocado oil
- 1/2 cup onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 serranos or jalapenos minced
- 1 tsp. granulated garlic
- 1 tsp. granulated onion
- 1 tsp. cumin seeds crushed
- 1 tsp. oregano crushed
- 1/2 tsp. coriander
- 1/2 tsp. pepper
- 2 tbsps. white vinegar optional
- 1/3 cup masa harina
- 1/3 cup water
- Salt to taste
Instructions
Directions
- Wash and dry the poblano peppers, Remove the stems and seeds. Rub a light coat of oil on the surface of the peppers. Lay them out on a baking sheet. Place them 6-7 inches under a preheated broiler set to high heat for 5 minutes. If mostly blistered, flip them over and broil for another 5 minutes or until skins are mostly blistered. Transfer them to a covered bowl. Let them steam for 10 minutes. Remove the blistered skins before blending.
- To the blender, add the roasted poblanos and 2 cups of chicken broth. Blend on high until smooth and set aside.
- Add 2 tablespoons of oil to a deep skillet and heat to medium. Add the onions, garlic and serrano peppers. Season lightly with salt and pepper and sauté for 6 to 8 minutes. Add the poblano sauce from blender and cook for 5 minutes.
- Add the garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, oregano, coriander, pepper, vinegar and remaining broth. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes.
- In a bowl, whisk the 1/3 cup water into the masa harina until smooth. Whisk this mixture into the simmering poblano sauce. Stir well to combine and continue cooking for 10 minutes. Taste for salt and adjust seasonings to taste.
Notes
Reader Interactions
Comments
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I absolutely love your posts and photos and recipes. Thank you for sharing it.
Barbara
Thank you so much Barbara! I appreciate your kind words.
Sonia, I am looking for a generic good marinate for meat for all sort of things like carnitas, tacos etc. Any suggestions. Also any suggestion how to store fresh serrano chillies should I roast them first and then freeze them. Thanks so much. I am addicted to your blog thank you sooooooooo much.
Barbara
Barbarba when I have serranos that won’t stay fresh, I do a light roast on them and then freeze them. You could also do a quick pickle on them. You basically take the serrano and slice it open. Then I stand them up in a canning jar. I boil equal parts water and white vinegar. Add salt to taste. When the water just begins to form bubbles, I pour it over the serranos. You could add a clove of garlic and a bay leaf to the jar. Secure the lid and let it come to room temperture on the counter. You can store these for months in the refrigerator. As far as the meat marinate or seasoning, I like to take fresh lime juice, orange juice, garlic, salt and pepper and blend that together. You could sometimes add a little oregano or cumin too.
Thank you Sonia one more question. I made the Ancho salsa sauce and I followed the recipe precisely and it turned out to be blend. Yes, a bit kick but blend. Is this what this sauce should taste like?
BG
I find that any sauce prepared with dried chiles requires a bit more seasoning. I really is all to taste when it comes down to it. Plus the sauce is really a base that can be used in many many recipes. Sometime I get chile ancho that is really small and othe times very big. So that too could affect how much seasoning one has to use. You just may have to bump up the seasoning to your liking. I don’t know if I added this to the post, but more often than not, I find myself adding a little apple cider vinegar to my chile sauces at the end. That little hint of acid really compliments the chile flavor well.
Sonia that is the best Pablano sauce I have ever made.Thank you for sharing.I have a question. How long can I expect the sauce to last stored in tightly sealed clean jars stored in the back of the refrigerator?
Greg, the sauce should be good for 5 days or so, but you can always freeze it to be on the safe side. Just defrost and cook it at a light simmer to thicken it back up. It actually taste even better!
I love the roasted pablano sauce! Works really well with duck confit tostado over spicy Serrano polenta
Sounds amazing Alan!
The recipe was great, except for the last step, the thickening with masa. The 1/4 cup of water with 1/3 cup masa just produced an extremely thick and dry paste, which immediately formed thick masa lumps in the sauce which would not break up under any amount of whisking. I wound up removing them with a slotted spoon to a bowl and mashing them with more liquid to a slurry and then re-adding the slurry to the sauce. Very frustrating. Next time I will use a sufficient amount of the stock with the masa to obtain a slurry before adding it.
The masa can be a little tricky. Sorry about that Joseph. The better thing to do next time is to just blend the masa harina in with the sauce that has plenty of broth or liquid. Bring it up to temperature slowly and stir often as it cooks. I will revise the recipe. I learned a few new tricks since posting that recipe. Thank you for your feedback.
This is a great sauce. In my garden I grow a lot of poblanos and I used this recipe and canned it for the year. If anyone uses for canning don’t add thicker until you open the jar.
Hi Kelly! That’s wonderful that you canned the poblano sauce. And thanks for the tip on thickening the sauce afterwards.
Sonia,
I love roasted poblanos and have made a poblano cream sauce on a few occasions. but this recipe is phenomenal! Thank you for sharing it as well as other great recipes with everyone! I always look forward to trying anything new that you post, keep up the wonderful work!
Hello – I see to add vinegar in the directions but no vinegar listed in the ingredients. How much vinegar? Thank you.
Hi Lisa! Sorry about that! It’s 2 tbsp. of white vinegar. It’s optional, but I enjoy that little touch of acidity in the sauce.