Enchilada sauce is the chile-based sauce ladled over enchiladas before they bake. The authentic New Mexican version is built on real Hatch chile, broth, garlic, and a few spices — no tomato, no fillers. Get the chile right and everything else falls into place. Every sauce in this collection is jarred, shelf-stable, and made from chile grown in the Hatch Valley.
Red Enchilada Sauce
Hatch red enchilada sauce is built from dried, ripened Hatch red chile. It is deep, earthy, and a touch sweet — the classic choice for beef, pork, and carne adovada enchiladas, smothered burritos, and huevos rancheros. Red chile is simply green chile left on the plant to ripen, then dried, which concentrates the flavor into something richer and rounder.
Green Enchilada Sauce
Hatch green enchilada sauce (also searched as hatch green chile enchilada sauce) is built from roasted Hatch green chile. It is bright, smoky, and a little tangy — the go-to for chicken, pork, and cheese enchiladas, and for smothering eggs, fries, and breakfast burritos. If you grew up calling it “green chile sauce,” this is it.
Christmas: Red & Green Together
In New Mexico, ordering “Christmas” means both red and green on the same plate — half and half. It is the answer when you cannot pick, and it is the most New Mexican way to eat enchiladas. Buy a jar of each, or grab a bundle and save.
How to Use Hatch Enchilada Sauce
Pour it straight from the jar over rolled or stacked enchiladas before baking, or warm it on the stove first. Beyond enchiladas, use it to smother burritos and chiles rellenos, ladle over eggs and potatoes, simmer shredded chicken or pork, or thin it slightly as a cooking base. Red leans toward beef and pork; green toward chicken and cheese — but there are no rules, only preferences.
How Much Sauce Do I Need?
As a rule of thumb, plan on about one 16 oz jar per pound of filling, or roughly one jar for every 3–4 servings of rolled enchiladas. For an 8-person enchilada dinner, two to three jars covers a generous pan with sauce to spare. Buying for a crowd or stocking the pantry? Mix and match red and green and the volume discount applies automatically at checkout.
Heat: our enchilada sauces run mild to hot, with the heat level marked on every jar — so you can match the table, from kids to chile-heads.
Why Hatch Beats the Can
Most national grocery-store enchilada sauce is built on generic peppers, tomato, and thickeners. Ours is built on actual Hatch Valley chile and tastes like it — roasted, layered, and unmistakably New Mexican. It is the difference between “red liquid in a can” and the sauce people drive across the state for. For ideas, see our red chile enchiladas and green chile enchiladas recipes.
