This sauce can be used for just about any Mexican dish – enchiladas, burritos, beans, or nachos. You’ll have some leftover sauce from making the enchiladas. Serve the extra sauce on the side so that anyone who wants can spoon some more on top of the enchiladas.
Place 4 whole chiles in the bowl of a small food processor or in a spice grinder. Grind until chiles are finely chopped and uniform in size. Ground chiles should measure ½ cup. If you don’t have ½ cup, grind remaining chiles as needed.
Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook until it begins to brown, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic and oregano and continue to cook for another minute until garlic becomes fragrant. Add the flour and cumin and cook for at least 2 minutes, stirring constantly. The flour will brown slightly. Whisk the ground chile and the water into the roux. Stir as the sauce thickens, then lower the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally for 15 minutes. Season with salt.
Sauce can be strained at this point to create a silky smooth red chile sauce, or it can be used as a rustic red sauce and not strained.
Notes
*Cook’s Notes: Any dried red chile will work here. I used dried California red chiles. California red chiles have a pretty red color, and a mild spiciness. Vary the type of chile used to get different color, flavor, or heat levels to your sauce. You could also use pre-ground chiles in a jar (found in the spice aisle), just be sure that you don’t use chili powder, which includes other ingredients.