Red Chili Sauce

When I lived in Colorado, we used to go back across the tracks in Fort Collins to get great Mexican 'red chili'.  This was pork stewed in a red sauce made from Guajillo chills.  What always surprised me was that the red chili was never as spicy hot at their 10-alarm green chili, but just rich and aromatic.  I guess I expected the green chili to be mild and the red, hot.  Not.

This sauce is a basic Mexican sauce that has a million uses - like a tomato sauce in Italy.  It can be used to make pork in red chili, or enchiladas, or carnitas for example.  Make some and have it around, and you'll find uses for it!

1 onion, diced
1 fresh red chili pepper (optional)
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
4 cups chicken broth
8 dried Guajillo chilis, stemmed, seeded and torn in pieces
2 corn tortillas, torn in pieces
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
2 Tbsp molasses


Heat a bit of canola oil in a 3-4 quart pot. Sauté the onion and chili pepper for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, cumin and coriander and cook another 2-3 minutes. Add the chicken broth, chills, tortillas, cocoa and molasses and bring to a boil. Cover, turn off heat and let sir for 30 minutes.


In batches, carefully blend mixture in a blender and then strain in a fine strainer. Be careful as you blend hot liquid - it can tend to pulse. Return strained sauce to a clean saucepan and simmer sauce for about 20 minutes.


Makes about 4 cups red chili sauce.