Instantly elevate enchiladas with a rich serving of this delicious Creamy Sour Cream Enchilada Sauce. Easy to execute, and deliciously creamy - try pairing this white sauce with enchiladas filled with everything from refried beans to carnitas!
The name of this sauce (Sour Cream Enchilada Sauce) is not meant to dissuade you from trying it on other things, but it does excel as an enchilada sauce. It's a lovely, super creamy white enchilada sauce with cream cheese that can be used for all kinds of tasty applications, from tacos to pasta, and more!
This Mexican Sour Cream Sauce recipe is first and foremost, incredibly delicious. It's also luxuriously creamy and rich. And of course, it's easy to make, requiring just a few ingredients 🙂. There are a lot of easy white enchilada sauce recipes out there, but this one uses garlic and onion powders to bring out savoriness. I'm drooling just thinking about it! Also, adding just 2 tablespoons of cream cheese levels the sauce up to super incredibly creamy heights.
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
- A comfort food dream. This sour cream sauce is incredibly cozy, comforting, and delicious. And the sauce is so rich and thick that it just envelops enchiladas like a warm embrace. It's a must-try for fall and winter dinner menus. Try it on these white chicken enchiladas.
- Easy to make. This sauce is easy (takes 15 minutes!) to make and only requires a few ingredients - butter and flour to make a simple roux, then chicken stock (or vegetable), sour cream, cream cheese, and onion and garlic powders to round out the flavor.
- Tailorable. You can easily tailor this recipe to suit your tastes. Add in a can of green chiles to punch up the flavor, or include a few dashes of cayenne pepper to bring some heat.
I'd never made or even liked sour cream sauce until this recipe. It was absolutely delicious, and a nice change of pace from a white queso. So creamy and flavorful! I also loved how you included the ingredient measurements in the directions. Impressive! Thank you! - Lori (a Sour Cream Enchilada Sauce aficionado!)
Ingredients
To make this white enchilada sauce recipe, you will need salted butter, flour, broth (chicken or vegetable), garlic powder, onion powder, cream cheese, and of course - sour cream.
- Salted butter - Unsalted is fine too, but I like my butter pre-salted. Starting with a roux results in a white sauce that is rich and luxurious.
- White all-purpose flour - Just basic AP (all-purpose) flour is all you need here for that roux.
- Chicken or vegetable broth (plus extra in case you'd like a thinner sauce) - I avoid using beef broth here simply because I want the resulting sauce to be a light creamy color. Chicken or vegetable broth are the best option for this white sauce.
- Seasonings - I like to include garlic powder and onion powder because they play so nicely with white cream sauces. You could leave one or the other out, but I would consider at least using garlic powder here to punch up the flavor.
- Sour cream - Opt for full-fat sour cream for a richer, more luxurious sauce. You could opt for a low-fat version, but I prefer the resulting flavor and mouthfeel from going full-fat.
- Cream cheese (optional, but recommended) - A little bit of cream cheese adds more tang, more creaminess, more umami. You only need a little bit, so reach for a low-fat version if you want to keep the calories in check.
*This recipe makes approximately 2 ½ cups sour cream enchilada sauce.
Variations and Suggested Additions
The following ingredients may be added to the Sour Cream Enchilada Sauce to enhance its flavor while preserving its smooth and creamy consistency:
- A pinch of cayenne pepper, for heat
- A bit of chili powder or paprika, for smokiness
- ½ cup of shredded cheese, like mozzarella, for extra creaminess (instead of using cream cheese)
- Seasonings including ground cumin, for a bolder earthy flavor
- Dried herbs including oregano, basil, and thyme, to add an herbaceous element
- Adding a small can of green chiles can also up the ante of this sauce - blend the green chile in to preserve the creamy consistency of the sauce
- A squirt of fresh lime juice at the end helps brighten the sauce up, helping to cut through some of the richness.
Please note that these are just suggestions, and you may adjust the quantities or omit any of the ingredients to suit your own taste.
How to Make Sour Cream Enchilada Sauce - Directions
Making this creamy White Enchilada Sauce takes around 15 minutes; here's how you make it!
- Step 1. Add butter to a small pot over medium-low heat.
- Step 2. Once the butter has melted, add the flour and whisk continuously for 1 minute, until thickened.
- Step 3. Add chicken broth (or vegetable broth), garlic powder, and onion powder to the pot, whisking until fully incorporated.
- Step 4. Increase heat to medium-high and let it come to a boil, whisking occasionally. This will take around 5 minutes. It will look like a super thick gravy.
- Step 5. Once boiling, remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes. If adding cream cheese, add it now, and stir it in until it melts.
- Step 6. Add the sour cream after the sauce has sat for 5 minutes and stir until fully combined.
- Step 7. The sauce will be thick like pudding before it sets up. You can add more chicken broth at this stage if you'd like to thin it a bit; add a little bit and stir until the desired consistency is reached. I like it thick, but will often add 1-2 tablespoons of broth to thin it just a touch.
- Step 8. Taste and add salt or white pepper, if necessary. Pour over enchiladas, pasta, roasted chicken and more!
Top Tips for the BEST White Enchilada Sauce
- When melting the butter, make sure you don't brown it; you want it to be just melted before adding the flour.
- Heat will curdle sour cream so make sure you let the sauce cool at least 5 minutes before adding the sour cream to the sauce. Did I mention that the sour cream will curdle if the sauce is too hot?
- You don't have to add the cream cheese (hence it being optional) but I find it makes this Sour Cream Enchilada sauce extra delicious and creamy. You could also add in a good melting cheese, like pepper jack instead.
- The resulting Sour Cream Enchilada sauce is THICC. I like it that way as it makes a fantastic blanket for enchiladas and is the perfect consistency for dipping tortilla chips into. But if you'd like it thinner, break out some extra chicken or vegetable broth and slowly add it until you've reached your desired consistency. I don't recommend adding more than 3-4 tablespoons or so or it will become too thin (IMHO). It should be thick enough to coat a spoon, as pictured.
- Balance your flavors at the end by tasting and adjusting. Maybe you need a pinch or two more salt, maybe you need to thin the sauce slightly with some chicken broth, maybe you need to add a squirt of acid to help back down in the richness department.
- Store leftover sauce in a lidded container in the refrigerator and it should last at least 7 days.
- This delicious sauce can be used for so much more than enchiladas; it's fantastic on tacos and burritos, for use as a hot dip paired with tortilla chips, and especially fantastic used in place of hollandaise sauce for Mexican-leaning eggs benedict dishes. Also a great substitute for alfredo sauce; try it on your next pasta dish!
This sauce recipe was made for these Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas - so please give them a try! This white enchilada sauce is also fantastic used as a dipping sauce paired with Crispy Air Fryer Chicken Tacos.
Recipe FAQs
Reheat leftover sour cream enchilada sauce on the stovetop over low heat, making sure to stir it every few minutes. A lid helps speed things up.
You can also microwave the sauce if you want it heated more quickly, but I recommend doing so in 30-second intervals. You'll want to stir the sauce after each 30-second interval. The cautious approach is best here to preserve the creamy consistency when heating up dairy in the microwave.
If sour cream gets too hot, it will curdle and separate, and it's just not a good look. The key to avoiding the sour cream curdle here is to remove the sauce from the heat and let cool for 5 minutes before incorporating. Your patience will be rewarded with a smooth, creamy sauce free of lumps!
IF the sauce becomes lumpy or grainy after stirring in the sour cream, try using an immersion blender to smooth things back out. You could also temper the sour cream first by whisking a spoonful or two of the warm sauce into the sour cream before adding it to the sauce. But if you wait for the sauce to cool properly before adding the sour cream you should be able to avoid the pitfalls of a lumpy or grainy (broken) sauce.
No, I would not recommend freezing this enchilada sauce because usually you run into the issue of it splitting or becoming grainy when reheating. When a cream sauce like this freezes, the water separates from the fats in the dairy ingredients, and reheating doesn't always bring the sauce back together.
Related Recipes
Looking for other sauce-y recipes like this white enchilada sauce? Try these:
Sour Cream Enchilada Sauce (White Sauce)
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons salted butter
- 3 tablespoons white all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups chicken or vegetable broth (plus extra in case you'd like a thinner sauce)
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2 tablespoons cream cheese (optional, but recommended)
Instructions
- Add butter to a small pot over medium-low heat.3 tablespoons salted butter
- Once the butter has melted, add the flour and whisk continuously for 1 minute, until thickened.3 tablespoons white all-purpose flour
- Add chicken broth (or vegetable broth), garlic powder, and onion powder to the pot, whisking until fully incorporated.1 ½ cups chicken or vegetable broth , 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon onion powder
- Increase heat to medium-high and let it come to a boil, whisking occasionally. This will take around 5 minutes. It will look like a super thick gravy.
- Once boiling, remove from heat and let cool down for 5 minutes. If adding cream cheese, add it now, and stir it in until it melts.2 tablespoons cream cheese
- Add the sour cream after the sauce has sat for 5 minutes and stir until fully combined.1 cup sour cream
- The sauce will be thick like pudding before it sets up. You can add more chicken broth at this stage if you'd like to thin it a bit; add a little bit and stir until the desired consistency is reached. I like it thick, but will often add 1-2 tablespoons of broth to thin it just a touch.
- Taste and add salt or white pepper, if necessary.
- Pour over enchiladas, pasta, and more!
Notes
- Heat will curdle sour cream so make sure you let the sauce cool at least 5 minutes before adding the sour cream to the sauce.
- Balance your flavors at the end by tasting and adjusting. Maybe you need a pinch or two more salt, maybe you need to thin the sauce slightly with some chicken broth, maybe you need to add a squirt of acid to help back down in the richness department.
- Store leftover sauce in a lidded container in the refrigerator; it should last at least 7 days.
- *Nutrition information is approximate and was calculated using an online nutrition calculator.
Aly says
Absolutely loved this recipe! I’ll be saving it to use from now on when I get a craving for enchiladas like my favorite restaurant. It tastes exactly like theirs. Thank you!
LORI T says
I'd never made or even liked sour cream sauce until this recipe. It was absolutely delicious, and a nice change of pace from a white queso. So creamy and flavorful! I also loved how you included the ingredient measurements in the directions. Impressive! Thank you!
Amanda says
It was absolutely perfect. I also added a dash of smoked paprika as well
Tina M Salustro says
So easy to make! Absolutely delicious I stirred in some mild green enchilada sauce with it even though it didn't need it. It was amazing !
Katherine Whitis says
this is exactly the recipe I was looking for! all others are dramb and unappetizing, not worth the time or effort! your recipe hits the ball right out of the park! my mom's favorite is sour cream chicken enchiladas and this was absolutely perfect and to die for!!! THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR SUCH A FANTASTIC DELICIOUS PERFECT SAUCE!! YOU HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD FOR SURE!! KUDOS 💖💖💖💖
Maur says
So creamy and so tasty! I love the texture.