Green Tamale Sauce is a mild yet tangy sauce, perfect for chicken tamales. It’s easy to make using Anaheim chiles, jalapeno chiles and roasted tomatillos.
Once you know how to make tamales, you’ll be able to switch out your filling easily. For my Pork Tamales, I’ve used a red sauce.
On my next batch of tamales, I’m going to make Chicken Tamales which is the same except you’ll switch out the red tamale sauce recipe here for the verde sauce and the chicken for the pork.
Making Tamales Step by Step
My Pork Tamales recipe includes a step-by-step tutorial for making the masa dough and filling the corn husks. Every step of the way. It’s easy but time-consuming so plan ahead.
Is Green Tamale Sauce Spicy?
For this homemade Green Tamale Sauce, I’ve chosen Anaheim chiles for my green chile of choice. This is different than my Green Enchilada Sauce which uses poblano pepper.
In the world of chiles, Anaheim pepper is just a step up from a sweet bell pepper in heat but still below jalapeno pepper. It’s fairly similar to poblano but the outer skin isn’t as tough as a poblano. And, that’s why I chose it here.
I roasted the poblano peppers in my Verde Enchilada Sauce so that I could remove the outer skin. In my Verde Tamale Sauce, I wanted to do something different. The softer skin works better when you’re not roasting.
Every pepper has its place. Anaheim peppers for this recipe but poblano for the other. Works for me!
According to Pepperscale.com, you can use Anaheim peppers anywhere you would typically use sweet bell peppers to add just a touch more heat. I can hardly wait to try out some stuffed Anaheim peppers!
Homemade Sauce Step by Step
This is so easy. You’ll love it!
Start off by getting your food service gloves. You fingers can burn for hours, if you aren’t careful.
Remove all the seeds and membranes from the peppers then cut into chunks. The garlic can go right in the pan without any cutting. Cut an onion into 4 pieces. Cover everything with water and let it cook for about 15 (or up to 30) minutes until everything is soft.
In the meantime, remove the husks from the tomatillos and clean them to get rid of the sticky residue. Cut the tomatillos in half horizontally and place cut side down to bake. I usually roast tomatillos for 20 minutes but I guess it’s the time of year that tomatillos aren’t very big. These only took 15 minutes.
Be careful when you’re roasting tomatillos. I’ve had them burst so be sure to use a baking pan with an edge to catch any liquids.
Can I Use This Sauce for Dipping?
This Verde Tamale Sauce is seasoned with salt and spices for spreading out around 40-50 tamales. You’ll see that there is a lot of seasoning.
If you would like to adapt this recipe to dipping or enchiladas or anything you would need a sauce, reduce the amount of salt and seasoning. You may also want to squeeze in a lime.
Where to Use Green Tamale Sauce
Green Tamale Sauce, verde sauce, pairs perfectly with chicken. If you want to use it for enchiladas, be sure to reduce the salt and other dried spices. You won’t need nearly as much when used as an enchilada sauce as you would with a tamale sauce.
Try out this sauce with my Green Chicken Tamales. Delicious!
Recipe
Homemade Green Chile Tamale Sauce
Equipment
- Electric blender or immersion blender
Ingredients
- 6 Anaheim peppers
- 4 Jalapeno peppers
- 1 Onion
- 8 Garlic Cloves
- 6 Tomatillos
- Olive Oil Cooking Spray
- 1 teaspoon Sea Salt
- 1 tablespoon Garlic Powder
- 1 tablespoon Onion Powder
- 1 tablespoon Salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400℉.
- Remove seeds and membranes from peppers, cut into large chunks. (Note: please use gloves when cutting up peppers.) Cut onion into chunks. Place peppers, onion and garlic cloves into sauce pan. Cover with water and bring to a low boil on medium heat. Cook for about 15 minutes, until soft.
- Spray baking sheet with cooking spray.
- Remove outer husk from tomatillos and wash well to remove any sticky residue. Cut each tomatillo in half, horizontally.
- Place tomatillos, cut side down, on sprayed baking sheet. Spray tops with cooking spray and sprinkle with sea salt.
- Place in oven and bake for 15 minutes, until soft. Use caution when removing because the tomatillos can burst into liquid. Set aside.
- Once peppers are softened, allow to cool about 10 minutes. Do not discard liquid. Using a slotted spoon, remove pepper mixture to blender to process only half at a time. Add a little bit of liquid from peppers to blender, just enough to allow the blender to process (about ¼ to ½ cup). Process peppers and tomatillos fully. Discard remaining liquid. Return to pan.
- Add remaining seasonings and heat on medium for 15 minutes. Makes one quart (62 tablespoons).
Notes
Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet. All amounts are estimates and 24Bite® takes no responsibility for actual figures since calculations vary by packaging and supplier. Please calculate the amounts yourself based on package labeling if you have specific dietary requirements. 24Bite®, Kim Guzman or Christian Guzman shall not be liable for adverse reactions or any other outcome resulting from the use of recipes or recommendations on this website or actions you take as a result. 2019-2026 Kim Guzman and Christian Guzman. All rights reserved. 24Bite®
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How do you pick the tomatillos? Should they be dark green or a lighter green color? I’ve seen small ones (like cherry tomato size)…are those good to use and just increase the volume?
I have a good photo of some tomatillos on this page:
https://24bite.com/tomatillo-red-chili-sauce/
They are usually the size of a small to medium lime. They are in a papery husk and they are usually picked from the plant when the husks start to pull away. You shouldn’t eat them premature. They are usually green but there is also a purple variety.
I’ve never seen tomatillos smaller than that at our store but it’s possible. There are ground cherries growing wild around here that are like tomatillos but smaller. They turn yellow when ripe. I’ve never tried to do anything with them.
What do you do with the peppers. It doesn’t say in the recipe.
Thank you for visiting! The instruction for the peppers is: bringing to a boil in step #2 of the recipe. Then, once the tomatillos are roasted in step #6, the peppers and tomatillos are placed in a blender in step #7. Once blended, it’s all put back in a pan to cook a little more in step #8. These steps are all in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. I hope that helps! Have a great day.
Can you freeze the sauce if you made too much?
Absolutely! I freeze it frequently, especially when tomatillos are in season. Thank you for visiting!
What do you do with the onion and garlic? do you blend those with the peppers or discard?
Thanks for writing! In Step 7 of the recipe, we add the pepper mixture to the blender to process together. Do you feel like I should make that more clear? Instead of pepper mixture, maybe I should say peppers, onion and garlic. That sounds like it might be a better way of saying it. Let me know what you think. Thank you for visiting!
iHola!
Am I able to omit or leave out the jalapenos because I don’t want the sauce to be spicy at all. I just want the color and taste 🙂
Yes, absolutely! You can add poblano or more Anaheim, if you like. Thank you for visiting!
Could I use natural onion and garlic instead of the powder version? If so, would it be raw or baked along with the tomatillos?
There is already onion and garlic in the recipe, added with the tomatillo. The powder is used to add more flavor since it will be spread out to so many tamales. If you don’t want to use the powders, there won’t be any problem at all. You can taste it before use to make sure it’s seasoned enough to your liking. Thank you for visiting!
You don’t peel the tomatillos after roasting or the peppers after boiling. Is that correct?
Correct. You’ll never need to peel tomatillos and, unless I’m charring the chiles, you won’t need to peel anaheims or jalapenos. The skin on these is thin like a bell pepper.
This is a great sauce recipe. Late one evening I heated up some Cheese tamales and needed a sauce for them. I cooked this, using seeded dried Guajillo peppers in place of Anaheims, as I was out of them. It blends into a slightly spicy sauce that is great on tamales. it is also great to eat with chips or anything. The garlic powder and onion powder seemed like a large amount, but they do add to the flavor. I am afan! This recipe can handle substitutions for those without all the ingredients and still make a dynamite, flavorful sauce.
Thank you!
That’s really great! Mmmmm, you still have tamales? I’m going to have to get in the kitchen and make some random tamales. Thank you for writing!