Ancho Chile Sauce makes a great chicken marinade or sauce. Quick and easy to make, this sauce is perfect for a weeknight dinner or weekend BBQ.
Updated July 29, 2025.
This is one of our favourite sauces to have on hand to make a quick dinner. We make double and triple batches of this sauce and store it for later use. This sauce is great as a topping for nachos, tacos, enchiladas, and more. Use it as a marinade or cooking sauce for chicken or beef. Or use it in place of BBQ sauce.
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to consumers. Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. If you click these links and make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Keep in mind that we link these products because of their quality, not because of the commission we may receive from purchases.
Ingredients For Ancho Chile Sauce
This sauce has a tomato base and contains a few spices and herbs on top of the ancho chilis.
- Ancho Chilis. These chilis are dried poblano chilis. These chilis have a smoky flavour to them. They can be purchased in a package at specialty stores. We purchase them at a local Latin Market. They can also be found on Amazon.
- Canned crushed tomatoes. This provides the base of the sauce.
- White onion.
- Garlic.
- Lime Juice. This is an acid that helps balance out the flavour and heat of the chilis.
- Cumin, Chilli powder, and red pepper flakes are used as the spices.
- Mexican Oregano. It has a different flavour profile than regular oregano. There is a bit of citrus and an almost anise flavour to this oregano. Regular oregano can be used as well.
- Salt and White Pepper. Kosher salt works best. And the white pepper adds earthiness to the sauce without the pungent flavour of black pepper.
Order the ingredients you need online with Walmart Delivery Pass for delivery or pickup.
How To Prepare Ancho Chiles To Use in Sauce
Before using Ancho chiles, they have to be rehydrated. This means first removing the stems and seeds. Then the pepper is soaked in hot water for 15 to 20 minutes before adding to any dishes.
Uses For Ancho Chile Sauce
Ancho Tomato Sauce can be used in a lot of ways. The sauce makes a great marinade or topping. It can be served hot or cold.
- Marinate chicken thighs in this sauce for 1 hour or overnight. Grill or bake the chicken and serve with additional sauce that has been heated.
- Mix a few tablespoons into a meatloaf, and add more sauce over the top before baking.
- Drizzle over nachos or on tacos.
- Use as an Enchilada sauce.
- Add this sauce to rice with pepper and onions to make a side dish or to use in burritos.
- Top your burgers with this sauce.
- Dip cheese sticks in this sauce in place of marinara.
- Serve this sauce with our Mexican Grilled Chicken Thighs.
Can This Ancho Chilli Sauce Be Canned?
Yes, this sauce can be canned and stored at room temperature for up to one year.
To can this sauce, it will need to be cooked on medium for 10 minutes before pouring into sterilized Mason Jars. Then process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.
Remove jars from the boiling water and allow them to cool completely at room temperature, listening for the lids to pop to make sure they are tightly sealed.
For step-by-step instructions on canning, check out Bernardin’s website and follow the high-acid food guide for canning.
If you have tried this recipe or have any questions about it, we would love to hear from you. Leave a comment below the recipe.
Ancho Chile Sauce
Equipment
- Blender
Ingredients
- 1 Ancho Chile, large
- 1 can crushed tomatoes, 796 ml
- 1 large white onion, quartered
- 1 lime, juice and zest
- 1 Tbsp minced garlic
- 1 Tbsp ground cumin
- 1 Tbsp chili powder
- ½ Tbsp Red Chili Flakes
- ½ Tbsp Mexican oregano
- 1 Tbsp Kosher salt
- ½ Tbsp white pepper
Instructions
- Remove seeds and stem from the chile.
- Rehydrate the ancho chile in hot water for 15-20 minutes.
- Place all ingredients in blender.
- Blend on Puree or Smoothie setting for 1 min or until fully blended and smooth.
- Store in mason jars in the fridge.
Great recipe! I used it as a marinade and a sauce. I had a bag of dried ancho chili in the cupboard wondering what to do with them. This was the perfect sauce to make
Amazingly easy to make, such a great recipe and so versatile
So easy to make and it was delicious! We had it on top of burgers last night and I want to try it on top of tacos next time I make them too, I bet it will be delicious on tacos.
this chile sauce was fabulous! it’s incredibly flavorful and perfect for bbqing!
This recipe looks so good. I’m definitely bookmarking for later.
I made this for my husband who is a huge BBQ lover and he loved it!
the chile sauce was fabulous! We’ve been using this thru the week when we have the barbie on
I love the smokey heat of ancho chilies! They’re delicious in this BBQ sauce and I was glad to make my own… so much better than store bought and much less sugar too.
I adore ancho chilies, and I love working with them. I even dried my own last summer! So it’s great to have a simple-yet-flavourful go-to sauce like this to work with. Very glad that it’s not overloaded with sugar either – way too many chili-based sauces lean heavily into the sweetness.
Loved the smoky sweet flavour of the chilis in this sauce. So tasty! Such a great sauce for summer grilling.
[…] Ancho Chile Sauce Ancho Chile Sauce makes a great chicken marinade or sauce. Quick and easy to make, this sauce is perfect to add to a quick dinner. Check out this recipe […]