Homemade Ranchero Sauce
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A simple homemade recipe for ranchero sauce. This sauce can be used in breakfast casseroles and the all time classic – Huevos Rancheros!
RANCHERO SAUCE!
Readers, friends, sauce-covered-food loving people every where: let me share with you my recipe or the easiest, most delicious, and FREEZABLE ranchero sauce.
Loaded with onions, multi colored bell peppers, GARLIC, jalapeños, tomatoes, and hints of cumin and cayenne –> it’s all real food without any of those pesky store bought food preservatives. And dare I say it kinda sorta has similar vibes as salsa, because a lot of the ingredients are the same that you’d find in a traditional salsa recipe. And shouldn’t that be enough reason for you to grab the ingredients and start making it? Ah I know, I know. You’re thinking, why the heck is her salsa-like ranchero sauce smooth?
Well… I’ll get to that in a second.
This sauce is simple, I promise. It’s sautéing off a view ingredients –> onions and bell peppers. And then spicing it up with hints of garlic lots of diced tomatoes jalapeños cumin and cayenne. I did use a little chicken broth to help give it that smooth consistency and you can definitely swap that for vegetable broth if you’re a vegetarian.
My ranchero sauce takes about 10 minutes of prep work and in the ball park of 30 minutes for cooking time. I like to make a double batch and freeze half for later use because things like a breakfast enchilada casserole smothered in ranchero sauce are a welcome sight for Sunday morning breakfasts around here.
One batch of sauce is enough for 1 enchilada casserole (it’s coming, it’s coming!) but I like to have extras in the freezer because the hubby and I WUV huevos rancheros smothered in smooth ranchero sauce.
This ranchero sauce is probably most known for it’s contributions to the popular breakfast item –> Huevos Rancheros. And the first time I ever had this for breakfast was on our Honeymoon in 80 degree weather, with the most breath taking view of the beautiful Caribbean Sea.
It’s as simple as a view flour/corn tortillas with eggs on top (your choice! scrambled, omelette style, or sunny side up) smothered in sauce with refried black beans on the side. After much deliberation, and taking the servers advice into account, we both went the sunny side up route.
And folks, I will NEVER again enjoy huevos rancheros with anything but a sunny side up egg. Seriously. STOP reading for a second if you hate egg yolks. But the way that the melty warm yolk tastes mixed in with the smooth ranchero sauce with a little kick of heat and warm flour tortillas with just a small smear of refried black beans is out of this world. I probably ate a million things on my honeymoon (we were at an all inclusive resort) that I wanted to make when I got back but the ONE thing that I NEEDED to make was this sauce.
Sharing embarrassing honeymoon photo in –
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And now to tell you about why this sauce needs to be smooth –> after getting back to town, I tried a dozen different variations of huevos rancheros here. Living in Texas, I assumed it was the next best thing to living in Mexico. I mean we have GOOD –scratch that– GREAT mexican food here. I would go so far as to say it’s kind of AMAZING. But sadly, every where I tried, they make their huevos rancheros with a chunky salsa style sauce. Whomp. Whomp.
It’s as simple as making the sauce and tossing it in a blender. And I don’t know what kind of magic the blend has going on but this sauce just tastes a million times better. It’s probably because you get all the flavors at once in each bite, the peppers, the onions, the garlic and the tomatoes. But i’m still going to tell myself that it’s the blender that makes this sauce magical.
Kids. This is next level stuff.
A quick and easy ranchero sauce that you just babysit while it simmers. It’ll help you bring your breakfast A game in the form of casseroles and huevos rancheros for forever. Because you WILL not want to go back to the chunky variation after you have this. Smooth is the way to go. Breakfast tacos your thing? My taco bar serves a similar sauce on the side for you to dunk your tacos in. SO no matter what way you prefer your tortillas in the morning –> enchiladas –> tacos –> huevos rancheros –> you need this ranchero sauce to dip, dunk, drizzle and ladle on top of your food.
Homemade Ranchero Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 cup chopped onions
- ½ cup EACH: red and green bell peppers, diced
- 1 teaspoon EACH: ground cumin, cayenne, and salt
- 1 jalapeno, seeds and ribs removed then diced
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 cup diced tomatoes (fresh of canned)
- 1 cup low sodium vegetable or chicken broth
- ¼ cup chopped cilantro
Instructions
- In a medium sauce pan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions along with the bell peppers, and continue to cook for about 5-6 minutes or until the vegetables just barely begin to brown.
- Add the cumin, cayenne, salt, jalepenos, and garlic and let cook for 1 minute before adding in the tomatoes along with their juices. Allow the tomatoes to wilt and shrink in size, about 3-4 minutes. Then add the broth, bring the sauce to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and allow the sauce to simmer for 15 minutes. Mix in the chopped cilantro.
- Transfer the ranchero mix to a blender and blend until smooth, taking care to hold the cap of the blender down when blending so the cap doesn't fly off.
- Transfer the sauce back to the sauce pan and heat over medium low heat until the sauce starts to boil and thicken, about 5-7 minutes. Use the sauce right away or allow to come to room temperature before storing in an air-tight container.
Notes
The ranchero sauce can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 1 week and can be frozen for up to 3 months. I am not very familiar with canning so not completely sure if this sauce is suitable for canning.
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*Please note: the nutritional facts calculated are an estimate based on the ingredients i’ve used. If you’d like a more accurate count, please calculate them using the ingredients/brands you’ve used to prepare the recipe. Although this makes about 10 servings of sauce, the nutritional information given is for 1 (¼ cup) serving of ranchero sauce.*
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