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Homemade Ranchero Sauce

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This easy spicy homemade ranchero sauce cooks in less than 20 minutes and is the perfect addition to burritos, tacos, enchiladas, or any of your favorite Mexican dishes!

A blue stone bowl of freshly made ranchero sauce with a wooden serving spoon.

If you’ve been on our site before, you probably know how much we love Mexican food. And one of our favorite ingredients in Mexican cooking is ranchero sauce, a deliciously spicy tomato sauce featuring chile peppers. We first encountered this sauce at our favorite local Mexican restaurant and quickly learned how hard it is to find a quality store-bought ranchero sauce (if we can even find one at all!).

So when we developed our chicken burritos ranchero recipe, we needed to learn how to make ranchero sauce ourselves! And we want to teach you how to make this delicious sauce, too.

Pro tip: it’s not only great for Mexican food, but makes a really fun base for spicy pizzas like our chicken bacon ranchero pizza! We also have a delicious spicy pizza sauce that’s like the Italian version of this ranchero, and it’s to die for.

What To Expect

  • Great for: All sorts of Mexican food, especially chicken recipes.
  • Ready in: 15 to 20 minutes.
  • Makes: About 5 cups.
  • Flavor profile: A rich combination of spicy and smoky that features tomato and chiles but has a savory depth of flavor.
  • How to make it: Sauté onion, jalapeno, chipotle pepper, diced green chiles, and minced garlic before adding the rest of the ingredients and bringing to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes then blend until smooth. Use right away or store for later.

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Key Ingredients

Ingredients for making ranchero sauce: diced tomatoes, jalapeno, white onion, chipotles in adobo, diced green chilies, minced garlic, chicken or vegetable broth, vegetable oil, lime juice, sea salt, black pepper, paprika, Mexican oregano, chili powder, ancho chile powder, ground cayenne, cumin, and garlic powder.
  • Chipotles in adobo – These are one of our favorite ingredients. While we use only one chipotle in this recipe, you can add more for added heat and smokiness. Check out our expert tips sections below for how to use the rest of the can!
  • Chicken broth – We like chicken broth for added flavor, but it can be substituted with vegetable broth for a vegetarian ranchero sauce.
  • Mexican oregano – Mexican oregano and Italian oregano are very different and can’t be interchanged. We highly recommend buying Mexican oregano for this recipe. If you can’t find Mexican oregano, marjoram is the best substitute.
  • Ancho chili powder – Acho chili powder adds a smoky, slightly spicy flavor to the dish. If you can’t find it, substitute a 50/50 blend of smoked paprika and ground cayenne.

See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.

How To Make Spicy Ranchero Sauce

Diced veggies cooking in a small ceramic saucepan on the stove.

Step 1: Sauté onion, jalapeno, chipotle pepper, diced green chiles, and minced garlic in vegetable oil in a saucepan over medium heat until soft.

A small ceramic saucepot filled with diced veggies, tomatoes, and broth.

Step 2: Add the diced tomatoes, broth, seasonings, and lime juice.

A ceramic saucepot with freshly made ranchero sauce simmering in it on the stove.

Step 3: Stir well and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

A pot of freshly simmered ranchero sauce being blended with an immersion blender.

Step 4: Blend using an immersion blender until smooth.

Expert Tips

  • Caution while blending – Blending hot liquids in a traditional, well sealed blender can be dangerous because pressure will build up and can cause the lid to pop off. In order to avoid this, make sure the blender is vented and lay a towel over the top to contain any mess. Not all blenders are air tight, our old blender (like this) wasn’t and we had no issues, our new blender (like this) is however, so we have to keep the pour spout popped while blending anything hot.
  • Use an immersion blender – If you have an immersion blender, it makes this recipe much easier! Simply just blend the sauce in the sauce pan. If you don’t have one, hot sauces and soups are our favorite uses for ours – we can highly recommend getting on. This is ours, we love it.
  • Chopping produce – Don’t worry about finely chopping anything because it will end up getting blended. The goal is to have things in small enough pieces to cook quickly and evenly. It also helps make the sauce easier to blend. Roughly chopped is what we aim for.
  • Freezing – It’s super easy to cook up a large batch and freeze whatever won’t be used immediately. Just let it cool completely before storing in an air-tight container, and it’ll keep for up to 3 months in the freezer. Before you’re ready to use it, simply defrost in the fridge overnight.
  • Chipotles in adobo – Use the rest of the can to make chipotle purée for recipes like Hawaiian pulled pork tacos, spicy chicken chiptole pasta, our southwest shrimp pasta!

What Do You Put Ranchero Sauce On?

This ranchero sauce has quickly become a favorite because of its versatility. Not only is it the perfect topping for our chicken burritos ranchero (and many other burritos!), it’s a delicious addition to:

  • Quesadillas – spread some on the inside of a tortilla for an added pop of flavor for any quesadilla.
  • Tacos – drizzle it over your tacos for a spicy topping or toss shredded chicken in it for our shredded chicken tacos or baked chicken tacos.
  • Enchiladas – use ranchero sauce in place of enchilada sauce for a unique twist on classic enchiladas or in our sweet potato black bean enchiladas.
  • Burrito bowls – mix it into cilantro-lime rice and beans for extra flavor.
  • Pizza – you can use ranchero sauce by itself as a base on our chicken bacon ranchero pizza, or mix it in with something like ranch dressing to create a whole new kind of pizza sauce.
  • Huevos rancheros – Make a delicious breakfast of fried eggs, tortillas, and other favorite toppings like beans, avocado, and cheese, and drench it all in our spicy ranchero sauce!
A blue stoneware bowl filled with a fresh batch of homemade ranchero sauce and a wooden serving spoon.

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Tell us what you think!

We hope you enjoy this recipe! When you try it out, please leave a review and a star rating in the comments below. Happy cooking! – Nicole and Alex

A stoneware bowl filled with freshly cooked ranchero sauce and a wooden serving spoon.

Homemade Ranchero Sauce

Nicole & Alex Langdon
This easy spicy homemade ranchero sauce cooks in less than 20 minutes and is the perfect addition to burritos, tacos, enchiladas, or any of your favorite Mexican dishes!
5 from 2 votes
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Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 12 minutes
Total Time 17 minutes
Course Ingredient, Sauce
Cuisine Mexican
Servings 5 cups
Calories 77 kcal

Equipment

Ingredients
 
 

  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • ½ medium white onion chopped
  • 1 jalapeno chopped
  • 1 chipotle pepper in adobo chopped
  • 4.5 ounces canned diced green chiles
  • 1 teaspoon minced garlic
  • 28 ounces canned diced tomatoes
  • ½ cup low-sodium chicken broth (sub vegetable broth for vegetarian)
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • ½ teaspoon black pepper
  • ½ teaspoon paprika
  • 1 teaspoon Mexican oregano
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • ½ teaspoon ancho chile powder
  • ½ teaspoon ground red cayenne pepper
  • ½ teaspoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 2 tablespoons lime juice

Instructions
 

  • Heat vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat until shimmering, about 1 to 2 minutes.
  • Add chopped onion, jalapeno, chipotle pepper, diced green chiles, and minced garlic to the saucepan. Cook until softened, about 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
  • Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a gentle boil.
  • Once the sauce is boiling, stir well and turn heat to medium-low. Simmer for 5 minutes.
  • Transfer sauce to a blender and blend until smooth, about 30 seconds.
  • Use ranchero sauce in your favorite Mexican dishes, like our Chicken Burritos Ranchero, or store for later use.
One last step:Please consider leaving a review to let us know how it was!

Notes

Caution while blending – Blending hot liquids in a traditional, well sealed blender can be dangerous because pressure will build up and can cause the lid to pop off. In order to avoid this, make sure the blender is vented and lay a towel over the top to contain any mess. Not all blenders are air tight, our old blender wasn’t and we had no issues, our new blender is however, so we have to keep the pour spout popped while blending anything hot.
Use an immersion blender – If you have an immersion blender, it makes this recipe much easier! Simply just blend the sauce in the sauce pan. If you don’t have one, hot sauces and soups are our favorite uses for ours – we can highly recommend getting on.
Chopping produce – Don’t worry about finely chopping anything because it will end up getting blended. The goal is to have things in small enough pieces to cook quickly and evenly. It also helps make the sauce easier to blend. Roughly chopped is what we aim for.
Freezing – It’s super easy to cook up a large batch and freeze whatever won’t be used immediately. Just let it cool completely before storing in an air-tight container, and it’ll keep for up to 3 months in the freezer. Before you’re ready to use it, simply defrost in the fridge overnight.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cupCalories: 77kcalCarbohydrates: 12gProtein: 2gFat: 3gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 1gSodium: 617mgPotassium: 415mgFiber: 3gSugar: 5gVitamin A: 688IUVitamin C: 30mgCalcium: 76mgIron: 3mg
Like this recipe?Please leave a review below! We read and respond to every single comment.

If you have any questions regarding the information presented in this post, please refer to our Nutrition Disclaimer here.

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90% of Nicole’s thoughts are about food. She’s had a passion for cooking (and eating) for as long as she can remember! Growing up, she started cooking with her mom at a young age, learned family recipes from her Italian grandmother, took every opportunity to make cookies (so many bake sales), and always loved going out to restaurants to try new foods.

Nicole currently works part-time as a marketing professional for OmieLife while also working nonstop on The Candid Cooks. As a former mechanical engineer, Nicole has consistently found herself at the intersection of creativity and logical reasoning. She credits not only her passion for photography, design, and writing, but also her problem-solving nature and desire to learn, as the foundation on which The Candid Cooks was built.

Nicole’s hobbies include anything that gets her moving - mainly hiking, skiing, ice skating, and dancing - as well as reading fantasy novels and scrapbooking. Her favorite food is a big plate of nachos, as long as they’re cheesy enough!

5 from 2 votes (1 rating without comment)

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One Comment

  1. 5 stars
    We developed this recipe because we just couldn’t find a store-bought ranchero sauce, and I’m so glad we did. I would never buy it pre-made now. It’s too good and so easy.

    Reply