Sour Cream Enchilada Sauce

I love Mexican food.  No.  That is not entirely accurate.  I adore it.  I'm obsessed with it.  I would eat it 3 meals a day, 7 days a week for the rest of my life without hesitation. 

Here in south east Texas, you can throw a rock and hit at least 3 or 4 good quality (and cheap) Mexican food restaurants.  I didn't realize that this isn't a thing everywhere, until I left here in 2005.  I spent 7 years away from Houston and never found even one decent place (St. Louis - your Mexican food is just embarrassing and shameful and Alabama?  I suppose I should not have had high expectations there LOL).  The VERY first thing I did when Scott and I moved back was take him to eat REAL tex-mex food.  He spent his whole life in Topeka, KS.  Again, like St. Louis and Alabama...nope.  He was incredibly impressed, as I knew he would be. 

I make it at home as often as possible.  Tacos, burritos, enchiladas, homemade fresh salsa (which, I'll have to find my recipe and link ya to it), spanish rice, lime/cilantro rice (Chipotle whaaaaat?), ranchero sauce, huevos rancheros (I'm a huge fan of that!).  About the only thing I don't mess with is tamales and home made tortillas.  Making tamales and tortillas requires skill, lots of practice and a little bit of magic or witchcraft.  I also make a creamy avocado sauce that is served at my favorite place down here on the table with the chips and salsa (omg, avocados, Mexican creama, sour cream, cilantro - so so good). 

I found a new sauce a few weeks ago.  I've always seen menu items of enchiladas with a sour cream sauce.  Well.  I like sour cream.  I like sauce.  This can't be bad!  And OMG it's not.  It's SUPER simple, and incredibly tasty.  We had tacos and tostadas for dinner last night and I made this sauce to go on top.  I had plenty left over, so I heated some up and poured it on my eggs this morning for breakfast - TO DIE FOR. 

The sauce is simple if you can make a roux.  And please, don't say you can't.  You CAN.  I promise.  The trick is that when you have the fat (butter) and flour in the pan you CANNOT WALK AWAY.  You cannot take your eyes off of it.  Even for a moment. 

This sauce takes about 5 minutes, start to finish.  Please, mis-en-place your ingredients first.  The sauce cooks very fast and given that you can't walk away from the roux, you can't put your spoon down to go get the next thing.  Very important to get everything out, measured and ready to go. 

Sour Cream Sauce
1/4 cup butter (please, for the love of Paula Deen, USE REAL BUTTER)
1/4 cup flour
15 oz of chicken stock (I didn't have stock so I used bullion last night - not ideal but in a pinch it works)
1 cup of sour cream
1 can of chopped diced green chilies

Heat your butter in a pan (I use a sauce pot, because you will add a bit of liquid) over medium heat.  Once melted, pour in the flour and get your wooden spoon.  This is where the constant stirring starts.  Never stop stirring for a moment.  Incorporate the flour completely and cook while stirring for about 1 to 2 minutes.  As you cook it, the roux will get darker in color.  You need to stop when its straw colored.  You are cooking it JUST long enough to cook the raw flavor out of it (which omg, please do not forget that...raw flour is VILE). 

Once you have the desire roux color, add all the chicken stock at once.  Switch from wooden spoon to whisk and stir.  Turn your heat up to hi and bring it to a boil.  Once it boils, it will be as thick as it will get and you can stop the cooking.  Remove from the heat. 

Add the sour cream and whisk to thoroughly combine.  Add the diced chilies and stir (with a spoon - the chilies just get stuck in the whisk if you use that......at least that's what I've heard.  *snort*).

That is IT.  Seriously.  So simple.  5 minutes.  We drizzled it over our tacos/tostadas last night, I poured some over my scrambled eggs this morning.  Use it to dress a pan of chicken enchiladas.  The possibilities might be endless with this tasty little sauce. 

Mangia!  Mangia!