This rich and smoky Poblano Cream Sauce requires only a few ingredients. It’s a mild but flavorful kick that’s perfect for drizzling over tacos or grilled meats.

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A vibrant green sauce in a blue bowl with a spoon. The creamy texture suggests it's blended, possibly avocado or cilantro based. A colorful cloth and cilantro sprigs are blurred in the background, placed on a wooden surface.

This Poblano Cream Sauce is so good! You’ll want to put it on everything.

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Drizzle on top of tacos, grilled meats, or with chips, there’s no wrong way to enjoy this rich and flavorful sauce.

My favorite way is served with Carne Picada Burritos. Simply delicious!

Table of Contents

1 Ingredients
2 👩🏼‍🍳 Instructions
3 🧊 Freezing Roasted Poblano Peppers
4 More Mexican Sauces
5 😋 Hungry for More?
6 Poblano Cream Sauce

Ingredients

Fresh poblano peppers, cilantro, sour cream, an onion, garlic cloves, and a small dish with salt and ground pepper displayed on a wooden table. A colorful striped fabric adds a decorative touch. Labels identify each item.

Poblano Peppers
Sour cream
Onion
Garlic
Cilantro
Salt

You only need 6 ingredients to make this creamy sauce. It’s a popular sauce used to make dishes like Pollo Poblano.

Swap out sour cream for crema mexicana, Greek yogurt, or mascarpone cream.

Optional: Add the juice of ½ lime for some tangy freshness.

👩🏼‍🍳 Instructions

Five whole poblano peppers, a halved onion, and two garlic cloves are on a foil-lined baking tray. Fresh cilantro, a colorful cloth, and a spoon with spices are on the wooden table.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Place the poblanos, onion and garlic on a sheet pan.
Roast for 10 minutes. Remove the onion and garlic.
Flip the poblanos and return for an additional 7 minutes.
You can also roast the peppers on a hot griddle.

I find that peppers roasted in the oven tend to lose their firmness, making them ideal for sauces. However, if you are making chiles en nogada (for example), it is best to roast on a griddle.

Four images show the steps in preparing roasted poblano peppers. Top left: charred poblano peppers in a bowl. Top right: peppers covered with plastic wrap. Bottom left: a knife slitting a pepper. Bottom right: seeded and opened pepper on a cutting board.

Once charred on all sides, cover them with plastic wrap to steam for a few minutes.
Carefully remove the blackened skin.
Chop off the stem.
Cut lengthwise and remove the seeds and veins.

🧊 Freezing Roasted Poblano Peppers

Roasted poblano peppers are ideal for the freezer. Their strong flavor will minimize any freezer burn taste. Roast poblano peppers either on the stove or in the oven. Then clean and devein as shown in the pictures and place them in sealable plastic bags. Remove as much air as possible. Place in the freezer for up to 4 months.

Side-by-side images of a blender: Left shows green peppers and cream; right shows a smooth, blended green mixture.

Place sauce ingredients in a blender.
Blend until smooth.

To thin out the sauce, add ¼ cup of milk or evaporated milk. To thicken up the sauce, add cream cheese as in Espagueti Verde. The latter will make it richer and creamier.

Store in the fridge for up to 4 days in an airtight container.

A blue bowl filled with creamy green salsa sits on a wooden table. Fresh cilantro leaves are placed beside the bowl. A colorful, striped cloth is partially visible in the top right corner.

More Mexican Sauces

This poblano cream sauce is rich, smoky, and very versatile. Drizzle it on grilled meats or pasta, it adds a delicious depth of flavor you don’t want to miss.

😋 Hungry for More?

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