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Mexican Food 101: Enchiladas
In honor of Mexico’s bicentennial this month, we’re dedicating the Sept. 8 food section to all things gustatory about our neighbor to the south. This Mexican Food 101 series will highlight a few traditional dishes you might want to make at home.
Americans are fairly familiar with enchiladas, but before you crack open another can of generic “red” or “green” enchilada sauce and pour it over rolled-up tortillas lined up in a baking dish, here’s a quick lesson in what makes an enchilada an enchilada.
Enchilada comes from the Spanish word enchilar, which means to surround in chiles. To chilify, if you will, a tortilla, Mexican cooks dip each tortilla in a chile sauce before filling with an innumerable array of combinations of meat, cheese and vegetables.
The “tortilla enchilada” is then served right away with more sauce poured on top. Don’t pull out the 9-inch-by-13-inch Pyrex baking dish unless you’re serving more than two or three people and you want the enchiladas to all be hot and ready to serve at the same time.
What kind of sauce and filling is most traditional in Mexico? Ask 100 Mexican cooks and you’ll get 100 different answers. Shredded chicken with a jalapeño tomatillo sauce with crema is popular, but tortillas coated in a simple guajillo chile-based red sauce and filled with queso fresco or cotija are just as well-loved.
Don’t get too caught up in the filling. Use what you’re in the mood for and what you have on hand: spinach and mushrooms, cheese and raw onions, shredded beef, roasted vegetables, etc. Enchiladas are meant to show off the the sauce and the tortillas as much as what’s rolled up inside them.
To ensure that your tortillas don’t get soggy from all that delicious sauce, fry them briefly in hot oil before coating in sauce and filling with ingredients.
Enchiladas verdes
For sauce:
1 lb. tomatillos, husks removed
3 or more serrano or jalapeño chiles
1/2 cup cilantro, roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 Tbsp. white onion, chopped
Salt to taste
For enchiladas:
2 cups shredded chicken
2 roasted poblanos, cut into strips (you can also sauté raw poblanos cut into strips)
Vegetable oil, for frying
12 corn tortillas
For topping:
2/3 cup sour cream, thinned with a little milk
1 1/2 cups shredded lettuce
1/2 cup queso anejo, cotija or crumbled queso fresco
1/2 cup white onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup cilantro (optional)
In a small saucepan, place tomatillos and peppers and just enough water to cover. Bring to a simmer and cook for about five minutes until the tomatillos have softened. Drain, but reserve cooking water.
In a blender, place the cilantro, garlic, onions, salt and about 1/2 cup of the cooking water. Blend until well combined. Continue blending ingredients by adding a few tomatillos, peppers and a small amount of cooking liquid at a time. Salt to taste.
Once all the ingredients have been combined, pour the sauce in a large skillet and cook over medium-low heat until the sauce has reduced to about the consistency of tomato sauce for pasta.
To assemble the enchiladas, have filling (shredded chicken and roasted or sautéed poblano strips) and sauce already warmed and ready for use. In a small skillet over medium-hot heat, warm 1 Tbsp. of oil. Using tongs, quickly fry one tortilla for about 45 seconds. (You don’t want the tortilla to become brittle, but frying lightly before dipping in sauce will prevent tortilla from getting soggy.)
Remove the tortilla from the oil and dip into tomatillo sauce, coating generously. Place tortilla on a plate and fill with a small amount of chicken and poblano. Roll and either serve right away with a little sour cream, lettuce, cotija cheese, onions and cilantro, if using, or place in a baking dish.
If serving all the enchiladas at once, heat oven to 300 degrees and continue assembling tortillas and filling the dish. Pour remaining sauce over tortillas and place in oven for 10 minutes to reheat. Top with garnishes and serve. Serves 6.
— Addie Broyles, adapted from ‘From My Mexican Kitchen’ by Diana Kennedy
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