Cheese enchiladas
 

Last night I made the simplest cheese enchiladas possible - monterey jack, onions, habanero peppers, ten minutes in the oven at 225C, with store bought red sauce, and it was still better than most I get in restaurants.

Why do most places insist on smothering enchiladas in gobs of that gooey industrial cheese? Sometimes they'll mix it with a brown sauce which is only slightly better.

So the question is, how do you like your cheese enchiladas - minimalist or gussied up with everything? Just curious

I Like Them
 

Love 'em like they do 'em at El Rancho in Austin and El Fenix in Dallas.

Couldn't agree more. Even worse is making them with flour tortillas :eek: :eek:

My version (learned from my mom) is close to yours, only difference is sliced black olives instead of the habaneros).

I like the "El Pato" brand of store-bought sauce

http://pics.mexgrocer.com/images/1280.jpg

As a SF Giants fan, I would have thought you would be eating Chicken Enchiladas. ;)

I've been making my own enchilada sauces--red, from store-bought dried chilies, and green from fresh New Mexico chilies. I used to really load up the enchiladas with cheese in the filling and on top, but have backed off of that practice and now sprinkle some grated cheese (monterey, colby, or sometimes some crumbled cotija) on top for as a garnish/color, so I haven't done purely cheese enchiladas for a long time. I rarely make quesadillas anymore and only make nachos (with lots of grated cheese, melted) for the future mister youreadyfreddie. If I'm using a red sauce, I usually fill the enchiladas with machaca (shredded beef), the green sauce is good with pork, chicken, beef, or shrimp. Cheese enchiladas would be good with both sauces.

Since I found my comal (flat, cast-iron griddle) packed away in a box, I have stopped using hot oil to soften corn tortillas for enchiladas and tacos. I just warm them on the hot comal and they roll up easily for enchiladas.

To summarize, there is a LOT less fat in the enchiladas I make now than there was in the ones I made when I first started cooking. Now, only I could find low-fat, corn tortillas that have good flavor.

A little OT, but last week I discovered that my local Chinese delivery place now uses flour tortillas as the "pancakes" for their moo shu. Color me shocked:eek:

I like to make my own red sauce, usually with beef; the canned stuff is too salty and never lives up to my flavor expectations. Other than that, very simple: ground corn tortillas filled with a couple of types of cheese and topped with raw diced onions.

ummm, it isn't that hard to make FAT FREE corn tortillas, masa harina, water, salt....you can even go fancy with it by putting some mexican herbs if you want, none of them add fat (could impact cooking however)

Where does fat come in, cooking them in a cast iron filled with lard? Using a little pam will be marginal amounts of fat, not even enough to count.


BTW, I generally go really simple but am sure to put some sauteed onions and peppers, yes in my cheese enchilada, I use simple cheeses, never that yucky cheese goo crap :)

Mine was some brand called Las Palmas. Only thing I might do different next time is dice some jalapenos to sprinkle on top. Luckily nobody has ever tried to foist a flour tortilla enchilada on me. In my mind that's a burrito.

Do you also make your own chile rellenos at home? We don't much care for those soft ones that most restaurants serve. We like to make them at home when we can get fresh Anaheim peppers.

How do you make your sauce?

Yay! An enchilada thread!

My enchiladas always fall apart in the oven. Any advice on how to properly prepare the corn tortilla so it doesn't disintegrate in the sauce while in the oven?

Funny, that is one reason I took over the cooking of enchiladas in our house - my wife's always fall apart! What I did was heated the corn tortillas (I think Mission brand) for 20 seconds a side on a hot skillet with some vegetable oil before adding the cheese/onions/peppers. Then when I baked them I only used a minimal amount of sauce, 10 minutes at 225C (450F or so). After they came out of the oven I put the remaining sauce on. They were very firm. I think what she does wrong is drenches them with way too much sauce in the oven.

It was probably the oil in the pan that did the trick, without the oil if they are not freshly cooked, they will not bend, and instead will break!

My .02: The tortillas don't need to be cooked, just heated on an iron skillet (which might be a little oily). And breaking once they are rolled depends to an extent on the freshness and brand. I'd support the comments on limiting the amount of sauce in the oven. Sometimes I get it right, sometimes mine break too.

I was talking about entirely fresh tortillas (see prior about masa harina), store bought have already been cooked of course they just need the moisture and quick heating to be pliable. Talking about sauces, I don't douse mine anyway, I leave the sauces except the smallest amounts to the table in the from of crema agria, salsa, and verde, so maybe if there is a sauce issue in cooking it is why I do not have any issue.

I generally find that if I did not oil or water the tortilla when warming, mine fall apart when using the store bought variety.

An old trick with "day old" (or days older) tortillas....

The "stacked" enchiladas popular in some parts of Mexico (actually, in some places, especially in Ciudad Mexico, more common than rolled). Also allows varying the components of the separate layers (sometimes a little strangely, as I recall encountering a fried egg more than once, and sliced avocado often).

By the replies, it would appear that I am using too much sauce in the oven.

Follow-up question: when making chicken (or beef or pork) enchiladas, how much sauce do you put in with the meat? That might be my second problem.

We don't put any enchilada sauce in with the meat. Just well seasoned, moist meat and a bit of cheese inside. Cover with foil (no sauce) and bake at 350 until hot 25-30 minutes, then remove foil, top with sauce and cheese, and broil until cheese melts.

Typically in my house the interior of the enchilada is reserved for the ooey-gooey combination of meat, cheese, beans, veggies, etc. (or any combination of those) while the sauce goes over the top of those rolled tubes of goodness. The decision point would be for hot peppers (chipotle, jalapeno, etc.) and whether you want them to influence the interior of the enchilada or the sauce.

Ah! That sounds like a winner.

Vielen Dank! Or should I say muchas gracias? :p

Funny you did this as did I, last night- almost exact same recipe! Didn't have onions, used scallions on top. So: no "gussiness" just corn tortillas, Monterey Jack for the inside of the tortillas, dipped in the hot oil 3x, then dipped in the sauce I had in bowl. Let cool, then roll up monterey Jack place in glass pan, covered with canned sauce, then sprinkled fresh grated Extra Sharp Cheddar. Oven 400F about 15 minutes. mmmm.

I'd never made enchiladas before- and my husband said "Where'd you GET these?" "um.. I MADE them, you were HERE when I did" (I'm a terrible cook- he didn't believe me :rolleyes: ) also used canned sauce. They were.. very good. It was one of those recipes "what've I got in the cupboard/fridge to make something with? The dipping the corn tortillas in the hot oil was the messiest/hardest part since I HATE cooking with messy grease.

But yeah- how is it that restaurants can't provide such a simple, easy & delicious enchilada?? Cheese (maybe they used processed??) but funny tho yes I had to chime in, I was very pleased with my "good" dinner for once. I like to cook, and follow all the recipe instructions but my dinners are hit or miss unfortunately. I got lucky with this recipe. I think it was the canned sauce.

+1, as store bought sucks (even from the Mex markets) compared to the DELICIOUS plethora of Mexican restaurants in my hood.

Hey there enchilada fans! I had forgotten about this thread until Sweet Willie sent me a gentle reminder today.

I came up with my own recipe after watching a few cooking shows. Prior to that I used mild red chile enchilada sauces made by La Victoria, Las Palmas, El Pato, and others. Surprisingly, the Target store brand green sauce is very good although it has a lot of salt in it.

I don’t have a formal recipe or exact measurements to make red enchilada sauce, but it’s pretty easy. I use the following ingredients:

Dried chiles: A 6-ounce bag is about 20 dried and costs me about $3.50. I use mild chilies, (Guajillo, California, Colorado, or New Mexico)

A yellow onion: Cut into large chunks

One or two cloves of fresh garlic (OK, I use a lot more than two—maybe six or eight, YMMV)

And this is what I do:
Place dried chilies, onion, and garlic (and any other spices/salt/seasonings/herbs you may want to add) in a stockpot and fill the pot with water, and bring to a boil, cover pot, reduce heat to simmer for 30 minutes. When the chiles and onions are soft, remove from heat and allow the whole mess to cool a bit (20-30 minutes).

In a blender (in small batches) blend the mixture of chiles, onions, and liquid until smooth. Pour mixture through a fine sieve. Use a soft rubber spatula/Scotch spoon to push the liquid through the sieve—you want to trap and discard the stems, seeds, and small bits of chile skin that didn’t soften up.

Muy importante! Be very careful when blending warm or hot liquid, as the heat can cause the liquid to come out of the top of the blender or even blow the top off of it. No one needs a faceful or an eyeful of hot enchilada sauce. I never fill the blender more than half way, and I cover the top of the blender with a thick towel and hold it firmly while the blender is going. The liquid will be thin. Pour it into a large skillet and cook it over low to medium heat until it reduces and thickens.

I apologize for anything that seems vague. I came up with this “recipe” on my own, so I just go by how I want it to taste and how thick I want the sauce to be. This makes a fair amount of sauce (again, sorry to be vague) which can be refrigerated for about a week. The sauce can also be frozen.

I find that the fresher the tortillas, the less they fall apart. I used to soften the tortillas with oil, or warm sauce, to but now I use a cast-iron skillet or comal to soften the tortillas so they are flexible enough to fill them and roll them up. If you don't have a cast-iron skillet or a comal, you can nuke each tortilla for a few seconds in the microwave.

I was gentle, wasn't I ?:) me thinks you've done well from what I've gathered watching various Mexican cooking shows, Muchas Gracias for posting the recipe.

In anticipation of making the traditional Wednesday-night-before-Thanksgiving enchiladas, just as the Pilgrims did, I checked out Wikipedia to see what they had to say about enchiladas. There are some interesting (and delicious-sounding) descriptions of the different varieties of enchiladas cited, including TMOliver's enchiladas moladas--stacked enchiladas, complete with a fried-egg layer. Check it out.

Thought you folks might find it of interest. :)

----Edit----

Caught myself in a misspelling in my post above. It should be enchiladas montadas in my post above. I had "mole" on the brain at the time I was posting. "Montadas" refers to the stacked enchiladas while "enmoladas" refers to enchiladas prepared with mole sauce as opposed to chile sauce--hence . . . "molada" vs "chilada". Molada = mole sauce, chilada = chile sauce. Sorry for any confusion I may have caused.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm . . . enchiladas. :)

I am lazy with enchilada making these days and simply layer them in the appropriate sized souffle dish. I still griddle fry them before Layering them. The best part is that the leftovers don't dry out when reheating and the souffle dish takes up less room in fridge.

Interesting take on 'stacked' enchiladas/moladas. Using a dish slightly largeer than the tortillas to allow for a bit of sauce in the bottom could provide interesting results...Hard to eat conventionally though...

A note on enchilada sauces: Many US based chains (most often "TexMex" style) use a sauce dark red "chili gravy" sauce w/o tomato, while the more traditional canned sauces (Mexican brands or produced in Border States) have a good bit of tomato and far less 9if any) "meat" flavor/content. The canned and most restaurant "Green Chile" sauces tend to be thickened a bit with one or another starch (at home, often a light "roux") as part of the prep. More rarely encountered or prepared are the Tomatillo-based sauces, more acidic and un-thickened, and the Puebla-style "Green Mole" which can be muy picante, but sure good with pork. Then there are "Suizas", using a sour cream based sauce, most often a chicken filling, and now and again topped with Swiss cheese.

In Mexico, at least in my long-ago memories, enchiladas filled with beef (or any meat) were the exception rather than the rule.

I tried to find this in my local Safeway, but they only had El Pato salsa sauces, not enchilada. I need to move where there are more Mexicans :p

I grew up with the stacked style in NM, though my family didn't use that name. It's perfect for a 9 x 13 Pyrex if you want to create an enchilada "casserole": place six heated corn tortillas in a slightly overlapping layer, then sprinkle raw onions and shredded cheese, then your meat and sauce, then repeat everything for another layer and top with a bit more cheese before popping in a 375 degree oven for 12-15 minutes or so.

Far enough afield, but worth mentioning in the casserole vein, an old USAian adaptation of tamales, "Tamale Pie", a shallow dish, the bottom filled with about 1' of a "wet" meat filling, then topped by a masa/corn meal-based "batter" and baked until the batter is set, served with grated cheese and chopped onions and salsa. The best example I recall used chopped pork "al pastor" moistened with a red chili sauce.

I suspect that the 'original" was a 1950's purely "Anglo" concoction of ground beef sauteed with onions and a little chili powder, topped with corn bread batter, then "Mexicanized" by later preparers.

A slight veer off topic, but still within the same barrio as enchiladas, I'm going to try my hand at tamales for the first time. I found this wonderful family history and illustrated (photographed) recipe: Grandma Salazar's Tamales. It's worth a read even if you aren't going to make the tamales. I'll let you know how they turn out.

;)I'm not sure tamales can be "made" by one (1) person. Four seems about the minimum number for the traditional "production line", allowing the substantial social interaction and disparaging commentary on the decline in social values, criticism of acquaintances and relatives, and event planning. In most tamale-oriented households and commercial operations, men are unlikely to be included in the crews. Only when qualified personnel (of a certain age) are unavailable are younger women allowed to perform essential tasks "on the line". These factors are especially true when it comes to the preparation of the legendary sweet "Christmas" tamales, a task calling for extensive prior training, long apprenticeship, and widow status or the possession of great-grandchildren (or age equivalency for the occasional spinster).

Indeed. If he did undertake this feat alone, he may be done by Christmas. :p

On a serious note, hope they turn out well and that you can find all the requisite ingredients on the East Coast.

Oh ye of little faith! I DID make tamales and did it flying solo! The requisite ingredients are readily available in the DC-Metro area. I already had the corn husks, and I picked up a bag of Maseca for Tamales. They turned out OK, but I'm not thrilled with the way they taste. The meat is great--I used pork and prepared it the same way I prepare beef machaca. The masa part could taste better. I'm waiting a few days and then am going to steam a few for a retaste just in case I was burned out on them when I first made them. Also, while there was plenty of meat in each tamale (I hate it when there are just a few threads of meat in a tamale and then a giant mass-o-masa) but I need to work on making the masa layer thinner all around, and I need to work on making them a uniform size, which will come with practice. The masa was fairly easy to work with, and I found that a silicone spatula was better at spreading the masa onto the husk instead of the often-referred-to-n-recipes wooden spoon. The masa stuck to the wooden spoon, but slid nicely into place and was easy to achieve uniform thickness with the silicone spatula (my mom would have called it a "Scotch spoon" if that describes it better for anyone.)

I'm thinking of making tortillas this week.

BTW, for those of you keeping track at home . . . I'm a she not a he. :)

edit: st2, I just noticed that one of your home airports is DCA . . . I live about 15 minutes from IAD . . . there are a few bodegas around if I need to get stuff there, but I'm able to get the necessary supplies at Giant, Safeway, and/or Food Lion.

Not sure about everybody else, but I gathered that :)

Being from SAN, youreadyfreddy was raised up with an emotional and cultural tie to tamales, making her "prep" easier. I agree with the silicon spatula for proper "shuck stick" and the thinner masa "dough"/paste/whatever. We like "gorditas", essentially a thick corn tortilla, split and filled, and achieving the right thickness when blending isa key. In my experience, the masa used for tamales is thinner and "wetter" than that used for tortillas.

I'm not surprised that the bodegas of DC's outskirts could provide ingredients. Over years and multiple visits on business, the Hispanic population, especially those of Central American and Mexican origin, mushroomed, and the housekeeping staff in several of the larger hotels were as overwhelmingly Hispanic as one might encounter in SAN. I'm always amazed in DC. The locals who might be concerned seemed totally unconcerned when it came to "La Migra", most noticeable for its being unnoticed/simply absent.

Ok, I almost hate to divulge this tamale secret, but I will. When you make your masa dough, use this http://www.latinmerchant.com/images/...FNS%20(10).jpg if you can, or the closest thing possible, then...

For each batch (~50 tamales) add one can of hominy, drained and pureed in the food processor to the masa. It makes all the difference in the world. Seriously.

Want to save some time shredding chicken for enchiladas?
 

La Cochinita makes her enchiladas Chilanga-style (Mexico City stacked tortilla style) and in fact we had some last night.

We prefer a green tomatillo based sauce. She'll boil in water some husked tomatillos and roast some jalapeños on a comal while the boneless chicken breasts are poaching in a broth. I dice an onion, shred some lettuce and cut up some tomatoes and avocados. I also grate queso cotija (Cotija cheese - a dry, crumbly Mexican cheese...sort of a Mexican parmasan but with a different flavor) and some Mozzerella.

To make the sauce she dumps the tomatillos and chiles in a blender, whizzes it then adds broth from the pot of cooked chicken to make the sauce consistency to her liking. Salt to taste.

She builds the enchiladas by layering slightly fried corn tortillas, shredded chicken, cheeses, diced onion, and green sauce. Top with lettuce, tomato, avocado and sour cream. Lots of calories but oh so good.

HINT FOR SHREDDING COOKED BONELESS CHICKEN
Cut the cooked chicken breasts in half. Put them in your Kitchen-Aid stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Beat the chicken breasts in your mixer until you get the level of shredding you want. It really works!

Sounds like a good suggestion. I've always thought the real difference may involve the use of Manteca/Lard, instead of shortening, etc. These days, I've seen the ladies who make handmade tamales, now forced to wear gloves, "lubricate" their mixing/patting shaping hands with Lard, the new meets the old.

Si," Maseca Para Tamales". That's what I used. Thanks for the tip about the hominy. I'll keep that in mind. Does the hominy enhance the flavor? The texture? Both? Would you recommend the hominy trick when making fresh tortillas? :)

And thank you to El Cochinito, TM Oliver, and the others who have posted about the "stacked enchiladas". Over the years I had seen recipes for them, but have never had them in Mexico nor heard of them from Mexican friends. Until I did some Google searching after you folks posted about them here, I had thought they were an "Americanized" version of Mexican food gone horribly wrong, much as I assume "tamale pie" is. Now before someone smacks me down, telling me that tamale pie is indeed a classic Mexican dish, I'm talking about the abomination that a friend made where she poured a CAN of Hormel chili into a Pyrex pie plate lined and then topped with cornmeal. It was more than ten years ago, and I think I'm still choking on bits of the cornmeal. :D I'll give the enchiladas montadas a try soon.

I love the term "shuck stick" and will try to use that term in the future.

This is a terrific thread!

Yes, the hominy improves both the texture and taste, and works well for tortillas too.