Let’s say you’re just a normal human – nothing special – just trying to make your way in the world. You’ve got your ups and downs…we’re not here to judge. Let’s also say you like flavor. Maybe not just like…you love flavor, maybe it’s your favorite thing. I’m just spit-balling here but I bet you do. Sometimes when all you want is some real good flavor there may be only one way to quench it: enchiladas.
THIS IS A RECIPE FOR YOU! It takes a little bit of work – but not too much – and it teaches you some basics of developing a sauce on your own and using it to both cook the food then drench the shit out of it at the end. This is red chile enchiladas, a cornerstone of my youth. That said, when I was a kid it was made solely with cheese in the middle, crappy tortillas, and a can of supermarket enchilada sauce.
This recipe is a pretty faithful adaptation of the one from America’s Test Kitchen (you’ll notice a theme here). It involves getting your ingredients all together at the beginning, starting a sauce, then cooking the chicken in it before straining the sauce from the chicken and then putting the filling together, adding the sauce back to the filled tortillas, then covering it in cheese and baking. That might sound like too much to handle but I’ll walk you through it then you can decide whether you should just go to the taco shop and save yourself the pain.
Here are the ingredients:
- Vegetable oil
- Onion, chopped fine
- 3 tbsp. chili powder
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- 1lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs. Trimmed and cut into ¼-inch strips
- 16 oz (at least) canned tomato sauce
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup chopped cilantro
- 3 jalapenos, seeded then chopped
- 12 oz cheese (I used pepper jack)
- Flour tortillas (enough to fill the pan)
Begin by heating about 2 tbsp. oil in a medium saucepot until it shimmers. Then add the onion and some salt (and maybe pepper if you’re feeling spry) and cooking for like 5-7 minutes until the onions are soft and you’re feeling good inside. THE NEXT FEW STEPS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN REAL QUICK SO PERK UP. Maybe consider having everything all set up in individual bowls so you don’t have to measure.
Take the garlic and the other spices and add them all at once and stir for about 30 seconds until it starts to get fragrant. Add the chicken and get it all spiced up. Add the water and tomato sauce and make sure everything is totally combined, then bring to a simmer and let it chill for about 8 minutes or until the voice in your head says you won’t be nervous that the chicken is undercooked. Trust me, the chicken won’t be undercooked.
Now set up a large bowl with a large fine-meshed strainer above it and pour the chicken/sauce mix into the strainer. Across the next few minutes, use a spatula to press down on the chicken mix and force the strained liquid out of the mix until all you have left is a nice watery sauce in the bowl and a chicken chicken/onion mixture in the strainer. Transfer the chicken into another bowl and put it in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Turn your oven up pretty high, like maybe 450 degrees. Get your pan ready (I used a 13” x 9” non-stick casserole but use whatever makes you feel comfortable). Throw enough sauce on the bottom of the pan to coat it evenly. When the chicken has cooled, mix in the jalapenos, cilantro, and about 80 percent of the cheese. This is your filling.
Now begins the most stressful part: figuring out the right amount to put in each tortilla for the enchiladas. I have been doing this for years and you will never get it right. You just start putting some in each tortilla and adjust as you go along but you will end up having some with more stuff than others. It’s ok, you will survive. As you make each one, roll them up and put the seam side at the bottom of the pan. Once you’ve filled up the pan, cover it with the rest of the sauce, throw the rest of the cheese on top, and put it in your oven for about 15 minutes. Check on it periodically and when it’s done you’ll know because it will look and smell very good.
