Another Friday, another community lunch to prepare for. My absolute “go to” meal when I need a dish that will please a crowd are enchiladas rojas! My inspiration for today’s cheesy enchiladas are the traditional enchiladas suizas. The more traditional enchiladas suizas are prepared with a creamy salsa verde, but I switched it out and prepared a red creamy salsa.
Are you a rolled enchilada person or layered enchilada person? I am most definitely a rolled! Lol! For today’s post you can serve up a twist on enchiladas Suizas or go classic with a deep red enchilada sauce and plenty of cheese!
The story behind how these delicious enchiladas got their name, is that the Swiss immigrants to Mexico influenced this dish. In particular, the crema and melted cheese. One of the most beautiful aspects of Mexican cooking is how the most traditional and popular dishes have influences from other countries. A big, giant, delicioso melting pot of flavors! Sharing my dishes, is one of the little ways I pass on and share my Hispanic heritage with people. I am very proud of my culture, both Mexican and American. For today’s post I downsized the recipe a bit and instructed you to roll instead of stack the tortillas. But you could certainly stack them in layers, it just requires more ingredients. You will read the tips along the way if you’d like to prepare them that way. I would have liked to have shown you a beautifully plated dish with the crema and cilantro garnish, but when it’s community lunch day, it get’ a little crazy! Lol! In the meantime, I did get some pretty good shots of the melted cheese, ha, ha, ha! Enjoy! #mexicanfood #shareyourfood #payitforward #hispanicheritagemonth
This is more of the style that the enchiladas would look like if rolled. This was before they were placed in the oven to melt the cheese with a little green onion added.
Tips~ If you cannot find the dried chiles where you live, you could just bump up the amount of chile ancho powder to double. It will yield a darker sauce.
Enchiladas Rojas
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 4 large tomatoes sliced in half
- 3 chile guajillo peppers stems and seeds removed
- 1/2 white onion
- 1-2 jalapenos stems removed
- 2 cloves garlic
- handful of cilantro plus more for garnish
- 2-3 teaspoons knorr bouillon
- 2 1/2-3 cups of water
- 1 cup Mexican crema or creme friache reserve 1/2 cup
- 2 teaspoons chile ancho powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- salt and pepper to taste
You will also need
- 12 corn tortillas
- Oil for frying
- 2 cups of shredded chicken previously cooked
- 2 cups shredded cheese Chihuahua, Oaxaca, Muenster or Manchego
Instructions
Directions
- In a sauce pan, combine the tomatoes, guajillos, onion, jalapeños and garlic. Cover with water, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and continue cooking for 10-12 minutes.
- Using a slotted spoon, transfer the salsa ingredients to the blender. Add the cilantro, bouillon, water, crema, chile ancho powder, cumin, salt and pepper to taste. Blend on high until smooth. Taste for salt , strain through a wire strainer into a bowl.
- Preheat 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil to medium heat in a skillet with oil. Pour in the strained sauce and cook at a steady simmer for 10 minutes. Taste for salt.
- On a preheated comal(griddle) fry the tortillas that have been brushed with oil for 35 to 45 seconds per side. Stack onto plate until ready to use. Or you can deep fry them traditionally.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. To the bottom of a 9X13 baking dish, add 1 cup of enchilada sauce and spread it out evenly. Fill and roll the tortillas with chicken and place into baking dish with sauce. Top with remaining enchilada sauce. Add the cheese down the center of enchiladas. Bake just until cheese melts, about 25 to 30 minutes.
- Drizzle the remaining crema over the top of enchiladas while they are still warm. Garnish with fresh cilantro. Serve right away.
Notes
If you would like a more traditional red sauce for your chicken enchiladas, simply add a few (2) dried chile ancho peppers when you cook your prepare. Do not add any cream to the sauce! This will yield a darker yummy red enchilada sauce!!
Take the time to strain your sauces when you can. The results are delicious! If you are lucky enough to own a vitamix blender, no straining required.
The best results for shredded chicken are when I cook it in the pressure cooker! Thirty five minutes under pressure and done! These were boneless chicken thighs cooked in the pressure cooker.
No fuss frying for tortillas. Brush both sides with oil and cook on preheated comal or griddle for 35-45 seconds per side.
I prepared two pans, one veggie and one chicken. These were for the community lunch, so I chose to stack them instead of roll them. If you stack them you will need 24 tortillas instead of 12. I like to add 8 tortillas per layer, making 3 layers.
This happens, lol! Just add an extra tortilla!.
My favorite melting cheese for enchiladas is queso Chihuahua or Muenster cheese.
You could cover the whole surface with cheese, but I like the looks of the red sauce peaking out on the sides.
I let everyone garnish their own enchiladas as they served themselves. Not everyone loves crema and cilantro like I do.
Easy Cilantro Lime Crema. 2 cups crema, juice of 1 lime, 1/3 cup cilantro and salt to taste. Blend until smooth. For easier drizzling, add in a little cold water while blending.
If you want to give your enchiladas that red sizzling look, sprinkle on a little paprika to the cheese before you bake them in the oven!
On this day I used blue corn tortillas too! Dramatic!
A meatless option for your enchilada filling!
Saute all of the ingredients shown in a little olive oil. Season with salt, pepper, smoked paprika and cumin. Add a splash of water or broth as it cooks down. 4 cups kale, 1 cup onion, 1 full cup mushrooms, 1 cup zucchini, 1/2 cup roasted red peppers, 2 cloves garlic and 1-2 chipotles(minced)
And For Cheese Lover’s! Cheesy Enchiladas!
Did I read that right? You put the crema with the mixture that goes in the blender? Along with tomatoes and chiles?
Yes Sheila. The idea of the sauce used for Enchiladas Suizas is to make it creamy. That is where the crema comes into play. The enchilada sauce for these typically had some crema incorporated into it.
Cant wait to cook this. Question 1 cup total of crema and reserving 1/2 meaning 1/2 cup goes into the sauce and remaining 1/2 for the drizzle on top correct? Your recipes are so delicious!!
Oh, yes Dylan, that is what I mean in the recipe. Half goes into the sauce, then the other half for topping. Thanks for the feedback!
Making these again tonight! Made them several times already, but they are so delicious Sonia! I also made your mole sauce (the quicker one, will try the more involved one soon) the other week and my god it was heavenly. My partner is from Veracruz and always enjoys when I make your recipes ?
Thank you Dylan! I am so happy to hear that you tried and love the recipes. I love it too! Yay, I love to hear when people dive in and prepare Mole. Easy or not, it’s the fact that you are getting in the kitchen. Gracias!! Xo!
Omg these are so good! I dry fry my Chile’s and tomatoes and onions on the comal instead of boiling everything and it makes for a delicious sauce. Thanks for the recipe. It is always a hit!
You are right Beatrice. It does make a difference. This is a more simple recipe, but definitely would suggest dry roasting the ingredients or lightly frying for deeper flavors. Thanks for the feedback!
In your stories you were making Enchiladas with sauce that had Cinnamon I can’t seem to find the recipe but I screen shot the stories but feel like I’m missing some ingredients help I really want to try to make it , Please HELP!!!
It was a recipe that I shared only on my stories. I would have to go back into my Instagram archives to find it. When are you preparing the sauce?
Hi Sonia! I love your recipes I have used a few of your recipes already and will be making this one tomorrow, so excited!
I have one question for you, with the guajillo peppers can I use dry peppers or do I need to use fresh ones?
Hi Gabriella! Guajillo peppers are dried peppers.Thanks you for the feedback!
I’ve been looking for a recipe with those spices in it , I’ve only had it at a restaurant could I add those spices to one of your posted recipe and get the same result …
Hi Robin, I am not understanding your question. Add the spices to what recipe? Tortillas? Enchilada sauce?
Could you please tell me how to dry fry and for how long? I’m Not familiar with that technique l.
How to fry? Well you can dip lightly fried tortillas in the red chile sauce and then return them to the oil to fry a second time. It’s delicious, but honestly makes a bit of a mess. The enchiladas are hard to roll because the tortillas are very hot. I like to lightly fry my tortillas just for 20 seconds in grapeseed or avocado oil and then stack them. I cover them with foil paper loosely for a few minutes. I then fill my tortillas and dip them in the sauce and then fry them quickly just to seal that sauce into the tortilla. Either way it get a little messy, but I don’t burn my fingers. Sometimes as I fry the tortilla the first time, I fold it into quarters and then add chile sauce to the pan to coat the tortillas. I plate them folded and add all my toppings(chicken, cheese) and fresh garnishes on top. In the end it taste the same.
I’m sorry… I thought placed my question under your reply to Beatrice. She said she Dry fries her veggies instead of boiling.
That’s the technique I was referring to.. Dry frying.