I recently tasted real homemade enchiladas – not the type where you buy the red or green sauce, but real honest to goodness homemade enchilada sauce that took hours to make. I have to say, I don’t think that I have ever really eaten enchiladas but this sauce was delicious. So I decided to try and see if I could make something similar. First, I will let you know that these enchiladas were my own short cut version, but, I do have to say that they came out pretty well. I would definitely make them again. The next time that I make the sauce though, I would try using fresh chili peppers. I also think that making enchiladas at home make them more healthy than if you were to go out to dinner and get them.
I made chicken enchiladas but you could use any type of meat or even make vegetarian ones. Good luck!
Enchiladas
Ingredients
2 Chicken Breast
1/4 medium onion
1/2 Can of diced tomatoes (from 14 ounce can)
2 Garlic Cloves
1/8 teaspoon Chili Powder
1/8 teaspoon Cumin
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
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8 dried chilies (I used 4 ancho chilis and 4 cascabel chilis)
1/4 Onion Sliced
2 garlic Cloves
1/2 can of diced tomatoes
Unsweetened chocolate
Pinch of Cinnamon
Water
Corn tortillas
Grated cheddar cheese
Pam
To Make the Chicken Filling
Put the first eight ingredients into a slow cooker and let it cook together until the chicken is soft enough to shred. If there isn’t enough liquid for the slow cooker, add an 1/8 of a cup of chicken stock or water. Finally, shred the chicken and mix all of the ingredients together. Set the chicken aside. (You can probably cook this on the stove, I just felt the slow cooker was easier)
To make the enchilada sauce
Add the chilis, onion and garlic to 1 1/2 cups of water. Bring it to a boil and let it simmer for about 20-30 minutes to ensure that everything is very soft. Add the tomatoes, a pinch of unsweetened chocolate and a pinch of the cinnamon. Not too much on either or your red sauce will start tasting more like a mole. Cook for another 5 minutes. Remove the vegetables and put them into a blender. Or you can use an immersion blender which is what I did. Blend everything adding the same chili, garlic water slowly until you get the right consistency. Also make sure there are no lumps – biting into a chili pepper would not be fun. That’s it. It’s surprisingly easy and you can adjust the chili types for more or less heat and the tomatoes for more or less tomato flavor. The chocolate and cinnamon are optional.
Making the enchiladas
Spray a baking dish with Pam so the enchiladas don’t stick. Spoon two to three spoon fulls of the red sauce into the dish and spread it around so the bottom is covered. Now take one of the corn tortillas (I used the small ones), fill it with 1-2 spoonfuls of the chicken mixture, wrap it up and put it seem down in the dish. (Technically you are supposed to fry the enchiladas to make them more malleable. You could also stick them in the microwave for 5-10 seconds. Honestly, I didn’t do anything. I just started rolling them) Repeat until your baking dish is full – mine took about 6 enchiladas. Spoon more red sauce over the enchiladas and then cover with cheese. Bake at 350-375 for about 15 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the insides warm.
I ate mine with a bit of extra sauce and leftover guacamole the first day and with plain avocado the next day. They were great both times! I would love to know how yours turns out.
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