Enchiladas are Mexican comfort food at its best: soft tortillas rolled around a juicy filling, covered in chilli sauce and baked with cheese. The dish is easy to make at home and perfect when you want to serve something other than Friday tacos.
What are enchiladas?
The word comes from «enchilar» – to dip in chilli. In Mexico, corn tortillas are dipped in a red or green chilli sauce, filled and served immediately. The cheese-covered baked version is more Tex-Mex, but at least as good.
Ingredients (serves 4)
- 8–10 tortillas – corn tortillas for authentic flavour, wheat for softer rolls
- 400 g chicken thighs, shredded beef or black beans
- 1 onion and 2 cloves of garlic
- 400 g chopped tomatoes
- 2 tbsp dried chilli or chipotle – see the spice selection
- 1 tsp cumin and 1 tsp oregano
- 200 g grated cheese
- Sour cream, coriander and lime for serving
How to make it
- Make the sauce: sauté the onion and garlic, add the tomatoes, chilli, cumin and oregano. Simmer for 15 minutes and blend until smooth.
- Cook the filling and stir in a couple of spoonfuls of the sauce.
- Warm the tortillas so they soften, fill and roll them, and place them snugly in an ovenproof dish, seam side down.
- Pour over the rest of the sauce, sprinkle with cheese and bake at 200 °C for 15–20 minutes.
- Top with sour cream, coriander and lime.
Tips
Want to take the shortcut? A good Mexican salsa works perfectly as enchilada sauce. And if you make the tortillas yourself, all you need is masa harina and water.
You'll find everything for Mexican cooking in our Mexico selection – salsa, tortillas, dried chillies and beans.
