Enchiladas are a delicious Mexican dish made by filling corn tortillas with ingredients like cheese, chicken, or fish, rolling them up, and topping them with salsa and cheese. They are baked in a glass pan and make a great casserole or starter. Premade options are available but may have a higher salt content.
Enchiladas, stuffed corn tortillas topped with salsa rossa or salsa verde (rojas or verde), and shredded cheese like Jack’s take a while, but the end result is well worth it. Making them is a matter of little work, decide on the ingredients you want, assemble the dish and cook. They make a great casserole and will always be welcome as a starter at seafood dinners.
When making enchiladas you want to start with a glass pan—a better choice than aluminum—particularly if you’re topping with a red sauce. Some recipes suggest placing a small amount of red or green salsa in the bottom of the plate to keep the enchiladas moist. You can also use a little nonstick cooking spray to keep the tortillas from sticking.
You have to prepare each enchilada by hand, filling small corn tortillas with whatever you like. Typical fillings include cheese, shredded cooked chicken, pork or beef, or delicate fish choices such as sole. Each enchilada should be filled with a couple tablespoons of filling. You don’t have to measure it perfectly, but try to keep each tortilla filled by approximately the same amount. As you fill each tortilla, roll it up and place it seam-side down in the baking dish.
It helps to keep all the enchiladas facing the same direction, but sometimes the plate will have room for one or two more going perpendicular. That’s fine, and you should definitely fill your plate. Try not to overfill the pan. Each enchilada should be touching the others but not overlapping them.
Once you have all of the filled tortillas on the plate, you want to give them a generous coating of salsa. You can make your own red or green salsa or short-cut this process by purchasing canned salsa. Both methods are fine, and canned salsa can cut down on prep time. After coating the tortillas in salsa, add plenty of grated cheese on top to cover the dish. Don’t be stingy with the cheese here, as part of the enchilada’s taste value is its delicious cheesy coating.
Bake according to recipe instructions, usually about an hour for an oblong cake pan. You may want to cook the dish covered for the first 45 minutes and then remove the lid (usually foil) for the last 10 to 15 minutes to brown the cheese on top. It can also help to let the dish sit for about 20 minutes after you remove it from the oven. You can choose the side dishes to your liking or serve an enchilada or two with a nice green salad.
If you really don’t have time to make enchiladas from scratch, you can buy family-sized premade ones that take about an hour to cook in the oven. These can be a good alternative, although they may have a higher salt content. You’re more likely to find enchiladas rojas than enchiladas verde in prepackaged form, and the sauce may be milder than you like. Keep some hot sauce on hand to spice up enchiladas that taste too mild.
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