Chili Enchiladas

When thinking of Tex-Mex or Mexican cuisine, one cannot help but thinking of enchiladas. This is the kind of recipe that can take all that leftover chili and transform it into a new, equally delicious dish that the whole family can enjoy. We suggest you try out one of our recipes for chili, as you will find the leftovers work perfectly for these enchiladas. We made our Vegetarian Bean Chili to fill these enchiladas.

The type of tortillas used for this recipe are a matter of preference, though you should be certain to heat them before you try to roll them. Any attempts at rolling a cold or room temperature tortilla will lead to a pile of broken tortillas and probably broken dreams, too. Your filling should be put at the edge of the tortilla, so it can be rolled into the center, instead of in the middle where it will hang out and awkwardly squirt all over the place when you try to roll it up. 6-inch tortillas are a good size, though you could go larger if you want. This is a sort of “make it up as you go” recipe, so you can use whatever cheese you have handy for a filling and a topper. We used white cheddar as a filling and then used cheddar jack on top because it was more aesthetically pleasing. You can also decide what your own cheese to chili ratio is for the filling, but we used about ¼ cup of cheese for every 1/3 cup of chili.

Jeff seasoned the chili with our Enchilada Seasoning. You can also create a simple ranchero sauce like we did to spread on the top of your enchiladas, for a spicy touch. Ranchero sauce is quite easy to prepare, with a short ingredients list of 3 tomatoes, 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, 1 large Vidalia onion, and 3 fresh or dried (rehydrated) Serrano chiles. They can be rehydrated in hot water for 20 minutes, and they should have their stems removed. Add the tomato, onion, and garlic to a pot of boiling water for eight to ten minutes, then remove them from the water to cool for a few minutes. Chop all ingredients into a suitable size for the blender or food processor and pulverize. Put this mixture in a pan and bring to a boil, then simmer for ten minutes, and you’re done. If you want less heat, you could reduce the number of chiles to two or you could deseed and pull the whitish membrane out from the inside of the pods. This membrane is where the heat is stored, so removing it will give you good flavor without as much punch.

Bake your perfectly sauced and cheesed enchiladas in the oven for about 20 minutes and voila! Dinner is served.