Don’s Enchiladas

This is one of my favorite recipes. I’ve been cooking it for three decades, harkening back to my days in Phoenix as a young visual journalist at the Arizona Republic.

You can use any kind of meat. My favorites are grilled chicken thighs, pulled pork and of course…the day after Thanksgiving, my famous turkey enchiladas. I guess in theory you could leave the meat out, and it would still be incredible.

You can use store-bought enchilada sauce as well, but home-made is very easy and tastes much better. I will admit to using the canned sauce, as it is mild and I generally have cooked for people that need mild. Not tonight.

Tonight, I’m cooking for myself, using an air-fried leg quarter from last nights dinner. So I was happy to find my old sauce recipe and dive in.

The left-overs will go into portioned vacuum sealed bags. This is one of those meals that re-heats perfect (the bag tossed in boiling water for 15 minutes) and may even be better on the second run.

My Enchilada Sauce:

2 cups chicken broth
4 Tbs Chili Powder
1 tsp. ground cumin
2 heaping tsp. garlic powder (with no salt added)
3/4 tsp. salt
1/3 tsp. sugar
3 Tbs corn starch
2 Tbs cayenne pepper
dried mexican peppers to taste
4 Tbs Cholulu hot sauce (we like the citrus-y Cholulu flavor, this is optional)
1 Tbs paprika
1 tsp ground Chipotle (again, optional, but we like the hint of chipolata)
Dusting of crushed red peppers

Pour it all in a pot. Mix. Make sure your broth is still cool when you put in the starch. You may want a thicker sauce, but don’t add the starch to the heated sauce to think it up, dissolve it first in some water.

I ground up my chilies in a small food processor, but anything would work. Even a spice/coffee grinder.

Cook this over a medium-low heat. I usually start at least an hour before enchilada assembly so the flavors have a chance to meld. Don’t boil. Stir to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Pre-heat your oven to 350°.

STUFFING

1 cup sour cream
1 can of diced green chili peppers
1 bag of Mexican 4 cheese (Craft makes a good one) 8 oz is
OK, but 16 oz is better.
1 can of black beans
1 pile of chicken/pork/beef/whatever, or make it vegie and
leave out the meat
1 chopped onion
1 medium size can of sliced black olives (nontraditional, but it
gives it a signature taste)
1 packages of medium-sized tortillas. One package is 10 count

Put a plate on the table, plop down a tortilla. Smear on the sour cream, a table-spoon or so of all of the above ingredients. The goal is to try to run out of everything at the same time. Roll up the tortilla and place in a glass baking dish ((9″x12″ or whatever you have). You should be able to fill up one of those. I spray it down with olive oil to keep it from sticking.

Pour your sauce on top. Get everything wet. Tuck in the ends so they don’t stick up and get dry.

Top with remaining cheese.

Cook until it’s bubbly, about 30 minutes. Let sit for about 10 minutes and serve.

NOTE: I wrote up this while the enchiladas were cooking, and then took the last two photos and sat down to eat.

WOW! I think this is the best enchilada I’ve cooked. Great flavors and incredible heat. Sweating while you eat, kinda heat. I loved it. If you want to pull back on heat, the obvious places are there in the sauce. I only ate one for dinner. That was enough perfect!