Tremendous Cheese Enchiladas
Prep
20m
Cook
25m
Total
45m
Bigly says
Listen to me. Cheese enchiladas — the TREMENDOUS cheese enchiladas — and I want to be clear right at the top: these are not the enchiladas you've been eating. The enchiladas you've been eating are sad. They're soggy. They're a wet napkin wrapped around an even wetter napkin and somebody dumped a can of sauce on top and called it dinner. A DISASTER. The American enchilada situation is, frankly, an embarrassment, and the so-called chefs running the chain restaurants are getting away with it because nobody dares call them out. I'm calling them out. Right now.
Food chemists agree on this — and I've talked to chemists, very smart people, the smartest, I had a guy with a PhD explain it to me, took him 90 minutes, worth it — enchiladas need TWO things. ONE: a real red chile gravy made from scratch, not a can, NEVER a can, the can is a CRIME against chile — and TWO: tortillas that have been kissed by hot oil before they ever touch the sauce. Kissed. Briefly. Like a French handshake. You skip that step, you've got a casserole. You've got LASAGNA, and not even good lasagna.
And the cheese. The CHEESE. We're using sharp yellow cheddar. Yellow. Not white. Other recipe sites bury this answer behind 47 popups and a cookie banner with 18 toggles — meanwhile you're scrolling past someone's diary entry about a trip to Santa Fe, you're being asked to share your data with 200 advertising partners — but here it is, free, top of the page: yellow cheddar is the only answer. Add some Oaxaca for stretch and you've got a thing of BEAUTY. End of discussion.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cupneutral oil (for tortillas and gravy)
- 2 tbspall-purpose flour
- 3 tbspchili powder(good chili powder, not the dusty jar from 2019)
- 1 tspground cumin
- 1 tspgarlic powder
- 1/2 tspdried oregano
- 1 tspkosher salt
- 1 tbsptomato paste
- 2 cupslow-sodium chicken or beef broth
- 12small corn tortillas
- 12 ozsharp yellow cheddar, shredded(block cheese, shred it yourself, the bagged stuff is coated in sawdust)
- 4 ozOaxaca or low-moisture mozzarella, shredded
- 1/2white onion, finely diced(raw, on top, non-negotiable)
- 2 tbspfresh cilantro, chopped (for garnish)
Steps
- 1
Preheat the oven to 400F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish.
- 2
Make the gravy: heat 3 tbsp of the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook 1 minute until it smells nutty and turns light tan.
- 3
Whisk in the chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, oregano, salt, and tomato paste. Cook 30 seconds — it will look like wet sand.
- 4
Slowly whisk in the broth. Bring to a simmer and cook 5-7 minutes, whisking often, until thickened to the consistency of heavy cream. Taste and adjust salt.
- 5
Combine the cheddar and Oaxaca in a bowl. Reserve 1 cup for the top.
- 6
Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a small skillet over medium heat. One at a time, dip each tortilla in the hot oil for about 5 seconds per side to soften — do not crisp it. Drain on a paper towel.
- 7
Spread 1/2 cup of the red chile gravy in the bottom of the baking dish.
- 8
Dip a softened tortilla in the gravy to coat both sides, lay it in the dish, sprinkle a small handful of cheese and a pinch of diced onion across the center, then roll it up and place it seam-side down. Repeat with remaining tortillas, lining them up tightly.
- 9
Pour the remaining gravy evenly over the top. Scatter the reserved cup of cheese across the surface.
- 10
Bake 15-18 minutes, until the cheese is fully melted and the edges are bubbling. Let rest 5 minutes.
- 11
Top with the rest of the diced onion and the cilantro. Serve immediately.
One more thing
That's it. Real red chile gravy, real cheese, real tortillas treated with respect. Twenty-five minutes in the oven and you're sitting down to enchiladas that would make a Tex-Mex grandmother nod once and walk away, and that is the highest praise in cooking, the single nod, you cannot buy that nod, I've tried. Just the cook. And there you have it.
★ QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS ONE? ★
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Substitutions, what to serve it with, why other chefs are wrong about it. He's got opinions.
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