Cheese Enchiladas With Chili Gravy Recipe (2024)

Ann-agree. While the oil fry technique is traditional, instead try covering the tortilla stack with damp paper or cloth towel, and heating for 30 sec or so in the microwave until pliable. Careful not to overheat, as they'll dry out quickly. This way, the tortillas are easy to fill and roll, and you won't miss the oil. Done it this way for years.

Want to eliminate most of the fat but have a pliable and toasted tortilla? Put tortillas on a sheet pan and spray both sides with a neutral vegetable spray. Bake briefly (12 minutes) in a 375 oven til slightly puffed. Then dip tortillas in your chosen sauce and proceed with your recipe. ( I do this with my mole sauce chicken enchiladas).

In Mexico, they heat them up on the stove top in a dry frying pan, ( or in a small aluminum pizza pan on the stove top used solely for this) just flip them over several times . They also put them in little cloth "cozies" to keep them warm and pliable. I asked my hostess if she ever fried her tortillas, and she said only for chilaquiles.

I’m pretty sure that using Velveeta or American cheese in Mexican food cooking is against the law.

I made without frying. Take a corn tortilla and heat in a preheated cast iron pan on the stove top for 30 sec on both sides. This makes them pliable. You must work quickly so that they do not re-stiffen before rolling. With the sauce on top, you cannot tell you skipped the frying step.

I was born and raised in Texas. Softening the tortillas by lightly quickly frying is a must for flavor. Yes, you get lots of fat that way.
And American cheese sounds like a bad idea but also gives the classic taste and creaminess needed. You can crumble a bit of "Mexican" white cheese on top to make it look a bit more "gourmet".

And for a delicious and more complex taste, add 1 tablespoon cocoa to the "gravy" (which is really an enchilada sauce)

Don't know why he doesn't mention it here, but Robb Walsh's recipe for chili includes a recipe for chili powder. It's the best I ever had, and it can be customized to taste. It's pretty easy to make. http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016037-classic-chili-con-carne?actio...

The sauce seemed good but a bit sharp and needed a bit more depth, so I sauteed finely chopped onions and cherry peppers, cooked them down with more chicken stock and added half a cup of tomato sauce and a tablespoon of bittersweet cocoa. Yessss!

There is a vast difference between Tex-Mex and other areas that border the USA such as Sonora which greatly influences southern Arizona versions of "genuine" Mexican food. Sauce for basic enchiladas would be made from dried chilis or chili paste, oregano, garlic, salt, flour and water. The rolled enchilada did not show up in southern Arizona until after WW2. Flat enchilada cakes were made of fresh corn masa as the principle ingredient before corn tortillas became the norm.

This recipe is completely dependent on the quality of the chile powder. I like to use Medium, Big Jim Variety Red Chile Powder, available via mail-order from Hatch Chile Express. Also, agree with Cynthia, the enchiladas don't really need to be rolled, they can be stacked. This step means you can skip the oil needed to make the tortillas pliable. (Of course, the oil-fried tortillas make for a much more decadent dish!)

The sauce is the whole point of the recipe. Why even comment if you didn't actually follow the recipe at all? I actually followed the recipe and only changed it by adding some black beans to the cheese. It was delicious.

Will someone please tell me once and for all what chile powder is? Is it the stuff you put in chili, or powdered chili peppers, in which case does it have a flavor besides hot? And if it's chili peppers, what kind? people seem to have different opinions about this.

Tex-Mex does Not use Velveeta. Monterey Jack and Cheddar Cheeses, preferred. About 1/2"long stick of Monterey Jack, the length of tortilla, sprinkled with grated Cheddar. Sprinkle of chopped onions before rolling up enchilada filled with both cheeses, spread real chili on top. Add more onions with cheddar cheese on top of that. Bake 350° - 25 minutes. I prefer real chili spread over the enchiladas. I'm from Texas and Tex-Mex is our favorite food. Try it!

Ann: as others have noted, the oil is traditional, but not required. I warm/soften in the sauce or gravy itself and you'll never miss the oil.. In addition, there is far less mess to clean up. Cheese? Anything except Velveeta, a truly horrible substance. If sauced with care and baked/broiled gently, your 'real' cheese of choice will not break.
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The sauce is really delicious! I confess that I sautéed some onion, poblano, black beans, and corn to put in the enchiladas along w somewhat less cheese than the recipe calls for. Turned out great! Hubs wants a repeat!!!

As a member of a New Mexico multi-generational family, variations on a theme are used by all of us.I just collect such recipes and see what others are up to.All the best,

This is the ONLY cheese enchilada recipe I ever use. Reminds me of real Tex-mex cooking, lots of cheese and no tomato sauce.

Delicious! Used homemade corn tortillas, lard, beef stock, guajillo chile powder, and subbed cumin with dried parsley. Added corn (one ear) and lime juice to the gravy. Nuked the tortillas instead of frying before rolling.

Incredible. I made corn tortillas using directions on the Bob’s red mill masa harina bag, then fried em.For the gravy, I used leftover buttermilk roasted chicken plus its schmaltz. The schmaltz was the gravy fat. The stock was homemade beef-pork. The chili powder was guajillo. Once the gravy had thickened, I added the chicken to it and let it cook down. Used a combo of sharp cheddar, American, and more of the chicken for the filling. Served with crema, cilantro, avocado, lime, black beans.

My daughter made this for us, and I absolutely loved it! I can't speak to the difficulty. We don't like raw onion, so we forewent the sprinkle at the end. I liked it with some sour cream on the side. It smelled diving while it was baking, and tasted AMAZING.

for gluten free; use King Arthur GF flour; but I have noticed that chili pepper is a great thickener as well. I like to use a combo of high quality chili powders; will often put chipotle powder in the mix as well

Agree that the taste is dependent on the quality of the chili powder. I use Penzey's medium chili powder with a dash of Penzey's hot chili powder and the sauce is excellent and seriously spicy. I heat the tortillas on a dry flat grill. I use my tawa pan for that.

The roux to make this gravy is essential. It makes for such a depth of flavor. I combined Sam’s other recipe for easy enchiladas and just made the gravy, added black beans to the pan then slipped in fried corn tortillas and topped each with American/cheddar mix and popped into the oven. No rolling necessary and easy to slide the freshly fried tortilla into the Chile mix top it with cheese and layer another on top so that each person received a stack of cheesy tortillas. Thank you Sam!

Used the microwave method for the tortillas to make them pliable. Used Monterrey jack cheese in place of cheddar and velveeta. Will definitely make this again!

Made this as directed. Far too much flour. Has to use another half carton of chicken broth to get the filing to a semi-useable state. Next time I will cut in half and see how that works. Used my square stovetop griddle pan, coated it with canola oil and got it very hot. Put four tortillas down, sprayed the top side, then flipped when spotted. Perfect! Despite the flour this was very tasty!

I've actually found that the frying in oil technique, rather than just heating the tortillas before filling, keeps them from getting soggy in the sauce later.

This has become my go to enchilada recipe. I add shredded chicken for addded protein. The sauce has become our favorite and it is a regular on the menu in our house.

Filled my enchiladas with black beans, onions and cheese with this sauce to finish it off. Delicious and filling meat-free Monday dinner for the whole family.

Cool recipe! I adjusted to suit our audience of kids, and we thought the results tasted like a restaurant. I used a mere whisper of chile powder and I added a good dollop of tomato paste for nutrition (and color). I read recently that garlic powder doesn't deserve its bad reputation, so I used it here as directed and I'm glad I did.