Enchiladas

• 4 wholedried guajillo chiles · stemmed and seeded, this is the colour and the body of the sauce
• 2 wholedried ancho chiles · stemmed and seeded, this is the sweetness and the raisin note
• 1 wholedried chile de arbol · optional, seeded, this is the only real heat in the pan
• 2 lbboneless chicken thighs · skinless, poached in the chile soaking liquid rather than in plain water
• 18 wholecorn tortillas · 6 inch, the freshest you can buy, flour tortillas will not work here
• 1 largewhite onion · half goes in the sauce, half is diced raw for the top
• 5 clovesgarlic · unpeeled, charred in a dry pan until blackened in patches
• 2 wholeRoma tomatoes · charred alongside the garlic, they round the sauce out
• 1 1/2 tspground cumin · toasted whole and ground if you have thirty spare seconds
• 1 tspdried Mexican oregano · not Mediterranean oregano, it is a different plant and tastes of citrus
• 1 pinchground cinnamon · about 1/8 tsp, it reads as depth rather than as cinnamon
• 3 cupschicken stock · low-sodium, used to loosen the sauce and to poach the chicken
• 1 tbspapple cider vinegar · stirred in at the end, it is what stops the sauce tasting flat
• 1/3 cupneutral oil · avocado or refined peanut, for frying the sauce and passing the tortillas
• 2 tspkosher salt · divided between the poaching liquid and the finished sauce
• 8 ozMonterey Jack · grated from the block, this is the cheese that melts rather than browns
• 2 ozcotija · crumbled over the top after baking, salty and dry, it does not melt
• 1/2 cupMexican crema or full-fat sour cream · thinned with a spoon of lime juice, drizzled at the table
• 1/2 cupcilantro · roughly chopped, leaves and tender stems
• 2 wholelimes · cut into wedges

Methode

1. 1

   Decide which enchilada you are making before you buy anything

   Rojas are built on dried red chiles and are the version below. Verdes are built on tomatillos and serranos, blitzed raw or roasted, and they are brighter and faster. Suizas add cream to the green sauce. Mole is a different project entirely and takes a day. All four share the same two mechanical steps, the tortilla pass and the sauce fry, so learning red teaches you the others. What changes is only what goes in the blender.

2. 2

   Dried whole chiles, not chili powder, and this is the whole difference

   Chili powder is ground chile cut with cumin, garlic powder, salt and often anticaking agents, and it has been sitting in a jar losing its volatile oils since the day it was ground. Whole dried guajillos and anchos cost about the same per batch and taste like fruit. Guajillo gives you the red and a clean tannic edge. Ancho gives you the raisin sweetness. Chile de arbol gives you heat, and one is plenty for six people.

3. 3

   Toast the chiles for thirty seconds and no longer

   Dry skillet over medium, chiles pressed flat with a spatula, fifteen seconds a side. They puff slightly and start to smell like tobacco and dried cherries. That is done. A chile left even twenty seconds past that point goes acrid and bitter, and one burnt guajillo will make three cups of sauce taste like an ashtray with no way back. If you smell sharpness rather than sweetness, throw it out and toast another.

4. 4

   Soak in hot stock, not water, and keep the liquid

   Cover the toasted chiles with three cups of hot chicken stock, weigh them down with a small plate, and leave them twenty minutes until they are fully pliable. Soaking in stock rather than water means nothing you have extracted gets poured away, and the soaking liquid becomes both the blender liquid and the chicken poaching liquid. Most recipes tell you to discard it because commercial dried chiles can carry dust, which is what the rinse before toasting is for.

5. 5

   Char the garlic and tomatoes dry, in their skins

   While the chiles soak, put unpeeled garlic cloves and whole Roma tomatoes in the same dry skillet over medium-high and leave them until they are blackened in patches, about eight minutes for the garlic and twelve for the tomatoes, turning occasionally. The skins protect the flesh while the exterior takes on smoke. Peel the garlic, leave the tomato skins on, and everything goes into the blender. This is fifteen minutes that buys you a sauce that tastes cooked over fire.

6. 6

   Blend for two full minutes, then push it through a sieve

   Chiles, soaking liquid, charred garlic and tomatoes, half the onion, cumin, Mexican oregano and the pinch of cinnamon, blended on high for two minutes rather than the thirty seconds that feels sufficient. Then pass it through a medium sieve, pressing hard with a ladle. Guajillo skins are tough and no domestic blender fully destroys them, and skipping the sieve is why home enchilada sauce so often has a faintly gritty, papery texture.

7. 7

   Fry the blended sauce, which is the step nobody writes down

   Heat three tablespoons of oil in a wide pot until it shimmers, then pour the strained puree in all at once and stand back, because it will spit hard for the first thirty seconds. Stir and let it cook at a fast bubble for twelve to fifteen minutes until it darkens, thickens and pulls away from the pan sides. This is the difference between a sauce that tastes like a smoothie of raw chiles and one that tastes like a sauce. Vinegar and salt go in after.

8. 8

   Poach the chicken in the sauce, gently, and never at a boil

   Slide the thighs into the finished sauce thinned with a cup of stock, drop the heat until the surface barely moves, and give it eighteen to twenty minutes until they pull apart. A boil tightens the muscle fibres and squeezes out moisture, which is why boiled chicken breast for shredding is always dry. Lift the thighs out, shred them with two forks while warm, and stir a ladle of sauce back through the meat. Season the filling on its own.

9. 9

   Twenty seconds in hot oil per tortilla, and this is not optional

   A quarter inch of oil at 350F, one tortilla at a time, ten seconds a side. It should go soft and pliable but not crisp. Drain on a rack, not on paper towel, or the underside steams. What you are doing is sealing the starch surface with fat so the tortilla can sit in wet sauce for twenty minutes without dissolving. Skipping this is the single most common cause of enchiladas that come out of the oven as a tray of paste.

10. 10

    Sauce on the bottom, sauce on top, and nothing swimming in the middle

    A thin film of sauce across the base of the dish so nothing sticks. Dip each fried tortilla briefly in warm sauce, fill it with a scant quarter cup of chicken and a little Jack, roll it and lay it seam side down. Pack them tightly, because they hold each other closed. Then ladle sauce over the top and edges only. Enchiladas that are submerged do not bake, they poach, and the tortilla you carefully sealed gives up anyway.

11. 11

    Cheese: one that melts, one that salts, and never pre-shredded

    Monterey Jack, Chihuahua or Oaxaca melt into strands and stay glossy. Pre-shredded bags are coated in potato starch or cellulose to stop clumping, and that coating is exactly why bagged cheese breaks into an oily film instead of melting. Grate from the block, it takes ninety seconds. Cotija goes on after baking because it is a dry aged cheese that will not melt and simply dries out further in the oven. Cheddar browns hard and goes greasy here.

12. 12

    Twenty minutes at 375F, uncovered, and pull them early

    Everything in the dish is already cooked. The oven is only there to melt the cheese and marry the sauce to the tortillas. Twenty minutes uncovered at 375F, and if the cheese is not browned enough for you, ninety seconds under the broiler while you watch it. Forty minutes at 350F, which a lot of recipes give, is long enough for the tortillas to break down no matter how carefully you fried them. Set a timer for eighteen and look.

13. 13

    Ten minutes of rest before you cut into them

    Out of the oven, the sauce is thin and the cheese is molten, and a spatula at that moment gives you a plate of debris. Ten minutes on the counter lets the starch in the tortillas reabsorb liquid and the cheese set enough to hold a shape. Then the cold garnishes go on: raw diced onion, cotija, cilantro, thinned crema and lime. The contrast between the hot baked dish and the cold sharp top is most of what makes this good.

14. 14

    The make-ahead plan, which is better than the same-day plan

    The sauce keeps five days refrigerated and three months frozen, and it improves after a night. The chicken can be poached and shredded a day ahead. What does not hold is an assembled unbaked tray, because the tortillas start absorbing sauce immediately and by morning you have lasagna. Assemble and bake, then refrigerate the baked dish up to four days and reheat covered at 325F for twenty-five minutes, which is a legitimate meal prep move for a weeknight.