Who doesn’t love enchiladas? This enchilada verde recipe can be made with chicken, turkey or beef chop meat and is a guaranteed crowd pleaser.
Enchiladas Verdes: A Flavorful Twist on a Mexican Classic. Savor the authentic taste of Mexico with our homemade enchiladas verdes! Bursting with the fresh, zesty flavor of green tomatillo sauce, these enchiladas are an authentic culinary delight. Learn how to make this classic dish from scratch, perfect for a family dinner or a mexican weeknight meal. Our recipe features tender chicken, black beans, melted cheese, and the perfect balance of heat and tanginess. Elevate your taco Tuesday with these irresistible enchiladas verdes!
Most people love Mexican food but are only comfortable making tacos or even burritos at home. Enchiladas appear more complicated to prepare, intimidating many. This recipe is simple to prepare and will place enchiladas into your home dinner repertoire.
Origins of Enchiladas Verde
Before we get into how to make enchiladas verde, its always interesting to learn a bit of the dish’s origins. ”Enchiladas” are defined as a rolled maize tortilla stuffed with meat and served in a chili sauce. There are many varieties of enchilada made with different fillings and sauces. Fillings vary from poultry, beef, refried beans or cheese. Sauces can be tomato-chili based, a chili sauce, a mole or green sauce. Enchiladas are common throughout Central America with notable regional variations. A solid and succinct summary of enchiladas and how they vary regionally can be found on wikipedia.
What are Enchiladas Verde?
When asked to describe an enchilada, many will describe the variety known as enchilada con chile rojo (enchilada with red chili sauce). Mexican restaurants often serve this variety as this is what their customers expect. If that describes how you see an enchilada, please keep an open mind. With a huge harvest of tomatillos from our home garden, we perfected our version of an enchilada by making a green sauce or salsa verde. Ripe tomatillos possess a mild and sweet flavor. Many of our friends were unfamiliar with tomatillos, but after trying this version of enchilada (and our salsa verde) they were converted and wondered how they did without this strange looking piece of produce.
In its simplest form, an enchilada is a burrito covered with sauce. However, the sauce transfroms a common burrito into a delicious and more complex dinner entree. Our green sauce, or salsa verde is comprised of tomatillos, a variety of chili peppers, onions, garlic and seasoning. The level of heat is adjustable and left to the discretion of the cook. We like ours spicy and often use a combination of hot chilis. The recipe provided uses a banana pepper and yellow bell for limited spice. Substituting jalapeno, serrano or any other spicy chili pepper will up the heat of the dish.
The filling can be made from your choice of protein. We often use turkey chop meat but you can easily substitute chicken or beef chop meat, or shredded rotisserie chicken. Your choice of protein is combined with black beans and a sofrito (sautéed onions, garlic, peppers). The black beans add texture and improve the dishes nutritonal value. Your choice of peppers will dictate the heat of the dish. Jalapeño peppers are traditionally used. Adding a Serrano or habanero will up the heat. To limit the heat of the filling, be sure to seed the jalapeños or substitute with a milder variety such as Anaheim, poblano or a bell pepper.
Corn tortillas are traditionally used. However, we have also used flour tortillas with good results. The cheese we used was a sharp cheddar. Again, this can be modified to your preference. Solid choices include cotija, queso blanco, monterey jack, queso fresco, oaxaca, manchego or any other cheese you may desire.
This easy enchiladas recipe is fantastic as presented but is also highly customizable. Whether you prepare this recipe as presented or decide to vary the chili peppers or cheese to match your palate, we are confidant this recipe will be one you enjoy for years to come.
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How to Make this Easy Enchiladas Recipe!
Enchiladas Verde
5
servings45
minutes40
minutesTortillas filled with a deliciously seasoned meat and bean mixture, topped with cheese before being rolled up…pour the salsa verde made with tangy tomatillos on top with some more cheese and bake. So delicious, you’ll find it difficult to resist going back for seconds!
Ingredients
1 lb turkey chop meat (beef or chicken chop meat can be substituted).
1 banana pepper and 1/2 yellow pepper diced
1 medium onion diced
2 cloves garlic minced
1 can black beans (15.5 oz) rinsed and drained
1 cup red salsa (we like Kirkland Organic Salsa medium heat). Use your favorite.
1 packet Sazón con culantro y achiote (coriander & Annatto).
1 Tbs chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 lb cheddar cheese shredded (about 4 cups)
1 pkg of 8 burrito size tortillas
- Green tomatillo sauce (salsa verde)
15 -20 tomatillos husks removed and rinsed of sticky residue.
1 large onion quartered
4 cloves garlic peeled
3 jalapeños seeded
3 cherry peppers halved and seeded
1/4 cup cilantro roughly chopped
1 cup low sodium chicken stock
1 Tbs chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 Tbs oregano
Directions
- Add all of the ingredients for the green tomatillo sauce into a medium sized stock pot. If tomatillos are too large to fit whole, you may cut them in half. Cook for approximately 45 minutes or until ingredients are tender.
- While green sauce is cooking, go ahead and prepare the meat mixture. In a large skillet, cook meat until no longer pink. Drain any fat and remove from pan.
- Drizzle pan with olive oil. On medium heat, add onion and banana or green pepper and saute until onion is translucent and pepper is tender. Add garlic and cook until just fragrant.
- Add can of black beans, cup of salsa, packet of sazon, chili powder, cumin and oregano. Mix together. Add cilantro. Mix again.
- To this mixture, go ahead and add the cooked meat, stir and continue cooking for another minute or until all ingredients are nicely combined. Remove from heat and let cool slightly before preparing enchiladas.
- Once the salsa verde ingredients are cooked, use an immersion blender in the pot to puree all the ingredients until smooth. This can also be done in a blender or food processor.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a 9 x 13 baking pan, thinly coat the bottom of pan with the green sauce.
- Starting from center of tortilla, layer lengthwise cheddar cheese, cooled meat mixture and another layer of cheese. Take bottom of tortilla and bring up until just over mixture. Snuggly wrap under mixture and roll. Place enchilada (seam-side down) in the baking dish, on top of sauce. Do this with all of the tortillas. Make sure to try and fill each evenly. Depending on how much filling each tortilla has, you can get between 5-7 enchiladas to fit in the pan.
- Once you are done placing each enchilada into the baking pan, top the enchiladas with green sauce ( 2 cups approx) and sprinkle with more cheddar cheese.
- Place pan in oven and cook for approximately 30 minutes and sides begin to brown.
Notes
- If you like a spicier enchilada, you may add a serrano pepper or any of your favorite peppers to the sauce and allow to cook in the green sauce.
- You can top the enchiladas with fresh diced tomatoes and fresh cilantro once cooked. Some also enjoy Crema Mexicana which is similar to sour cream. Just be aware, this will add to calories and fat content.
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