Green Chili Enchiladas! These are made with corn tortillas stuffed with roasted green chiles and jack cheese, then topped with roasted tomatillo salsa verde. Great as a ready meal or frozen meal.
If you were to ask me what my favorite food in the whole world is, I would most likely answer: enchiladas!
Not the wonderfully complex authentic Mexican enchiladas, but the cheesy American casserole version my mom made for us growing up.
These Green Chile Enchiladas are a twist on my mom’s cheesy enchiladas. Instead of a tomato sauce, we use a tomatillo salsa verde sauce and fill the enchiladas with roasted green chiles and jack cheese.
The best chilies for enchiladas
Of course, to make these green chili enchiladas you should start with some good green chiles. I like to use fresh green Anaheim chiles, but you can use green hatch chiles or even poblanos if you want a spicier enchilada. Anaheims and Hatch Chilis tend to be milder than Poblanos.
When working with fresh green chilies, you must first roast them (either over a gas burner or under the grill) to blacken the outer hard shell, then remove the charred pieces to reveal the roasted chilies.
If you don’t have access to fresh green chilies, you can use canned ones, but note that the taste of freshly roasted chilies is far superior to canned ones.
For these enchiladas, I also make a homemade tomatillo salsa verde by roasting and pureeing fresh tomatillos. Have you ever cooked with tomatillos? They have papery casings around them, and some people mistake them for green tomatoes, but the taste is quite different.
How to Make Green Chilean Enchiladas
To assemble the enchiladas, all you have to do is sauté the tortillas in a little oil and roll them up with cheese and chilies. Then you arrange them in a casserole dish, cover them with sauce and bake them until the cheese melts.
Little time?
Of course, the enchiladas taste best with roasted fresh chillies and homemade salsa. But if you’re short on time, you can use simply prepared tomatillo salsa (3 cups) instead of making your own and/or use prepared canned whole Anaheim chiles.
Make instructions ahead of time
You can easily prepare the tomatillo salsa verde in advance, it keeps well in the fridge for several weeks.
You can also roast chilies in advance. I like to buy chilies in season (late summer) and roast them all at once. If you freeze them with the blackened charred husk still on, the chiles will continue to absorb the roasted flavor, and if you thaw them, the blackened husk will slide right off.
You can assemble the enchiladas (without the sauce) a day or two ahead of time, then pour the sauce on top and sprinkle with cheese to bake.
How to store and reheat enchiladas
Once cooked, the enchiladas will keep in the fridge for up to four days, or you can portion and freeze them for up to three months. Take some enchiladas to work and warm them up in the microwave. Or heat them up and garnish them with a fried egg for breakfast.
If you are looking for a frozen meal, This is great for doubling, cooking, freezing, and reheating. Allow the whole pan to cool to room temperature. Transfer them to a freezer-safe container. When ready to eat them, heat them in the microwave or place in a baking dish covered with aluminum foil and bake at 350F until heated through.
Here are 5 more ways to love Mexican food
- Red Chili Chicken Enchiladas
- Texas Stacked Corn and Black Bean Enchiladas
- Black bean enchiladas from Turkey
- Easy stir fry chicken enchiladas
- Salsa Verde Chicken Enchiladas
Green chile enchiladas
You can easily replace the tomatillo sauce with prepared canned tomatillo salsa verde (you’ll need 3 cups) and the chilies with whole canned green Anaheim chilies (remove the seeds and stems if they’re still inside the chilies condition).
ingredients
For the tomato sauce:
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1 1/2 lb tomatilloless
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3 cloves garlicstill in their shells
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2 jalapeno pepper
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1/2 Cup freshly chopped corianderleaves and stems
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Salt
For the enchiladas:
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4 big Anaheim or hatch green chillies (can substitute with poblanos if you want spicier)
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12 yellow Corn Tortillas (look for sturdy corn tortillas)
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Extra virgin olive oilcorn oil or canola oil
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1/2 to 1 lb Monterey Jack Cheesegrated (amount depends on how cheesy you want the enchiladas)
For garnish:
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sour cream
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coriander
method
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Prepare tomato sauce:
Remove the skins from the tomatillos. Rinse the tomatillos.
Halve the tomatillos and place cut-side down on a roasting pan lined with aluminum foil. Add the garlic and jalapeños to the pan with the tomatillos.
Grill on the top rack of the oven for 5 to 10 minutes, until the tomatillos are lightly charred. Remove from the oven and let cool to touch. Remove the garlic from the garlic skins, discarding the skins.
Cut the jalapeños open and remove and discard the seeds and stems.
Place the tomatillos, cooked garlic, jalapeños, cilantro, and 1 teaspoon salt in a blender and blend well. Put aside. (You can make several days in advance and store in the fridge.)
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Roast Chili:
If you have a gas burner on the stove, you can roast the chiles directly over the flame of the burner (see How to Roast Chili Peppers Over a Gas Flame), otherwise use a grill and grill the chiles in a skillet, turning until done they are all black.
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Steam, peel and deseed the chillies:
Place the blackened chiles in a bowl and cover with a plate. Allow the chiles to steam in their own heat for 5 minutes. Then remove the chiles from the bowl and peel off the blackened skin and discard.
Slice the chiles open and remove and discard the seed coat, any seeds (they are hot!) and the stems. Cut chillies into strips.
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Warm tortillas:
Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a skillet (cast iron works well) over medium-high heat.
Once the oil is hot, add a corn tortilla to the pan. The tortilla should sizzle when it hits the pan. Turn it over and let it cook until small air bubbles appear.
Remove the tortilla from the pan with a metal spatula, shake off excess oil, and place on a paper towel-lined plate.
Cook the remaining tortillas in this manner, adding more oil as needed. Separate the cooling tortillas with kitchen paper.
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Assemble the enchiladas:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Spread a little tomato sauce on the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish.
Place some shredded cheese and a strip or two of green chiles in the center of the tortillas, one at a time, then roll up and place seam-side down in the casserole dish.
After filling the casserole dish with the rolled tortillas, spread the remaining tomato sauce on top and sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
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Bake:
Bake at 350°F for 15 minutes until cheese is melted.
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Surcharge:
Drizzle with sour cream (diluted with a little water) and serve with some chopped fresh coriander. Thinly sliced iceberg lettuce that has been sprinkled with apple cider or white vinegar and salt also goes well with this. Makes excellent leftovers; keeps for several days in the refrigerator.
| nutritional information (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 474 | calories |
| 30g | Fat |
| 31g | carbohydrates |
| 23g | protein |
