Enchilada Casserole

Enchilada casserole is a popular dish of Mexican cuisine basically referring to an oven-baked tortillas, coated with spicy sauce. The filling usually consists of a meat mix, where the meat used to prepare the casserole may vary from one recipe to the other. However, the traditional Mexican variant makes use of chicken as the meat product, as chicken is one of the featured meat products in Mexican cuisine.  Apart from the most popular way of preparing the casserole with stuffed tortillas, layered enchilada casseroles, which consist of alternate layers of tortillas, meat based sauce, and cheese, are also quite common. Further, the vegan version of the casserole is also available, which makes use of vegetable; mix in place of meat mix.  

 

The meat used in the casserole may consist of chicken, fish, pork, beef or turkey. Further, the meat may be in the form of shredded, bite sized bits, or ground form, and may be cooked by grilled, fried, baked, or sautéed method. A variety of ingredients may be combined with meat to make the dish highly versatile.    

 

Commonly Used Ingredients and Preparation Overview of Enchiladas Casseroles

The traditional Mexican chicken enchilada casserole suggests the use of corn tortillas, cooked and shredded chicken breast with no skin and bones, green onions, cilantro, chicken broth, sour cream, minced onions, cheddar cheese, green chilies, butter, flour, and vegetable oil. As against other enchilada casseroles, which commonly make use of tomato sauce for covering the stuffed tortillas, the traditional Mexican version makes use of sour cream, butter, and chicken broth to make the sauce.     

 

The casserole is prepared by dividing the mix of chicken, cheese, and onions on tortillas. These tortillas are coated with a hot thick sauce made with butter, chicken broth, sour cream, and chilies, and baked in oven for around twenty minutes, topped with shredded cheese, and baked for another five minutes, and served warm after garnishing with cilantro and green onions.

 

Enchilada Casserole Recipe Variations

The variations of this casserole are particularly defined in terms of difference in the type of meat and sauce used. Apart from these, variations may also be explained in terms of method of preparation, where it is not always necessary to proceed ahead with stuffed tortillas. Tortillas and the meat based sauce can be arranged in layers to prepare the enchilada casserole. A few popular recipe variations have been discussed hereunder:

 

  • One of the recipe variations suggests the use of picante sauce for coating the stuffed tortillas. The pecante sauce is a tomato based sauce which is prepared by heating together pureed tomatoes, water, chopped red onions, jalapeno peppers, minced onions, white vinegar, minced garlic cloves, and salt.

 

  • Enchilada beef casserole is another variation from the traditional Mexican enchilada, with the former making use of beef to prepare the casserole instead of chicken as suggested by the traditional recipe. Further, the beef casserole recipe suggests lining the bottom of the baking pan with crumbled tortillas, and topping them with a beef based sauce made with ground beef, onions, chili sauce, Chile peppers, chicken soup, mushroom soup, minced garlic, and milk. The tortillas and the beef based mix are arranged in layers to prepare the casserole, and the dish is baked after sprinkling shredded cheese and black olives on the top.  

 

  • Apart from using chicken and beef to prepare enchilada casseroles, turkey is also used in a few recipes.

 

  • At times, enchilada sauce is used to cover the tortillas, which is made from oil, onions, garlic, red chiles, water, flour, salt, and pureed tomatoes.    

 

  • The vegetarian variant of the casserole also exists, which suggests substituting meat with vegetables like carrots, mushrooms, celery, onions, pinto beans etc. It also suggests substituting regular cheese with soy cheese.

 

  • Tortillas can also be prepared by first dipping them in chile sauce, and then frying, filling, rolling, and baking them to prepare enchilada casserole.