Labor Day’s Enchiladas Suizas

In my family we’re all about fresh, home-made food. My mom is a very old school traditional woman who doesn’t believe in taking shortcuts when it comes to cooking. I never understood or appreciated that until I moved out on my own when I was 18 and realized that taking those “short cuts” did make meals faster but they were not even close to being as delicious as her meals made from scratch.

My parents have great sazón, and even though they bicker every time they cook together they’re truly a dynamic duo in the kitchen. One of my all time favorite dishes my parents make are enchiladas. Almost every time enchiladas are made in our house, they’re in a guajillo sauce, but every now and then we’ll spice it up and make enchiladas suizas.

Enchiladas Suizas are not meant to be super spicy, but more so creamy and cheesy! They’re the perfect comfort food and we can’t get enough of them in our family. Here’s our recipe, from my family to yours:

*This recipe will make about 20-25 enchiladas*

6 serrano chiles
12 tomatillos
2-4 slices of onion
1-2 garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon of white garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 tablespoon of oil
1/4 x 2 of cup of sour cream
1/2 teaspoon of chicken flavor bouillon (aka Knorr Suiza)
1 cup of chicken stock (fresh if possible)
1 large chicken breast
20 slices of provolone cheese
Corn tortillas

Begin by boiling the chiles and the tomatillos. Once those have soften, transfer them to the blender and add the dry spices (listed above) along with the chicken stock. Once the salsa is blended and smooth, in a medium size pot add the 1 table soon of Mazola (or any oil of your choosing) and a few slices of onion. Let the onion fry a bit and then pour over the sauce.

The sauce will fry for about 5 minutes and then you will add the sour cream and whisk it all together until smooth. Once that’s done, begin to lightly fry the tortillas. This step will only take about 15-30 seconds as the tortillas are not meant to be crunchy, it’s just a light coat of oil to soften them up and add more flavor.

Now that you have your sauce and tortillas ready, let’s start assembling the enchiladas! In a 9×13 casserole glass dish begin assembling your enchiladas like so: lay the tortilla, add the shredded chicken, add a little bit of sauce, and roll it together. Do this process with all of your enchiladas until the dish is full and pour the sauce over.

When you’re done, it should look a little something like this:

Ok, now the real fun part begins, let’s add the cheese! We use provolone cheese and find that it works and taste great! It’s not a very salty cheese so it really allows us to control the seasoning and it melts fantastically.

Lastly, add aluminum foil over the enchiladas and place them in the oven for about 10 minutes (oven should be at 350°). Essentially all you’re doing is melting the cheese since everything else is already cooked. After the 10 minutes go by, remove the foil and place back in the oven for another 5 minutes.

Well, here’s the finished product! As I mentioned earlier, my mom is very traditional and back in her day, people didn’t garnish food, they just went for it! Enjoy! 🙂