No More Casserole Dish, Make Enchiladas THIS Way Instead

Hey, what's up? Today, I'm going to show you guys my well-tested recipe for green enchiladas using a technique that's pretty different from what you might be used to. This process delivers an enchilada eating experience that's better than anything that I've had at home or in a Mexican restaurant. Truly. To get started, I'll generously salt two pounds or about one kilo's worth of boneless, skinless chicken thighs on both sides. Breast meat can be substituted here, if that's your truth, but there is a little bit of difference in technique that you'll need to watch out for, which I'll get into in just a second. Now, I'll let these thighs sit salted for about 10 minutes while I start my tomatillo sauce. To make that, I'll grab a three to four quart sauce pan, then drop it on the stove over medium high heat. Next in goes 375 grams of chicken stock. Then, after 10 minutes of salting on the counter, I'll add in all of my chicken thighs, then get them as submerged in the stock as I can. They won't be 100% under the liquid, but that's totally okay. To make sure that they cook evenly, I'm actually going to drop a lid on the pot, then turn the heat down to low and give these a little braise for 25 minutes. If you're breasted, I would say salt the breasts for 10 minutes, then drop them into the stock and cook over low heat, but only cook them until they reach an internal temperature of 155F, any higher of a temperature and they'll get ropey, dry, and just yucky. Now, while those thighs braise, I'm going to take one onion or about 275 grams worth, then cut in half and then chunk it down into roughly one-inch pieces. Next, I'll dehusk about 700 grams of tomatillos. Pro tip, make sure the tomatillos you buy are soft. Since tomatillos don't turn red like tomatoes, it's actually pretty hard to know when they're ripe. So, when you're at the store, make sure to squeeze every one that you buy to confirm that they're soft. They should feel like a ripe plum or a well-toned butt. Hard tomatillos are bad because they're super sour and they can make this dish way too acidic. Next, I'll halve the peeled tomatillos, leaving me with about 625 grams worth. Then I'll de-stem and cut in half three to four large poblano peppers. By the way, if you want things spicier, I'd say sub out one of the poblanos for about four jalapenos. Next, I'll lay out the onions, tomas, poblanos, and about 25 grams of garlic cloves onto a parchmented sheet tray. Then I'll load the whole thing into my oven under a preheated high broiler. But Bry, I ain't got no broiler, bro. Well, that's not a Fifteen minutes later, these veggies have caught a little caramelization and char on the edges, so I'll pull them out. A lot of Mexican restaurants will just boil the salsa vegetables instead of taking the time to char them, and in my opinion, that leaves a ton of flavor on the table. Roasting opens up some dark sweetness from the onion and rounds out that vegetal green pepper flavor in the poblano into something much more mature and earthy. Next, I'll scoop up the whole parchment paper and then slide the charred vegetables into a blender jar. Then I'll spin it on high speed for about one minute. By the way, if you wanted to play along with this recipe, but you can't find tomatillos or you don't want to make your own sauce from scratch, you could use a reputable store-bought salsa. I really like the Siete brand in particular because it's got a green freshness to it and it's not overly thin or sour. If you go that route, I would say use three jars to replace the salsa that I'm making here. Next, to bring some green freshness to our salsa, I'm going to drop in 25 grams of cilantro, stems and all, into the blender jar and then I'm going to spin until everything is smooth. Well, smooth-ish. Since we didn't cook the vegetables until they were 100% tender, they're still being held together by some raw vegetable fiber. So the final texture here won't be baby food smooth, but it should be pretty smooth. Back at the stove, after 25 minutes of gentle simmering, I'm going to pull out one of these thighs to see how tender it is. Texturally, we want the chicken to be shreddable, but not falling apart. If the thighs get braised for too long, they're not going to have any texture in the final dish and then we'll have a tortilla full of mushy meat. Next, I'll move my cooked thighs over to a medium bowl so that I can shred them in a second. Then I'll drop my chicken cooking liquid back on the stove. Then add in all of my pureed tomatillo sauce. From here, to bring a touch more chicken flavor and a little bit of saltiness, I'm going to add in 25 grams of better than bouillon chicken base. Then I'll bring the whole thing up to a simmer and cook for about 20 minutes. The goal with this step is to reduce the by about 30 to 40 percent and to finish cooking the vegetables so that they're 100 percent softened. Now, while that cooks down, I'm going to go ahead and shred the chicken that we just cooked. I'm looking to break this down into threads that are about a half to a quarter inch wide and about two to three inches long. I want this chicken to have some chunk to it because I want to know that I'm eating meat in the final dish. Overshredded meat, again, is mushy and pretty yuck. Now, let's talk about the enchilada cheese. First up, I'm going to grab three blocks or 650 grams of Monterey Jack cheese and shred that down on my box grater. Monterey Jack plays the role of white melt perfectly. It doesn't try to do too much flavor wise. It holds together the chicken and the tortilla and it brings the necessary fat to balance out the high acidity of the tomatillo sauce. Next, I'll grab some queso fresco, not for the inside melty part of the enchilada, but to put on top. To break it down, I'll just grate it on the smallest holes of my box grater until it's almost ground. I prefer it crumbly like this as opposed to shredded. Next, I need to check back on my enchilada sauce. But first, I'm going to thank Made In for making this dope saucier that I'm cooking it in and for sponsoring this video. I got this Made In three-quart saucier for Christmas two years ago, and since then it's been my favorite piece of cookware. What really sets this saucier apart, besides the fact that it's just a really fun and versatile piece of cookware, is that it has five-ply stainless steel. Those five layers give you amazing heat retention and even heating, which is crucial when you're reducing an enchilada sauce. If you cook something as thick as this in a single or double-ply pan, it would definitely burn. I love everything about the way that this pan looks, down to its handle. It stays cool, it feels good in your hand, and it's designed to be ergonomic so it's well-balanced and super easy to move around the stove. Plus, all of Made In's stainless clad cookware can go from the stovetop to the oven up to 800F. We're not doing that today, but it is a great feature to have for things like oven finishing steaks, which you guys saw me do in my last video for Steak Au Poivre. You guys, these are professional quality products that you can buy as a home cook. Use my link in the description below to save some money on your order. Okay, after 20 minutes of a mellow reduction, you can see that this sauce is thicker and more integrated. The last step is to taste it to see exactly where we're at. At this point, this sauce has some salt in it from the chicken thighs that we added earlier and the chicken bouillon, but I don't know if it's the right amount, so I'm gonna give it a quick taste. Whoa. The amount of reduction always varies a little bit from batch to batch, and this one just happens to be perfect. Okay, sauce dialed. Now, let's make the enchilada filling. For that, into a bowl with my roughly 600 grams of picked chicken meat, I'll add 300 grams of my white and melty Monterey Jack cheese. Then, I'll add in 200 grams of my cooked tomatillo sauce. Then, I'll stir to get everything well combined, and once I've got my cheese and meat all slathered up in my tomatillo baby puke, I'll heat 16 tortillas in a non-stick pan over medium heat. This step is essential. Please don't skip it. The tortillas will definitely break and crumble down if you don't take the time to heat them all the way through. Now, to build these enchiladas, I'm gonna brush my first tortilla with tomatillo salsa on both sides. Not a ton is needed. I'm just brushing on enough to keep the tortilla pliable. Next, I'll drop on a large spoonful, or to be precise, 65 grams of filling into the tortilla. Then, I'm gonna roll this up as tight as I can and drop it onto a parchmented sheet tray with the seam side tucked firmly underneath. To complete the pair, I'll brush and fill another tortilla, roll it up, and then drop it down next to my first one. To finish these, I'm just gonna roll up the other 14 tortillas. Hey Bri, why aren't those in a baking dish, dude? Well, I'll get to it in just a second. Stick with me. From here, I'm gonna slather on a few large spoonfuls of the tomatillo sauce and spread to cover but not saturate. I want to leave some tortilla exposed to bring contrast and different types of bites to the eating experience. Next, I'll top that sauce with a pretty decent amount of cheese, maybe 40-50 grams or a quarter cup. Then, I'll repeat that topping for the other 7 pairs of enchiladas. Then, load the whole thing into a 450F oven and bake it for 10-12 minutes or until the cheese is melty and starting to brown. Oven baking pairs of enchiladas as opposed to a whole dish is how most Mexican restaurants in America build their enchiladas. Don't get me wrong though, the casserole style baking dish enchiladas that we all grew up eating are good and you certainly could build this exact recipe that way if that's your preference. But, because so much steam is trapped under the cheese and sauce, casserole enchiladas tend to be mushy and soggy. Lauren, your enchilada slop is ready for lunch. With this Mexican restaurant method, we get the perfect amount of browning and meltiness on the cheese and avoid the soggy, overly saturated tortillas that fall apart the second you try and put them on your plate. Plus, the ratios of cheese, sauce, tortilla, and meat are perfectly tuned for each pair of enchiladas. Now, to plate this up, I'm going to drop some fresh, crunchy lettuce on top. Next, I'll add on a generous ziggy of crema, which is basically just sour cream mixed with a little bit of water and stirred until it's smooth. Next, I'll shower on some salty, crumbly queso fresco. Then, I'll add on one last hit of freshness with some cilantro. And for me, that is a dream realized in the form of green enchiladas. Before I developed this recipe, I thought I preferred red enchiladas, but I was stupid. The second I tasted these, I said to Lauren, these are going into the cookbook whenever that happens. Wow. What strikes me right away is that structurally, this enchilada is sound. Like, it's definitely not going to fall apart into a soupy mess on your plate. From there, the flavor is just really freaking good. You get this roasty, smoky, kind of sour tomatillo salsa. Then you get this bright, fresh salad on top from the lettuce, the sour cream, the cilantro, and the queso fresco. It's so sick. I really hope you guys try this recipe sometime soon. And please, if you like this video, like it, subscribe, and watch another video. Now, let's eat this thing!