1 ¾ cups masa harina
1 ⅛ cups water
Prep: 20 m
Cook: 15 m
Ready In: 1 h 5 m
In a medium bowl, mix together masa harina and hot water until thoroughly combined. Turn dough onto a clean surface and knead until pliable and smooth. If dough is too sticky, add more masa harina; if it begins to dry out, sprinkle with water. Cover dough tightly with plastic wrap and allow to stand for 30 minutes.
Preheat a cast iron skillet or griddle to medium-high.
Divide dough into 15 equal-size balls. Using a tortilla press, a rolling pin, or your hands, press each ball of dough flat between two sheets of plastic wrap.
Immediately place tortilla in preheated pan and allow to cook for approximately 30 seconds, or until browned and slightly puffy. Turn tortilla over to brown on second side for approximately 30 seconds more, then transfer to a plate. Repeat process with each ball of dough. Keep tortillas covered with a towel to stay warm and moist until ready to serve.
In San Diego, every mom-and-pop taco shop makes their enchiladas with flour tortillas. I only discovered corn tortilla enchiladas after I moved away and started eating at Mexican restaurants that don’t do San Diego-style. (I still prefer the San Diego-style enchiladas at Memo’s to anything else I can find in the Northwest, though.)
When I make enchiladas at home, I use corn tortillas. As has been said above, I warm them up in the microwave 2 or 3 at a time just before rolling them (loosely). I prefer to put mine in the oven with some sauce and cheese on top, let them bake for 10 minutes or so, and then serve them with another helping of sauce and cheese.
Never had much of a problem. Steam the tortillas, spoon filling across the middle of the tortilla, fold both side over the middle, gently flip the whole thing over into the baking pan with the joint on the bottom. They may split a little at the ends.
You lightly fry the enchiladas in oil. Very short time, maybe 10-15 seconds on each side. They are still soft when you take them out and place them on a towel to drain. They remain soft and totally flexible albeit a little weak if you abuse them while rolling.
Corn tortillas are really the only way to make enchiladas, otherwise you’re making enchilada flavored burritos.
Exactly. That’s why I consider enchiladas to be restaurant food, too damn fussy to make at home.
I usually do a “tortilla casserole” instead, with layers of corn tortilla, shredded grilled chicken or pork, salsa, a sauce of thickened chicken stock with chiles and cumin and oregano, cheese, refried beans optional. No persnickety rolling necessary.
I used to work with a young first-generation Mex-Am woman, who grew up in her parents’ restaurant in Los Angeles. She said it sounded delicious but that her mother would kill her if she tried it instead of patiently folding enchiladas.
Tip #2. You must buy fresh corn tortillas. Preferably those made on site. The older a corn tortilla is, the more it dries out, the more it splits. Fresh tortillas should be flexible, and not hard.
If you have to take the mass made ones, check dates if possible obviously, newer is better. If you must use older ones, get a La Tortillita tortilla warmer. I use this cheap styrofoam one and it works perfectly. Put the tortillas in the warmer, then in the MW with a little water sprinkled on them and they soften right up.
I don’t suppose you have a real Mexican restaurant near you, one where they make the tortillas in front of you and serve them with fresh posole.
I only use corn for enchiladas. The only trick to it is you really do need fresh tortillas, and you need to warm them up before rolling. My technique is to warm them up in a pan with a little oil, maybe 30 seconds together for both sides, dip them in the enchilada sauce, and then stuff them and roll them. Same technique as seen here. Given fresh or relatively fresh tortillas, they roll up fine. Older tortillas will split. I’m lucky, as I live somewhere with plenty of tortillerias in the neighborhood, so I can get corn tortillas that are still warm in their packaging at the grocery store. With those, you can even roll them without warming them up again, although I still recommend doing it.
I live within 15 minutes of half a dozen bodegas and mom and pop mexican restaurants, mi hermano. The migrant workers have been coming here since the 1920’s; my dad mingled with the hispanic neighbors when he was a kid, and came to love their food, and passed that love on to me. In recent decades, the spanish-speaking population in my county has risen to about 5% (the Mrs. speaks spanish and tutored many of them so they could get GEDs), with around 1% of my county neighbors speaking Hmong, and serving up awesome southeast asian cuisine, including Pad Thai and Pho. The modern midwest is quite ethnically diverse these days. Meanwhile, nobody speaks Dutch anymore.
So I just need to buy the fresh-made ones from the local hispanic places, and try steaming them or frying in a little oil. And make them in individual sized-portions. Rolling them too tight never was the problem, I always had superior rolling skills.
Where I live (southern New Mexico), enchiladas usually are not rolled. You stack them like pancakes, two or three inches deep, with layers of chile and cheese between each layer of tortilla. Cook them in a deep dish, like a lasagna or a casserole. Use a spatula to cut the big mass into individual servings. Corn is the default. Flour is extremely rare.
Agree that enchiladas by definition are made with corn tortillas - the problem is that supermarket corn tortillas suck…
In many cities there are local tortilla factories that supply restaurants, etc. which will also sell tortillas (and sometimes masa) direct to the public (cheap!)
Either light frying or sauce dunking will work and give good results. If your tortillas are that fragile, you are probably buying low quality tortillas or tortillas that were allowed to dry excessively.
