Destination
Puerto Vallarta
The story
Enchiladas verdes are the Mexican home-cooking default: fresh corn tortillas dipped in a bright green tomatillo salsa, wrapped around shredded chicken, arranged on a plate, drenched in more salsa, and topped with crema, crumbled queso fresco and rings of raw white onion. It's what every Mexican home cook makes when guests turn up unannounced and she needs to feed them fast. The dish is present in every Mexican regional canon — from Sonora to Chiapas — but reaches its purest form in Mexico City and the central states, where the tomatillo salsa is unadorned by extras and the finish is simple, generous, and always the same three toppings.
Method
Simmer the chicken with onion, garlic, bay, oregano, salt and water 25 minutes. Lift out and shred. Reserve broth.
Heat a heavy dry pan over medium-high. Char the tomatillos, chillies, onion and garlic 6 to 8 minutes, turning, until blackened in patches. The tomatillos will release liquid — that's fine.
Combine charred vegetables with the coriander and salt in a blender. Blend to a smooth sauce, adding 100ml of the chicken stock to loosen if needed.
Warm the oil in a wide pan over medium heat. Tip in the salsa (careful — it splutters). Add the sugar. Simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce has darkened slightly and thickened. Taste and adjust salt.
Heat a small pan with 3 tbsp oil over medium heat. Working one at a time, dip each tortilla into the hot oil for 3 seconds a side to soften. Lift onto kitchen paper.
Dip each softened tortilla into the warm salsa verde for 2 to 3 seconds, coating both sides. Lift onto a plate.
Spoon 2 tbsp of shredded chicken down the middle of each salsa-coated tortilla. Roll into a cylinder. Arrange seam-down on a serving platter or individual plates — 4 per plate.
Ladle more warm salsa generously over the rolled tortillas. Drizzle with crema, scatter with crumbled queso fresco, top with onion rings and coriander. Add avocado if using. Serve immediately with lime wedges. Perfect with a fried egg on top for a proper comida corrida.
Tips
- Char the tomatillos. Raw tomatillos give you a salsa that tastes sour and vegetal; charred tomatillos give you the deep, slightly sweet salsa that defines enchiladas verdes. Ten minutes on a dry pan is not optional.
- Simmer the salsa. Blending is step one; cooking for 10 minutes is step two. Uncooked salsa is fresh salsa cruda — great for tacos, wrong for enchiladas.
- Warm the tortillas properly. A dry warm-through on a comal, then a brief oil dip, then the salsa dip. Three touches of heat before it hits the plate. This is the enchilada technique and it prevents tearing.
- Onion rings on top must be raw. The bite of raw onion is what balances the richness of the crema. Cooked or pickled onion is a different dish.
- Fried egg on top is the shortcut to a comida corrida plate. Every Mexican fonda serves enchiladas verdes with a runny fried egg on top for weekday lunch. Try it once and it becomes your default.
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