Enchiladas (With Homemade Sauce)

Enchiladas are one of those dishes that can be made in so many different ways with different fillings, sauces, textures, etc. I've always enjoyed enchiladas but was never big on making them until the past few months. I came across a homemade red enchilada sauce from Recipe Girl and thought it was worth a try. I had only liked homemade enchiladas with white sauce, but only because I don't like canned red sauce. This recipe provided a solution to that issue. I will the sauce recipe and how I prepare my enchiladas. Take it and run with it!

Time: Sauce: about 15-20 min; Enchiladas: about 30-45 min (depends how speedy you assemble.)
Makes 6-8 enchiladas and about 2 1/2 cups of sauce
Ingredients for sauce
1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
2 Tbs flour
2 Tbs chili powder
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion salt (or just regular salt)
1/4 tsp salt (or just to taste)
Dash of pepper

Ingredients for enchiladas
2 cups cooked chicken, shredded
2 cups grated cheese (whatever kind floats your boat)
1/2 onion, diced (opt.)
1 bell pepper, diced (opt.)
sauce
6-8 flour tortillas, soft taco size

To get the sauce going, heat the oil in a skillet or sauce pan over medium high heat until it shimmers. Whisk in the flour and chili powder and reduce the heat to medium. Keep whisking until the mixture is smooth and becomes slightly golden.

Needs just a bit more time at this phase.

Once the roux is ready, gradually whisk in everything else. Keep whisking and stirring until it's smooth. Make sure to taste it and adjust the spices as you need. Let it simmer over medium-low to medium heat for about 10 minutes or until it is the desired consistency. It will thicken the longer it sits.

After about 10 minutes it will thicken up and look like thick tomato soup. Set this aside until you are ready to assemble the enchiladas.

While your sauce is simmering, you can mix up your enchilada filling. If you are using veggies in the filling, I recommend sauteing them until they are slightly tender first. Toss the chicken, 1 cup of cheese, and veggies in a bowl to combine. Add in the amount of sauce you want. I start with 3/4 or 1 cup and decide from there.
  

Once your filling is to your liking, start filling! I just scoop 2-3 big spoonfuls into to middle of a tortilla and go from there. From here on it's really all about preferences.While you are doing this go ahead a preheat your oven to 400 F.

Roll up all your enchiladas and place them in a lightly greased dish. If you want to put sauce in the bottom of the dish, go for it. I prefer not to. The next step is another one based on preference. I like to bake my enchiladas naked until they start to brown on top, about 10 minutes.

I do that because I don't like squishy enchiladas. This step just helps them keep their structure. If you don't want to do that, pour the sauce on top, sprinkle the cheese and bake. If you are like me, bake the naked enchiladas until brown and then top with sauce and the rest of the cheese. *A word on the sauce. The last time I made these, I used all the sauce. If you like saucy enchiladas, use the whole recipe. I don't like them real saucy, so I don't use all of it. Use what you want.
 

 Bake those suckers until the sauce is bubbly and the cheese is melted. Finally, dig in!

Enjoy!

Original post at http://www.recipegirl.com/2006/05/01/enchilada-sauce/