Sunday Gravy with yeah right: Enchiladas! Sabor Autentico!!

Hola folks.

Welcome, welcome.

Come on in and grab a seat. Cold beers in the fridge if you’re interested. Glad to have everyone back for episode 2 of Season 8 of Sunday Gravy.

Now that we’re here in the middle of the deep, dark offseason, I’m here to help in the best way I know how.

With delicious, delicious food.

Of all of the cool things about being a resident of Southern California – and there are many of those things – one of the very best parts is our access to fresh produce that is readily available year-round.

The idea for this very episode of Sunday Gravy came about by visiting the produce section of my local grocery store.

I mean look at this stuff!

Every one of those beauties will play a role in the construction of todays menu.

I mentioned last week about doing more “freestyle” cooking recently and this meal is another example of how that works.

I wanted to freestyle for you a truly close to authentic version of chicken enchiladas and a pot of black beans.

Obviously we’ve made enchiladas about 75 or so times in the past including a “made from scratch” version where we made the red enchilada sauce from scratch but this one is a bit different since you won’t be seeing any shortcuts. That produce up there will become the sauce as well as being crucial ingredients in our side dish and they will also be used in the cooking of our protein.

Not a single fucking can in sight!

And by the way?

Yep. We’re making the tortillas from scratch too.

Last week I mentioned increasing the number of “repetitions” in the kitchen and the tortillas are a perfect example of what I mean.

The first time or two making them was nerve-wracking and a textbook study in inconsistency. 

All of the senses come into play in the kitchen and of course sight and smell take precedence. Don’t sell the sense of “touch” short however. You know how last year we had fresh bread almost constantly? That’s because I developed the sense of “feel” for the perfect bread dough texture. It has a little tackiness but nothing too sticky. It should be slightly dense but pliable. The same can be said about the tortilla dough. Too dry and that shit falls the fuck apart. Too wet and it sticks to the tortilla press and you’ll never be able to press it properly.

It’s not easy but it’s not hard either once you figure it out. The only way you can perfect it is to just keep making the motherfuckers over and over until they becomes second nature.

All doughs are based on this concept. Sure it looks easy when professionals do it because it is easy when you’ve made it a million-billion fucking times.

There are no shortcuts here. Sorry to say. Shit is earned.

Anyway.

I’m going to cook the protein – chicken today – a day in advance. This will give us a break on serving day and will also give us a free bonus item.

Going to get a free kick-ass batch of chicken stock too. Nice!

Chicken for Enchiladas and homemade chicken stock!

Nothing too crazy with the chicken prep. We want the rest of the enchilada ingredients to play lead today.

We’re using legs and thighs, both bone-in today for maximum chickeny goodness. One package of 4 thighs and 1 package of five legs.

Going to simmer the chicken in a pot of water with some of the onion, celery, carrot, garlic, as seen above plus a bit of the red bell pepper along with some salt, pepper, fresh rosemary and thyme. Bring to a boil, then cover with a lid slightly askew, lower the heat to low and start simmering.

Remove the chicken after about 45 minutes. Let the chicken cool then remove the meat and skin from the chicken and return the skin and bones to the pot. Continue to cook the stock for a total cook time of about 2-3 hours.

While the chicken does its chickeny thing let’s address the sauce ingredients.

Tomatillos, poblano pepper, jalapenos, serranos and onion. We can make the enchilada sauce a day in advance as well. Even better when it has a chance to get the flavors mingled during an overnight rest.

Preheat the oven to 425, baste the veggies with olive oil and roast 20 minutes per side turning after the first 20 minutes.

Be forewarned that the veggies will release some of their juices during the cooking process so feel free to use a baking sheet with a raised edge to counteract.

All told it’s about 10 tomatillos, cut in half, 1 poblano (pasilla works too or even Anaheim) 3-4 jalapenos and 3-4 serranos depending on your heat tolerance, one onion cut in half then roasted along with 5-6 garlic cloves added directly to the blender along with the roasted veggies.

Please note; that half of a red bell pepper will NOT be going in the enchilada sauce! It will be getting cooked along with our side dish of black beans after it’s been roasted and peeled.

Once we’ve roasted the little bastards let’s get them into a blender.

While blending, add enough chicken stock – see there? to make a nice rich chile verde sauce. You may need up to a cup of stock to reach the right consistency.

Which yields…

Obviously this can be made a day or two before serving. Refrigerate overnight.

The next day is when we get our ass busy with the meal construction.

Next day get started by cooking your black beans. 

That’s half a bag – or one cup – of cleaned and sorted black beans, 4 cups of water, 2 teaspoons of chili powder, one teaspoon of cumin, a small onion – diced, some minced garlic and our fire-roasted red pepper. These will require 2 hours or so on a low simmer.

So much goddamn mincing!

Since we’re going all-out fucking gonzo cooking from scratch today, well why the hell not? Let’s make some corn tortillas.

Yes indeed we are.

Before getting started with the tortillas let’s take a quick peak at the beans and see how they are getting along.

Coming along nicely.

To the masa dough we go. The instructions are on the bag but it’s a cup of the masa harina and almost a cup of water with just a pinch of salt.

See there? That’s real nice. Sticks together but not too wet. Wrap the ball in plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes before we make with the whole goddamn tortilla pressing thing. 

Cut a couple of sheets of parchment paper. Big enough to fit over the tortilla press.

Grab a little wad of the dough and set it on the parchment paper on the press.

Place the 2nd sheet of parchment over the dough and gently press.

Then into a lightly oiled heated skillet they go for a minute or so per side.

Non-stick cookware is fine but cast iron works great too.

The tortilla process works best when you press, then cook and while the tortilla is cooking press out the next tortilla. Repeat the steps until all of the tortillas are finished. Keep them covered with a clean kitchen towel after they’ve all been cooked.

Time to assemble the enchiladas.

Collect your cooking vessel, give it your lube of choice and add some of our green sauce.

If the sauce still looks too thick the next day just add some more chicken stock and thin it to your desired consistency.

We are going to be making what New Mexico residents call “stacked” enchiladas.

What the homemade tortillas lack in pliability they more than make up with structural integrity.

Spread a layer of the tortillas evenly over the sauce.

Next add some of our cooked chicken and a good dollop more of the sauce. Spread out evenly.

Another layer of tortilla and then cover the entire dish with the remaining sauce.

Cheese up the entire shindig.

Into a pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until you achieve this result.

Let these cool down a bit before service. The beans should be about ready.

There we are.

Now plate.

Let’s zoom in a bit on the beans.

Now the enchiladas.

Oh my.

You regular readers may have noticed that I used a slightly different recipe for the black beans today. Using a fire roasted red bell pepper rather than my usual dried chile de arbol pods. No real reason apart from the red pepper just looking so fucking gorgeous in the produce section at the store. The taste difference was one with obviously less heat but with a roasted “fruitiness” from the pepper. If you’re not into the heat that the arbol chilies bring this may work better for you.

The beans were fucking balls-on today. They also played along super nicely with the enchiladas.

Now about them enchiladas.

These motherfuckers will be unlike any enchilada most of you have encountered in the wild.

The sauce is bright, tangy, acidic with that overall punch of fresh “green” that you only get from using fresh produce. The heat can be adjusted by removing or not removing the seeds from the jalapenos and serranos after they’ve been roasted. Of fucking course I left most of the seeds in.

The texture that the homemade tortillas bring to the proceedings is fucking ridiculous. If you’ve used the store bought corn tortillas in the past you’ve probably had the damn things basically disintegrate during the cooking process leaving behind a corn flavored essence rather than the tortilla itself.

We did NOT encounter that issue today.

Hard to say who takes the front row with this dish. You get masa right in your goddamn face but it’s counter-balanced by the brightness and the power of the green sauce. The chicken is there simply as a protein and it handles its role quite astutely doing just that. The cheese is there for its salt mostly and to hold everything together.

This overall dish was fantastic.

I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that some slow-roasted carnitas would be a nice addition instead of the chicken but that’s your call.

This shit is worth the 2 day effort.

Trust me on this.

Well, hell folks. Looks like we’re done here for the day.

Now that you’ve been effectively forced into inescapable gnawing hunger the rest of the day is yours to do as you see fit.

Totally understandable if you pay a visit to your favorite local Mexican restaurant. Hopefully I inspired you to do that if nothing else.

Enjoy what’s left of your weekend everyone.

We will be back right here again next week.

I look forward to it.

Be safe out there and keep warm.

See you next Sunday.

PEACE!