FAQ (Questions and Answers)

• What are the other types of enchiladas?

  • The enchiladas with meat and chile rojo (with red chili), a traditional red enchilada sauce, made with dried red chilies soaked and ground into a sauce with other seasonings, the Chile Colorado sauce adds a tomato base.
  
  • Those with mole, instead of chili sauce, are served with mole, and are also known as enmoladas.
  
  • Placera are in Michoacán Plaza style, made with vegetables and poultry.
  
  • enchiladas poblanas are soft corn tortillas stuffed with chicken and poblano chilies, topped with Oaxaca cheese.
  
  • Potosinas come from San Luis Potosi and are made with spiced masa filled with cheese.
  
  • Enchiladas San Miguel in San Miguel de Allende style, flavored with guajillo chilies.
  
  • Enfrijoladas are topped with refried beans instead of chili sauce; their name comes from frijol, meaning “bean”.
  
  • Entomatadas are made with tomato sauce, instead of chili sauce.
  
  • Enchiladas montadas (stacked enchiladas) are a New Mexico variant, thus Tex-mex, where corn tortillas are fried until soft (but not hard), then stacked with red or green sauce, chopped onion, and grated cheese between the layers and on top of the stack.
  Ground meat or chicken can be added to the filling.
  The stack is often topped (montada) with a fried egg.
  Lettuce and black olives can be added as a garnish.
  
  • enchiladas verdes are topped with green sauce and typically made with white corn tortillas, filled with chicken and topped with queso fresco.
  
  • Enjococadas are oven-baked corn tortillas, covered in jocoque (Mexican fermented dairy) and filled with queso panela and chile poblano.
  
  

• And in other Central American countries?

  In Costa Rica, the enchilada is a common, small, and spicy pastry made with puff pastry and filled with diced potatoes seasoned with a common variant of Tabasco sauce or other similar sauces.
  
  Other variants include fillings made with spicy chicken or ground meat.
  
  In Honduras, they are flat corn tortillas, fried, topped with ground meat, salad toppings (usually consisting of sliced cabbage and tomato), a tomato sauce (often ketchup mixed with butter and other spices like cumin), and crumbled or grated cheese.
  
  In Nicaragua, they are corn tortillas filled with a mixture of ground meat and rice with chili, then folded and coated in egg batter and fried.
  They are commonly served with a cabbage and tomato salad (pickled or with cream and tomato sauce salad).
  
  The Guatemala version most commonly starts with a fresh lettuce leaf, then a layer of “picado de carne,” which includes ground meat, generally chicken or pork, and diced vegetables (carrots, potatoes, onions, celery, green beans, peas, red peppers, garlic, bay leaves, seasoned with salt and black pepper).
  
  The next layer is “curtido” which includes more vegetables (cabbage, beets, onions, and carrots).
  After that, there are two or three slices of hard-boiled egg, then thinly sliced white onion and finally a drizzle of mild red sauce.
  The dish is topped with either queso seco or queso fresco and garnished with cilantro.

• What type of tomato is the tomatillo?

  Native to Mexico, it is grown as an annual plant throughout the Western Hemisphere; the green fruits are used for making sauces or consumed fried, boiled, or steamed.

• What cheese is queso machengo? What cheese can it be replaced with?

  A pale yellow cheese, it is consumed on its own or melted on dishes, maintaining its consistency. Similar to its Spanish namesake, it is, however, more often made with cow’s milk rather than sheep’s milk.
  
  It can be replaced with mozzarella, Monterey Jack, Asiago, and English Cheddar.