Cheese and Onion Enchiladas

Cheese and Onion Enchiladas for dinner on a weeknight?  Is that legal?!

This is a simple, rewarding dish that requires very little brainpower and it will give you a massive upgrade compared to takeout options.   

Plus there’s a good chance you already have all the ingredients you need to make it.  Sound too good to be true?

How To Make Cheese and Onion Enchiladas

As usual, it’s best to stick the tomatoes in the oven before you do anything else — 20 minutes at 400F will do the job, but I usually just grab ’em when I need ’em.    Other ways to roast tomatoes.

You’ve got some leeway on the dried chiles, but I always recommend starting with whole chiles instead of powder as that will give you a bump in flavor. 

I used a combo of Anchos and Guajillos for this batch:

4 Ancho dried chiles
2 Guajillo dried chiles

I think Anchos are the perfect fit for enchilada sauces — they’re loaded with flavor so please use them when available!  More info on Ancho chiles. 

Don’t sweat it if you don’t have Guajillos on hand — I just like to combine Guajillos or New Mexicans with Anchos for another layer of flavor, but they are definitely optional.    

As usual, try to use dried chiles that are pliable and squishy — if they’re hard and brittle then they are past their prime. 

After de-stemming and de-seeding the chiles, we’ll wake them up in the oven (400F) for a couple minutes.  Other ways to roast dried chiles.

Once they’re warm and fragrant you can add them to a bowl and cover them with the hottest tap water you’ve got.  This will reconstitute the chiles and make them more amenable to being ground up.  

Meanwhile, get a roughly chopped onion and 3 garlic cloves cooking in a glug of oil over medium heat. 

Once the onion is starting to brown you can add this mixture to a blender where it will wait patiently for:

the roasted tomatoes
the drained, reconstituted chiles
3 cups of stock

Once combined we’ll cook the sauce for a few minutes in the same pan that cooked the onion and garlic. 

We’ll also add:

1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon Mexican oregano  What is Mexican oregano?
1/2 teaspoon salt
some freshly cracked black pepper

I usually make these Cheese and Onion Enchiladas extra goopy, so I leave this sauce a bit liquidy.  But keep in mind that you can always thicken up the sauce by letting it simmer over mediumish heat. 

Be sure to warm up your corn tortillas before rolling them — this will help prevent cracking.  You can either stick them in the oven for 1-2 minutes or cover them with a damp paper towel and nuke them for 60 seconds. 

Once warm, you can load up your tortillas with plenty of cheese and finely chopped raw onion. 

Roll tight and place them seam side down in a baking dish.  I usually put a thin layer of the enchilada sauce in the baking dish to prevent sticking. 

Once you’ve rolled them you can cover them with the enchilada sauce. 

You’ll have loads of sauce so I usually drench them to get max goop factor, but keep in mind that you can always bake the rolled tortillas plain and add the sauce after the fact if you want a less goopy version. 

Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes or until the cheese is melted. 

Top with your choice of fixings and serve immediately.  I topped with Queso Fresco and freshly chopped cilantro. 

If all went according to plan you’ve got a massively satisfying meal on your hands. 

The cheese and onion combo is such a treat in baked corn tortillas — it’s a unique flavor profile when there’s no competing protein and it’s worth a go if you’re new to it. 

Plus there’s a good chance you already have all the ingredients on hand, so what’s stopping you?!

These Cheese and Onion Enchiladas are also wildly versatile, so feel free to get creative with the toppings.  Just no skimping on the dried chiles 🙂

Buen Provecho. 

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