Tony Zentgraf
Chicken Enchiladas con Salsa Chile Rojas means, Chicken Enchiladas with Chile Sauce. Don’t let the name scare you from making this deep flavored smokey enchilada sauce.
Enchilada Translates to “Season in Chile”
This enchilada sauce can be made as spicy as you like. Change the type of chiles or reduce to one single type of chile to get the spice level you wish.
Add more tomato if you want a more mild flavor. By doing so may make the sauce more like you may be accustomed to.
The sauce is Gluten Free and Vegetarian. I did not list this recipe as Vegetarian because of the chicken in the enchilada. But you can make how you like.
Many times when I cook at home, I try to utilize what I have in the pantry or the refrigerator. Plus when we go grocery shopping we look for deals and specials that are a good buy.
Explore the Dietary Preferences Series to find other Gluten Free Recipes
Scoville Scale – If you can’t take the heat…..
I know many people don’t like too much spice. The dry chiles I used in this recipe are low on the Scoville scale (500-2500 SHU). Compared to Jalapenos (2500-10000 SHU) or Serrano peppers (10000-25000 SHU).
The Scoville scale was invented in 1912 by Wilbur Scoville, an American Pharmacologist. Much of his testing was subjective as to what the level of heat was in peppers. He came up with a scale of Scoville Heat Units or SHU.
Today, there is a more scientific test available to determine the heat of capsicum called High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). This testing determines the concentration of the capsicum to determine its severity. The pepper then gets classified at the appropriate level on the Scoville scale.
The Competition to Grow Hotter
Every year people are trying to cross pollinate different peppers to create hotter and hotter peppers. There are even competitions where contestants eat as many hot peppers they can.
Competitions start with lower level of hot peppers. Each round of the competition, the scoville level increases until there is only one contestant left.
Watching these competitions can be painful to watch. There seems to be one person who must not feel any pain and usually declared the winner.
What do I do with the leftover Rotisserie Chicken?
Chicken Enchiladas con Salsa Chile Rojas is a great recipe to use for leftover chicken, rotisserie, oven baked or grilled. Shred the chicken, mix with some pepper jack cheese, dip the tortilla in the enchilada sauce and roll it up.
If you have leftover other items or want to make cheese or vegetable enchiladas, no problem, just substitute out what you have.
Wet Burrito, Yum!
Another favorite is a Wet Burrito. Just as it sounds, utilize this sauce to pour over a burrito. Just think, chicken fajita burrito or a carne asada burrito drenched in sauce.
Top with some cheese put it under the broiler for a few minutes. Melt the cheese and blistering the sauce will give some additional flavor. Top with some sour cream, guacamole and pico de gallo, and don’t forget the chips!
How ever you use this red chile enchilada sauce, I hope you ENJOY the results!
Chicken Enchiladas con Salsa Chile Rojas (GF)
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Salsa Chile Rojas (Enchilada Sauce)
- 4 ea California Dried Chile Pods
- 4 ea Ancho dried Chile Pods
- Hot Water (to cover chile pods, to be used in the blending also)
- 2 tsp Adobo Sauce from a can of Chipotle Peppers in Adobo
- 1 ea Onion small – medium sized, cut into 1/2" pieces
- 4 ea Garlic Cloves rough chopped
- 2 ea Plum Tomatoes quartered
- 2 tsp Vegetable Oil
- 1 tsp Cumin
- ¼ tsp Corriander
- ½ tsp Granulated Onion
- ½ tsp Granulated Garlic
- 1 tsp Kosher Salt
Chicken Enchilada Ingredients
- 1/2 ea Rotisserie Chicken
- 3 cups Pepper Jack Cheese
- 12 ea Corn Tortillas
- 2 tbsp Cotija Cheese
- Recipe Above – Salsa con Rojas (Enchilada Sauce)
- Sour Cream or Lime Crema for garnish
- Guacamole for garnish
Instructions
Prepare the Salsa Chile Rojas (Enchilada Sauce)
- In a pan, dry toast the chiles – Heat the first side of the chile pods until they start to become fragrant and take on some color changes. They should not be blackening, just becoming more red or brighter in color. They should start to become more pliable.
- Flip the chile pods and repeat the process on the second side. The chile pods may start to puff up, that is fine.
- Remove the chile pods once they have become pliable and have changed color. Place them into a bowl with hot water and soak for 20 minutes.
- While the chiles are soaking – Heat a saute pan with a 1-2 tsp of oil over medium high heat. Add the onions and saute until they become semi translucent and have taken on some color.
- Add the rough chopped garlic and continue to saute, turn down the heat if the garlic is browning too quickly. You should bring out the aroma and slightly brown the garlic. Remove the onions and garlic from the pan and set aside.
- In the same saute pan char the tomatoes on all sides. You want to give the tomatoes some browning to bring out the caramelized flavor of the tomatoes. Once they have developed some browning/char, reserve them aside until needed.
Blending the Salsa Chile Rojas
- In a blender, place the chiles, onions, garlic & tomatoes.
- Add 1 cup of the chile soaking liquid to the blender. Place the cover on the blender jar and puree until smooth. **You will have to add 1-2 additional cups as you blend to get the consistency you want.**Remember that you will be cooking the sauce as well and will reduce some of the liquid from the sauce as it simmers.
- Once smooth, add the remaining dry spices and the achiote sauce from the canned chipotle peppers.
- Blend again to combine all ingredients.
- Strain the sauce from the blender into a bowl. Press out the remaining bits in the strainer to get all the flavor from them into the sauce.
Cooking the Salsa Chile Rojas
- Heat a pan with 1 tbsp vegetable oil over medium high heat.
- Once the oil is hot, pour in the strained sauce into the pan. Careful as you pour the sauce will splatter as it adds to the hot oil.
- Bring the sauce to a medium boil and reduce to a medium simmer to cook down the sauce.
- As the sauce reduces, the flavors will intensify and change during the cooking process.
- Reduce for approximately 20 minutes or until the sauce gets to the consistency that you like. The sauce should coat the back of a spoon.
- Adjust the seasoning of the sauce as needed with additional dry spices.
- The sauce can be used immediately or you can put it in the refrigerator until needed.
- To reheat the sauce, place the sauce in a pan and bring up to temperature slowly.
Assembling the Enchiladas
- Heat the oven to 350°
- Pull apart the Chicken into 2" shredded pieces.
- Shred the Pepper Jack Cheese
- In a 9×13 pan, place 2 oz of the sauce and coat the bottom.
- Combine about 2 cups of the cheese with the chicken and mix to combine.
- On your counter next to the stove, you should have the 9×13 next to the stove. Next to the 9×13 should be the cheese and chicken mixture.
- Dip one of the corn tortillas in the sauce in the pan. Coat both sides as the tortilla begins to soften.
- Lay the softened and sauce coated tortilla in the 9×13.
- Add about 2-3 tbsp of the chicken and cheese mixture to the tortilla.
- Roll the tortilla over the top of the filling and place the enchilada to one side of the pan with the seam of the overlapping tortilla on the bottom to hold close.
- Continue the process of dipping the tortillas in the sauce one at a time, place the filling and roll the enchilada. Fill the pan placing each enchilada next to the last one rolled.
- Once all the enchiladas are rolled, pour the remaining sauce over the top of the enchiladas. ** I like to reserve some of the sauce aside to have fresh sauce when you plate.
- Top the enchiladas in the pan with the remaining pepper jack cheese and the grated cotija cheese.
- Bake for 20-30 minutes until the internal temperature reaches 160° and the cheese is melted.
- To serve, plate the enchiladas on a plate with some additional enchilada sauce, sour cream or lime crema and guacamole. ENJOY!
