Red Chile Skillet Enchiladas, classic Mexican Street Food. Tortillas are dipped in a spicy red sauce, fried, folded and simply sprinkled with an assortment of small chopped crunchy vegetables.
If you like these quick Mexican style light dinner options, try these Queso Fresco Quesadillas. Corn tortillas never had it so good.
What You Can Expect From This Recipe
I’ve always said that if someone makes enchiladas for you, it means they love you.
Hands down, enchiladas are our favorite Mexican food here on the Ranch. We’re slightly obsessed.
Traditional enchiladas are time consuming, tedious and usually involve an assembly line procedure to guarantee a successful rolled and filled corn tortilla. And very fun to make in a rewarding sort of way.
One person to soften the tortillas by frying, one to dip and one to carefully take that soft tortilla, without tearing it, fill it and roll it. So worth every bit of the effort.
This recipe reverses the procedure by first dipping the corn tortilla in a beautiful earthy, spicy red sauce. The sauce is just spicy enough to get your attention.
The dipped tortillas are then quick fried, folded, arranged on a warm plate and sprinkled with an assortment of tasty toppings. And there it is folks, the best little folded enchilada. You’ll fall in love.
No assembly line necessary.
The toppings are zucchini, tangy romaine lettuce, jalapeno and crunchy radish and onion. This all comes together for contrasting flavors and textured that sing in harmony.
These easy skillet enchiladas with red sauce was declared a WOW the first time I made them and have received those same accolades each time they’ve landed on a dinner plate.
This is a recipe courtesy of renowned Chef Rick Bayless. He has spent many years living in Mexico to bring us fresh, delicious creations inspired by authentic Mexican cuisine.
Let’s take a look.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Cotija cheese: Readily found in the Mexican produce section at your grocery store, Cotija cheese is a dry Mexican crumbling cheese, much like Feta.
- Thin sliced radishes: Radishes are a customary topping for many Mexican Dishes. We especially like them with Pork Posole or as a topping for Tacos like these Saucy Chicken Soft Tacos.
- As with radishes, chopped raw onion is another customary topping for Mexican Enchiladas.
- Please don’t skip the sliced fresh Jalapeno Pepper.Remove the seeds and veins if you’d like to reduce the heat level of the peppers. This is where the spicy heat lies in any chile pepper.
- Zucchini Sticks are somewhat the star of the show here.
- Chopped Olives and Cilantro: Both of these ingredients add some excitement to this recipe.
Have fun with these skillet enchiladas. Think of this as a core recipe get creative. Add corn kernels, cooked chorizo or even shredded chicken on top.
Recipe For Red Chile Enchiladas
Street style skillet enchiladas are common in West Central Mexico. And just the thought of these spicy little snacks gets mouths watering. They’re street food fare, not saucy and just spicy enough to get your attention. The bold flavors of the red chile sauce shines with this simple method.
Tips For Success
- While frying corn tortillas, keep the skillet temperature at medium high to avoid the tortillas from sticking. The consistent temperature will also keep the tortillas from falling apart.
- Choose yellow corn tortillas. They are sturdier than white corn and will be easier to handle.
- Chopping all of the vegetables and toppings in advance will make this a more streamlined process.
More Enchilada Recipes
And the most popular enchilada recipe on my site for New Mexico Stacked Enchiladas.
And if you’re a fan of Mexican Food, head on over to my Mexican Southwest Recipes Category. You’ll find tons of ideas and the most popular recipe in that category, Hatch Green Chile, Colorado Style.
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Street Style Skillet Enchiladas with Red Sauce
Ingredients
- For the red chile sauce
- 6 cloves garlic unpeeed
- 6 medium red chile peppers dried, New Mexico or Ancho. Tops torn off and seeds shaken out.
- 1 teaspoon Dried Oregano Mexican preferred
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ cup chicken broth
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon Cider vinegar
- Finishing the Enchiladas
- ¼ cup Mexican Queso Cheese crumbled. Cotija or queso anejo
- 3 leaves Romaine lettuce sliced crosswise into ribbons
- 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
- 4 radishes thin sliced
- ¼ cup sweet onion fine chopped
- 3 tablespoons cilantro chopped
- 1 jalapeno pepper sliced thin, seeds and veins removed if you want less heat
- 2 medium zucchini cut into matchsticks
- 10 small Green olives cut in half
- 12 corn tortillas
Instructions
- For the Red Chile Sauce: Heat a skillet over medium high heat. Once the skillet is warm, add the unpeeled garlic. Toast the garlic, turning occasionally, until they turn soft. About 10 minutes. Cool and peel.
- Add the dried chile peppers to the hot pan. Press them with a spatula until a wisp of smoke appears. Turn them immediately and toast on the other side. In a bowl, cover the chiles with water and let the soak 30 minutes. Stir them after 15 minutes to make sure they all rehydrate evenly. Drain and discard the water.
- Combine oregano, black pepper, cumin, cloves, peeled garlic, chiles and broth in a food processor. Process to a smooth puree, scraping the sides of the bowl every few seconds. Then press the sauce through a medium mesh strainer into a wide shallow bowl. Add 1 tablespoon of vinegar and stir. It should be the consistency of a tomato sauce. Add more broth if needed.
- Prepare the toppings. Crumble the Cotija cheese. Slice the lettuce into thin ribbons cutting across the leaves and toss with 1 tablespoon vinegar. Thin slice the radishes. Chop the onion. Chop the cilantro. Slice the jalapeno peppers. Cut the zucchini into matchstick shaped pieces. ¼ inch thick and about 2 inches long. Cut the green olives in half.
- Finish the enchiladas. Heat a small non-stick skillet over medium high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of oil and 1 tablespoon of the red chile sauce. Fry the zucchini sticks until just becoming tender and starting to brown. Remove from heat and set aside. Keep warm.
- Preheat oven to 220 degrees. And have an oven safe plates ready for the tortillas once they're fried.
- Heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Once the pan is hot, add 1 tablespoon oil. One at a time, dip the corn tortillas into the sauce and fry them in the oil for 10 seconds. Don't let the skillet get hot or the tortillas will stick and you'll have a mess.
- Using a spatula, flip them and cook on the other side 10 seconds. Transfer them to a plate (3 per plate) folding them in half as you do. Slightly overlapping them. Place each plate of three in the warm oven until you're ready to serve. Continue with the rest of the tortillas. Adding a drizzle of oil when needed.
- To serve: Spoon several sticks of the zucchini over the enchiladas. Then add the remaining ingredients keeping them in the middle of each plate of enchiladas. Serve immediately.
Nutrition
Why Trust My Recipes? I am a Culinary School Graduate and a lifelong student of home cooking. I hope to inspire you try to cook as often as you can. I’ve been cooking for 50 years, and my recipes are tried and true tested and tested and then tested again before published. To read more take a look at my About Page.
This looks exactly like one of Rick Bayless’s recipe ?
Hi Deana. Happy Saturday.
Absolutely! I feature several Rick Bayless recipes on my site. He’s a big inspiration for my love of Mexican Food.
Thanks for the note and for stopping in.
I have so much to learn about SW cuisine! These enchiladas sound amazing!! Perfect for a light dinner or midday snack. Hope you’re having a terrific weekend!
Lea Ann, like you, I lovelovelove enchiladas of every sort. But this is the first time I’ve seen enchiladas like these. What a gorgeous plate of food! I need to make these very, very soon.
Such a neat recipe! Easy and flavorful — just brilliant. Thanks!
To me the only enchilada sauce is made with dried chilis! Yummy!
Wowsa!
What a fabulous way, and quick method, for making red chile enchiladas! Love it! Made a big batch of red chile a couple of weeks ago so these are a must make. Thanks for sharing this!
I’ve never seen these before but they sure look tasty.