tiny stacked enchilada

tiny stacked enchilada: food :: cat videos: real life

I'm too old for a midnight snack. People in their thirties can't just get wasted, pound some whataburger at 3am, wake up on a half eaten taquito for a pillow & it's wrapper for a blankey & then expect to function. We'd wake up with the taste of shame for an enemy & heartburn for a best friend. Besides, we've got having a job & not being a red nosed drunk to think about.

I do however enjoy making things on a whim super late at night, right before bed (ok fine. at 10:30). And then not eating them until lunch the next day on account of the heartburn. This is one of those. It's also enchiladas, which as I discussed before, I don't really like. Why are you making something you don't like, you ask? Get your own blog dingleberry. I had boredom, I had an idea…

This is a miniature, single serving take on New Mexico style (stacked, although sans fried egg on top) enchiladas. They're shaped like Texas, because lets face it, the shape of Texas is waaaaay cooler than the shape of new New Mexico* & because I have a Texas shaped cookie cutter from Sur la Table (fuck off).

You could also make this as a regular casserole. It's like enchilada lasagna. Just don't cut the tortillas to resemble New Mexico or everybody will think you're an asshole.

tiny stacked enchilada
(or make it regular size and invent a shrinking gun)

here goes:
2 corn tortillas
shredded cheddar jack cheese
canned enchilada sauce (look for chilies as the first ingredient)
leftover meat, i used carnitas (sub additoonal cheese if desired)

Preheat oven to 400

empty enchilada sauce into a bowl.

cut your tortillas with cookie cutter to get 6 little texas tortillas.

spread a spoonful of enchilada sauce onto the bottom of your cooking vessel.

you're going to dip each piece of tortilla into the sauce, covering it in sauce, and then layer: saucy tortilla, cheese, saucy tortilla, meat, saucy tortilla, cheese. repeat. top with extra cheese and sauce as desired.

bake about 10-15 minutes. everything here is already cooked, so you're just getting it warm & melting the cheese.

I garnished with cotija, cilantro, a grilled chili slice & additional enchilada sauce. Plus some of this addictive-ass green hot sauce that I horde when I go to the greatest taqueria on the planet. Then I froze the unused enchilada sauce.

You're showing me something, stacked enchilada. I still think your cousin, regular enchilada, is a grody tramp though. You must be adopted.

martha stewart taught me this when we were in prison together

*I've got mad love for you New Mexico, but your shape looks like fat square Alabama or upside down Utah. In fact, let's all take a second to laugh at the shape of New Mexico. There, I feel better.

pinche!ladas

shoulda stopped right here...

Enchiladas are just... they’re a bit much. They’re too saucy and so cheesy. Sloppy. They leave nothing to the imagination. At the food halloween party, enchiladas is always dressed as a hookery hookery prostitute. You'll never find a husband that way, enchiladas. Enchiladas are inhibiting. You can't eat enchiladas and then get on an airplane. People will think there’s a bomb on the plane. 

I mean, enchiladas don't taste horrible, but the lack of visual appeal doesn't help. So, having expressed a disdain for enchiladas, obviously I decided to make & photograph & then eat some. I don't know why I make stuff I don't really like sometimes, it just happens so fast. 

Enchi...(groan)...ladas.

I'm not gonna blow sunshine up your ass. This wasn't that good. If it didn't outright suck, it was teetering dangerously close to the county line dividing Sucky and Lower End of OK counties.* Sheriff's not gonna like that. 

Unimpressive meals happen. That’s the way it goes sometimes. You’re gonna eat like three times a day for roughly the rest of your life. Odds are great some of it is gonna just really suck. Look on the bright side-- we need some lousy stuff to make the good stuff good. Otherwise we’re taste communists, and that’s un-american. So dust off your spork. Eat some disgusting slop. And enjoy it damnit. Your next meal will probably be an improvement.

note- I've had the idea in my head for awhile of making quick enchiladas with delimex taquitos and canned enchilada sauce. i ended up making my own taquitos/flautas, and using leftover sauce from this. 

pinche!ladas

(serves hopefully just you)

for taquitos (6)-

1/2 lb ground turkey

2 pieces of bacon

2 tbsp canned corn

1/4 onion chopped

a tomato, chopped

garlic clove, chopped

oregano leaves, chopped

cumin

salt

chili powder

6 corn tortillas

cheddar jack cheese

for enchiladas-

leftover chili sauce or canned enchilada sauce, taquitos

preheat oven to 350

cook the bacon in a skillet, set aside and crumble.

mix everything except the tomato, oregano, tortillas and cheese & then brown the mixture in the bacon fat over medium heat.

once it starts to brown add the tomato and oregano and turn the heat up. i like it to get some crispiness.** maybe 12-15 minutes total (including initial browning).

make sure your tortillas are warmed so they're pliable and make sure not to dry them out getting them warmed (try to get ones that are still warm from being cooked and use 'em while still warm if you can). spread some meat mixture in a tortilla. top with a little cheese and roll it up. place it in a greased pan. repeat until the mixture is gone. you could use less meat in each and roll them thinner which mean more tortillas. mine were pretty thick & I'd them thinner ti have as taquitos. spray the tops of the taquitos with olive oil cooking spray.

bake for around 40 minutes at 350

now, that's taquitos. you can store eat or freeze these (which, these were good). or do this the next day:

put two cold taquitos in a big ramekin. top with chili sauce and cheese. bake until sauce is bubbly and cheese is browning. garnish with cotija.

you look awful enchiladas. get it together

even the beer isn't helping

*not entirely true. the taquitos were decent. Also, Hahaha!! Suck it! You're reading a recipe that the author admits is crap. Why would you do that to yourself? 

** so this meat mixture was an odd pairing of stuff i needed to use. and really tasty in a weird way. the bacon kinda takes over a little bit