Cheese Enchiladas with Chile Gravy

Name: Cheese Enchiladas with Chile Gravy
Yield: serves 12, two enchiladas per person
Ingredients: 8 ancho chiles, stemmed and seeded; 1 pasilla chile, stemmed and seeded; 5 cloves garlic; 1/4 cup vegetable oil (or lard, for real Tex-Mex authenticity); 1/4 cup all-purpose flour; 2 teaspoons ground cumin; 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder; 1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano; 2 teaspoons kosher salt; 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; Pinch of sugar; 2 cups chicken stock; 2 (15-ounce) cans plain tomato sauce; 24 corn tortillas; 1 cup vegetable oil; 2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese (about 3/4 pound); 3 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese (about 3/4 pound); 3 large yellow onions, diced, for garnish

December 14, 2011

For those who don’t speak Tex-Mex, chile gravy is a smooth sauce made with reconstituted dried chiles, broth, flour or some other thickener, and fat. The canned version—enchilada sauce—is stacked in grocery aisles all over the country. It’s worth the effort to make homemade, though, because fresh chile gravy is about as far from the canned stuff as Texas is from Toronto. I serve my cheese enchiladas topped with gravy, diced yellow or sweet onions, and sides of refried beans (page 161) and Rosa’s Mexican Rice (page 161).

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