Enchiladas Reinvented

This started out as an invented chicken enchilada drenched in a fresh tomatillo-serrano salsa. Tonight I reconceived it with red enchilada sauce based on a Rick Bayless recipe. You can easily make the sauce a few days ahead. And of course, replace the chicken stock in the sauce with vegetable stock, and replace the chicken with whatever else.

Red enchilada sauce
6 dried guajillo chiles
6 dried ancho chiles
3 garlic cloves (not peeled)
1 ¼ cups chicken stock
1 T brown sugar
1 t. sea salt
juice of ½ lime

Dry roast the whole chiles and garlic cloves in a pan over medium heat, pressing the chiles down with a spatula until they blister on both sides. Soak the chiles in water for 2 hours. Reserve the water. Loosely chop the chiles (discard the stems but keep the seeds) and garlic, and add to a food processor. Pulse a few times, then add the stock, sugar, salt and lime. Process until mostly smooth (there will still be seeds and bits of skin). Adjust seasoning to taste; if it’s too spicy, add some more sugar. The sauce should be thick. Strain through a sieve to remove the seeds and skins, then set aside. You’ll have about two cups of sauce when finished.

Enchiladas
1 onion, chopped
2 fresh poblano peppers
2 garlic cloves, diced
2 chicken breasts, cut into slices
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground pepper
1 can black beans, drained
8 tortillas
4 cups shredded cheese (quesadilla melting cheese works great)
2 C. red enchilada sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish.

Roast the peppers over open flame on the stovetop, turning frequently, until black and blistered in places. Allow to cool enough to handle, then scrape off the large piece of skin, discard the seeds and cut into narrow strips.

Saute the onion, poblanos and garlic until the onions are translucent. In a separate pan, cook the chicken until mostly done, then add to the pan with the onions and peppers. Add the cumin, ground pepper and black beans.

Heat some vegetable oil in a skillet over medium heat and fry the tortillas, about 15 seconds on each side. Drain on a plate.

To assemble the enchiladas
Place a couple of spoonfuls of the chicken/pepper/onion/bean mixture at one end of a tortilla. Sprinkle with cheese. Roll the tortilla and place it seam-side-down at one end of the baking dish. Repeat for the rest of the tortillas. Spread any extra filling across the tops of the rolled tortillas. Reheat the red sauce in a microwave for about two minutes, then spread across the tortillas. Cover all that with shredded cheese.

Bake for 30 minutes, broiling the top for a few minutes to melt the cheese, if needed.