Christmas style enchiladas have both red and green sauces, making them perfect for anyone who just can’t decide what they like best! My recipe takes the idea further with specks of red and green in the cheesy filling too! Easy to make using your favorite premade sauces, with just six ingredients, and endless flexibility to customize it to your own tastes.
Introducing Christmas Style Enchiladas
… which have nothing to do with the Christmas season, but just happen to look a little festive with the red and green next to each other!
Whether you’re familiar with this idea will depend on what type of Mexican food you’re accustomed to, because the concept has New Mexico origins and it’s one that I’ve comes across when eating Mexican food in Arizona. Dishes with sauce can be ordered “Christmas style”, meaning you get some of each. Doubling up your sauces is definitely a fun way to enjoy Mexican food. After all, if you’re in a restaurant that has both sauces bubbling away, why not take advantage?
To make easy Christmas style enchiladas at home, I source my favorite premade sauces and create a cheesy filling that doesn’t require any precooking. We continue the red and green theme in the filling with red bell peppers and green chilis peppered throughout the cheese, though it’s a very flexible recipe and everything about it is optional and changeable!
Top Tip: Bake the enchiladas until crisp before adding the sauce
I like to do this for two reasons.
- It makes the enchiladas less soggy – the tortillas are able to crisp up a little before being drenched in sauce.
- It keeps the colors of the sauces vibrant, since they aren’t being cooked as long and aren’t swallowed up as much by the tortillas.
Ingredient Notes
These are all supermarket staple ingredients for US based readers, making it an easy and economical meal. Outside of the US, these might not be such supermarket friendly ingredients, so the costs will be higher if you need to order from specialist retailers.
- Corn tortillas (either white corn or yellow corn are fine). My 5 inch tortillas yield 12 enchiladas, you will get less or more depending on the size of yours.
- Canned diced green chilis add a really nice tang to the filling from the vinegar they’re canned in. (If you have trouble sourcing these, a good alternative is jarred green chilis. They have the same vinegary tang, you just have to de-seed and dice them by hand.)
- Red enchilada sauce is traditionally made with red chilis, though some brands offer a more tomato based sauce. Be sure to get the spice level that suits you. Mild for me.
- Green enchilada sauce is made from green chilis and/or tomatillos, and is usually milder. (Another trickier one to track down in Europe, but you can find it on Amazon or through specialist retailers.)
- About half of a red bell pepper or a sweet pointed pepper, you want to dice this up really small so that the pieces are similar size to the chilis.
- Queso fresco or feta cheese, either will work. You just want something white and crumbly.
- You will then want to add any toppings you feel are important – sour cream, avocado, chopped cilantro, etc.
What to do with the rest of the sauce
Unless you make a larger batch of these Christmas Enchiladas, you will find yourself with some leftover enchilada sauce here. These ideas will all use up flexible amounts of sauce:
- Smothered burritos! I have a lentil burritos recipe you could try.
- Brunch! Use some enchilada sauce as a stand in for rancheros sauce to make Huevos Rancheros, or for chilaquiles.
- Mix into rice or lentils for an easy Mexican style side dish.
- If it’s a really teeny amount leftover, use it as a dip for cheese quesadillas or small burritos.
Christmas Enchiladas
Ingredients
- 12 corn tortillas
- 8 oz queso fresco or feta cheese, crumbled
- 4 oz canned diced green chilis
- ½ red bell pepper, finely diced
- ¾ cup red enchilada sauce
- ¾ cup green enchilada sauce
- vegetable or olive oil, for cooking
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C / 360F.
- Reserve one tablespoon of the crumbled cheese (for topping) and then prepare the filling by mixing the remaining cheese, peppers and chilis. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Now we can start rolling the enchiladas. The first thing we need to do is heat the tortillas to make them pliable. You can do this by holding them (with tongs, one at a time) over a gas flame until they start to droop, or you can place them briefly in a dry hot pan.
- Smear a little enchilada sauce over each tortilla, just enough to moisten it, and then spoon in some filling. (I alternate using red and green sauce for the inside of the enchiladas – I don't try to use both in each one!)
- Roll the tortilla and place in a small, lightly oiled casserole dish or roasting pan. Repeat until you have used up all of your filling.
- Brush the top of the enchiladas lightly with oil and bake for 10-15 minutes, until they are starting to brown.
- Spoon over the sauce, red on one side and green on the other.
- Bake for an additional 5 minutes until the sauce is heated through.
- Sprinkle the reserved cheese on top, and any additional toppings you wish to add. Serve.
