Enchiladas with tomatillo sauce

A great way to use up leftover refried beans! The beans, spicy tomatillo sauce and melted cheese are a great combination. I like my sauce spicy but you can dial down the heat by leaving out the chilli seeds.

Credit: The Latin Kitchen

• makes

  6

• prep

  10 minutes

• cook

  25 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• ¼ cup (60 ml) lard, divided
• 1 small white onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 4 dried Serrano chillies, chopped (see Note)
• 5 green tomatillos, chopped
• ½ cup (125 ml) chicken stock
• 6 fresh corn tortillas
• 2 cups refried beans, warm (see Lui’s recipe here)
• ½ cup crumbled queso anejo or cotija cheese (or use feta)

Instructions

1. To make the tomatillo sauce, heat half of the lard in a frying pan over medium-high heat.

2. Stir in onions and garlic, and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onions start to soften. Add Serrano chillies and tomatillos and continue cooking for 3-4 minutes.

3. Stir in chicken stock and bring to a simmer. Simmer until mixture reduces by about half.

4. Season with salt, to taste, and transfer mixture to a blender. Blend the sauce until chunky. Reserve sauce for later use.

5. In a clean frying pan, heat remaining lard over medium-high heat. Toast the tortillas one at a time until golden but still pliable (cooking the tortillas will stop them breaking when you make the enchiladas).

6. Spoon warm refried beans over half of each tortilla. Fold tortilla in half. Top with green tomatillo sauce and crumbled queso anejo.

Note

• If you’d like a less-spicy sauce, discard the seeds from the chillies.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.