Enchiladas you never roll

Name: Enchiladas you never roll
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 2 servings
Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients: 10 oz cooked pulled chicken (poach and shred your own, it takes eight minutes); 2 potatoes, cut into ½-inch dice; 2 poblano peppers, seeded and thinly sliced; 1 yellow onion, halved and thinly sliced; 6 flour tortillas, stacked and cut into 1-inch ribbons; ⅓ cup guajillo chile sauce; 2 oz Monterey Jack, grated; ¼ cup full-fat Greek yogurt; 2 tsp smoked paprika; 2 tsp light brown sugar; red pepper flakes, olive oil, salt, pepper

The tortillas go in as ribbons, not parcels. Rolling was always the only difficult part.

At a Glance

Time

35 min

Adjust servings

Story

Rolling is the only genuinely difficult part of an enchilada, and it is difficult for a stupid reason. A cold tortilla splits when you bend it, so the traditional fix is to dip each one in warm sauce or oil first, one at a time, with your hands, over a pan. Cut them into ribbons instead and the problem disappears entirely. You also get far more edge, which is where all the good happens: the strips buried in sauce go soft and the ones on top catch under the grill.

Ingredients

10 oz cooked pulled chickenpoach and shred your own, it takes eight minutes
2 potatoescut into ½-inch dice
2 poblano peppersseeded and thinly sliced
1 yellow onionhalved and thinly sliced
6 flour tortillasstacked and cut into 1-inch ribbons
⅓ cup guajillo chile sauce
2 oz Monterey Jackgrated
¼ cup full-fat Greek yogurt
2 tsp smoked paprika
2 tsp light brown sugar
red pepper flakesolive oil, salt, pepper

Make it yourself Poached chicken that won't go stringy

Method

This is papas con rajas, which is potato and charred poblano, put into a pan with torn-up tortillas and more cheese than is strictly defensible. It is not elegant. It is extremely good, and it goes under the grill at the end, which covers a multitude.

Potatoes into a large ovenproof pan with olive oil over medium-high, a good pinch of salt, and a lid on for 5 minutes so they steam. Lid off, then 7 to 8 minutes more, turning now and then, until the outsides are properly browned and a fork goes in easily.
Poblano and onion in with them. 5 minutes, until the peppers have blistered in places and the onion has gone limp and sweet. Resist softening them. You want char.
Stir the paprika, brown sugar and as much red pepper as you like heat into the pan, 30 seconds, to wake the spices up. Then the chicken, the guajillo and a splash of water.
Tortilla ribbons in, folded through rather than stirred, so some stay buried and some sit proud. Season.
Cheese over the whole surface. Lid or foil on, 2 to 3 minutes, until it has gone. Then under a hot grill for 2 to 4 minutes, watching it, until the top blisters.
Rest it 2 minutes, then the yogurt in spoonfuls. Straight from the pan, with a spoon, standing up, if the evening has gone that way.