Enchiladas Especiales Tacuba Style from Rick Bayless

When we lived in Chicago, one of the restaurants we wanted to try most was Rick Bayless's Frontera Grill. We'd heard from many that it was amazing, and the crowd and long lines that always formed and kept us from ever being able to get a table seemed to indicate that this was the case. Chicago has a great scene for Mexican food, and this was supposed to be the king of the hill in that area, but we couldn't quite fathom spending 1.5 to 2 hours standing in line for an enchilada. How much different could an enchilada be?

Chickan tonight!!!!!

Well when we came across this recipes for Enchiladas Especiales Tacuba Style, we learned that enchiladas could actually be quite different than we were used to. We've made enchialdas verdes in the past, and we've made other enchiladas as well. But this was a whole different ball game. Essentially, Rick has you put together a quasi béchamel sauce as the base which is then infused with the roasted poblano pepper. It's trippy. We prepared this for our good friend Dan and served it with a side of refried beans and rice, and it was quite a crowd pleaser.

Making the Dish
What You'll Need

2 fresh poblano chiles
1 cup (lightly packed) roughly chopped spinach leaves
2 cups milk
2 cups chicken broth
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) butter—or you can use vegetable oil
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup flour
dash salt
3 cups coarsely shredded cooked chicken
12 corn tortillas
1 cup Monterey Jack cheese

Before you start on the sauce, you've gotta make the chicken. We suggest chicken thighs or breast, boiled in water for about an hour, and then shredded with a fork when done.

Shredded juicy chicken thigh.

This will give you very flavorful, delicately shredded chicken. Set aside in a bowl.

Charred and roasted poblano peppers.

To make the sauce, start by roasting the poblanos to get them nice and soft inside and charred on the outside. You can put them under the broiler for about 5-7 minutes per side to get this done, or if you're adventurous, you can turn it over an open stove flame. (The broiler is a lot easier). Once the poblanos are charred on the outside, let them rest, covered, so that they cool to a point where it's easy to handle them.

Removing the skin from the charred poblanos.

Once they're easy to handle, rub off the charred skin. Remove the stem and the seeds and roughly chop. Place them in a food processor and add the spinach to the processor as well.

Now it's time to start the sauce, and this is where it gets trippy. In one small sauce pan, combine the milk and the chicken broth and warm, but don't simmer.

Adding the chicken broth to the milk.

In a larger sauce pan, melt your butter (a lot of butter makes it better!) and once melted, add sliced garlic and toast briefly. As the garlic starts to turn color, add flour and whisk furiously until everything is combined.

Melting the butter. 

Turn up the heat and add the milk broth slowly to the pan, whisking constantly. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about five minutes to thicken slightly. Then remove from heat.

Whisking the flour into the butter.

Take about half of this mixture and pour into the food processor with the spinach and poblanos. Puree away until it's a smooth green liquid.

Adding the milk mixture into the poblano and spinach mixture.

Pour this back into the sauce pan with the remaining broth flour mixture, and whisk until combined. Season with salt, pepper, cayenne, and cumin to taste.

The finalized green sauce.

Now it's time to finish the enchiladas. First, prep your corn tortillas. Lay out half of your tortillas on a baking dish. Spread a touch of oil over each of them, and then top each with another tortilla. Spread a touch of oil over that.

Brushing the tortillas with oil.

Then, put these into an oven at 350 degrees for about three minutes, giving them enough time to soften.

Spread a bit of the sauce over the bottom of an enchilada dish. Add a cup of the sauce into your bowl of chicken and stir until covered entirely.

Filling the tortilla with the chicken mixture.

Then, place a spoonful of chicken mixture into the tortillas and roll up. Place seam side down the baking dish. Do this until you use up all your tortillas and chicken mixture.

Topping the tortillas with the remaining sauce.

Cover with the remaining sauce, and then top with shredded cheese. Pop the whole dish in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes until the cheese is nicely browned, and everything is bubbly and delicious.

Crispy browned enchiladas coming out of the oven.

The Result
The sauce is different than any sauce we'd made before, but pretty delicious. Rick Bayless certainly knows Mexican cuisine, and this is a great dish to get to know his style. The sauce is a bit heavy, and could potentially use a little more kick for our liking, but overall this is a delicious dish. Dan really enjoyed it and took home leftovers.

Give it a try and let us know what you think. Have a favorite Mexican recipe? Let us know about it in the comments below!

Click through for the full ingredients list.