Easy Tex-Mex Chicken Enchiladas with Red Sauce
- Loida Tamayo
- 4 hours ago
- 7 min read
By: Loida Tamayo — Founder of Tex-Mex at Home
Sharing the recipes and kitchen secrets passed down through my family, one dish at a time.
In this recipe, I’ll show you how to cook with the enchilada sauces you find at the grocery store. These are the enchiladas we grew up with along the border—tender shredded chicken rolled in soft corn tortillas, smothered in a bold red enchilada sauce, and topped with a generous layer of melted cheese. The ingredients are simple, the flavors are big, and you won’t have to search for anything special at the store.
A little history: where red enchiladas come from
Enchiladas are older than the border itself. The name comes from the Spanish verb enchilar — "to season or dress with chile" — and that is exactly what the original dish was. By the 1800s, enchiladas were a point of Mexican national pride: El cocinero mexicano, one of the first cookbooks printed in Mexico, carried two separate enchilada recipes in 1831, and Mariano Galván Rivera's Diccionario de Cocina followed in 1845. In Texas, they moved from the plazas — the Chili Queens cooking over mesquite fires in San Antonio's Military Plaza, selling chili con carne, tamales, and enchiladas by lantern light — onto restaurant menus and, eventually, into home kitchens like ours.
Here is the part most people in the U.S. never hear. The canned red enchilada sauce we have in our grocery stores is as much a Texas story as a Mexican one. In Mexico, red sauce means whole dried chiles — guajillo, ancho, pasilla — toasted, rehydrated, and blended. But in 1896, a German immigrant in New Braunfels named William Gebhardt started grinding dried chiles into a shelf-stable powder and selling it as Eagle Brand Chili Powder, the first person to market chili powder on a large scale. He moved his operation to San Antonio, and by 1911 he was canning chili, tamales, beans, and enchiladas. That ground-chile base is still the backbone of American canned red sauce today. Read almost any label, and you will find the same thing: water, tomato, modified corn starch, salt, chile pepper, and the spices that make up chili powder — cumin, garlic, oregano. Ground chile, not whole rehydrated pods. That is why canned red sauce tastes savory, smooth, and a little earthy instead of bright and fruity. It is not a shortcut someone invented to cheat. It is its own tradition, born on this side of the river, and it is what gives Tex-Mex enchiladas the flavor people crave.
Mexican enchiladas vs. Tex-Mex enchiladas: what's the difference?
Mexican red enchiladas and Tex-Mex red enchiladas: They are two different dishes wearing the same name, and knowing which one you are making helps you get it right.
Mexican enchiladas, the kind you find in the interior, are built on whole dried chiles that are toasted and blended into a sauce, or on other bases entirely — salsa verde for enchiladas verdes, salsa ranchera in Chihuahua, blended beans for enfrijoladas. The tortilla is passed through the sauce and lightly fried, the filling is often shredded chicken or just onion and cheese, and the whole thing is finished with crema mexicana and a crumble of queso fresco or cotija. They are typically served right away, not baked, and the plate stays lighter and brighter.
Tex-Mex enchiladas are the border-town version, and they lean into what Texas had: chili powder, tomato, cumin, and melting cheese. The sauce is a chili-powder-based red sauce or a full chili gravy. The cheese on top is yellow — cheddar or a longhorn blend — and there is a lot of it. We don't stop at putting the whole thing together: they go into the oven so everything melts into one bubbling pan. Where a Mexican enchilada is finished with something cool and fresh, a Tex-Mex enchilada is finished with something hot and melted.
The recipe below is firmly Tex-Mex. That is the plate I grew up with, and that is the one I am handing you.
Ingredients
Serves 4 to 6.
• 2 chicken breasts, shredded
• 1½ teaspoons salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• 3 tablespoons oil
• 1 can red enchilada sauce
• 8 to 10 regular-size corn tortillas
• 1 cup shredded cheese (shredded from a block)
How to make Tex-Mex red chicken enchiladas
Boil the chicken plain. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add your chicken breasts. Do not season the water. Keeping the chicken plain means it will not compete with the sauce, and the sauce is the star here. Cover and cook about 25 minutes, or until the chicken shreds easily.
Save the broth, then shred and season. Before you drain the pot, reserve about ¼ cup of the cooking broth. Shred the chicken, season it with the salt and black pepper, pour in the reserved broth, and toss to coat. That splash of broth is what keeps the chicken from drying out. Set it aside.
Preheat the oven and warm the sauce. Preheat your oven to 350°F. In a separate pan over low heat, add about a teaspoon of oil and pour in the enchilada sauce. Stir occasionally so it does not stick to the bottom, and let it heat through. Keep it on low so it stays warm and ready while you work on the tortillas.
Soften the tortillas — this is the make-or-break step (literally). In a skillet over medium heat, add about a teaspoon of oil at a time. You are not using all three tablespoons at once. Once the oil is hot, lay a tortilla in the pan and cook it 8 to 10 seconds per side. You are not frying it crisp — you are just making it flexible. If the tortilla gets hard, it will crack the second you try to roll it. Transfer each one to a plate and repeat.
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Dip the tortillas in the sauce. Dip each softened tortilla into the warm enchilada sauce, making sure both sides are fully coated. Lift it out, lay it flat, and repeat until every tortilla is coated.
Fill and roll. Pour a little enchilada sauce over the shredded chicken and mix it in. This next part is messy, and that is normal. Lay a line of chicken down the center of a tortilla, roll it up gently, and set it seam-side down in your baking dish. Repeat until the dish is full.
Sauce, cheese, and bake. Pour the remaining sauce over the top — just enough to cover the enchiladas and keep them juicy, not drowned. Add a generous layer of shredded cheese and bake at 350°F for 5 to 7 minutes, only until the cheese is melted. You are not cooking anything at this point, so keep an eye on it.
Tips for success
Shred your cheese from a block. Pre-shredded cheese is coated to prevent clumping, and that coating also keeps it from melting into a smooth, glossy top. If you don't have block cheese, just use what you have.
Do not skip the tortilla step. Cold corn tortillas crack, and 8 to 10 seconds per side is all it takes to prevent it.
Save that ¼ cup of broth. It is the difference between juicy shredded chicken and dry shredded chicken.
Go easy on the sauce you pour over the top. You want juicy, not soupy — too much and the tortillas turn to mush.
Work in an assembly line: soften all the tortillas, then dip all of them, then roll. Stopping and starting is what makes this feel harder than it is.
Frequently asked questions
Q: What is the difference between Mexican and Tex-Mex enchiladas?
A: Mexican enchiladas are made with a sauce from whole dried chiles (or salsa verde, or blended beans), are usually not baked, and are finished with crema and queso fresco or cotija. Tex-Mex enchiladas use a chili-powder-based red sauce or chili gravy, are topped with yellow melting cheese, and go in the oven so everything melts together. This recipe is Tex-Mex.
Q: Why is canned red enchilada sauce made with chili powder?
A: Because it comes out of a Texas tradition. In 1896, William Gebhardt in New Braunfels began grinding dried chiles into shelf-stable chili powder, and by 1911 his San Antonio company was canning chili, tamales, beans, and enchiladas. That ground-chile base became the standard for American canned red sauce, which is why most labels list water, tomato, modified corn starch, chile pepper, and spices like cumin and garlic rather than whole rehydrated chiles.
Q: Can I make red chicken enchiladas ahead of time?
A: Yes, but I would not recommend it. If you absolutely need to meal prep this dish, assemble the whole pan, cover it tightly, and refrigerate up to 24 hours. Add the cheese right before baking, and give it 10 to 15 minutes in a 350°F oven instead of 5 to 7 minutes since you are heating it through from cold.
Q: How do I keep my corn tortillas from cracking?
A: Lightly fry each tortilla in a little hot oil for 8 to 10 seconds per side before you dip and roll. That short contact with the oil makes the tortilla flexible. Rolling a cold, dry tortilla is the number one reason enchiladas fall apart.
Q: Can I use flour tortillas instead of corn?
A: You can, and plenty of Tex-Mex kitchens do. Flour tortillas do not need the frying step, and they will absorb more sauce, so use a little less on top. Corn holds its shape better and gives you the flavor most people are looking for in a red enchilada.
Q: How do I store and reheat leftovers?
A: Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container up to 4 days. Reheat covered in a 325°F oven for about 15 minutes, or microwave a single serving for 1 to 2 minutes.
Sources
The history in this post was researched from the following sources.
Gebhardt Mexican Foods Company — Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas —
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/gebhardt-mexican-foods-company
Gebhardt's Chili Powder Co. — La Cocina Histórica, University of Texas at San Antonio — https://lacocina.utsa.edu/gebhardts-chili-powder-co/
Popular Chili Queens Graced San Antonio Plazas — Journal of San Antonio, University of the Incarnate Word — https://www.uiw.edu/sanantonio/jenningschiliqueens.html
A Taste of Tradition: The First Printed Mexican Cookbooks — Google Arts & Culture — https://artsandculture.google.com/story/4wXRrnn8wXhFaQ
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