Enchiladas Suizas (Creamy Green Chicken Enchiladas)
Chicken enchiladas baked in a broiled tomatillo and serrano sauce enriched with cream, under a blanket of melted cheese, Mexico City's famous "Swiss" enchiladas.
Suizas means "Swiss", and nobody agrees why. Sanborns, the Mexico City restaurant and store chain founded on June 19, 1903, by the California brothers Walter and Frank Sanborn, acquired the Casa de los Azulejos (the House of Tiles) in 1919, and Wikipedia calls its enchiladas suizas an "iconic menu item". Sanborns' own page tells two stories. In the older one, a Swiss chef at the court of Emperor Maximilian (1864 to 1867) softened enchiladas with European cream and cheese and later served them at the Café Imperio in what is now the House of Tiles. In the other, Walter Sanborn bought the Café Imperial in 1919, tasted its enchiladas gratinéed with manchego cheese and thought they looked like snow on the Swiss Alps.
A third explanation, which Wikipedia cites to the San Francisco Chronicle and Serious Eats' J. Kenji López-Alt repeats, is that the name honors Swiss immigrants who ran dairies in Mexico. All three are DISPUTED, and this hub never states one as fact. What everyone agrees on is the build: Spanish Wikipedia calls them enchiladas in a green sauce based on cream, with melted cheese, and notes that some restaurants use a mild red sauce instead.
Why it works the kitchen science
Broiling first
Blackening the tomatillos, chiles and onion adds a smoky, roasted note that a plain cream sauce would not have.
Cream added after the fry
The purée is reduced to a paste first, so the broth and crema thin it to a sauce instead of a watery soup, and the dairy softens the tomatillo's sharpness and the chile's heat.
Step by step
- Step 1
Heat the broiler with a rack about 4 inches below it. Spread the tomatillos, chiles and onion on a rimmed baking sheet and broil about 6 minutes, until blackened and soft on one side. Turn everything over and broil about 6 minutes more.
- Step 2
Let cool 10 minutes, then blend everything, juices included, until nearly smooth but still with a little texture.
- Step 3
Heat 2 tbsp oil in a 4-quart saucepan over medium-high heat until a drop of purée sizzles sharply. Add all the purée at once and stir nearly constantly 8 to 10 minutes, until almost as thick as tomato paste.
- Step 4
Stir in the broth and crema and simmer 3 to 5 minutes. Adjust to the consistency of a light cream soup (more broth if thick, a few more minutes if thin), season with about 1 1/2 tsp salt and keep warm over low heat.
- Step 5
Heat the oven to 400°F. Stir 1/2 cup sauce into the chicken and microwave it, covered, about 1 minute. Brush the tortillas lightly with oil on both sides, put them in a microwave-safe plastic bag folded loosely closed, microwave 1 minute and let stand 1 minute.
- Step 6
Spread a scant cup of sauce in a 13 by 9-inch baking dish. Roll a portion of chicken in each tortilla and lay them in the dish. Pour the rest of the sauce evenly over the top and sprinkle with the cheese.
- Step 7
Bake 12 to 15 minutes, until the cheese begins to brown in spots and the center of the middle enchilada reads 165°F. Garnish with onion rings and cilantro and serve right away.
Enchiladas Suizas (Creamy Green Chicken Enchiladas)
Serves 4 · 12 enchiladas · 1 hr 5 min total
Sauce
- 2 lb tomatillos, husked and rinsed
- 3 serrano chiles (or 2 jalapeños), stemmed
- 1 medium white onion (6 oz), cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 cups chicken broth, plus a little more if needed
- 1/2 cup Mexican crema, crème fraîche or heavy cream
- About 1 1/2 tsp salt
Enchiladas
- About 2 cups coarsely shredded cooked chicken
- 12 corn tortillas
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil, for the tortillas
- 1 cup (4 oz) shredded melting cheese: Mexican manchego, Chihuahua or Monterey Jack
- White onion slices, separated into rings, and cilantro sprigs, to garnish
Method
- Heat the broiler with a rack about 4 inches below it. Spread the tomatillos, chiles and onion on a rimmed baking sheet and broil about 6 minutes, until blackened and soft on one side. Turn everything over and broil about 6 minutes more.
- Let cool 10 minutes, then blend everything, juices included, until nearly smooth but still with a little texture.
- Heat 2 tbsp oil in a 4-quart saucepan over medium-high heat until a drop of purée sizzles sharply. Add all the purée at once and stir nearly constantly 8 to 10 minutes, until almost as thick as tomato paste.
- Stir in the broth and crema and simmer 3 to 5 minutes. Adjust to the consistency of a light cream soup (more broth if thick, a few more minutes if thin), season with about 1 1/2 tsp salt and keep warm over low heat.
- Heat the oven to 400°F. Stir 1/2 cup sauce into the chicken and microwave it, covered, about 1 minute. Brush the tortillas lightly with oil on both sides, put them in a microwave-safe plastic bag folded loosely closed, microwave 1 minute and let stand 1 minute.
- Spread a scant cup of sauce in a 13 by 9-inch baking dish. Roll a portion of chicken in each tortilla and lay them in the dish. Pour the rest of the sauce evenly over the top and sprinkle with the cheese.
- Bake 12 to 15 minutes, until the cheese begins to brown in spots and the center of the middle enchilada reads 165°F. Garnish with onion rings and cilantro and serve right away.
Adapted from Rick Bayless, "Enchiladas Suizas (Creamy Chicken Enchiladas with Melted Cheese)", 12 enchiladas serving 4. We use his tomatillo option (he allows 2 pounds of tomatoes or tomatillos), his broiled vegetables (about 6 minutes a side), the 8 to 10 minute fry of the purée, the broth and crema, the microwave-softened tortillas and the 400°F oven. Bayless bakes "until the cheese just begins to brown" without a time; our 12 to 15 minutes and the 165°F check are ours. Sanborns' page says it uses manchego; Bayless lists Chihuahua, Monterey Jack, brick or mild cheddar, and we count Monterey Jack. rickbayless.com. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
Tips
- Bayless offers individual 9-inch ovenproof dishes as an alternative to one big baking dish.
- For the red version some restaurants serve, use 2 pounds of ripe plum tomatoes instead of tomatillos (Bayless allows either); slip the blackened skins off before blending.
- Don't let the sauce boil hard after the crema goes in; a gentle simmer keeps it smooth.
- Mexican manchego is a mild melting cheese, not the aged Spanish sheep's milk cheese.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Enchiladas suizas were invented at Sanborns. Disputed: Sanborns' page gives both a Maximilian-era Swiss chef at the Café Imperio and a 1919 Walter Sanborn story; Uno TV, citing the Asociación Mexicana de Restaurantes, tells the Maximilian version.
- They are named for Alpine snow. Disputed: Sanborns' story; Wikipedia and Serious Eats say Swiss dairy immigrants.
- Suizas must be green. Disputed: Spanish Wikipedia says some restaurants use a mild red sauce; Bayless's recipe allows tomatoes or tomatillos.
- There is no Swiss cheese in them. Documented: Sanborns' page names manchego; Bayless lists Mexican melting cheeses.
- Sanborns has owned the House of Tiles since 1919. Documented as Wikipedia's account.
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