Enfrijoladas (Tortillas in Black Bean Sauce with Chorizo)
Warm corn tortillas dipped in a smooth black bean sauce, folded into quarters and topped with crumbled chorizo, salsa verde, fresh cheese, parsley and onion: Mexico's fast, comforting bean enchilada.
Swap the chile sauce for beans and the enchilada becomes an enfrijolada. Spanish Wikipedia describes them simply as tortillas bathed in bean sauce instead of a spicy sauce. Excélsior's history of the dish (Fabiola Barrera, November 6, 2025) notes that corn and beans were essential to the indigenous diet and that the tortilla and bean pairing is ancestral, while admitting there is no exact document for the dish itself. The beans change by region: black beans with epazote and avocado leaves in Oaxaca, black or pinto with cream, cheese and onion in central Mexico, bayo beans with chicharrón or meat in the west.
Pati Jinich calls them one of the simplest and most comforting things to make from a pot of beans. Rick Bayless's version, used here, starts from two cans of black beans and dresses the folded tortillas with chorizo, salsa and fresh cheese, which makes it the fastest dish in the hub.
Why it works the kitchen science
A loose, hot sauce
Bean purée thinned to a cream-soup consistency coats a tortilla in one dip and soaks in slightly, so the folded enfrijolada is soft but not mushy.
Bright toppings on a mellow base
Salty chorizo, tangy salsa verde and sharp raw onion give the earthy beans the contrast they need.
Step by step
- Step 1
Coarsely purée the beans with their liquid in a food processor or a loosely covered blender. Pour into a 2- to 3-quart saucepan over medium heat, add water (usually 1/2 to 1 cup) until it is the consistency of a medium cream soup and bring to a simmer, about 5 minutes. Season with about 1/2 tsp salt and keep warm over low heat.
- Step 2
Cook the chorizo in a skillet over medium-low heat about 10 minutes, breaking up the clumps, until browned and it reads 160°F. Pour off the rendered fat, cover and keep warm over very low heat.
- Step 3
Wrap the tortillas in a damp paper towel, slide them into a microwave-safe plastic bag without sealing it and microwave at full power 45 seconds. Keep them wrapped.
- Step 4
One at a time, dip each warm tortilla into the bean sauce to coat both sides, fold it into quarters and set it, slightly overlapping the others, on a warm platter or 4 plates.
- Step 5
Spoon the remaining hot bean sauce over the top (there should be plenty), then scatter the chorizo, salsa, cheese, parsley and onion over everything. Serve right away.
Enfrijoladas (Tortillas in Black Bean Sauce with Chorizo)
Serves 4 · 12 folded enfrijoladas · 30 min total
Bean sauce
- 2 (15-oz) cans black beans, with their liquid
- About 1/2 tsp salt
- Water, as needed
Enfrijoladas
- 8 oz (1 cup) Mexican chorizo, casings removed
- 12 corn tortillas
- About 3/4 cup salsa verde (homemade roasted tomatillo salsa or store-bought), optional
- 3/4 cup (about 3 oz) crumbled queso fresco, dry goat cheese or salted farmer's cheese
- 3 tbsp roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley
- 1/2 medium white onion, thinly sliced
Method
- Coarsely purée the beans with their liquid in a food processor or a loosely covered blender. Pour into a 2- to 3-quart saucepan over medium heat, add water (usually 1/2 to 1 cup) until it is the consistency of a medium cream soup and bring to a simmer, about 5 minutes. Season with about 1/2 tsp salt and keep warm over low heat.
- Cook the chorizo in a skillet over medium-low heat about 10 minutes, breaking up the clumps, until browned and it reads 160°F. Pour off the rendered fat, cover and keep warm over very low heat.
- Wrap the tortillas in a damp paper towel, slide them into a microwave-safe plastic bag without sealing it and microwave at full power 45 seconds. Keep them wrapped.
- One at a time, dip each warm tortilla into the bean sauce to coat both sides, fold it into quarters and set it, slightly overlapping the others, on a warm platter or 4 plates.
- Spoon the remaining hot bean sauce over the top (there should be plenty), then scatter the chorizo, salsa, cheese, parsley and onion over everything. Serve right away.
Adapted from Rick Bayless, "Black Bean Sauced Enchiladas with Chorizo (from canned beans) (Enfrijoladas)", serves 4. We follow its amounts (2 cans black beans, 1 cup chorizo, 12 tortillas, 3/4 cup salsa, 3/4 cup cheese, 3 tbsp parsley, 1/2 onion), its coarse purée thinned to a medium cream soup, its 10 minute chorizo and its 45-second microwave tortilla method. Bayless's salsa is his own roasted tomatillo salsa; we allow store-bought salsa verde. The 160°F chorizo check is ours. rickbayless.com. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
Tips
- Pati Jinich tops hers with Mexican cream, queso fresco and avocado, with chipotles in adobo on the side; her colado black beans (from dried beans, about 1 1/2 hours) make a silkier sauce.
- Leave out the chorizo for a meatless plate; add a fried egg on top for breakfast.
- Bean sauce thickens as it sits. Whisk in hot water before dipping the last tortillas.
- Use Mexican fresh chorizo (raw), not dry-cured Spanish chorizo.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- An enfrijolada is not an enchilada. Folklore: there is no chile sauce, but Spanish and English Wikipedia both list enfrijoladas among enchilada varieties.
- Black beans are the only beans. Disputed: Excélsior lists black beans in Oaxaca, black or pinto in central Mexico and bayo beans in the west.
- Enfrijoladas spread during the Mexican Revolution. Disputed: Excélsior says the dish gained strength then and in 20th-century Mexico City street food, but also says no exact document exists.
- Fold, don't roll. Documented as both Bayless's and Pati Jinich's method.
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