When it comes to a plate of enchiladas, the heat level of the first bite usually hinges on one thing: what kind of chile pepper the sauce is made with.

Both red — a favorite for beef enchiladas — and its green counterpart, the traditional topping for chicken, can range from mildly spicy to five-alarm-fire hot depending on where the pepper falls on the Scoville scale, which measures its concentration of lip-numbing capsaicin.
If your spice tolerance pendulum swings somewhere in the middle, sauce made with poblanos, a reasonably mild and easy-to-find chile pepper with roots in the state of Puebla, Mexico, is a good place to start.

An essential ingredient in Mexican cooking, poblanos are long (3-6 inches), dark green chile peppers that usually fall within 1,000-2,500 on the Scoville scale. The much smaller, and hotter, jalapeno, by comparison, ranges from 2,500-8,000 SHUs (Scoville Heat Units). Thanks to a thick and waxy skin, they’re usually not eaten raw but instead stuffed with meat or cheese or fire roasted for salsa or sauce.

This recipe from the stellar “Enchiladas: Aztec to Tex Mex” hails from the city of Pachuca, the capital of the State of Hidalgo. It features a creamy green sauce made with roasted poblanos, peanuts and cream on top of corn tortillas stuffed with poached chicken and queso fresco, a mild and milky cheese that balances exceptionally well with spicy food.
Admittedly, this is not a particularly quick dish; before being whirled in a blender with all the other ingredients, the poblanos must be roasted either over an open flame, on a comal or in the oven under the broiler so the skin can be removed. The resulting puree then has to be strained before being gently cooked to remove any seeds or peanut pieces that weren’t pulverized and create a smooth, pourable sauce.

I poached the chicken breast with two cloves of garlic and half a white onion in lightly salted water. If you can’t find queso fresco, feta makes a fine substitute.

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Enchiladas Pachuqueñas

INGREDIENTS

For filling

2 cups poached and shredded chicken breast

3/4 cup queso fresco

For sauce

6 poblano chiles, fire roasted, peeled, seeded and deveined, divided

1 medium white onion, peeled and roughly chopped

1/2 cup roasted peanuts

1 slice French bread, soaked in 1 cup whole milk

1 tablespoon vegetable oil for frying

1/2 cup heavy cream

Milk or water, for thinning sauce

Kosher salt

For assembly

12 corn tortillas

Vegetable oil

For garnish

Sliced radishes

Shredded iceberg lettuce

Reserved poblano chile, chopped

1/4 cup queso fresco, crumbled

DIRECTIONS

Make filling: Mix shredded chicken with queso fresco and set aside,
Prepare sauce: Place 5 prepared poblano peppers, onion, roasted peanuts and bread with its soaking milk in a blender and puree until smooth.

Strain through a medium-mesh strainer.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add poblano puree, reduce heat to medium low and cook 5-8 minutes, or until sauce slightly darkens.

Stir in cream. Taste and season with salt. Gently simmer for a few minutes longer to allow the flavors to meld. Add milk or water as needed to attain a medium sauce consistency. Cover, set aside and keep warm.

Assemble enchiladas: (Have the garnishes ready at hand.) Pour 1/2 inch oil into heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Heat to low frying temperature (about 300 degrees).

Place each tortilla in oil and fry for a few seconds, just long enough to soften. Drain on paper towels.

Dip a softened tortilla in warm sauce. Place 2 tablespoons filling on each tortilla. Fold in half and place, slightly overlapping, on a warm individual plate, 3 enchiladas per serving. Top with more sauce.
Garnish with radishes, lettuce, polano and queso fresco. Serves 4.

— “Enchiladas: Aztec to Tex-Mex” by Cappy Lawton and Chris Waters Dunn

Tribune News Service