My favorite Mexican food is from the Yucatan. Here is my favorite recipe; the achiote paste is what gives it the Yucatecan flavor and there is no substitute for that:

Yucatecan Style Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients:

1 pound cooked (preferably poached) chicken or turkey meat, chopped
2 tbsp chicken fat (or combination of chicken fat, butter, olive oil)
1/4 cup flour
1/2 onion, finely chopped
2-3 serrano peppers, minced (some seeds removed)
1 can Ro-Tel tomatoes
2 tbsp cumin
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp vegetable soup base
1 tsp chicken soup base
2 tbsp achiote paste (ground annatto seeds)
2 tbsp Ancho chili powder
1 cup chicken stock, as needed (can substitute chili sauce* for the chili powder + stock)
12-15 corn tortillas
(optional) grated cheese (Monterey Jack, Swiss, or Jarlsberg)

Directions:

Chop the meat, if you have not done so, and set aside.

Melt the fat (or butter and oil) in a large saucepan, and add the flour to make a roux. When the roux is a pale brown, add the minced onion and cook a bit more so that the onion will become soft and the roux turns a light brown. Then add the peppers and stir to combine. Add the canned tomatoes, including all the liquid, and blend. Add the cumin, chili powder, oregano, soup bases (in place of salt), achiote paste, and chili powder. Stir until blended. Reduce the heat and add sufficient chicken stock or water to make a thick sauce. Using a stick blender, pur�e until fairly smooth, or at least until tomato pieces are fully incorporated; you may have some onion pieces that do not get pur�ed, but this is okay. Remove about 1/3 of the sauce to reserve and add the chopped chicken or turkey meat to the rest of the sauce.

Spoon about 2 to 3 tbsp of the reserved sauce into a 6-inch x 10 inch (or similar size) baking dish, and spread fairly evenly, along the bottom and sides. Heat the tortillas on a covered plate in the microwave, 30 seconds at a time, turning them and restacking them so that the center ones are top and bottom. Once they are soft, spoon a bit of chicken filling into a single tortilla, roll it into shape, and place it in the baking dish. You can stack them tightly or else make two loose layers. If you make two layers, put a bit of reserved sauce in between the layers. At the end, add all remaining sauce to the top and spread evenly. Add grated cheese, if desired.

Cover the pan with foil and bake at 350� for 15-20 minutes, or until they are hot.

*If using canned chili sauce, buy La Victoria brand, or any brand that is made without tomatoes. You can make chili sauce by simmering Ancho, Pasilla, and Guajillo dried chilies in water with a bit of garlic, but this must be strained before using.

Lars

Pioneer Woman had a bunch of Mexican recipes from different websites today. Some of them look pretty good!

Here is a link that might be useful: Mexican recipes from PW

Maybe I'm spoiled, because I live about 30 miles from Mexico and as a result, Authentic Mexican is available here locally. Any more, I rarely cook it at home - we go out to specific restaurants for it.

At home, it's easier to do tostadas (not exactly authentic, but easy to make), tacos, quesadillas or burritos. My daughters learned to do tostadas early on - in elementary school: grate some cheese, heat up the Rosarita brand canned beans (never did figure out pinto beans), chop up some lettuce, haul out the sour cream and (if they wanted) the salsa. We had both homemade salsa and knew which brands were the best around here.

Tonight - - no stomach for Mexican food. (I've had the flu in the past few days.) Hubby made himself some salmon and Hush puppies.

Donna