de-hotting enchilada sauce

15 years ago

When it comes to hot food, DH and I are both weenies. Yesterday, in an old Cooks Illustrated I found a recipe for make-ahead chicken enchiladas. I loved the idea of having enchiladas frozen and ready to go. The article said it would be so much tastier to make your own sauce (using their recipe) than buying store-bought goop. After a quick trip to the groc to gather the ingredients, I baked the chicken and started making the sauce.

I knew there was trouble when I took the lid off the blender and started coughing from the fumes! The recipe is basically 28 oz of tomato sauce, some garlic, some onions, some cumin, and a 7 oz can of chipotle chiles in adobo sauce. Neither DH nor I can tolerate the heat of the sauce.

If I freeze the sauce, will the heat be diminished? Any other suggestions, other than making more sauce without the chiles and combining the two?

Or, should I just pitch the sauce and find something else to do with the chicken?

(I don't know why I thought chipotle chiles in adobo sauce would not be HOT!)

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Comments (23)

sushipup1
15 years ago
Start by doubling the amount of tomato sauce, taste that and go from there.

Or pitch the sauce and buy some enchilada sauce in a can. Store bought is not always a bad thing, you know!
BeverlyAL
15 years ago
AS another person who doesn't like really spicy food I can tell you that doubling the tomato sauce will not make it cool enough for you. Freezing it will not diminish the heat much if any. If you have not put the chicken in it you should just toss and start over. If you want an inkling of how hot the chili's are to you just remove one from a can and place a very small amount of it in your mouth. Many people say chipotle isn't very hot. For those of us who only want a little heat I beg to differ with them.

Beverly
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bbstx
Original Author
15 years ago
Weenies of the world unite! LOL.

Fortunately, I have not yet combined the chicken with the sauce. Pitching a couple of bucks in sauce is probably more economical than continuing to try to make it work.

I just hate that I always seem to get suckered into CI recipes that are too much trouble for what you get. I have let my subscription expire because of that.

Hmmm...so now I have cooked chicken to do something with. I think I'll make chicken spaghetti and freeze it for Christmas eve supper! (And go out to the local Mexican restaurant for enchiladas!)
bbstx
Original Author
15 years ago
Weenies of the world unite! LOL.

Fortunately, I have not yet combined the chicken with the sauce. Pitching a couple of bucks in sauce is probably more economical than continuing to try to make it work.

I just hate that I always seem to get suckered into CI recipes that are too much trouble for what you get. I have let my subscription expire because of that.

Hmmm...so now I have cooked chicken to do something with. I think I'll make chicken spaghetti and freeze it for Christmas eve supper! (And go out to the local Mexican restaurant for enchiladas!)
lindac
15 years ago
Cheese softens heat....as do nost other dairy products....but perhaps not enough for you...
Why not find a chili head friend and give them the sauce.
ci_lantro
15 years ago
Why not freeze the sauce in small portions & add those to stews, chili, spaghetti sauce...to give them a little zing?
Lars
15 years ago
I would use a different recipe that uses dried chilies (typically Ancho, Guajillo, and Pasilla - none of which are hot) that are simmered in water to make a true chili sauce. I would use that in place of tomato sauce and the chipotle chilies. There are some good store brands of enchilada sauce, but the best ones (for me, anyway) do not have tomatoes in them. La Victoria's Red Traditional Mild Enchilada Sauce is very good (and authentic - no tomatoes) and saves you the time of simmering the chilies, which then have to have the skins removed from them - or you can just puree them and leave the pureed skins in. I use a food mill to get rid of them.

When I make chicken enchiladas, I poach the chicken along with the dried chilies (and onion and garlic). For heat, I often add a can of Rotel tomatoes to the sauce, and for a Yucatecan flavor, I add achiote paste.

This is probably too late to help you, but it might give you some ideas for the next batch.

Lars
sienna_98
15 years ago
Sour cream does a great job of cutting the heat, but I'm not sure that you could save this sauce. I use the chipotle peppers in adobo sauce quite frequently, but I've never used more than 1 - 2 peppers (about 1Tbsp, minced) for any given recipe, and that would be in a soup that serves 4 - 6. I cannot imagine a recipe requiring the whole can. There must have been a typo.
bbstx
Original Author
15 years ago
To keep from throwing good money after bad, I've pitched the enchilada sauce. The chicken breasts will be dinner tonight. Ina Garten's Chicken Stew with Biscuits. How whitebread is that!

Many thanks to all of you for your suggestions, observations, and help.
sushipup1
15 years ago
You really should try some nice chicken or turkey enchiladas, just used the LaVictoria canned sauce. Our recipe is a favorite for leftovers, add shredded jack and cheddar cheese, sour cream and chopped green onions and Grandma's Chile seasoning (to taste, of course!) for the filling, then roll the tortillas into a baking dish, coat with the sauce, into the oven for 30 minutes, pull out and top with grated cheese for last 5 or 10 minutes.
bbstx
Original Author
15 years ago
I'm heading to TX this weekend. I'll see if I can find La Victoria. I really don't want to give up on this TOTALLY. I'm just going to give up on CI!
cookebook
15 years ago
Sushipup, that is a standard leftover meal at my house too. I usually use the Old El Paso enchilada sauce in the yellow can. I think it's pretty good. Plus it comes in mild, medium or hot so you can make it exactly how you want it. I usually do a mixture of a mild and hot. I'll have to try the La Victoria brand too. Haven't tried it yet, so thanks for the heads up!
alyssa_m
15 years ago
There are some very tasty canned options out there, but if you want to try another recipe, I just wanted to back up Sienna that they must have made a mistake with the chipotle amounts. I love hot and spicy food, and there's no way I could stomach sauce with a full can of chipotle! I made a tortilla soup last night and with two diced chipotles in a full pot, it was far too hot for the kids and almost too hot for my husband and I (certainly sinus clearing!).

And chicken stew with biscuits sounds pretty darn good!
User
15 years ago
Another who thinks that has to be an error in the recipe. I love hot food and there is no way I could handle 7 chipotles in adobo....

You made a good decision to pitch it. I bought some Chipotle BBQ sauce from a local smoke pit thinking I'd love it. It was so hot and smoky I could not handle it. I started trying to make it into a more palatable BBQ sauce and ended up with 2 Gallons of still pretty spicy BBQ sauce. The original container was 6 oz!!! Should have just pitched it.
bbstx
Original Author
15 years ago
I have re-checked the recipe just to make sure I did not mis-read it and put in too much chipotle. I didn't. The recipe does call for a 7 oz can of chipotle in adobo sauce. Interestingly, I've looked on the Cooks Illustrated website to see if there were corrections made to the recipe. It is no where to be found. I think it was a mistake and they have just eliminated the recipe!

chase, love your story. Sounds like something I would have done, trying to make it work instead of cutting my losses and moving on. But this time, I decided to move on!
stir_fryi SE Mich
15 years ago
I love enchiladas at a restaurant. At home, I have tried making them with the Old ElPaso sauce and did not like it. I then tried Rachael Ray's recipe (homemade sauce) and still didn't like it.

I will have to try the La Victoria brand -- I know Kroger and Meijer carry that.
skeip
15 years ago
I'm chuckling through this entire thread. It reminded me of the children's story about the lady who put salt in her coffee instead of sugar, and when through the whole ordeal of what to do to correct the salt flavor. I think the final advice was to just brew another pot!!

bbstx, you did right to just throw it away and try another time!

Steve
bbstx
Original Author
15 years ago
Steve, I'm unfamiliar with that parable...except to the extent that I've lived it often! I'm going to find it, and remind myself that it is not necessary to "fix" things. Sometimes, the best "fix" is to start over!

btw, the chicken stew with biscuits was soooo good! Perfect comfort food for a cold winter evening.
skeip
15 years ago
Copy and paste this into your search line, it's a cute story.

"The Lady Who Put Salt in her Coffee." by Lucretia P. Hale
From: The Peterkin Papers by Lucretia P. Hale. (1886; 2nd edition)

Steve
lowspark
15 years ago
I use the recipe linked below for homemade enchilada sauce. It makes a really good sauce and you can easily regulate the heat by how much chili powder you use. My younger son doesn't like hot stuff and I put in a small amount of chili powder and he loves it.

I have done different knids of enchiladas - chicken, beef, veggie - all using this sauce.

I agree that the best thing you could have done was to throw out the sauce. It was WAY not worth going to more effort and expense to try to save it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Epicuriousl Garden Vegetable Enchiladas
cookebook
15 years ago
That's an interesting one May - made with milk of all things. I'll have to try it.
bbstx
Original Author
15 years ago
Low, is that sauce pink? I'm thinking chili powder and milk = pink sauce. Nevertheless, I may try it. In fact, the veggie enchiladas sound like a nice change.

Steve, charming little story! Link below for any one else who may need a similar reminder.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Lady Who Put Salt in her Coffee
lowspark
15 years ago
It's actually kind of orangey. I always use cheddar cheese which is yellow so that dictates the color. It might be pink if you use jack cheese though! I never thought about that. Once it's made (with cheddar), it looks like enchilada sauce - it's orangey and it has flecks of red (the chili powder) in it.

It calls for 3 tablespoons of chili powder and I think I use about 1.5 or so when I want to make it mild.

de-hotting enchilada sauce

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