Enchiladas are soft, saucy and blanketed in melted cheese, so the best sides for enchiladas do the two jobs the pan can't: a starch to catch the extra sauce, and something cold, crunchy and sour to cut the cheese. The classic answer is Mexican red rice and refried beans. For a lighter dinner, keep one of those and add a lime-dressed salad, corn or a bowl of pico de gallo. The chicken enchiladas and beef enchiladas on this site bake for 15 to 20 minutes at 350°F, long enough to make most of the sides below while they're in the oven.
The classic plate: Mexican rice and refried beans
Rice and beans are the Tex-Mex restaurant default. Wikipedia's entry on refried beans says they are "served as a side dish with most Tex-Mex restaurant meals". Both are soft and mild, so they soak up the chile sauce instead of competing with it.
Mexican rice
In Tex-Mex cooking it is often called Spanish rice or red rice, and in Spanish arroz rojo. Wikipedia describes the method: the dry rice is toasted in fat until the grains turn golden, then tomato, onion and garlic blended into broth go in, and the pot simmers covered for 15 to 20 minutes. That is the same window as the enchilada bake, and the rice needs only a burner, so the two never fight over the oven.
Cilantro lime rice is the brighter swap. Cook plain long-grain rice, then stir in chopped cilantro and lime juice. It suits the chicken enchiladas in particular, since their filling already carries canned green chilis and the recipe suggests a cilantro lime sauce on top.
Refried beans
The name is a mistranslation. In Mexico: One Plate at a Time (2000), Rick Bayless writes that they are refritos, "not fried again, as you might assume, but 'well fried' or 'intensely fried'." His well-fried beans recipe cooks the beans with onion and garlic in your choice of vegetable oil, pork lard or bacon drippings. If someone at the table is vegetarian, use the oil, and check the ingredient list on canned refried beans for lard.
Whole black beans warmed with a pinch of cumin and finished with lime juice are lighter than refried beans and need only a saucepan.
What kind of salad goes well with enchiladas?
A crunchy salad with a lime or vinegar dressing. The enchiladas already bring cheese, sauce and soft tortillas, so a creamy ranch-style dressing piles on more of the same. Cold, crisp vegetables and some acid give the plate the contrast it lacks.
Mexican chopped salad
Chopped romaine, black beans, corn, tomato, avocado and red onion, dressed with lime juice and olive oil. Crush a few tortilla chips over the top at the table for crunch. With black beans already in it, this salad can stand in for the refried beans.
Lime cabbage slaw
Shredded green or red cabbage with cilantro, lime juice and salt. Cabbage keeps its crunch after dressing much longer than lettuce does, so you can make the slaw before the sauce goes on the stove, and it still has some bite beside the leftovers the next day.
Jicama and cucumber with lime and chile
Jicama is a root native to Mexico and Central America, 90% water, with a crisp texture that Wikipedia's jicama entry compares to raw potato or pear. The same entry says it "is usually eaten raw, sometimes with salt, lemon or lime juice" or chili powder. Cut it into sticks with a cucumber, squeeze lime over both and finish with chili powder and salt. It takes five minutes and no cooking.
Fattoush, from this site
The fattoush salad is Levantine, not Mexican, but it works the same way next to a cheese-topped pan. Romaine, cucumber, radish, tomato, red pepper, mint and parsley go under a dressing of lemon juice, sumac, garlic and pomegranate molasses, and za'atar-crisped pita does the job tortilla strips do in a Mexican salad. There is no cheese or cream in it at all. Toss it just before serving so the pita stays crunchy.
Corn: elote or esquites
Sweet corn tastes good against a chili-spiked sauce. Elote is the Mexican name for an ear of corn, and Wikipedia describes how it is served there: boiled, with butter, mayonnaise, grated Cotija cheese, chili powder, lemon juice and salt. Esquites are the same idea cut off the cob and served in a cup, which is easier to eat next to a saucy enchilada than a cob in your hands.
For a quick version, char frozen or drained canned corn in a hot dry skillet while the enchiladas bake, then stir in a spoonful of mayonnaise, lime juice, chili powder and crumbled Cotija.
How do you elevate enchiladas?
Mostly with toppings, added after the pan leaves the oven. Both recipes on this site end with optional toppings: cilantro, red onion, jalapeños and a cilantro lime sauce on the chicken enchiladas, and cilantro, parsley, red onion, jalapeños and a cilantro lime dressing on the beef. These work on either:
- Quick-pickled red onions. Slice a red onion thin, cover it with lime juice or vinegar and a pinch of salt and sugar, and leave it while the enchiladas bake. It turns pink and loses its raw bite.
- Pico de gallo: diced tomato, white onion, jalapeño, cilantro, lime and salt. It adds the fresh tomato a cooked chile sauce doesn't have.
- Sour cream or Mexican crema, thinned with lime juice so it drizzles.
- Crumbled Cotija or queso fresco in place of more melted cheese. Both are salty and stay in crumbles.
- Sliced avocado or guacamole, added at the table so it doesn't brown in the oven.
The bigger upgrade is the sauce. Both recipes make it from scratch: flour whisked into oil or butter, then chili powder, cumin, oregano, garlic powder and salt toasted in that roux for about 2 minutes before the broth goes in, and a 15-minute simmer until thick. Cooking the spices in fat before any liquid is added takes away the raw, dusty taste chili powder has straight from the jar.
Enchiladas mineras from Guanajuato show another way to dress the plate. The state's tourism site says they are "served on a bed of lettuce and garnished with jalapeños, grated cheese and a touch of escabeche", the pickled vegetables. A handful of shredded lettuce under each serving and a spoonful of pickled jalapeños and carrots from a jar get you close.
What is a good side dish for white chicken enchiladas?
Something with color, acid and a little heat. White chicken enchiladas swap the red chile sauce for a pale, creamy one, typically sour cream and green chiles thickened with a roux and broth, so they are milder and richer than red enchiladas. Good sides for them:
- Mexican red rice rather than plain white rice, for the tomato and the color.
- Black beans with lime, which are lighter than refried beans.
- Pico de gallo or a red salsa on the side, for acidity and heat.
- The lime cabbage slaw or the jicama sticks from above, for crunch.
Leave out the creamy sides with this version. Mayonnaise-dressed corn, queso dip and a ranch salad all repeat what the sauce is already doing.
What is the secret to good enchiladas?
Sauce under the tortillas as well as over them, and no more time in the oven than the cheese needs. Both recipes here spread sauce in the bottom of the baking dish before the first enchilada goes in, then pour more over the top with the cheese, so the tortillas are coated all round and the edges don't dry out. They bake at 350°F for 15 to 20 minutes, until the cheese melts and the sauce bubbles. Start checking at 15 minutes.
If you use corn tortillas, they need softening first or they crack when you roll them. For his roasted tomatillo enchiladas, Rick Bayless brushes the tortillas with oil on one side, stacks them in a plastic bag and microwaves them for 1 minute. He bakes that dish at 400°F only until it is heated through, about 4 minutes, and warns: "Longer in the oven means mushy enchiladas." With corn tortillas in the recipes here, take the pan out as soon as the cheese has melted.
Healthy and vegetarian sides
For a lighter plate, pick the slaw or the jicama in place of rice, black beans in place of refried, and pico de gallo in place of sour cream. Two of the sides above can hide meat: refried beans cooked in lard or bacon drippings, and Mexican rice, which Wikipedia's recipe simmers in chicken broth. Cook the beans in oil and the rice in vegetable stock, and a table with vegetarians can share every side even when the enchiladas are chicken or beef.
How to time the sides with the bake
Both enchilada recipes list 30 minutes of prep and 30 of cooking: the sauce simmers for 15 minutes, the filling cooks in a pan, then the rolled enchiladas bake for 15 to 20. This order gets everything to the table hot:
- Make the cold things first. Mix the slaw, chop the pico de gallo and put the onions in their lime juice. Leave any leafy salad undressed.
- Start the rice when you start rolling the enchiladas. A few minutes of toasting plus the covered simmer lands it close to the end of the bake, and rice that finishes first can sit covered off the heat.
- Warm the beans on a back burner while the enchiladas bake. Refried beans thicken as they sit, so loosen them with a splash of water or broth.
- Char the corn in a skillet during the bake as well.
- When the pan comes out, add the toppings, then dress and toss the leafy salad last so the lettuce and any pita or chips stay crisp.
Cooking a second pan for later
The freezer meals guide puts beef enchiladas in its group of foods to freeze cooked and in sauce, and says to freeze them assembled and unbaked. Its rule for rice is stricter: cool it fast and freeze it the same day. Salads, slaw and pico de gallo don't freeze at all, so make those fresh on the night you bake.
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