Shredded Beef Enchiladas Suizas

Enchiladas Suizas are one of my favorite things to make to this day, and I often fill them with either shrimp or shredded chicken cooked in the Crockpot. This time, I wanted to try red meat, and I didn’t want to wait eight hours for it to slow cook into shredded tenderness.

Somehow, 45 minutes in the Instant Pot did the trick, with the added bonus of searing the meat and then deglazing in the same vessel everything bastes in. Zero flavor loss.

Preparing the filling

I got a nice chuck roast and cut it into cubes, ish. The usual wisdom applies: pepper ’em up, salt if you want (but I didn’t; there’s plenty of salt going into this dish elsewhere), and then try to sear every side for maximum flavor.

Next time, I’d probably do a much quicker and rougher cut, like into strips, since I shredded the end product anyway. At the time, I wasn’t sure if we’d be eating them in this shape or not!

The ‘Saute’ setting on the Instant Pot is awesome for this; I set it on high and crank up my hood vent.

Struggling to suppress my primal urge to make pot roast, I deglazed with some red wine and then let a dollop of tomato paste cook briefly before putting everything together.

As for the “everything,” creativity is king. I added appropriate-seeming quantities of this stuff:

• Rotel diced tomatoes & green chilies
• Pickled jalapeños and carrots with some of the brine
• Green chile from a jar
• A few bay leaves
• Chipotle powder
• There’s still some red wine in there from before

Instant pot settings: “manual” -> 45 minutes -> go.

45 minutes later…

It worked. Now, it’s enchilada time.

Preparing the enchiladas

Take out each piece of meat and shred it with two forks, then put everything back into the cooking liquid. After a few minutes of reabsorption, we can strain out the solids that will go inside the tortillas, separating out the liquid that will engulf them.

To make these Suizas, just add some sour cream to the liquid! After whisking together, I like to add a bit to the bottom of the casserole dish; it helps with sticking and keeping everything moist.

In the previous post, I pan-fried the tortillas to make them easy to roll and extra delicious. That is a great way to go, but more often these days I microwave three at a time for 20 seconds in a wet paper towel… it’s just easier.

Start rolling up enchiladas, just slightly over-stuffing them…

Then line them up in the baking dish and pour over lots of the liquid, then a lot of cheese, and then some more liquid.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF, then

• Bake for 25 minutes covered in foil
• Remove foil and bake 5 more minutes

Take them out, let them cool a bit, and try, but fail, to get a nice clean scoop to show off to your friends. Doesn’t matter; tastes delicious.