Enchiladas de Bautizo (Christening Enchiladas)

A festive antojito from Ejutla de Crespo in Oaxaca's Central Valleys, traditionally prepared for baptism celebrations. Corn tortillas are pan-fried in lard, draped in mole coloradito, then rolled around a hearty picadillo made from three meats — chicken, pork, and beef — and finished with crumbled queso fresco, sliced white onion, and flat-leaf parsley. The recipe was passed down from Señora Paula Ríos of Ejutla and shared with Diana Kennedy by Señorita Soledad Díaz of Oaxaca City. Although this dish has largely given way to other foods at modern baptism feasts, it remains a benchmark of Central Valley celebration cooking.

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Serves12 enchiladas

Sourced0 of 7 in OR

Cook

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The Market List

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Pork lard or vegetable oil, for frying

Your own market

tortillas, 15 cm (6 in) diameter

Not yet stocked in Oregon

~750 ml (3 cups) mole coloradito, heated

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~1 L (4 cups) three-meat picadillo (chicken, pork, beef), heated

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Garnish:

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250 ml (1 cup)

queso fresco, crumbled

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1 medium

white onion, halved and sliced thinly into half-moons

Your own market

250 ml (1 cup)

flat-leaf parsley (Petroselinum crispum), coarsely chopped

Not yet stocked in Oregon

One or two ovenproof dishes, ~5 cm (2 in) deep, sized so the enchiladas fit in a single layer

Not yet stocked in Oregon

The Method

Heat a small amount of lard or oil in a skillet over medium heat (~160–170 °C / 320–340 °F). Fry each tortilla on both sides until just pliable, adding oil in small amounts only as the pan dries out. Drain on paper towels.

While still warm, pass each fried tortilla through the heated mole coloradito, turning to coat both sides well.

Place the coated tortilla flat, add a generous portion of hot picadillo, and roll firmly. Set in the ovenproof dish, seam side down.

Repeat with remaining tortillas, arranging in a single layer.

Scatter queso fresco, onion half-moons, and parsley over the top. Serve immediately, accompanied by white rice.

III

Sensory Tests

◇Lift a finished enchilada with a wide spatula: it should hold its rolled shape without unravelling but yield immediately to light pressure, indicating the tortilla has absorbed mole without becoming structurally wet or disintegrating — a tortilla that tears on the plate was either under-fried or over-sauced.

◇Taste the mole coloradito before rolling: it should coat the back of a spoon in a glossy, brick-red film and register a mild, even heat across the mid-palate with a moment of chocolate bitterness at the back of the throat — if it tastes sharp or thin, the dried chiles were insufficiently toasted or the sauce needs more reduction.

◇Press a small piece of the picadillo filling between your fingers: the three meats should feel uniformly moist but not wet or greasy, and the texture should be finely shredded rather than crumbled or minced, reflecting long simmering rather than a quick sauté.

◇Where it lives or dies. The dish lives or dies in the frying of the tortilla: it needs no more than thirty seconds per side in hot lard — enough to soften and lightly seal the surface so it accepts the coloradito without turning mushy, but not so long that it crisps and cracks when rolled. A tortilla that splits during assembly means the fat was wrong, the heat too high, or the timing too long, and no amount of sauce will hide it on the plate.

IV · Cross-Cuisine Parallels

enchiladas-de-mole-negro — Oaxacan — Both are tortilla-based antojitos sauced with complex Oaxacan moles before serving, but where mole negro brings deeper, more bitter complexity from chilhuacle negro and charred chile mulato, coloradito reads sweeter and more accessible — making the Bautizo version the more immediately crowd-pleasing of the two at a celebration table. enmoladas-de-mole-poblano — Poblano — Enmoladas from Puebla follow the identical structural logic — tortilla fried, sauced in mole, rolled around protein — and the mole poblano used there also incorporates Mexican chocolate and dried chiles, making it a direct regional cousin; the Ejutla version differs primarily in chile selection and the deliberate three-meat picadillo tied to baptism ritual. croquetas-de-puchero — Spanish — The three-meat picadillo at the heart of this dish descends conceptually from the Spanish puchero tradition of combining chicken, pork, and beef in a single long-simmered pot — a practice the colonial kitchen of Oaxaca absorbed and then redirected into pre-Hispanic tortilla formats, producing the hybrid festive antojito that Señora Paula Ríos codified.

Pillar IV

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