Wild Game Enchiladas

WyoDoug

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Apr 8, 2019
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Location
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Mexican anyone? These are extremely easy to do. Only recommendation I have is do not use added fat in the meat. You are best using large grind (3/8 or so) ground meat and only need to grind once. Other than that, experiment and make it your own flavor. The sauce is more Italian than Mexican but I like the flavor so it's what I do.

enchiladas.jpg


Venison Enchiladas​

(I have done these with elk and antelope. Ground round seems to be the best for this.)

Ingredients​

Prepping the Meat
  • 2 pounds ground meat coarse grind
  • olive oil
  • salt pepper, onion powder, garlic powder
  • barbecue sauce store bought is fine

The Sauce​

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2/3 cup onions finely diced
  • 3 garlic cloves minced
  • 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves or 1/2 teaspoon ground oregano
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon pepper
  • 14 1/2 ounce can tomato sauce
  • 1/2 cup chicken broth

Enchiladas​

  • 12 corn tortillas
  • 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar/jack cheese blend
  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • 12 by 8-inch baking dish greased

Instructions​

Prepping the Ground Meat​

  • Coat ground meat lightly with olive oil. Season liberally with salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. Place into a skillet in a preheated 325 degrees and cook until brown and cooked to your liking. Does not take long. browning. Coat with barbecue sauce.

The Sauce​

  • Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions and all sauce ingredients except tomato sauce. Cook for 3 – 4 minutes. Add tomato sauce and chicken broth and simmer on low heat for 1 hour. For a smooth sauce, process cooled sauce in a blender or food processor.

Enchiladas​

  • In a bowl, combine 3 cups shredded meat with 1/3 of the sauce and toss. For each tortilla, dip in sauce to coat both sides. Spoon about 1/4 cup of the meat into the center and roll snugly. Place in the greased baking dish. Repeat process for remaining tortillas, placing each snugly alongside the others in the dish. Spoon remaining sauce over, top with cheese and place in a preheated 350 degree oven for 20 minutes or until cheese is lightly browned and sauce is hot and bubbly. To serve, place two enchiladas on plates and top with a dollop of sour cream.
 
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Mexican anyone? These are extremely easy to do. Only recommendation I have is do not use added fat in the meat. You are best using large grind (3/8 or so) ground meat and only need to grind once. Other than that, experiment and make it your own flavor. The sauce is more Italian than Mexican but I like the flavor so it's what I do.

View attachment 165198


Venison Enchiladas​

(I have done these with elk and antelope. Ground round seems to be the best for this.)

Ingredients​

Prepping the Meat
  • 2 pounds ground meat coarse grind
  • olive oil
  • salt pepper, onion powder, garlic powder
  • barbecue sauce store bought is fine

The Sauce​

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2/3 cup onions finely diced
  • 3 garlic cloves minced
  • 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves or 1/2 teaspoon ground oregano
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon pepper
  • 14 1/2 ounce can tomato sauce
  • 1/2 cup chicken broth

Enchiladas​

  • 12 corn tortillas
  • 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar/jack cheese blend
  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • 12 by 8-inch baking dish greased

Instructions​

Prepping the Ground Meat​

  • Coat ground meat lightly with olive oil. Season liberally with salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. Place into a skillet in a preheated 325 degrees and cook until brown and cooked to your liking. Does not take long. browning. Coat with barbecue sauce.

The Sauce​

  • Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions and all sauce ingredients except tomato sauce. Cook for 3 – 4 minutes. Add tomato sauce and chicken broth and simmer on low heat for 1 hour. For a smooth sauce, process cooled sauce in a blender or food processor.

Enchiladas​

  • In a bowl, combine 3 cups shredded meat with 1/3 of the sauce and toss. For each tortilla, dip in sauce to coat both sides. Spoon about 1/4 cup of the meat into the center and roll snugly. Place in the greased baking dish. Repeat process for remaining tortillas, placing each snugly alongside the others in the dish. Spoon remaining sauce over, top with cheese and place in a preheated 350 degree oven for 20 minutes or until cheese is lightly browned and sauce is hot and bubbly. To serve, place two enchiladas on plates and top with a dollop of sour cream.
Bueno! Will have to try that recipe too. Thanks for sharing
 
That looks great! If someone wanted to make it more Mexican and less Italian just leave out the oregano and increase the cumin. (y)
I do love me some Italian food though.
 
I do mine way different, no barbecue sauce or oregano but mainly i use a pie dish. Layer it up with tortillas like a lasagna and i use green chile sauce.
 
Looks good!
I use a red sauce for most enchiladas. I'm also terrible at rolling those things up for some reason. I make stacked or layered in a CI pot. I add green chile & pinion nuts to layers sometimes.
Green sauce for wild turkey,chicken,pork etc.
Gotten lazey on making my own sauce,which is EZ. I did find some Socorro chile stashed in the bottom of my freezer yesterday. Going to cook that down to slow cook an elk neck. Stuff is spicey...
Try Bueno Chile or Hatch,the best, if you can find it.
I always order them Xmas when I eat out,green & red sauces. Good way to sample flavors from others.

...and as Big Fin can attest,not all chile is created equal.......so sample before you go whole hog.
 
It's hard to beat Hatch chilis for flavor and all around versatility. We use them in all kinds of different dishes.
Here's me and my bro bagging up a freshly roasted 40lb sack.

View attachment 174816
Agreed! a staple at our house, we usually put up 3 bushels of roasted chiles in ziplocs each year, Often having one of them be roasted poblanos to mix it up and add some extra heat for cooking up throughout the year. A fave is a whole chile sitting atop wild game steaks and burgers. A habit from my new mexico days.

On the enchilda recipe gotta suggest a measly table spoon of chili powder is hardly enough. What you have made, while incredibly tasty with all those good ingredients is actually a tomato-ey casserole and not a kissing cousin to traditional enchiladas..Which is perfectly fine! The flavor of the chiles are likely not coming through so no longer ‘enchilada sauce’ at least not in a traditional mexican cuisine sense. I would suggest buying ground chile (and not chili powder which is a spice mix rather than straight chiles), and use a half cup at least, and forgo the tomato sauce and use more chicken stock to make up the liquid lost if want to try to replicate a more traditional enchilada sometime just to try it out.. A recent enchilada batch...started with whole dried chiles in this one but that is a lot more work and not necessary, just gives a deeper rich flavor.

375AE3C3-12EF-416C-B37F-6C2195BB65B9.jpegE53894D1-0757-4171-BB4B-2F5853EA00F4.jpeg
 

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I make these pheasant enchiladas verde in a skillet (layered, not rolled). It was excellent in my opinion and super easy. I don't use ground meat, just boned out pheasant breast and legs. I'm not that big of a fan of ground meat when it comes to wild game - I'm also lazy and hate cleaning the grinder.


Pheasant Skillet Enchiladas Verde photo.jpg
 
Mexican anyone? These are extremely easy to do. Only recommendation I have is do not use added fat in the meat. You are best using large grind (3/8 or so) ground meat and only need to grind once. Other than that, experiment and make it your own flavor. The sauce is more Italian than Mexican but I like the flavor so it's what I do.

View attachment 165198


Venison Enchiladas​

(I have done these with elk and antelope. Ground round seems to be the best for this.)

Ingredients​

Prepping the Meat
  • 2 pounds ground meat coarse grind
  • olive oil
  • salt pepper, onion powder, garlic powder
  • barbecue sauce store bought is fine

The Sauce​

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2/3 cup onions finely diced
  • 3 garlic cloves minced
  • 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves or 1/2 teaspoon ground oregano
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon pepper
  • 14 1/2 ounce can tomato sauce
  • 1/2 cup chicken broth

Enchiladas​

  • 12 corn tortillas
  • 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar/jack cheese blend
  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • 12 by 8-inch baking dish greased

Instructions​

Prepping the Ground Meat​

  • Coat ground meat lightly with olive oil. Season liberally with salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. Place into a skillet in a preheated 325 degrees and cook until brown and cooked to your liking. Does not take long. browning. Coat with barbecue sauce.

The Sauce​

  • Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions and all sauce ingredients except tomato sauce. Cook for 3 – 4 minutes. Add tomato sauce and chicken broth and simmer on low heat for 1 hour. For a smooth sauce, process cooled sauce in a blender or food processor.

Enchiladas​

  • In a bowl, combine 3 cups shredded meat with 1/3 of the sauce and toss. For each tortilla, dip in sauce to coat both sides. Spoon about 1/4 cup of the meat into the center and roll snugly. Place in the greased baking dish. Repeat process for remaining tortillas, placing each snugly alongside the others in the dish. Spoon remaining sauce over, top with cheese and place in a preheated 350 degree oven for 20 minutes or until cheese is lightly browned and sauce is hot and bubbly. To serve, place two enchiladas on plates and top with a dollop of sour cream.
Nice Post. I stopped mixing fat in my ground venison a few years ago. I have gotten used to it with no extra fat.
 
Common ? in NM is rolled or stacked? Enchiladas.
I could never get the rolling thing down, so I stack. I also just make a layered cassarole in cast iron.

Have a bag of Hatch to roast if I can build a fire. Pinion roasting is the traditional way.
I remember smelling pinion fire roasting chiles in NM in the fall. Now it's propane burning.

I do have frozen Hatch from last year and rainy days ahead, so time to make some sauce.
 
Common ? in NM is rolled or stacked? Enchiladas.
I could never get the rolling thing down, so I stack. I also just make a layered cassarole in cast iron.

Have a bag of Hatch to roast if I can build a fire. Pinion roasting is the traditional way.
I remember smelling pinion fire roasting chiles in NM in the fall. Now it's propane burning.

I do have frozen Hatch from last year and rainy days ahead, so time to make some sauce.

I really like hatch chiles.
 
One thing you might try, they have green chili enchilada sause. That's always been a big hit when I made that for family events. I also add diced green chili on top before I add the sauce.
 
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