♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Today on "America's Test Kitchen," Lan makes me enchiladas suizas, Jack explores the world of black and red rice, and Dan makes Julia sopa de tortilla.

It's all coming up right here on "America's Test Kitchen."

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♪♪ -Today on the menu, we've got a specialty of Mexico City called enchiladas suizas.

Now, I've never had this type of enchilada, which is really rare for me.

I thought I'd eaten them all.

But Lan's here, and she's going to show me how to make this great dish.

-I'm so excited I get to share this with you.

-Yes.

-So suizas are a specialty of Mexico City.

They were first popularized at this department store called Sanborns.

-Okay.

-And in this department store, there's this beautiful restaurant in the courtyard.

And suizas are a chicken enchilada with a creamy tomatillo sauce.

-All right, let's get cooking.

-All right, so, Bridget, I have a pound of boneless, skinless chicken breasts.

-Okay.

-And just to make the prep a little bit easier when I go to shred, I'm going to divide this into thirds horizontally.

Really simple.

Just cutting straight through.

We're going to get this into a pot.

I've got 2 1/2 cups of water in here already.

And we'll just lay these pieces in.

And then I want to add some seasonings.

-Okay.

-First up, we've got 2 cloves of garlic that I've peeled, 2 bay leaves, 3/4 teaspoon of salt.

-Just regular salt?

-Just regular old table salt.

-Okay.

-And 1/4 teaspoon of black peppercorns.

I'm going to turn this up, bring it to a boil.

Once it comes to a boil, I'll turn it down and let it simmer.

I want the chicken pieces to get to 160 degrees, and it's going to take, mm, 5 to 7 minutes.

-Pretty fast.

-Yeah, pretty fast.

So, I'm going to turn this off.

We'll fish these chicken pieces out.

I want them to cool before I start shredding them.

Next up, we're going to start our green sauce.

It actually starts with 3 serrano chilies.

[ Laughs ] It's not going to be too spicy, though, don't worry.

What we're going to do is we're going to trim the stems off all of them.

And then I'm going to go ahead and put 2 of these in the pot.

We're going to cook those whole with the seeds and all.

The last one, though, I'm going to split and seed, and that just tempers the spiciness a little bit.

-Yeah, that's where a lot of the capsaicin lives.

It's in the seeds and in the stems.

-So, these can go in.

Next up, aromatics.

Very simple.

I've got a white onion here, and I'm just going to cut it in half.

Now, I don't actually need all of this onion.

I'm going to cut about 1/2 inch off.

This is going to go in the pot with those chilies.

The rest of this, I'm actually going to mince.

And this is going to be a garnish for our enchiladas.

-Great.

-So we'll set these aside for serving.

-Great.

-And then I just have two more ingredients and some water to get into this pot.

-All right.

-This is a pound of tomatillos.

I've removed the husks and washed them.

This is going to go right in.

And then last up, 2 garlic cloves.

So we're going to cover these with water.

Great.

And then I'm going to set the heat to medium-high.

I want this to come up to a simmer, and then I'm going to turn it down.

I want to cook these super gently, like you should barely see any bubbles.

It's going to take about 20 minutes for everything to cook, and the goal here is to get the tomatillos to cook through without bursting.

In the meantime, let's start shredding our chicken.

I'm looking for about 1/2-inch pieces, so nothing tricky here.

You just kind of start shredding.

-Yeah, you definitely have a lot more control using your hands than two forks.

-Yeah Okay, so once this chicken is shredded, we'll start blending up our sauce and assembling these.

Bridget, check it out.

I've made water balloons for you.

-They are all intact, so I'm very impressed.

-So if you fish one of these out and give this a little feel -- -Oh, it's wobbly.

-It is.

-You said water balloon.

That's exactly what it feels like.

-Now, sometimes they do burst, and that's okay.

We're going to fish out about a quarter of them.

-Okay.

-And all of the aromatics.

So all the onion, the garlic, the chilies, that all comes out now, too.

When I was first developing this recipe, I tried blending everything all at the same time, and I just couldn't get the right color.

And what I figured out eventually was that if I try to blend everything at the same time, there's just too much stuff in there for our cilantro to catch.

This is 2/3 cup of cilantro.

So, this is 3/4 teaspoon of sugar just for seasoning and 1/2 teaspoon of table salt.

-Helps to temper that little bit of the tang.

-Yeah.

Yeah.

-Yes.

-So, this will go right on here.

And I'm going to blend for 45 seconds, 1 minute.

We just want to make sure it's really, really processed.

So I just want to pop this open and try to not spray green sauce everywhere.

-Yes.

-And then, Bridget, do you mind bringing the rest of the tomatillos over?

-You got it.

-Thank you.

So the rest of these can go in at this point.

Yeah.

It smells awesome, too.

-That smells so good.

-Last up, our dairy.

This is 1/2 cup of crema.

It's going to go right in.

This is going to take about a minute to just bring everything together.

But that's looking super smooth.

We can move on to starting our enchiladas.

-Gorgeous.

All right.

-All right.

We're using corn tortillas for these enchiladas.

So, I'm starting with 1/3 cup of vegetable oil.

And we're just going to heat this over medium heat to 325 degrees.

-Okay.

-And then, these are my corn tortillas.

They're 6 inches, and that's -- I have eight of them, so that's enough to serve four.

We're just going to drop them in the pan, and they're going to gently fry.

It's going to take maybe 5 seconds for them to start to puff a tiny bit.

Yeah.

You can see the little bits of puffing happening.

We'll give it a quick flip.

-All right, so not really looking for color.

-Yeah.

We're just reviving them.

And then I'm going to blot off all of that extra oil.

-So you have paper towels underneath, paper towels on top.

-Yep, double layer on both sides.

And then I'm going to get rid of the oil in our pan and give this skillet a quick wipe, as well.

There's going to be just enough oil left in there to keep our enchiladas from sticking.

-Okay.

-Perfect.

Now, enchiladas, traditionally, when you make them, you would take your fried tortillas, dip them in the sauce real fast, and then roll them up with the filling.

It gets really messy doing it that way.

And so I modified the method a little bit just to make it a little bit easier.

The enchiladas get really slippery when they're fully sauced.

So, I'm going to take 1/4 cup of this sauce and just coat the bottom of our skillet.

And do you mind giving that just a quick shake to spread it around the bottom?

-Sure thing.

-Thank you.

-Not the sides, just the bottom, right?

-Not the sides, just the bottom.

-Okay.

-Perfect.

-Got it.

All right.

Like making a pancake.

-Yeah.

-Now we are going to season our filling.

This is our shredded chicken.

I've got 1/2 teaspoon of Mexican oregano and then a little bit of pepper.

I'm skipping salt because we seasoned our water, and so the chicken has enough salt as is.

And then we're just going to give this a quick toss.

Now we can start building our enchiladas.

Grab a tortilla and 1/4 cup of chicken.

And then it's going to go right in the center.

So, I want to scooch the chicken to the lower third of the tortilla, and then we just roll it up nice and tight.

-Mm.

-These are going to go seam-side down in our skillet.

All right.

And we're just going to finish up with the rest of these enchiladas and the rest of this chicken.

So now that that's ready, we're going to get some more sauce on to kind of mimic the effect you would get if we had dipped these.

I'm going to pour out 1/3 cup of sauce, and we'll spread this over the top.

-Okay.

-Last up, a little bit of cheese.

This is shredded Monterey Jack.

I've got 4 ounces of it.

-Ohh.

-All right.

Now that that cheese is on, I'm going to get this onto the middle rack of a 425-degree oven.

I want the cheese to melt, that chicken to heat up, and it's going to take maybe 12 minutes.

-Mmm.

-Doesn't that look great?

Smell that cheese.

-Oh, yeah.

Bubbling.

-Yep.

-That's a good sign.

Oh [Sniffing] it gets better and better as I trail after you.

Oh, my goodness.

Gorgeous.

-Yeah.

So, the rest of that tomatillo sauce, I've reheated just so it's warmed through.

And let's start serving.

-Excellent.

-I'm going to give us nice, generous ladles of sauce.

-Thank you.

-Mm, that looks pretty good.

-Ohh.

Look how those are still intact.

-Look at that cheese pull.

-Oh, yes.

-I've got thinly sliced radish.

Chopped onion.

I really love the cool, watery crunch that the vegetables add.

Sprinkle of crumbled Cotija, and then just a little bit of fresh cilantro.

I'm so excited for you to try this.

-Me, too.

Ohh.

Fresh.

-Mm-hmm.

-Really, really fresh.

Bright.

Tender chicken.

-It's perfectly seasoned.

It's salty, and then you get that bright, bright, sharp tomatillo flavor and all that creaminess.

It's so good.

-Well, I love the creaminess, too, because it is a little spicy.

-Yep.

-I do love a good spice, but the creaminess helps to temper that, too.

-Yeah.

And the textures.

You wouldn't think that there'd be that much texture going on.

You get that tug from the corn tortilla 'cause it's not soggy and that crunch from the vegetables.

It's so good.

-This is top enchiladas.

You're the top enchilada.

-We are.

-We are, definitely.

Takes two to make a great enchilada.

-It sure does.

-So if you want to make these fantastic enchiladas suizas, it starts by gently poaching strips of chicken breasts.

Make a tangy sauce with serrano chilies, onion, and tomatillos.

Lightly fry corn tortillas, fill, and bake.

So from "America's Test Kitchen," an excellent recipe for enchiladas suizas.

-Looks like you almost had a shimmy there, as you said that.

-Oh, definitely.

♪♪ -If I can up my nutrition game and make something more delicious, I'm going to take that flex.

And today we're talking about black rice and red rice, which do that.

Think brown rice, it's got the bran intact, but even more protein and even more fiber than brown rice.

Plus, they have anthocyanins.

Now, these are the compounds that are in blackberries, blueberries, raspberries that have been associated with better brain and heart health, reducing inflammation, even reducing the risk of cancer.

So these are superfoods.

I'm going to start with black rice here.

You may see this labeled as forbidden rice because in China, where this originally is from, it was reserved for the emperors.

They wouldn't let regular people have it.

But now everyone can have it.

It's grown in China still, other parts of Asia, as well as in California.

It's nutty and sweet.

You know, sometimes I think brown rice is a little bitter.

Not black rice.

Now, you can cook it by the absorption method the same way, you know, in a covered pot with a measured amount of water.

But honestly, it's so much easier to do it by the pasta method in a big pot of boiling water, 20 to 25 minutes.

This is an example of what you can make.

This is a stunning black rice salad with snap peas.

It's got a ginger sesame vinaigrette.

The recipe is on our website.

The grains are pretty separate here, and they're nutty and sweet.

Now, red rice traditionally comes from Bhutan or Thailand.

It is grown in California and now West Africa, as well.

It's getting its color from the husk, which is actually red.

So you want to be careful when you're reading the labels that it doesn't say "polished," because that's going to remove the red color and some of the nutrition.

So, unlike black rice that's usually pretty separate, red rice often cooks up a little sticky, but you can use that to your advantage.

I've got this gorgeous quinoa and red rice salad -- recipe also on the website -- and you see kind of the sticky quinoa with these beautiful grains of red rice clumped together.

This is a delicious salad.

Again, the flavor is nutty and sweet, none of that bitterness that you sometimes get from brown rice.

So two healthy choices that are delicious, and they're in your supermarket.

Black rice and red rice.

Buy some today.

♪♪ -Sopa de tortilla, or tortilla soup, is a classic Mexican dish, and traditional recipes for it are usually pretty simple.

And it's served as either a lunch or maybe a single course in a larger meal.

And today, Dan's going to show us our version of it.

-So, Julia, you know that I'm a big soup person, right?

-Yeah.

-You do?

-I heard that about you.

-So, I really am.

And I love brothy soups with tons of depth and then really interesting garnishes and stuff like that.

And sopa de tortilla is a perfect example of that.

-It is exactly that.

-It is exactly that.

And you see some really overloaded versions in the US.

But the real version, and I had some recently in Mexico City, is like, the broth is perfect and thin, and it's, like, tasteful and smart garnishes.

So we're going to get into all of that.

We're going to start with the flavor base over here.

I have tomatoes, onion, and garlic.

-Mm-hmm.

-Pretty classic.

We're going to treat them in a really traditional Mexican way, which is to cook them dry to start to char and develop some flavor.

You could do this on a comal, so a flat pan on the stovetop.

-Yep.

-We're actually going to do it on a pan in the oven under the broiler.

-That makes sense.

-They both get the job done.

You get really intense heat.

You get some beautiful caramelization but also charring on there.

-Yeah.

-I've got 3 plum tomatoes here, I've got 1/4 white onion that I just cut in half, and then 2 garlic cloves still in the peels.

-Okay.

-So I've got the broiler on high and I have an oven rack so it's just about 3 to 4 inches below it.

-Oh, very close.

-Very, very close.

We don't want to really cook this stuff through.

We're looking for just beautiful char.

Probably about 5 to 8 minutes.

We're gonna pull the garlic out a little bit earlier.

♪♪ -Nice.

-Now, I pulled my garlic out a little bit early.

That was about 3 minutes.

They're smaller, and they just char a lot faster.

-Makes sense.

-So all I'm gonna do here is use my paring knife, and I'm just gonna peel these guys up.

So that's going to go into my blender.

Add my tomatoes.

We're going to do a really good puree on this, so the skins are just gonna disappear.

And then my onions.

-With the little root piece.

-With the little root piece.

-Love it.

-All right, so we'll just pop our lid on here and blend.

We're gonna do about 1 to 2 minutes until it's nice and smooth.

-Okay.

-Smells good, looks good.

-Oh, yeah.

You can really smell the char.

-Okay, so, over here in my large saucepan, I've got 1 tablespoon of oil that I've been heating up over medium-high.

-Just veg oil?

-Just veg oil, yeah.

Neutral oil here, just a little bit.

What I'm gonna do is add my puree to it, and we're going to fry it and really cook it and concentrate it.

-Interesting.

So broil, blend, then fry.

-That's right.

Again, this is a very traditional Mexican technique for developing flavor and concentrating flavor.

Great.

So, you can see it's simmering right away, which is awesome.

That's what we want.

We're going to cook this actually for a fair amount of time, about 12 to 15 minutes.

And we're looking for it to really concentrate.

And you'll see a total color change, texture change, and then flavor change.

-Okay.

-So, check out how thick that got.

-Yeah, it turned orangey in color.

It's super thick.

-But that was about 12 minutes there, and it looks awesome.

So my next move is to build the base of our soup.

So I have 6 cups of chicken broth here.

-Okay.

-And then I have two sprigs of epazote.

-Oh, epazote is so delicious and fragrant, but can be hard to find for some of us, especially if you live up here in the northeast.

-That's right.

Yeah, it's a really interesting herb.

It's used a fair amount in Mexican cooking.

It's sort of like if there's like an allspice version of herbs, I feel like epazote is that.

-Yeah.

-So if you can find it, awesome.

If you can't, a couple sprigs of cilantro will be lovely in here.

So, we're going to bring this up to a boil, and then we're going to let it simmer really gently for about 15 minutes.

So while that's going on, you definitely want to start with fresh corn tortillas.

-Got it.

-And then make your own.

-Okay.

-Store-bought chips are gonna sog out way, way too fast.

-Yeah.

-So, I have eight 6-inch corn tortillas here, and I'm going to halve them down the middle.

And then I'm simply going to run my knife through this way to get 1/4-inch-thick strips.

-Okay.

-Okay, so our next garnish are going to be from these beautiful pasilla chilies.

-Ooh, these are gorgeous.

-Aren't they lovely?

So... -Look how bendy they are.

-Nice and soft, which is a great sign for dried chilies.

So, they're flexible.

They smell really raisiny.

-Yes.

-That's one of their defining qualities which we really love here.

So, we're going to cut these into rings, but I'm going to start by taking off the stem here.

We just want to knock some of the seeds out in the center.

It's going to make cutting them a lot easier, and it's going to get rid of some of the heat.

-Now, I know you said these chilies are pretty crucial as a garnish, but if your market doesn't seem to have pasillas, which sometimes mine does, sometimes they don't, is there a decent substitute?

-I think anchos are a great one, and those are a little bit more common.

-Yep.

-Okay, so I knocked that out.

Now we're going to treat them basically the same as we have here with the tortilla strips.

So we're just going to cut them crosswise -- So it's running lengthwise -- crosswise into 1/4-inch rings.

-Okay.

Oh, like calamari.

[ Both chuckle ] -Yeah.

Yeah.

Little spicy calamari.

-We've come up to a boil here.

-Mm-hmm.

-So I'm going to lower this down to a nice simmer and we'll let that extract and reduce a little bit for about 15 minutes.

-Okay.

-So while that is happening, we're going to pop over here and do some frying.

I have 1 cup of oil here in my little saucepan, so it's not very much.

So, we're actually going to fry these in four batches.

-Okay.

-So just keep that a little bit more manageable.

Now, I'm looking for 350 degrees here.

We're a couple degrees over, so that's perfect.

Being a little bit high is not a problem.

So here we go in with just a quarter of them.

It's always a good idea, as much as it seems scary, when you add stuff to hot oil, to get closer to it.

Dropping from up high, it's never a good idea.

-Nice, big splatters when you do that.

-Yep.

So this will be really tame like this.

We're gonna get lots of bubbles as that water evaporates.

So each batch will take about three to five minutes.

-Okay.

-Don't walk away.

Stay really close to it.

You want to really monitor it.

You can see how they're starting to get golden there.

That looks great to me, so I'm gonna get these out.

Okay.

Beautiful.

-I'm not going to eat those.

-You're really gonna want to eat them, 'cause I'm gonna hit them with a little bit of salt, as well.

-Ugh.

-Just a little bit, just to give them a little bit of seasoning.

What you really want to do is get them when they're hot so that there's moisture on the surface.

-Yeah.

-[ Speaks indistinctly ] -I think that this one's little.

Oh, it's broken.

-That one -- Oh, and it's broken.

-Mmm.

-Okay, so I'm gonna head back in with my next quarter of this batch here.

-All right.

So four batches, about three -- three to five minutes per batch.

-That's right.

Okay.

And our last batch comes out.

-Oh, yum.

-You know, and I'm impressed.

You haven't eaten too many of them.

-I've eaten more than you've witnessed.

-Hit these with a little bit of salt.

Okay, so we're not done with our frying oil yet.

We're going to use it for our chilies, as well.

-Very cool.

-It blooms their flavor a lot when we add them to the frying oil, the same way you would, like, toasting spices in a pan.

-Yep.

-We're only going to do 10 to 15 seconds.

Otherwise, they can burn really, really easily.

So I'm just going to add half at a time, and you'll see them puff... -Mmm.

-...and really come alive.

-Oh, you can see their flavor just leaching into the oil.

-Yes, exactly.

The oil changes color, and color tells you flavor.

You can smell them, too, right?

-Yeah.

-See how much they've puffed up there.

Okay, frying is done.

It's actually time to put this whole soup together.

-Wow.

It comes together like that at the end, huh?

-It does.

You do all your prep work, and you can do this stuff ahead.

These will last a couple of days.

Okay, so we have one final step here.

We've simmered this down.

You can tell that it's nice and concentrated.

And I'm just going to pull out that epazote.

-Gotcha.

-It has given its life to us, given all of its flavor.

Thank you.

And then we can just -- Look at this broth.

It's absolutely gorgeous.

-Oh, look at that color.

-Beautiful, right?

-Yeah.

-Okay, before I put it into the bowl, I'm actually gonna add the tortillas first.

-Oh, okay.

-So, I like adding the tortillas first because they're gonna sit in there.

They're gonna get that broth on them and sog out a little bit in a really beautiful way.

-Smells incredible.

-Doesn't it?

-Yeah.

-So, I'm gonna actually start with the chilies.

-All right.

-So, what you do with these is you kind of break them up over the soup.

-Ohh.

-And they fall into it right there.

-They're so crisp.

-Aren't they?

-Smells so good.

Okay, so I'm gonna do a little bit of this queso fresco here.

-Mmm.

Oh, that's gonna melt.

-Yeah.

-Just a little bit and get soft.

-It softens a little bit.

Exactly.

Which is really nice.

It's not just a sprinkle for the top there.

It sinks to the bottom.

-So, the chilies and the tortillas -- standard.

All this, it's up to you.

-Yeah, absolutely.

This is a kind of mix-and-match, make it what you want.

So I've got a little bit of white onion there.

-Oh, I love white onion.

-Got some cilantro which is beautiful.

-Thank you.

-I'm gonna do a little squeeze of lime.

-Mm.

-And then I just drop it right in there.

I like the heat kind of blooming the zest on that, as well.

-Okay.

-We've got some beautiful avocado here.

Again, this, sort of like the cheese, does the same thing.

It warms up, and it softens in a really nice way.

And then I'm just going to do a little drizzle of crema for you.

I don't want a ton on there.

-That's gorgeous.

-All right.

Let's dig in.

-Ohh, ho, ho, ho.

I'm just going to go for the broth.

Oh, wow.

-Mmm.

-You taste the tomatoes, little bit of the garlic, and then you taste the tortillas, that little bit of corn, and the chilies.

But there's layers of flavor.

And I get the hit of lime.

Oh, Dan, thank you for walking me through how to make this.

-You're so welcome.

-If you want to make this simple but spectacular soup, broil then puree tomatoes, garlic, and onion.

Fry that puree before adding the broth and epazote, then fry the tortillas and pasilla chilies to garnish the soup.

From America's Test Kitchen, a terrific recipe for sopa de tortilla.

You can find this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with our product reviews and select episodes, at our website, americastestkitchen.com/tv.

It's so hearty.

When I think about it, there's no meat.

There's chicken broth.

-Little chicken broth.

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