Enchiladas Placeras

There's a reason Patzcuaro (Michoacan) is a Pubela Magica, not the least of which is that their street food is prertty tasty. The crown jewel is Enchiladas Placeras, where a "chica" platter is enough to feed two very hungry diners with some leftover.

One evening I stood watching the cook at my favorite street stand - Don Emilio - prepare platter after platter of enchiladas placeras. The memlera - or what is often refered to as a disco in Baja, that large, round plancha with a well in the middle - was filled with lard...not corn oil, not safflower oil, nor generic vegetable oil. Good oil standard pig lard. In went a few pieces of chicken quarters. They fried for a few minutes and then were fished out to rest on the edge of the plancha to stay warm. The chicken was followed by cubes of potato and carrot. Once they came out the cook grabbed a fat handful of smallish corn tortillas, fanned them out to separate, plunged them into a bucket of enchilada sauce and then into the hot lard. I could almost hear my arteries slamming shut...

A bed of shredded cabbage went down on a platter and when the tortillas came out of their dip in the lard, they were filled with shredded cheese, folded over and put on top of the cabbage...6 to an order on the small platter. On went a mountain of carrots and potatoes, jalapeño strips, avocado, chopped onions and more cheese, a chicken quarter leaning up agains the pile for garnish. Arteries be damned, enchiladas placeras are an utterly guilty pleasure and one of my favorite street foods anywhere in Mexico.

I never thought I'd make them at home, but I did. They're messy to make but surprisingly easy and not nearly as heavy or a lethal as I thought they'd be.


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[Edited on 10-16-2012 by Kalypso]