The San Antonio cheese enchilada is corn tortillas rolled around shredded cheese and onion, blanketed in a brick-red chili con carne gravy and more melted cheese, then baked. It is the plate that defines the city's Tex-Mex combo, usually served with rice and refried beans.
Where to eat it: 4 restaurants across 1 city.
The chili-gravy enchilada descends directly from the Chili Queens' chili con carne and the combination-plate tradition that San Antonio's Mexican restaurants codified through the 20th century. Where interior Mexican enchiladas use a salsa or mole, the San Antonio version leans on a flour-thickened, cumin-scented chili gravy, a distinctly Tex-Mex creation that long-running rooms like La Fonda on Main and Mi Tierra still serve daily.
Common allergens: Gluten, Dairy
Tip from the editors. The flour-and-chili-powder gravy, not a tomato sauce, is what makes these San Antonio rather than interior Mexican. Keep it pourable.
This is the TableJourney editorial recipe, modelled on the canonical bistro / counter version. The first place to try the dish in its city of origin is below.
Mi Tierra at Market Square never closes, so a 3am plate of enchiladas with strolling mariachis and a stop at the panaderia counter is a San Antonio rite.
Try: Enchiladas, pan dulce, mariachi at any hour
Tip: The 24-hour dining room makes it the default after-midnight Tex-Mex stop. Buy pan dulce from the bakery on your way out.
La Fonda on Main is the oldest continuously operating Mexican restaurant in San Antonio, opened by sisters Virginia Berry and Nannie Randall in 1932.
Order: Cheese enchiladas, mole poblano and a margarita on the hacienda patio.
Tip: Ask for a table on the covered patio. The mole poblano is the dish to order if you want something beyond Tex-Mex.
El Mirasol is a north-side Mexican kitchen where the chiles rellenos and enchiladas are the orders to make and the weekday lunch specials are the value play.
Order: Enchiladas, chiles rellenos and tableside guacamole.
Tip: The chiles rellenos and the enchiladas are the orders to make. Weekday lunch specials are the value play.
Rosario's two-storey Southtown room keeps its rooftop bar and Tex-Mex kitchen going late on weekends, especially on First Friday when the area fills up.
Try: Tex-Mex and frozen margaritas on the rooftop
Tip: The rooftop bar runs late on weekends. First Friday in Southtown is the night to come for the full scene.
More cities are in research. Want cheese enchiladas with chili gravy covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.