Enchiladas

Enchiladas are Mexico’s most internationally exported dish, with tortillas rolled around meat, cheese, or beans and smothered in red or green salsa, dating to Aztec times when corn tortillas were first dipped in chili sauce. They appear across all 31 Mexican states in variations like enchiladas suizas, mole enchiladas, and enchiladas verdes, making them more geographically widespread than Cochinita Pibil (#7), which is limited to Yucatán. The name literally means “chili’d” in Spanish, and documentation by 16th-century colonisers confirms 400 years of continuous evolution, a documented history 30% longer than the average traditional Mexican dish.