Seven Days, Seven Enchiladas: My Weeklong Love Letter to Mama Joe's Most Ordered Plate

The Rules of the Week

Monday through Sunday. One enchilada per visit. No repeats, no skipping the ones I was scared of. When I pitched this to Mama Joe herself, she squinted at me and said, "You're going to need stretchy pants and a to-go box." She was right on both counts.

The enchilada is the workhorse of Southwestern cooking — rolled, sauced, and smothered — and at Mama Joe's Aza, we take ours seriously enough that the sauce recipe has been argued over at family reunions for three generations. So it felt only fair that somebody on staff eat every single version back to back. That somebody, apparently, was me.

Day One: The Cheese and Onion Classic

You have to start where most of our regulars start. The cheese-and-onion enchiladas come two to a plate, drowned in our red chile sauce, with a puddle of refried beans and rice that you'll pretend not to finish and then finish anyway.

The first bite is pure nostalgia — melty cheddar and Monterey Jack pulling in strings, the sharp bite of raw onion cutting through all that richness. Our red sauce gets a slow bloom of toasted chiles and garlic, and on day one, I could taste every one of those steps. Simple? Yes. Boring? Never.

Days Two and Three: Chicken and Beef, the Old Faithfuls

The shredded chicken enchiladas are the sleeper hit of the menu. The bird gets poached with bay and cumin, then tossed with just enough sauce to bind it. It's the plate I'd order for a friend who swears they "don't do spicy" — the heat is a whisper, not a shout.

Wednesday brought the shredded beef, slow-simmered until it shreds at the touch of a fork. This is the one the kitchen crew calls "Sunday's cousin," because it tastes like something your tía would make when the whole family showed up unannounced. The beef enchiladas come with the option of red or green sauce, and I did half-and-half because I'm a professional.

Day Four: The Green Chile Revolution

Here's where the week got serious. Our green chile sauce is house legend — Hatch-grown chiles, roasted in-house until the skins blister and the whole kitchen smells like late summer in New Mexico. Over chicken enchiladas, topped with a fried egg if you ask nicely, it's the plate I'd defend in a court of law.

Line cook Rosa told me this is her favorite, and she said it with the same energy other people use for their children's names. "The green sauce," she told me, "is where we stop being a restaurant and start being family." I wrote that down on a napkin. I still have the napkin.

Day Five: Smoked Brisket, the Special That Wouldn't Leave

The brisket enchiladas started as a weekend special and customers basically held the menu hostage until we made them permanent. Smoked overnight, pulled, mixed with a little of our chipotle crema, then rolled and finished with a sprinkle of pickled red onion.

This is the heavyweight. It eats like barbecue and enchiladas had a very talented baby. By day five I was getting texts from coworkers asking when my ranking was coming out, which tells you how much this plate divides the break room.

Day Six: The Veggie Underdog

Nobody expects the veggie enchiladas to be the dark horse. Roasted sweet potato, black beans, poblanos, and corn, wrapped in corn tortillas with a tomatillo-crema drizzle. It's the plate our servers recommend to the yoga crowd on Saturday mornings, and it converts skeptics at a rate I'd describe as alarming.

Day Seven: Seafood Sunday

The shrimp and crab enchiladas with a creamy poblano sauce are the fanciest thing we do, and honestly, the week ended on a high note. Delicate, buttery, the kind of plate you order when someone else is paying or when you're celebrating a birthday at the corner booth.

The Ranking You're Going to Argue With

Fine. Here it is, cooked crew opinions be damned:

1. Green chile chicken — the sauce is the story
2. Smoked brisket — special that earned its spot
3. Cheese and onion — the classic for a reason
4. Veggie — the upset nobody saw coming
5. Shrimp and crab — celebration food
6. Shredded beef — comfort in a tortilla
7. Chicken (red sauce) — great, just outnumbered

Rosa has already filed a formal complaint about the brisket placement. Mama Joe says the true ranking is "whatever's on your plate right now," which is annoyingly wise.

The real takeaway from seven straight days of enchiladas? There's a reason this dish has fed the Southwest for centuries — it bends to whatever you need it to be. Come argue with my list in person. I'll be in Booth 4, ordering number one.