Think of this as Mexican lasagna, where the sauce is a smooth salsa, corn tortillas instead of pasta, meat (or not), roasted green peppers, and both crumbly and melty cheese.
4dried guajillo, colorado or ancho chiles,stemmed and seeded
1white onion, quartered
3clovesgarlic,unpeeled
1cuptomato puree
1teaspoonMexican oregano
1sprigfresh epazote(optional)
Salt
3 tablespoonslard or oil
CASSEROLE
18corn tortillas
Oil for frying(optional)
Butter or oil for greasing the pan
1poundshredded chicken or cooked ground meat
6poblanos, Hatch or Anaheim peppers, roasted, peeled, seeded and cut into strips
1cupcorn kernels
4ouncescotija, anejo or feta cheese,crumbled
1poundChihuahua, Oaxaca or mozzarella cheese,grated
1/2cupMexican crema,or sour cream
Instructions
SAUCE
Put the dried chiles in a bowl and pour boiling water over them. Cover the bowl to let them rehydrate.
Get a comal, griddle, flat top or cast iron pan very hot, and char the quartered onion and the garlic cloves. You want them nicely blackened. When they are, chop roughly and put them in a blender.
Add the rehydrated chiles to the blender, along with all the rest of the sauce ingredients, except for the lard. Puree well. If your blender is only so-so, you might want to push this through a sieve to remove any stray seeds or bits of skin. That's optional.
Get the lard hot in a saucepan and then fry the sauce, stirring constantly to incorporate the fat. Drop the heat to a bare simmer and let this cook 10 minutes or so, then turn off the heat.
OPTIONAL TORTILLA STEP
Heat about 1/4 inch of oil in a pan until it hits about 350°F. Fry the tortillas for about 30 seconds or so -- enough to stiffen them up a bit, but not enough so they are actually stiff like tostadas. I start checking them at about 15 seconds. You want semi limp. Set the tortillas on a cooling rack.
BUILD THE PASTEL AZTECA
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Butter or oil a standard casserole pan, about 9x13 inches or thereabouts. lay down a thin layer of the sauce. Line the casserole with 6 tortillas. Spread some meat evenly over the top. Then add the corn and strips of roasted green pepper.
Sprinkle a layer of cotija cheese, then crema, then shredded Chihuahua or Oaxaca cheese. Top with another layer of tortillas, then sauce, then repeat with the meat, vegetables and cheese. Finish with the remaining tortillas.
Spread the remaining cotija cheese, drizzle some more crema, and sprinkle the last of the grated Chihuahua cheese over the top. You can add some black pepper here if you'd like. Bake for 20 minutes, until the cheese starts to brown. Let the pastel azteca sit for 10 minutes before serving.
Notes
Keep in mind this is the full-on, Sunday supper version of pastel azteca. See below for time-saving hacks.
Time Saving Hacks
You can use canned green chiles. Or frozen.
If you don't know how to roast green chiles, here's a great tutorial.
You can use canned enchilada sauce, or even canned tomato sauce.
Literally any cooked meat will work. I used ground venison. Just make sure to chop or shred it small.
I use frozen corn when fresh is not in season.
Thin regular sour cream with a little buttermilk, milk or cream to get you closer to the real thing.