What Are Enchiladas? How to Choose a Style in Orlando
Editorial Team · 4 September 2026 · 10 min read
An enchilada is a corn tortilla rolled around a filling and covered in chile sauce, so you order by the sauce, not by the roll. Three names sit on the same Orlando board, and each name is a sauce you can order.
An enchilada is a soft corn tortilla that gets its identity from the chile that covers it. The Spanish verb is enchilar, to season with chile. The plate is the past participle: the tortilla has been chilied.
Key Takeaways
- Wikipedia, citing the Royal Spanish Academy, defines a Mexican enchilada as a rolled maize tortilla stuffed with meat and covered with tomato and chili sauce.
- Enchilada is the past participle of Mexican Spanish enchilar, to add chile, or to season with chile.
- The first Mexican cookbook, El cocinero mexicano (1831), already lists enchiladas. Mariano Galvan Rivera's Diccionario de Cocina follows in 1845.
- Three styles are live here: suizas (creamy salsa verde), rancheras (guajillo), and shrimp (creamy chipotle).
- Suizas allow vegetables or chicken tinga. Rancheras are beef. Shrimp is shrimp.
In this article
- What is an enchilada?
- The Sauce-First Order
- Three live Orlando styles
- How do you choose a style in Orlando?
- Enchilada versus taco or flauta
- What should you order on this board?
What is an enchilada?
An enchilada is a corn tortilla rolled around a filling and covered in a chile sauce that names the plate. The Wikipedia enchilada page quotes the Royal Spanish Academy on the Mexican sense: a rolled maize tortilla stuffed with meat and covered with a tomato and chili sauce. The filling can also be cheese, beans, vegetables, or seafood. The sauce still does the naming.
Wikipedia records the Nahuatl word chīllapītzalli, built from chīlli (chile) and tlapītzalli (flute). Rolling tortillas around food in the Valley of Mexico is older than the Spanish word. El cocinero mexicano, the first Mexican cookbook, puts enchiladas in print in 1831.
In their street form, Wikipedia notes, enchiladas were once tortillas dipped in chile and eaten with little or no filling. The modern plated roll added the stuffing and the blanket of sauce. A taco that was never sauced that way is a different plate. A fried roll that stays crisp is a different plate.
The Sauce-First Order
The Sauce-First Order is three steps: pick the sauce, pick the fill that sauce allows, then pick two or three rolls. Comparison pages list "chicken or cheese" and shrug. They do not give diners a sauce-first test against a live board.
| Step | What you pick | Live choices on 4 September 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Sauce | The chile that names the plate | Verde cream, guajillo, creamy chipotle |
| 2. Fill | Only the fill that style already prints | Chicken tinga or vegetables; braised beef; shrimp and Oaxaca |
| 3. Count | How many rolls land on the plate | Two or three |
Suizas print a fill choice: sautéed vegetables or chicken tinga confit. Rancheras lock to 24-hour braised shredded beef. Shrimp locks to shrimp and Oaxaca cheese. You do not remix those fills across all three sauces on this ticket.
Three live Orlando styles
| Style | Sauce on the corn | Fill the ticket allows |
|---|---|---|
| Suizas | Creamy salsa verde, Chihuahua, lettuce, Mexican cream | Sautéed vegetables or chicken tinga confit |
| Rancheras | Guajillo chile sauce, queso fresco, lettuce, pico, Mexican cream | 24-hour braised shredded beef |
| Shrimp | Creamy chipotle, cabbage-jicama slaw, radish, queso fresco, Mexican cream | Shrimp and Oaxaca cheese |
Three Suizas Enchiladas and Three Rancheras Enchiladas each say three rolls with white rice and black beans. Three Shrimp Enchiladas prints the chipotle plate and the slaw. It does not print rice and beans in the item copy we read.
House corn is house-made and soft on suizas and rancheras. Shrimp copy says corn tortilla, filled, then sauced. All three stay in the chile-on-corn family.
How do you choose a style in Orlando?
You choose an Orlando enchilada style by the sauce you want on the corn, then you accept the fill that style already printed. Want tart green cream and melted Chihuahua? That is suizas. Wikipedia calls enchiladas suizas Swiss-style because dairy immigrants in Mexico made cream and cheese part of the plate. The house version is creamy salsa verde, not a separate béchamel story.
Want a red dried-chile blanket on beef? That is rancheras, guajillo on 24-hour shredded beef, cooled with queso fresco. Want smoke and a slaw? That is the shrimp plate under creamy chipotle.
If two people want different sauces, order two different three-counts or split two two-counts. Do not ask one plate to wear two chiles.
Enchilada versus taco or flauta
An enchilada is a soft, sauced roll, a taco is a fold you pick up, and a flauta is a fried cylinder that stays crisp. All three can start as corn. The cook method and the sauce split them.
A taco keeps a fold you can hold. For that wider taco question, see Is Tacos Mexican Food. A flauta is fried until it holds a flute. An enchilada is dipped or blanketed so the chile is the main event. Crunch belongs on a fried roll. Sauce as the name of the plate belongs here.
A burrito on this menu is a flour wrap with rice and beans inside. That is a third shape. This page stays on the sauced corn roll.
What should you order on this board?
Order three suizas when you want verde cream, three rancheras for guajillo beef, or three shrimp for chipotle.
Vegetables are a live fill on suizas. Beef lives on rancheras. Shrimp lives on the chipotle plate. There is no live "build any sauce on any fill" ticket. When you already know the style, order it for pickup.
El Patron Restaurante Mexicano is at 12167 S Apopka Vineland Rd., Orlando, FL 32836, (407) 238-5300, open daily for lunch and dinner. The full menu is the live list. The ticket should name the chile.
FAQ
Are enchiladas always spicy?
No fixed heat rank comes with the name. Enchilar means the tortilla was seasoned with chile. Guajillo, verde cream, and chipotle are different chiles and different dairy loads. Ask which chile is in the current batch if heat is the only thing you care about.
What does suizas mean on an enchilada?
Suizas is Swiss-style, a name Wikipedia ties to dairy immigrants who made cream and cheese in Mexico. The house suizas plate is creamy salsa verde, Chihuahua, lettuce, and Mexican cream, with vegetables or chicken tinga confit.
Can you get vegetarian enchiladas?
Yes on suizas. Suizas print sautéed vegetables as a fill choice. Rancheras print beef. Shrimp prints shrimp. We do not invent a vegan claim the menu does not make.
Do all three plates come with rice and beans?
The three-count copy for suizas and rancheras says white rice and black beans. The shrimp three-count copy we read does not. Ask the ticket to confirm sides on the shrimp plate.
Are enchiladas the same as burritos?
No. An enchilada is a sauced corn roll. A burrito on this menu is a flour wrap with rice and beans inside. Order by the tortilla and the sauce, not by the fact that both are rolled.
Come order by the sauce
El Patron Restaurante Mexicano is at 12167 S Apopka Vineland Rd., Orlando, FL 32836, (407) 238-5300, open daily for lunch and dinner. Name the chile first. Order the plate.
References
- Enchilada | Wikipedia
- Three Suizas Enchiladas | El Patron
- Three Rancheras Enchiladas | El Patron
- Three Shrimp Enchiladas | El Patron
- Is Tacos Mexican Food | El Patron
- Food menu | El Patron
- Online ordering | El Patron
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Disclaimer
This article is general dining information.