Easy stacked chicken enchiladas with homemade enchilada sauce

Melt butter in olive oil over medium heat, add roughly diced onion and a generous pinch of salt, and cook 4 to 5 minutes until the smallest pieces just start to turn golden brown.

Make a spiced roux: add flour along with ancho chili powder, ground cumin, chipotle, black pepper, a big pinch of dry oregano, a few shakes of cayenne and a very small pinch of cinnamon.

Cook the roux 3 to 4 minutes, both to take the raw starchy edge off the flour and to toast and wake up the spices.

Add finely minced garlic and a few tablespoons of tomato paste and stir, smearing it against the bottom of the pan. It clumps, which is fine. Cook a few minutes.

Switch to a whisk and stir in a couple of cups of cold chicken broth, cold to avoid lumps, then raise the heat to high and bring to a simmer.

Drop to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, at least 10 minutes.

Taste and adjust with salt, and a splash of vinegar or a squeeze of half a lime if more tang is wanted.

Optionally blitz with an immersion blender to puree the onions, which makes the sauce smoother and a little sweeter, at the cost of a lighter colour that darkens again as it sits.

Brush small corn tortillas very lightly with oil and toast them in a hot pan about 30 seconds per side, only to heat them through and make them flexible.

Put sauce down in the baking vessel, lay a tortilla on it, pile on chicken and cheese, add cilantro and green onions, then a generous drizzle of sauce.

Press on another tortilla and repeat. Two layers, three tortillas here; build them as high as wanted.

Finish the top tortilla with sauce and a last handful of pepper jack.

Bake in the centre of a 400F oven 10 to 15 minutes, until the cheese is melted, everything is heated through and the sauce is bubbling.

Garnish with a big dollop of sour cream, a big spoon of guacamole, a shake of cayenne and a sprig of cilantro.