Jenna Bush Hager's Cheesy Enchiladas Are Part of a "Very Texan" Holiday Tradition
The TODAY co-anchor has loved Mexican food since she was a young girl in the Lone Star State.
Born and raised in Texas, Jenna Bush Hager grew up eating Mexican staples like enchiladas, tacos, and more. And they remain some of the TODAY co-anchor's favorite foods.
"I love a bean burrito ... just a big bean burrito with some chunky guacamole and some queso. Mexican food is [my perfect meal] for sure," Bush Hager told her former co-host Hoda Kotb during a 2021 TODAY segment. "And favorite childhood food. That was it. I ate beans and rice. We would go to Mexican restaurants, we'd get beans, rice, and cut up tomatoes."
Through the years, the mom of three has developed some of her own Tex-Mex recipes, incorporating American ingredients with Mexican flavors. Tex-Mex is a popular cuisine in the Lone Star State, where Hispanic and Latino residents make up 40 percent of the state's population, according to the US census. Bush Hager's cheesy Tex-Mex enchilada recipe, for instance, has long been part of a holiday tradition in the Bush family.
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Jenna Bush Hager's enchilada recipe is featured in the TODAY Loves Food cookbook
Considering the fact that the Bush family's Christmas Eve tradition includes eating enchiladas every year, it's no surprise that Bush Hager included her own recipe for the dish in the TODAY Loves Food cookbook.
"It's a Bush tradition to make enchiladas on Christmas Eve," the recipe reads. "This Tex-Mex dish, which features flour tortillas rolled into tubes filled with beef, black beans, roasted corn, and cheese, immersed in red chile sauce and baked with more sauce and cheese, is a beautiful—and very Texan—way to celebrate the holiday."
As Bush Hager shared during a festive 2022 TODAY special, Holidays at My House, her husband, Henry Hager, was surprised by her family's Christmas Eve feast.
"The main tradition that we have over Christmas is Mexican food on Christmas Eve, Tex-Mex. So it's tamales and enchiladas, guacamole," she said. “The first year that my husband spent Christmas with my family he was like, ‘Wait, where’s the ham?’ He couldn’t believe that that was the way we celebrated. But it’s just such a beautiful tradition. And one that we love to celebrate."
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"Jenna's Tex-Mex Enchiladas" recipe includes delicious and simple ingredients such as ground beef, a taco seasoning packet, canned enchilada sauce, shredded cheese, and more.
Since the cookbook's release, Bush Hager's recipe has proven to be a hit with TODAY fans. "They were delicious," one viewer said after making a batch of enchiladas.
Find the full recipe for Jenna's Tex-Mex Enchiladas in the TODAY Loves Food cookbook.
Jenna Bush Hager says enchiladas pair well with queso and margaritas
In a 2017 video for Southern Living with her twin sister, Barbara Pierce Bush, Bush Hager said enchiladas "of course" go well with a margarita, which she likes with a special, bubbly twist. "There's no reason to add sugar into a margarita," she said. "I like a little bit of sparkling water, a third of lime juice, and a third of tequila, unless that's too much. And then a little bit of salt around the rim."
While Bush Hager said the layer of cheese on top of the enchiladas is "the most important part in my book," she added that the dish also "goes best with queso."
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Bush Hager's queso recipe is a certified crowd-pleaser and a dip she grew up eating. “Queso is basically considered a food group in Texas," she explained shared in the TODAY Loves Food cookbook. "Growing up, when my mom was tired of cooking, we would go out to eat at least once a week and it was almost always Mexican, so we ate a lot of queso!"
Jenna Bush Hager ate Tex-Mex with Hoda Kotb on TODAY
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In 2024, Bush Hager traveled to her Texas hometown with Kotb. The co-hosts had a ball together in the Lone Star State. After an emotional visit to Bush Hager's high school, the two stopped at Joann's Fine Foods for margaritas and indulged in several Tex-Mex dishes.
"Do you guys provide wheelbarrows to take people?" Kotb jokingly asked the restaurant's owner, one of Bush Hager's high school friends.
"Seriously," Bush Hager added. "You might have to carry us out."
